"Training" Your Battery

[IceyKold]

So I've gone through almost every thread on Android Forums for the Nexus S 4G and read up on the battery life because I have been having some trouble with it. I've had it for 2 days now and have had 4-5 hour battery life. I have checked my battery usage, deleted many autosyncing apps I had, turned off gps/4g, managed the autosync for all of my apps, checked my phone signal, turned on auto brightness, and deactivated live wallpaper. I have read that training your battery may be what the battery needs. Just wondering if this is my problem or if it is the battery/phone. Because over the course of the last 2 days, I have ran it down to 0% and then let if fully charge to 95%. Will it get better over time?

Edit- I forgot to mention that I came across a post that said a hard reset may be the answer because of a software issue. Apparently if you don't fully discharge and then fully charge right out of the box it may mess with your battery life. Is this true?

--Thanks

 

[theblizzard2009]

Could be something with your battery itself - i get 10-12+ hours, and have everything on other than 4g.

Wifi, only turns on when i wake the phone up - same with bluetooth
GPS only fires up when an app uses it.

So i leave everything on, and don't have any issues with battery.

 

[2CupsWithString]

There are a few different things at work here.

1. I've read that the Nexus S may report a full charge before the battery is fully charged. I have confirmed that my battery shows 4.1V at around 94%, so I'm OK with this. (at least on my handset). I checked this with an app called Battery Monitor Widget.

If you're battery says full but you're less than 4.1V then you should reset your battery stats: charge fully (power down, plug it in, when it has all the bars, un plug it, plug it in again, when it has all bars, un plug it, plug it in again -otherwise known as bump charging), boot in to a custom recovery and erase your battery stats, then let the phone fully discharge to the point where it turns itself off. Remember not to even plug in USB during this period.

2. Apps - Not all apps are equal, especially ones that need to refresh things or rely on Android services/APIs to do what they do. We're on the latest version of android for a phone and not all apps were made with the most recent SDK. So some apps will cause more severe battery drain on our phones where they wouldn't some place else.

(This may or may not be the case, I don't know what apps you have installed but look under your "what's been using your battery" screen for rouge apps that keep your phone awake).

3. Most people with new phones use them a lot more as opposed to when they become "old hat". I am conscious of this but find myself just turning the screen on because it looks so damn good and I like spacing out on the live wall paper. To each their own but be mindful the battery may just be doing it's job and it's the usage pattern of a new phone, the tinkering, app installs, etc. that contribute to higher than normal battery drain.

All in all, I think after some software tweaks by Samsung and App developers alike, as well as getting used to a newer style phone within a month or two you'll be squared away.

It's also a good point to never treat your battery by pushing it to either of it's extremes, meaning don't always keep it fully charged and don't always keep it down low. I use mine to around 15/20% then plug it in. A couple of hours before I go to bed I charge it up and leave it off the charger while I sleep, as long as no apps are keeping it awake it only loses around 5% (once it's under 90%).

 

[extraclass]

The instructions with any electronic says to fully charge the batteries before use. I have found most new batteries need to be charged and discharged a few time before they will reach peak performance.

i haven't heard anything about this permanently damaging the battery.

 

[2CupsWithString]

The instructions with any electronic says to fully charge the batteries before use. I have found most new batteries need to be charged and discharged a few time before they will reach peak performance.

i haven't heard anything about this permanently damaging the battery.

Absolutely. I think I ran my down to about 20% when I first got it. I just couldn't keep it out of my grubby nexus loving hands. :/

 

[IceyKold]

I actually bought 2 extra batteries online because I found them for $5 and thought what the heck. I may need them down the road haha.

 

[m3grady2]

I've found that if you charge the battery fully and discharge to about 5% a couple of times your battery life will increase. I'm at 13hrs with 20% left today

 

[jrdatrackstar1223]

I think it would help if people posted their screen on time usage also. I can also get like 12 or 13 hours (today I have 17 hours and 47 mins with screen time of 1hour 25 mins with 42 percent left). I have been on WIFI for 4 hours and 20 mins ( only been WIFI since I been home from work....rest of the day on 3G, and it is now 12 am coming off the charger at 6 am )

This is with my 3G network location (both GPS and wireless networks enabled, where I normally only keep GPS on). To me, this is a huge battery drain, and I'm still getting good battery life with it enabled.

 

[esoh]

If you're battery says full but you're less than 4.1V then you should reset your battery stats: charge fully (power down, plug it in, when it has all the bars, un plug it, plug it in again, when it has all bars, un plug it, plug it in again -otherwise known as bump charging), boot in to a custom recovery and erase your battery stats, then let the phone fully discharge to the point where it turns itself off. Remember not to even plug in USB during this period.

Sorry for the noob question, but is there a way to wipe battery stats without rooting? I've tried going into recovery mode in stock GB but I don't see that option.

 

[BlackHawkA4]

I think battery is all in everyone's head. At work where it says I have great service I get about 8-9 hours before I hit around 25%. Then when I'm actually outside with great service. I get 12 hours before I hit 60% with the same use. It really just depends where you are.

 

[Verdes8891]

Sorry for the noob question, but is there a way to wipe battery stats without rooting? I've tried going into recovery mode in stock GB but I don't see that option.

No, it is only an option when you are rooted as far as i can tell.

 

[esoh]

No, it is only an option when you are rooted as far as i can tell.

OK, thanks for the info. I think its a bit of a limitation though, since I've been reading that you should do a reset when you swap batteries to make sure they are calibrated correctly. Since there are many people who change batteries that are not rooted, you would think that there's a way to do it.

I guess that I'm going the root route.