New EVO Battery Life Sticky: Please Contribute

[notaphonegeek#IM]

so how's battery life?

 

[ejc1214]

I am confused about something.
I turned the sync off on the power widget and I am still getting emails. I thought I read on here that if you turn that off you would not get data but phone calls and gets only. I really don't need the apps to sync all the time and the weather, Facebook and other apps I can just start them myself and update. I wonder if this will get me more battery life.
Anyone else done it and got some results?

 

[irock1985]

I am confused about something.
I turned the sync off on the power widget and I am still getting emails. I thought I read on here that if you turn that off you would not get data but phone calls and gets only. I really don't need the apps to sync all the time and the weather, Facebook and other apps I can just start them myself and update. I wonder if this will get me more battery life.
Anyone else done it and got some results?

This will stop all things from syncing and accessing the net!

OK so to any and everyone still getting bad battery life try this. When you are not using the data network(WiFi, Weather, Internet) basically when the phone is in your pocket/purse. - Hold the power button as if you were going to turn the phone off and toggle Mobile Network off. Turn it back on if you need the net and then right back off... and yes with this off you can still place calls and send receive sms texts (not mms)

Doing this I, after 12 hours off the charger and a bad signal for the most part; am at 80%

so to recap - (Hold) Power Button>Mobile Network off

 

[verks]

I've been fighting the battery thing for a week or so now. For the first 2 weeks I had it the battery was very good. My usage was a lot less during that time so I thought that would explain the issue I have had the last 2 weeks. I was getting about 5 to 7 hours at a time with pretty steady usage. I loaded Juice Plotter to watch and see how much actual time I had. After a full charge it told me 5-6 hours of time left. Even after I removed all widgets and turned off all unnecessary syncing. I tried all of the scenarios to get a full charge and every time I still only got a 5 -6 hour battery life and it really only lasted that long.

Fed up I did a factory reset and will see how that changes my power use. I have changed the settings for syncing and have no widgets. I am by no means a phone novice and I love the EVO and will do what it takes to fix it.

Now today, the first day after the reset Juice Plotter says I have 10 plus hours remaining and its actually been going up. Hmmm.


Well, I guess we will see. The only thing i did was this from another board.

Also need to calibrate the battery...
With the phone in the on position.
Fully charge the battery with the phone on... (until the led turns green.)
Once the led turns green, unplug the charger until the led goes off.
After the led goes off, plug the charger back in. When the led turns green , power off the phone.
now.... with the phone fully powered off...
1. Unplug the charger.
2. Wait until led goes off.
3. Plug charger back in until the led turns green. When it turns green, unplug the charger again and go to step 1.
4. repeat steps 1 and 3, 10 times. This may take anywhere from 30 seconds to 30 mins per cycle. Typically only about 1 minute. though.

 

[olsonn]

Also need to calibrate the battery...
With the phone in the on position.
Fully charge the battery with the phone on... (until the led turns green.)
Once the led turns green, unplug the charger until the led goes off.
After the led goes off, plug the charger back in. When the led turns green , power off the phone.
now.... with the phone fully powered off...
1. Unplug the charger.
2. Wait until led goes off.
3. Plug charger back in until the led turns green. When it turns green, unplug the charger again and go to step 1.
4. repeat steps 1 and 3, 10 times. This may take anywhere from 30 seconds to 30 mins per cycle. Typically only about 1 minute. though.

I did the "battery calibration" thing described above a few days ago, and it *really* seems to have helped my battery a lot.

But here's my question... Should such a calibration only be done once, or should it be done as often as possible? If so (or if not), why? What is the rationale/science behind the answer? I have the time and energy to calibrate often, if it will really help. It has definitely helped after just one calibration. I'm just wondering if it will actually help to keep doing the "plug/unplug" stuff.

Anybody know? Thanks...

 

[lopsa84]

Tips

At first batter was only lasting about 6 - 8 hours (was thinking about returning it); however after the 06/29 update and following the tips on the link below I'm able to get 20Hours on my EVO I love it.

20 tips to improve HTC EVO 4G battery life

 

[piggyman]

Well, I guess we will see. The only thing i did was this from another board.

Also need to calibrate the battery...
With the phone in the on position.
Fully charge the battery with the phone on... (until the led turns green.)
Once the led turns green, unplug the charger until the led goes off.
After the led goes off, plug the charger back in. When the led turns green , power off the phone.
now.... with the phone fully powered off...
1. Unplug the charger.
2. Wait until led goes off.
3. Plug charger back in until the led turns green. When it turns green, unplug the charger again and go to step 1.
4. repeat steps 1 and 3, 10 times. This may take anywhere from 30 seconds to 30 mins per cycle. Typically only about 1 minute. though.

I can't believe it. I tried this and it's working!

I'm currently at 40 minutes in Standby with 100% battery.

Before, within a few minutes, the battery level drops to 90-95%.


The weird thing was the led took a minute before it turned green, when the phone was off. It should have taken a few seconds, if it was truly charged at 100%.

My question is do we need to repeat these steps again? Or is it a one time thing?

 

[feet]

Draining it?

Right now I get about 12-16 hours depending on video/music but always with moderate to heavy web use. I dont try to get beyond that because I have to set the alarm clock and sleep.

Heavy use like gps with nav/roaming and it drops to like 6-8 hours. The battery life seems to have improved over time or I've managed to take my hands off of it more.

I think part of the reason the battery is lasting so long is because I completely drain it a couple times each week. I charge it while I sleep so I cant tell you how long that takes.

Also, the first few times I charged then completely drained it to the point of shutting down. That was with the supplied power adapter and cable. The battery got HOT while charging with that but almost too hot to handle with a USB auto adapter. I got less use time from that auto adapter too btw.
My dog chewed the original cable so I used the cable/adapter from the free bb bluetooth headset and it was a very slow charge that time but a cool charge and it lasted a long time iirc. Now I have a belkin cable and charge it from my pc, never gets hot at all that way.

I dont use a task killer anymore. If I have opened a ton of apps I may restart when I am done using it for a long time.
I ditched all the pretty widgets and use launcher pro with my apps as buttons instead. Only gmail is set to sync and wifi & bluetooth are off most of the time. It may search a bit more than normal for signal when I am at work because of the thick concrete walls.
I have a LIVE (gasp) wallpaper too (anipet aquarium).

 

[DizWhiz]

Make sure you go into sync settings and turn off news and stocks updates if you aren't using them. They are on by default and drain your battery. Also, having your mail client check on push has less battery drain than checking regularly.

Sent from my Evo

Thanks I did that (and some other tweaking with the settings) and on the next day I got an up time of nearly 20hrs before hitting the 10% warning. I only had one call but still used it for IM/Text/Web browsing for about 6.5hrs of the total 20.

Is the phone really that bad if you don't mess with the settings? Every review states how horrible the battery life is and they only get 4hrs max on a full charge but even before I tweaked it I was getting 6-7hrs.

 

[verks]

I can't believe it. I tried this and it's working!

I'm currently at 40 minutes in Standby with 100% battery.

Before, within a few minutes, the battery level drops to 90-95%.


The weird thing was the led took a minute before it turned green, when the phone was off. It should have taken a few seconds, if it was truly charged at 100%.

My question is do we need to repeat these steps again? Or is it a one time thing?

Yea, it has really made a difference since I did the calibration. I can't believe it either. It actually changed the batteries performance.

Not totally sold yet. Time will tell.

 

[Flst2000us]

Preformed a test this weekend as I was not leaving the house. So I fully charged my EVO and then only spot checked it over the weekend for email and misc stuff. My EVO is rooted with EVOBEASTV02 and RMBLOATV02 for Sprint bloat ware. As well running Advanced Task killer in auto, Excluding: Titanium Backup, Several mail accounts, Facebook. As well have live wall paper running.

Normal day use I get about 20 Hours without an issue but at this point I?m at 43 hours and still have 68% battery life.

Did not preform the new update either. My first week of battery life was terrible but after Rooting and adding these things its been fantastic. Also during the normal day I will run the hack MIFI and my EVO still makes it the full day without an issue.

 

[PsyKhiqZero]

Personally I think the problem comes from many of the free apps in the store. without a task killer I believe that many of them leave services on that collect usage data. Always try to look at what services a app will require and think why it needs them before you install it.

Like FLST2000us I can get 25 hours plus on moderate use. But when I installed certain free games (I won't say which since I have no real proof) I noticed I was down to about 12 hours of use. For the record I have a half root w/ RvU ROM

 

[OnePalmAddict]

The Evo will use GPS when dialing 911, even if it's turned off in settings.

Thanks for the heads up though.

Thanks. I just found this over the weekend and was coming back to post my findings.

 

[whats77inaname]

Also need to calibrate the battery...
With the phone in the on position.
Fully charge the battery with the phone on... (until the led turns green.)
Once the led turns green, unplug the charger until the led goes off.
After the led goes off, plug the charger back in. When the led turns green , power off the phone.
now.... with the phone fully powered off...
1. Unplug the charger.
2. Wait until led goes off.
3. Plug charger back in until the led turns green. When it turns green, unplug the charger again and go to step 1.
4. repeat steps 1 and 3, 10 times. This may take anywhere from 30 seconds to 30 mins per cycle. Typically only about 1 minute. though.

Color me skeptical upon reading all of that. It seemed like a bunch of hogwash. I've had my Evo since the release date, and the battery has been crappy to say the least. I've read through this, and other forums, and have my phone settings to those that draw the minimum amount of power. I feel kinda pissed b/c what's the point of having all these fancy functions if my battery can't last half the day w/out a recharge? I mean, with all the stuff the iPhone can do, you never hear about the iPhone fanbois complaining about battery power, do you?

When I read the new update addresses battery power, I was hemming and hawing about installing it. I had the phone rooted via unrevoked and had the free wi-fi tether installed. I was loathe to give it up those capabilities, but I was willing to try anything for more battery power. So I took the update yesterday, and my battery draining issues continued. So now I had an unrooted phone w/crappy battery power, so I was pretty much back to where I started.

So, like I said, I was *extremely* skeptical on reading the post about calibrating the battery, but at this point, I was pretty much willing to try anything. So at 12pm CST, I completed the process. 2.25 hrs later, under normal usage, and my battery is @ 94%.

Now I'm a believer, and thanks for posting that information.

 

[piggyman]

Yea, it has really made a difference since I did the calibration. I can't believe it either. It actually changed the batteries performance.

Not totally sold yet. Time will tell.

I did the steps posted again, a few days ago, and it lasted for two hours at 100%.

Last night, I charged my EVO over night. Within an hour at Standby, it dropped down to the 90s.

I'm guessing, you'll need to preform the steps daily?

 

[DirkBelig]

Put me in the believer camp for the time being. It was driving me nuts that my battery would read 95% within a few minutes (if not immediately) after a full charge. After doing the procedure, it stayed at 100% for an hour on standby and after 8 hours, the last hour of which was active with email and surfing, it's at 82%. While it may not actually extend battery life, it's nice to have an accurate gas gauge.

 

[PM-Performance]

Since this patch was updated last week I am consistantly getting 20-24hrs no prob on my phone now. No more scary thoughts of running out of battery till i get home.
I am very pleased now.

I still end a few stupid things I see hanging like camera and such and still keep GPS and 4G off unless I need them at the time, but this thing smokes now since the update.

I gave it a real test on Fri and took like 60 pictures and a few 720P vids and uploaded each one of those pics to FB on the fly with some other stuff. Worked great.

 

[whats77inaname]

I'm guessing, you'll need to preform the steps daily?

Although my drop off was not as drastic, I too noticed more rapid battery usage. It would appear that yes, this will have to be a daily ritual.

 

[Darth Mo]

I did the steps posted again, a few days ago, and it lasted for two hours at 100%.

Last night, I charged my EVO over night. Within an hour at Standby, it dropped down to the 90s.

I'm guessing, you'll need to preform the steps daily?

I don't know that you have to do all of them.

I simply take the phone off the charger for 5 - 10 minutes in the morning. It will drop down to 95%, then I just plug it back in. It takes 15 - 20 minutes to charge back to 100%, then I take off the charger and go about my day.

Less work than turning the phone off, etc, but seems to have pretty much the same effectiveness. ~30 minutes and the phone doesn't drop past 99%.

 

[verks]

I don't know that you have to do all of them.

I simply take the phone off the charger for 5 - 10 minutes in the morning. It will drop down to 95%, then I just plug it back in. It takes 15 - 20 minutes to charge back to 100%, then I take off the charger and go about my day.

Less work than turning the phone off, etc, but seems to have pretty much the same effectiveness. ~30 minutes and the phone doesn't drop past 99%.

Bingo!

I do this everyday. It prevents the battery from dropping prematurely.

This works on a day to day basis but I did this before the battery calibration. It was the battery calibration that made my battery life improve.

I see peeps claiming 20 plus hours and that's what i want!!