CM7 GB or ICS ROM? - looking to improve battery life

**nickmo** · 02-25-2012, 11:41 PM

I have a friend that hates their EVO 4G, they complain a lot about the battery life. Never messed around with the phone at all. They are getting a new phone in a couple of months, whenever the Nexus comes out on Sprint. For now they are wanting to finally root and install a custom ROM in hopes of improving battery life. So does anyone have any suggestions/recommendations?

Should they go to CM7 and stay Gingerbread? Plus a custom kernel? Any good combinations people use?

Or should they go to an ICS ROM like Deck or AOKP? How does the EVO 4G handle ICS? Custom kernel?

Thanks for any advice.

**tayl428** · 02-26-2012, 01:50 PM

Yes, the Evo is not much different from other smartphones in the battery area... they all drain pretty fast, make sure you live near chargers as the day goes on. When I went to CM7, I saw about the same battery drain, maybe even a little more than the stock rom. You can use the SetCPU function to slow the processor down to conserve power, but to each their own. There are hundreds of different gingerbread ROM and kernel combinations to try, and your mileage will vary with each one. It just depends on your tech ability (not too much needed). Try a few different combinations and see what happens, after all, a large part of the fun in this ~~madness~~ hobby is trying and experimenting.

Personally, I ended up with CM7.1 and stock kernel for the flexibility and extended capabilities in CM, and an $8 3500mAh extended battery from Amazon. All or most of the Evo ICS ROMs are still in alpha stages, so they are lucky to work, let alone worrying about optimizing the battery usage. I would ignore the ICS roms for now if battery is what you are looking for, but again, I haven't tried it yet, so your mileage may vary. I AM curious about decks ICS rom, but I'm waiting for the camera preview to be fixed, that's a big no-go for my daily driver.

Good luck and have fun!

**nickmo** · 02-26-2012, 03:08 PM

Thanks for the advice. We will try CM7.1.

I read that the SavagedZen 2.2.1 kernel pairs well with CM7.1 and has shown good battery life. Anyone have experience with this or have other suggestions?

**tayl428** · 02-26-2012, 05:29 PM

OK OK OK, enough with the arm twisting (lol), I just flashed SavageZen's CFS to compare battery life, thanks for the motivation!

My initial thought it that it seems similarly responsive to the stock CM7 kernel I was using. Time will tell on the battery.

UPDATE: 6 days later. I've been using the SavagedZen kernel for a few days now, I can't say I'm getting TONS of more battery time, but I may be getting an extra hour or so in a day, so it's all good. I was using the SavagedZen governor, I switched 2 days ago to the 'conservative' governor. Without looking for the difference in governor settings, I seem to be getting yet maybe another hour out of my battery, but only 2 days may be a fluke with typical variances in usage. Again, time will tell.

**nickmo** · 02-26-2012, 11:35 PM

So installed CM7 and the SagageZen kernel today. So far so good. Runs so much smoother than stock + Sense. Used SetCPU to set up some profiles as well. Already seeing better battery performance.

**team420** · 02-27-2012, 07:12 AM

I'm running the XPLOD rom, with tiamat 3.3.7.sbc kernel XPLOD is based on cm7 so its very similar. Out of all the different roms/kernels I've tried, this combo has netted me the best battery life! It's still not great (our batteries are just too small) but waay better than stock, on the stock sense rom, I would need to hook up for a charge a lil over halfway thru the day, now I just hook up b4 bed every night, and I'm good to go, unless I use it heavily, then I need to charge earlier. Try it out, might work for ya, but do understand, that if you use your phone a lot, the battery WILL drain, the only real solution to that, is the extended battery.

**asd216** · 03-02-2012, 04:25 PM

ICS ROM for sure. Cm7 killed my battery within 4 hoursof moderate use.

**Freakb18c1** · 03-21-2012, 12:27 PM

Originally Posted by nickmo86

So installed CM7 and the SagageZen kernel today. So far so good. Runs so much smoother than stock + Sense. Used SetCPU to set up some profiles as well. Already seeing better battery performance.

This is the best combo, I personally use ICS ModV2.5 by Team Blaze (just a themed cm7 rom) with SavagedZen 2.0.2 BFS
it's the most stable version that i've tested.

A good way to test battery life, is to download a stability test app from the market. Set your battery to percent start the burn test and time how long it takes for it to drop 5 - 10%. Do the same for every Kernel you test, you'll find the one that fits you best. 2.0.2 BFS I think is the best IMO. Also when your run the burn test make sure you radios are off data sync ect.

I also have a similar method for testing radios