Epic 4G Touch Battery Life is Terrible

[jazzmanx33]

JayWill72: Thanks for the reference stats. BTW, which app do you use for screenshots? I used to use an app called ShootMe (or something) on my EVO, but it doesn't seem to be around anymore.

Turn down your brightness to about 50% and check your Screen settings.
Note: Does anybody with bad battery life have a live wallpaper by any chance?

My brightness is set to auto for this test, but I have had it set to 30% or lower and that doesn't seem to help, either. I also have a mostly black, non-live wallpaper which is supposed to help, as well, but to no avail.

 

[skyo12]

JayWill72: Thanks for the reference stats. BTW, which app do you use for screenshots? I used to use an app called ShootMe (or something) on my EVO, but it doesn't seem to be around anymore.



My brightness is set to auto for this test, but I have had it set to 30% or lower and that doesn't seem to help, either. I also have a mostly black, non-live wallpaper which is supposed to help, as well, but to no avail.

You can just press the home and the power button simultaneously for a screen shot capture

 

[jazzmanx33]

Here is an update, with screenshots this time (Thanks to skyo12):

As you can see, I have 4h37m of "use" and 72% battery. The last bit of awake can be attributed to me testing the windmill live wallpaper for about 10 minutes. Any ideas you can get for these? I want to have some more ammo when I walk to Sprint tomorrow.

 

[JayWill]

Here is an update, with screenshots this time (Thanks to skyo12):

As you can see, I have 4h37m of "use" and 72% battery. The last bit of awake can be attributed to me testing the windmill live wallpaper for about 10 minutes. Any ideas you can get for these? I want to have some more ammo when I walk to Sprint tomorrow.

Well, 6% an hour for barely having the screen on does indicate a problem to me. As you can see from my shots, I'm also getting about 6% an hour but my phone has been awake and my screen has been on quite a bit more than yours. On a normal day of use for me, I usually average around 3% an hour.

The high Android OS % could be indicative of your low screen use, or it could be something else, possibly related to your exchange email accounts. There are threads on most E4GT forums about the high Android OS %, with no conclusive reason for it yet.

I did notice something else in your shots ... you haven't had wifi on. I know this sounds weird, but try turning wifi on and leave it on, even if you're not connected to anything. See if that changes anything with your use %s.

 

[jazzmanx33]

Well, 6% an hour for barely having the screen on does indicate a problem to me. As you can see from my shots, I'm also getting about 6% an hour but my phone has been awake and my screen has been on quite a bit more than yours. On a normal day of use for me, I usually average around 3% an hour.

The high Android OS % could be indicative of your low screen use, or it could be something else, possibly related to your exchange email accounts. There are threads on most E4GT forums about the high Android OS %, with no conclusive reason for it yet.

I did notice something else in your shots ... you haven't had wifi on. I know this sounds weird, but try turning wifi on and leave it on, even if you're not connected to anything. See if that changes anything with your use %s.

I've heard a fair amount about the high AOS %, with nothing conclusive seen anywhere on what the cause is. For me, I just want to know why the battery is going down.

As for WiFi, I have also heard that keeping it on will help. Funny enough, when I'm at home, and have WiFi on with a good connection, the battery life does improve. Could this all be because of a faulty 3G radio? As you can see, my 3G connection at work is mostly green (6 bars). I have heard rumblings (including a sticky on this forum) about issues with the radios in this hanset, and that Sprint and Samsung know about the issue.

I will be doing a factory data reset and USB storage rest at home once I get home and can back up some stuff. I will report again once I get more data.

 

[oskar1995]

Thanks for posting guys. I've uploaded my usage. A little more of the gaming earlier today (Sudoku and Drag Racing) and some tinkering. I think this is fairly consistent with what I have seen day in and day out.

 

[skyo12]

Thanks for posting guys. I've uploaded my usage. A little more of the gaming earlier today (Sudoku and Drag Racing) and some tinkering. I think this is fairly consistent with what I have seen day in and day out.

Thanks for posting. What was the actual time your display was on?

 

[oskar1995]

1hr 46m 9s

One thing I will note about that time. Its a lot of on and off throughout the day. I like to power on, refresh my weather app, and check something very quickly (twitter, gmail, text, etc) so I'm not sure if that impacts anything.

 

[skyo12]

1hr 46m 9s

One thing I will note about that time. Its a lot of on and off throughout the day. I like to power on, refresh my weather app, and check something very quickly (twitter, gmail, text, etc) so I'm not sure if that impacts anything.

Thanks for the quick reply!

Just wanted to know how much display time you guys can get on a full charge. From my experience so far, I would say I'll be able to get 4 hrs of continuous display use before the phone dies on me.

 

[oskar1995]

Thanks for the quick reply!

Just wanted to know how much display time you guys can get on a full charge. From my experience so far, I would say I'll be able to get 4 hrs of continuous display use before the phone dies on me.

I would say that is fairly accurate. There is some time without signal in there as well (lunch place is awful signal). Depending on the activity it can get close to 5hrs. Sudoku doesn't kill me as much as Drag Racing does. With Drag Racing I've gotten like 3.5 to 4 and that is reasonably proc intensive.

 

[dguidry12]

I just left the Sprint store ..Check my new thread!

 

[Epsom_D2]

Epsom, thanks for your post regarding Beautiful Widgets. I installed this one a couple of days ago (the version on GetJar) and I did notice one day where it updated and it DESTROYED my battery. Kept the phone away for like 2 hours. When you selected the weather provider do you remember which you selected? I have a theory about this one.

Thanks!

When I was seeing the battery bleed I was using Accuweather for the weather provider. Do tell what your theory is...

 

[jazzmanx33]

OK... just did the factory reset, uninstalled the bloatware, set up my email accounts along with Facebook and Twitter for Social Hub, and didn't install anything. I'm going to charge it overnight, and tomorrow I should have more info if that worked. Though now...

I just left the Sprint store ..Check my new thread!

... I checked out that thread and it really seems as though I should just bite the bullet and get a new unit. Thanks for the link.

 

[dguidry12]

OK... just did the factory reset, uninstalled the bloatware, set up my email accounts along with Facebook and Twitter for Social Hub, and didn't install anything. I'm going to charge it overnight, and tomorrow I should have more info if that worked. Though now...



... I checked out that thread and it really seems as though I should just bite the bullet and get a new unit. Thanks for the link.

NP

 

[joe.stay]

So, I charged my phone last night and took it off the charger at midnight. It was showing 97%. Checked this morning and it was 96% (7am so 7 hours on standby). After sending 50 texts today and checking email, right now at 7:38 pm, my battery is showing 85%. Does that seem normal?

 

[GCMS]

I'm wondering if HTC Evo owners are jealous of the battery life that we get even though some of us are supposedly not getting the best battery life. My gf has evo 4g and her battery life is horrible and that's an understatement. Wouldn't those with the "worst" battery life still be better than that of HTC evo owners?

 

[dguidry12]

So, I charged my phone last night and took it off the charger at midnight. It was showing 97%. Checked this morning and it was 96% (7am so 7 hours on standby). After sending 50 texts today and checking email, right now at 7:38 pm, my battery is showing 85%. Does that seem normal?

My phone stayed at 99% after overnight charging and suddenly would drop percentage during any usage.

 

[dguidry12]

I'm wondering if HTC Evo owners are jealous of the battery life that we get even though some of us are supposedly not getting the best battery life. My gf has evo 4g and her battery life is horrible and that's an understatement. Wouldn't those with the "worst" battery life still be better than that of HTC evo owners?

When I got the 1900mah battery it solved that problem.. The battery was to small for the device to begin with.

 

[joe.stay]

My phone stayed at 99% after overnight charging and suddenly would drop percentage during any usage.

Mine doesn't drop that much after usage. I'm hoping the percentage is correct.

 

[milominderbinde]

If you are not getting a great battery life, just follow the steps in the 30+ Hours Battery Life.

I had Beautiful Widgets installed because they were free on Getjar but found that using any of them cut my battery life drastically, especially the weather ones. Even when not using any of them at all but just having Beautiful Widget on my phone, Watchdog showed that Beautiful Widgets was one of my biggest battery suckers.

Thankfully there are other widgets just as good that take almost no battery.

Follow the steps and you can quickly find what is killing your battery.