How to realy, really prolong your battery life.

[clevin]

I bet this is an interesting topic. Many people have been topping the phone at 100%, charging overnight, drain until it turns off, etc. some people also cited the gizmodo article about how to take care battery in the "right way", which itself is confusing and misleading at times.

Here, let me introduce to you what the data says and how to really, really prolong your battery life.

All the data are from batteryuniversity.com, in fact, I am copying many of their words and figures. Go check this page out if you want to know more How to Prolong Lithium-based Batteries - Battery University

Li-Ion battery has no memory effects, so you can charge it at any battery level, unplug from charger at any battery level. Each battery has limited numbers of cycle of discharge before it's capacity drops below certain threshold. Its the number of cycles that is used as an indicator of the battery life.

Li-Ion battery's life cycle is reduced if the battery is under stress:



These data lists, under various conditions, how many discharge cycles a battery can go through before dropping its capacity below 70%. Stress conditions include higher (>30C) temperature, higher voltage and deeper discharge. Therefore, the following conditions prolong battery life:

1. reduce the depth of discharge (DoD), which means not running battery all the way to 0%, that would be 100% DoD.
2. reduce the temperature of the battery, install a battery monitoring app, and put your phone down a bit when its hot, also don't leave it in the car in the summer sun.
3. reduce the voltage of the battery.

Lets look at the relationship of #3 and charging habit.



charging process composed of 4 stages, the first stage is a very fast charging, charger applies a constant ~4v voltage to the battery, the battery cell's voltage rise quickly to about 4.1v. At the end of this stage, the battery level should be around 90%. The second stage is saturation charge, this pushes the battery cell's voltage to 4.2v (100%), this process is slow, unlike stage 1. Stages 3 and 4 are just so called smart charging, it periodically checks battery cell's voltage, and top it back to 4.2 v.

so 4.2v is 100% battery. by charging it to 100% and keep it at 100%, the battery cell's voltage is forced at 4.2 v, and the battery is under stress, its life cycle is reduced (see first figure above). There are vendors giving options for users to set 100% at 4.1, or 4.0v, this bypass the saturation charging stage entirely and reduce the battery stress, therefore prolong the battery life.

So, my personal suggestion is to charge between 30-80%, that is, charge the phone when its around 30%, and charge to 80% only. You may or may not be able to do that with a smaller battery to start with.

One thing to pay attention to, is that system may not properly report battery level if you don't charge to to full. This can occur every 30-40 cycles, which may be 1-2 month. If your find the battery level way off on the phone, do a calibration, which involves charging the phone to 100%, discharge to 10%, then charge back to 100%.

 

[Golfdriver97]

Very informative. Thank you.

 

[mmnn75]

I am having battery issues but this was sent from Google this morning for their take on making the battery last longer, charging overnight and plugging in at 50% are a bit different than otherwise suggested.

Below are some tips that may help with future charging & battery issues:
- Charge your device when the battery life reaches the halfway mark.
- Charge your device overnight.
- Use the charger that came in the box with your device.
- Try to use a wall charger, since charging your device using a computer can take longer to complete a charge.
- Remember to keep your device up to date with the latest Android OS.

If you continue to experience charging issues with your device, please feel free to reply directly to this email or visit our help center at http://support.google.com/googleplay/bin/request.py?contact_type=contact_policy&policy=hardware

To control Battery settings, go to Settings > Device > Battery.
You can extend your battery’s life between charges by turning off features that you don’t need. You can also monitor how apps and system resources consume battery power.

If you aren't using Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or GPS, use the Settings app to turn them off. The GPS setting is located in Settings > Personal > Location access.
Don't leave the Maps or Navigation apps open on the screen when you're not using them. They use GPS (and thus more power) only when they're running.
Turn down screen brightness and set a shorter Sleep timeout: Settings > Device > Display.
If you don’t need it, turn off automatic syncing for all apps: Settings > Personal > Accounts & sync. Note that this means you need to sync manually to collect messages, email, and other recent information, and won't receive notifications when updates occur.
If you know you won’t be near a mobile or Wi-Fi network for a while, switch to Airplane mode:
Press and hold the power switch until the Tablet options dialog appears. Then touch Airplane Mode.

Check battery level and usage details

Open Settings > Device > Battery.

The list at the bottom of the screen shows the breakdown of battery usage for individual apps and services. Touch a graph for more details. The details screen for some apps includes buttons that allow you to adjust settings affecting power usage, or stop the app completely.

Warning: If you stop some apps or services, your device may not work correctly.
Battery status (charging, discharging) and level (as a percentage of fully charged) are displayed at the top of the screen.

The discharge graph shows battery level over time since you last charged the device, and how long you’ve been running on battery power.

 

[scorpiodsu]

Here's to prolong it.... root it, download greenify. Open greenify. Hibernate seldomly used apps. You're welcome.

 

[CMSevilla]

Or if you don't want to root it, or aren't comfortable rooting it:

A. Disable GPS/push notifications for unessential apps (you don't need to get Tweets/Facebook/Instagram/Foursqaure notifications 24/7).
B. Use WiFi whenever possible--at home, work.
C. Reduce brightness.
D. If you're going to play a game, or tend to do so, bring a wall/car charger.
E. Put the phone down. Not to sound like a jerk, but my phone battery lasts me on average 26 hours on my Nexus 5, and that's cause I don't have my face stuck to my phone for hours at a time--and I'm an IT guy who is checking work emails all day! I am not going to tell you to interact with people and whatnot, people can be boring, just have cellphone manners and trust me, your battery will last a long time.

 

[pseudoware]

Here's to prolong it.... root it, download greenify. Open greenify. Hibernate seldomly used apps. You're welcome.

Not necessarily seldom used apps, but apps that continue to run in the background.

Also, install a custom kernel.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4

 

[scorpiodsu]

Or if you don't want to root it, or aren't comfortable rooting it:

A. Disable GPS/push notifications for unessential apps (you don't need to get Tweets/Facebook/Instagram/Foursqaure notifications 24/7).
B. Use WiFi whenever possible--at home, work.
C. Reduce brightness.
D. If you're going to play a game, or tend to do so, bring a wall/car charger.
E. Put the phone down. Not to sound like a jerk, but my phone battery lasts me on average 26 hours on my Nexus 5, and that's cause I don't have my face stuck to my phone for hours at a time--and I'm an IT guy who is checking work emails all day! I am not going to tell you to interact with people and whatnot, people can be boring, just have cellphone manners and trust me, your battery will last a long time.

So either play around with the toggles all day or barely use it LOL. May work for some but I don't have time or care to keep worrying about which radios are enabled nor will I turn off all notifications. These phones are designed to keep us connected so I prefer to be in the know. And "put it down". Yeah that's not likely.... spend money for a device to not use it. No thank you. There are tweaks to get extra battery life which are discussed in nearly every phone sub-forum to exhaustion. They are the same. Whether it's the HTC One, SGS4, LG G2, the basic battery tweaks are all the same. Sure rooting isn't everyone's "cup of tea" but for many Nexus users, rooting is a given and offering a far superior option than all the manual tweaks for those users. And conditioning the battery..... hogwash!

 

[scorpiodsu]

Not necessarily seldom used apps, but apps that continue to run in the background.

Also, install a custom kernel.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4

Yup I agree. I "greenify" everything but facebook, twitter, greader, messenger, gmail and phone. Everything else is ok to be hibernated. I get excellent battery life on any Android phone from doing them. And hibernating them still allows them to be easily used unlike freezing them. As for custom kernel, they can be awesome too for this. Honestly, for the past year, I've done pretty good with a stock rooted rom + greenify. But a custom kernel + greenify would probably be something special for battery life LOL.

 

[CMSevilla]

So either play around with the toggles all day or barely use it LOL. May work for some but I don't have time or care to keep worrying about which radios are enabled nor will I turn off all notifications. These phones are designed to keep us connected so I prefer to be in the know. And "put it down". Yeah that's not likely.... spend money for a device to not use it. No thank you. There are tweaks to get extra battery life which are discussed in nearly every phone sub-forum to exhaustion. They are the same. Whether it's the HTC One, SGS4, LG G2, the basic battery tweaks are all the same. Sure rooting isn't everyone's "cup of tea" but for many Nexus users, rooting is a given and offering a far superior option than all the manual tweaks for those users. And conditioning the battery..... hogwash!

If you took my "put it down" comment as me telling you not to use your phone all the time, you've missed my point. If you have the time of day to be on it 24/7, good for you. But it's generally those who use their phones for so long that complain about the battery life. That's like saying "I bought an expensive Lexus, but my miles/gallon is crap. I use it all the time, wtf Lexus, I want mah moneys back! *puts bad reviews on websites*

You don't need to toggle things around all day, you toggle it based on your needs and accept the fact that it isn't gonna last you all day--end of story. I was also pointing out to cellphone etiquette most people have forgotten about. If you are having a conversation, have a conversation, if you're having dinner, have dinner, if you're taking a shower, take a shower, but please, don't come to these or any forms telling me how ****ty your battery life was because you needed to setup a livefeed on your Twitter app to find out what Justin Bieber is up to today.

If you desperately need all your feeds and notifications from your social networks on all day (and trust me, that's what it mostly always is the culprit for people in good network areas), then you (and I mean this generalized, not just you) have really no reason to complain.

 

[benjamminh]

Buy a droid Maxx. Use your phone however you want and don't worry about it.

Sent from my XT1080 using AC Forums mobile app

 

[power5]

I am confused. It seems this battery info should be known by battery manufacturers and cell phone manufacturers. So, why not have the battery says its a full charge at 90%. Battery icon would also show full charge at 90%. So the charger enters the saturation phase and keeps the phone at 90%, not 100%.

Same as HDD manufacturers telling me I am buying a 4tb HDD, but I only get like 3.6gb. Manufacturer tells me I am getting a 3200mAh battery. When using it though, I get a 2880mAh battery at 90% charge.

This is just one more reason I will be getting a Note3 not a phone with a non replaceable battery.

 

[clevin]

I am confused. It seems this battery info should be known by battery manufacturers and cell phone manufacturers. So, why not have the battery says its a full charge at 90%. Battery icon would also show full charge at 90%. So the charger enters the saturation phase and keeps the phone at 90%, not 100%.

Not sure how 4.2v became standard charging voltage, maybe its a "good" balance, that industry decided, between life cycles and decent battery performance.

 

[pseudoware]

Buy a droid Maxx. Use your phone however you want and don't worry about it.

Sent from my XT1080 using AC Forums mobile app

I'll go back to using a pager before I ever deal with Verizon.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4

 

[clevin]

Up my legendary post with most important information some users need

@T-Mobile GN3

 

[Shilohcane]

I saw the video and with a guitar pick I can open the back of my Nexus 5 and replace a battery in under 5 minutes. I can buy a new Nexus 5 bl-t9 battery for under $17 bucks today.

 

[dazzer87]

I saw the video and with a guitar pick I can open the back of my Nexus 5 and replace a battery in under 5 minutes. I can buy a new Nexus 5 bl-t9 battery for under $17 bucks today.

link? As far as I know there are no third battery that will fix in the N5... The thread that was open couple of days ago stated that one company is selling a "Nexus 5" battery but its actually a G2 battery and that battery will not fix inside of the N5

 

[clevin]

I saw the video and with a guitar pick I can open the back of my Nexus 5 and replace a battery in under 5 minutes. I can buy a new Nexus 5 bl-t9 battery for under $17 bucks today.

Good for ya! Go ahead do it and let us know how it goes.

However, for 99.999% people, following my op would help them immensely.

@T-Mobile GN3

 

[N4Newbie]

Seriously, why so much fuss?

BL-T9 batteries are relatively inexpensive and, in the Nexus 5, a lot easier to replace than you might think. Any reasonably handy person could easily do the job in 5 to 10 minutes.

Lavish love and care on your children; they deserve no less. But your phone is just a tool - if a part of it wears out, replace the part or replace the tool and move on.

 

[clevin]

Seriously, why so much fuss?

BL-T9 batteries are relatively inexpensive and, in the Nexus 5, a lot easier to replace than you might think. Any reasonably handy person could easily do the job in 5 to 10 minutes.

Lavish love and care on your children; they deserve no less. But your phone is just a tool - if a part of it wears out, replace the part or replace the tool and move on.

lol, true enough, obviously there are more important things in life! This is just to provide "more accurate information", if there are people who care, I'd rather they get more accurate information, rather than some half *** flamboyant article filled with misinformation (Like the gizmodo one, their articles are more style than substance nowadays).

 

[Shawn Magm]

I'm trying out Snapdragon Battery Guru. I finished the learning phase. At least during sleep, my battery drain seems to be down to 0.5-1%. I wouldn't think it would help as much while the phone is on because the large display with lots of pixels simply need a lot of juice. Probably, during idle time, the app may help optimize battery use, but not sure.

Although there were some good tips in the OP, having to think about turning on/off various features throughout the day is not something many of us would like to do. It's preferable to just use the phone and have good to great battery life without having to toggle on/off.