Battery Life Fix (post F13 update)

[Dortch]

I think I have stumbled on to something that only a neophyte such as myself is worthy of discovering. Brace yourself: I switched from TW Launcher to Go Launcher and my battery life practically doubled!
First some history... I moved from BB to Android the second week of August, with two new S2s...one for me and one for my wife. We both have done the ICS OTA, and each of us have upgraded OTA and manually (for me) to the latest firmware. I also followed everything I could with respect to getting back the battery that my wife says we had for the first 10 days or so. I Did the re-set a multiple times, followed DK2's advice, shut down this, cut off that, and deleted all the other things. OK...so, while I would not then characterize the battery life as excellent, it was certainly good....could make it about whole day (10-14 hours) with moderate use, charging each night, or early evening. Well, the very kind Carol6M happened to mention that she not only had excellent battery life, also that she used Go Launcher. Well, I knew nothing about launchers, and after a full day of receiving the message that TW Launcher has failed, even after rebooting and re-setting, I decided to download it and give it a shot. What did I have to lose? Even if I F'ed it up, I could do another re-set, I was getting pretty good at that. I can't explain the difference in the battery life now that I use Go Launcher (I am not affiliated in any way with them). I can go 30 hours or so - Amazing!
I encourage everyone that is experiencing horrible or unacceptable (as my wife puts it) battery life to simply try a different launcher....Go Launcher worked for me - so much so, that I am now using one of the Go Lockers.
-Dortch

 

[thenameisnigel]

It depends what widgets you have running. The more memory use, the more battery drain.

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Android Central Forums

 

[Tsukiyomi]

Funnily enough I've noticed something similar since switching to Go Launcher, although I'm also using the Power Meter and spend a fair amount of time on Super Save. But I'm now getting up to 2 days on the battery with light use where I got about 8 hours in the week immediately after the ICS update.

 

[GiantJay]

I like nova launcher.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Dortch]

Interesting...that makes total sense. I think I am apples to apples here when I state that I had disabled just about all the widgets except for a flashlight. I certainly did not have any running on a screen. Since the move to GoL, I have not intentionally added any widgets...deleted the ones that appeared, yet did not go into applications and delete/disable/force close any. So if anything, I may have more certainly not less widgets running (background perhaps), and still have practically doubled my battery life by switching launchers. I would not have done so had it not been for the message TW Launcher has failed repeatedly one day.
-Dortch

 

[cqpearson]

I think I have stumbled on to something that only a neophyte such as myself is worthy of discovering. Brace yourself: I switched from TW Launcher to Go Launcher and my battery life practically doubled!

Thanks for the testimony! My battery lasted all day 14-16 hours with usually 15-20+% remaining. But I loaded GO Launcher anyway today. Results were immediate. My phone sat idle for more than an hour but still registered 99%. I know readings between 90 - 99 % are sketchy but my phone always dropped as little as 3 % and as much as 9 % in the first hour, idling.

I am the Galaxy and I Approve this Message
Sent from my SPH-D710

 

[Nj763]

I get 10-12 using stock via sprint ID but I guess its all about how you use your phone.

 

[Dortch]

Thanks for the testimony! My battery lasted all day 14-16 hours with usually 15-20+% remaining. But I loaded GO Launcher anyway today. Results were immediate. My phone sat idle for more than an hour but still registered 99%. I know readings between 90 - 99 % are sketchy but my phone always dropped as little as 3 % and as much as 9 % in the first hour, idling.

I am the Galaxy and I Approve this Message
Sent from my SPH-D710

You are welcome. I am still going strong and finally persuaded my wife to switch launchers.

 

[aznne0]

I can't feel if my battery life got better. But I do admit that the phone seems faster.

The phone battery draining is really annoying me and i'm thinking about rooting and putting in a rom. But that's my last resort lol

 

[vidroid]

My experience was the opposite. I could get about 1-1/2 to 2 days with normal use but when I installed GO Launcher, it started draining fast. Had to get rid of it.

 

[Surj138]

My experience was the opposite. I could get about 1-1/2 to 2 days with normal use but when I installed GO Launcher, it started draining fast. Had to get rid of it.

Same here

 

[Hawaiian_Geek]

I've installed Go Launcher and will be testing it tomorrow while I'm working. If it drains the battery very quickly I'm uninstalling it.

 

[Dortch]

Here is the sequence that worked for me: I performed a factory re-set, then made adjustments per DK2, then installed GoL and re-booted.
Then I started to replace my apps.

 

[Hawaiian_Geek]

Go Launcher didn't work for me! Drained my battery in no time. I only made 4 calls and wasn't on the internet at all. By 12:00 p.m. I had to plug my phone into the extra charger I have at work. Phone was on from 6:45 a.m. Uninstalled that baby quickly!

 

[ScottMGS]

I loaded Apex Launcher late last week and started using it. It didn't seem to help the battery much - or hurt it. My phone did reboot spontaneously several times though. I don't know if it helped (I wasn't scientific about it) but I went back to the other launchers (TW and ICS) and removed all the updating widgets from those launchers the battery life seemed to have improved. So I'm wondering if the widgets that are "running" on the non-loaded launchers could be using power?

 

[HeavemyTreo]

I am not sure what I did, but somehow after FH13 updated my phone I got an option to use a different launcher (Sprint ID "My ID", Samsung ID is the default). I tried it and had to completely reconstruct all my page icons, now I have more space on the home page for more icons, but the best news is my battery seems to last about 3 times longer than before the upgrade. There was a bunch of help bubbles with instructions, but it was easy to rmove those once I understood how to use everything. I don't know if battery has improved via FH13 or the launcher, but I am not getting about 2 hours per 10% of moderate usage and cell time. Really strange, but great. I can now change the bottom row widgets and there is now a center button that brings up all applications. I have changed the old messaging app with Handcent and if you hit far left button below the screen, it pops up a menu: Wallpaper, Manage apps and System Settings, no need to search for the Setting icon.

You guys may be laughing at me because you all already know this, but the new launcher is very cool and the battery life is greatly improved.

 

[cqpearson]

I am not sure what I did...

You guys may be laughing at me because you all already know this, but the new launcher is very cool and the battery life is greatly improved.

Laughing with you. Cool runnings mate!

I am the Galaxy and I Approve this Message
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Android Central Forums

 

[detman101]

I think I have stumbled on to something that only a neophyte such as myself is worthy of discovering. Brace yourself: I switched from TW Launcher to Go Launcher and my battery life practically doubled!
First some history... I moved from BB to Android the second week of August, with two new S2s...one for me and one for my wife. We both have done the ICS OTA, and each of us have upgraded OTA and manually (for me) to the latest firmware. I also followed everything I could with respect to getting back the battery that my wife says we had for the first 10 days or so. I Did the re-set a multiple times, followed DK2's advice, shut down this, cut off that, and deleted all the other things. OK...so, while I would not then characterize the battery life as excellent, it was certainly good....could make it about whole day (10-14 hours) with moderate use, charging each night, or early evening. Well, the very kind Carol6M happened to mention that she not only had excellent battery life, also that she used Go Launcher. Well, I knew nothing about launchers, and after a full day of receiving the message that TW Launcher has failed, even after rebooting and re-setting, I decided to download it and give it a shot. What did I have to lose? Even if I F'ed it up, I could do another re-set, I was getting pretty good at that. I can't explain the difference in the battery life now that I use Go Launcher (I am not affiliated in any way with them). I can go 30 hours or so - Amazing!
I encourage everyone that is experiencing horrible or unacceptable (as my wife puts it) battery life to simply try a different launcher....Go Launcher worked for me - so much so, that I am now using one of the Go Lockers.
-Dortch

Wow, My story is the same as yours...except that the OTA update for ICS improved my wife's phone while it killed the battery on mine.
I tried everything listed in this forum to no avail. What I would up doing was loading a user-created ICS rom (AGAT63) and then running SetCPU to throttle my processor.
Since then, I get better battery life than the wife. And hers was pretty impressive...better than our former blackberries!
I also ditched the stock sprint TW launcher and use ADW Launcher with the minimalist theme.

It's great!

Dm