How's your Battery Life?
- Thread starter swisshutless
- Start date
Yesterday my battery was almost dead by 5 (like 16%). Today at 3:30 I'm sitting strong at 69%. Kinda weird.
@wildkarrde21 You are correct in that a battery calibration can allow for the more accurate calculation of battery life. I'm not an expert on battery technology but let me try to share with you what I know about battery calibration.
First, if battery calibrations were taking place the battery would never read 100% charge after it became worn. The whole point of a battery calibration is so the battery doesn't report the incorrect value of 100% after a full charge when it has a reduced capacity due to wear.
Second, a battery calibration is something that has to be triggered by the user, it's not something the phone will just detect and automatically start doing. Usually, as in the case of laptop computers, whenever you trigger a battery calibration it's an operation that takes full control of the laptop and is typically knowingly and actively triggered by an option in the BIOS or a separate utility. The laptop cannot be used during this process and the process can last a few hours. During the battery calibration process the laptop will completely charge and then completely discharge the battery, measuring the amount of time that it takes for either the complete charge or discharge. The thought behind this is that a battery that is worn will take less time to completely charge/discharge than if the battery were brand new (I'm not sure how charge/discharge times relate to amounts of available charge so I'm not going to even try to lie and say that a 50% worn battery charges/discharges in half the time). At this point the battery circuitry would now know the battery condition and can then use that as a baseline for battery life estimations. For example, after a battery calibration, a battery that is 50% worn would only report as 50% when fully charged, not the confusing amount of 100%.
Here's an example of what battery calibration is supposed to combat that you are all too familiar with:
Some of you may have purchased your phone on a two year contract and will probably have it next year this time. Let's assume that you take moderately good care of your battery and wear it down by ~10%. What this means is that when you fully charge the battery it will only contain 90% of the charge that it could hold when it was brand new. Say this day next year you fully drain the battery and then charge it completely, what do you think the battery charge will read? You'd be absolutely correct in saying 100%. In fact, this measurement is correct! The battery technically IS at 100% charge! Is the reading any less accurate? No. Could you improve this reading? No. Again, the battery IS at 100% capacity, it's just that the battery is worn and is only capable of holding 90% of the charge it could when new. Would a reading of 90% be more meaningful? Absolutely. A battery calibration would provide the circuitry in the battery with the means necessary to arrive at the actual 90% reading.
First, if battery calibrations were taking place the battery would never read 100% charge after it became worn. The whole point of a battery calibration is so the battery doesn't report the incorrect value of 100% after a full charge when it has a reduced capacity due to wear.
Second, a battery calibration is something that has to be triggered by the user, it's not something the phone will just detect and automatically start doing. Usually, as in the case of laptop computers, whenever you trigger a battery calibration it's an operation that takes full control of the laptop and is typically knowingly and actively triggered by an option in the BIOS or a separate utility. The laptop cannot be used during this process and the process can last a few hours. During the battery calibration process the laptop will completely charge and then completely discharge the battery, measuring the amount of time that it takes for either the complete charge or discharge. The thought behind this is that a battery that is worn will take less time to completely charge/discharge than if the battery were brand new (I'm not sure how charge/discharge times relate to amounts of available charge so I'm not going to even try to lie and say that a 50% worn battery charges/discharges in half the time). At this point the battery circuitry would now know the battery condition and can then use that as a baseline for battery life estimations. For example, after a battery calibration, a battery that is 50% worn would only report as 50% when fully charged, not the confusing amount of 100%.
Here's an example of what battery calibration is supposed to combat that you are all too familiar with:
Some of you may have purchased your phone on a two year contract and will probably have it next year this time. Let's assume that you take moderately good care of your battery and wear it down by ~10%. What this means is that when you fully charge the battery it will only contain 90% of the charge that it could hold when it was brand new. Say this day next year you fully drain the battery and then charge it completely, what do you think the battery charge will read? You'd be absolutely correct in saying 100%. In fact, this measurement is correct! The battery technically IS at 100% charge! Is the reading any less accurate? No. Could you improve this reading? No. Again, the battery IS at 100% capacity, it's just that the battery is worn and is only capable of holding 90% of the charge it could when new. Would a reading of 90% be more meaningful? Absolutely. A battery calibration would provide the circuitry in the battery with the means necessary to arrive at the actual 90% reading.
Last night, instead of charging my phone all night, I left it off the charger. It was at 25% when I went to bed. Got up this morning and it was at 24%.
With the display off, this phone uses very little battery. I think every time I've checked my usage stats, the display takes up half to 75% of the battery used.
Anyway, I just thought it was interesting.
With the display off, this phone uses very little battery. I think every time I've checked my usage stats, the display takes up half to 75% of the battery used.
Anyway, I just thought it was interesting.
CaCHooKaMan
Well-known member
my phones been unplugged for 14 hours now and im only down to 55% battery with wifi connected the whole time. i havent really used my phone that much during that time though.
CaCHooKaMan
Well-known member
CaCHooKaMan
Well-known member
Hm, I'm not really sure whats with all the battery issues people have been reporting. Every day I've had this phone ('cept maybe the first day?) I've only had to charge it once each night. I fully charged it the first day before ever using it. I've been messing with the GPS, syncing contacts, downloading apps, watching videos... pretty much everything you could do, practically everyday, all day. I've let it run down all the way till the phone turns off each day.
What I find pretty surprising, is that once it tells you that the batter is low and to plug it in, it will quite a bit longer than expected (like 2 hrs on less than 10%? could be wrong, haven't timed it).
I also have gtalk running and email pushing. Twitter syncing 30min. Facebook sync 1 hr. Don't know how often google syncs. I don't make a lot of phone calls so, I don't know how that will affect stuff.
I've been playing MP3s nonstop since 9:00am (now 1:00pm) and the battery is at 61%. Watched some video (short/youtube review type stuff).
As far as the comments regarding the percentage of battery the display is using? Well, duh! That's what the largest part should be. If it was a piece of software, then yeah, I'd be concerned.
What I find pretty surprising, is that once it tells you that the batter is low and to plug it in, it will quite a bit longer than expected (like 2 hrs on less than 10%? could be wrong, haven't timed it).
I also have gtalk running and email pushing. Twitter syncing 30min. Facebook sync 1 hr. Don't know how often google syncs. I don't make a lot of phone calls so, I don't know how that will affect stuff.
I've been playing MP3s nonstop since 9:00am (now 1:00pm) and the battery is at 61%. Watched some video (short/youtube review type stuff).
As far as the comments regarding the percentage of battery the display is using? Well, duh! That's what the largest part should be. If it was a piece of software, then yeah, I'd be concerned.
Well So far getting e-mails in a low signal area *my house*, with deleting over 100 emails every morning, bluetooth calls, texting and backing up my sms messages. Almost 7 hours later and I am still at 61% which is really good.. Yes the phone did not have a very good battery life but it continues to get better. And I listen to some music, videos, browsing as well as sending e-mails. Is equal to my bold in battery life so far!
Cheers,
Charlie
Cheers,
Charlie
Ok, this was on a 98% used battery (15h 14min)
53% Display
13% Voice (just 14min and 3 sec)
8% Media Server (8hrs of mp3s)
8% Stand by
5% Idle
3% Double Twist
3% Android System
2% GPS
2% Android Live Wallpaper
Kind of worrisome is that 14 minutes used 13% of the battery. That only equates to around 106 minutes of talk time, not the 350 listed on Samsung's website.
53% Display
13% Voice (just 14min and 3 sec)
8% Media Server (8hrs of mp3s)
8% Stand by
5% Idle
3% Double Twist
3% Android System
2% GPS
2% Android Live Wallpaper
Kind of worrisome is that 14 minutes used 13% of the battery. That only equates to around 106 minutes of talk time, not the 350 listed on Samsung's website.
Was that a single 14 minute call, or 28 thirty-second calls?
I watched my battery drop only 2% points after a 57 minute call last night.
I think the initial handshake with the network to place/receive calls uses more battery than the call itself.
lillejord - that is insane. there is no way i would be able to do that with my phone, the battery simply drains much faster than that. could all of us with really poor battery performance have bad batteries? is there any way to tell if your battery is good or bad? i need to search and see what samsung says the battery life is supposed to be with usage and on standby.
Just to clarify, I used up 98% of the battery, as in only 2% left and about to die...
(Apparently I forgot to save may edit on the last post.)
I wonder how accurate the percentages are in that settings menu. It seams like 8hrs of playing mp3s would use more than 11% (Media server + Double Twist). I did do some "multitasking" during that time, like syncing, checking notifications that came in, downloading a couple apps, general dinking around, and that 9min phone call... but at the end of those 8hrs the phone was down to 25% and the vast majority seemed like it would have been the music -- with the screen off.
(Apparently I forgot to save may edit on the last post.)
I wonder how accurate the percentages are in that settings menu. It seams like 8hrs of playing mp3s would use more than 11% (Media server + Double Twist). I did do some "multitasking" during that time, like syncing, checking notifications that came in, downloading a couple apps, general dinking around, and that 9min phone call... but at the end of those 8hrs the phone was down to 25% and the vast majority seemed like it would have been the music -- with the screen off.
I found that the e-mail app was checking for mail every 30 minutes but I wasn't even using it, using gmail app instead. I bought System Panel and Tasker and I'm deleting anything that I'm not really planning to use going forward, as it seems many things can get into memory and start draining the battery. This does seem like a lot of energy on my part though for a 'smart phone' 
I got my phone yesterday and have wondered about the battery problem. Yesterday it lasted an hour then I gave it a full charge. my problem is that the phone gets so hot you could not hold it and put it near your ear on a call. After a full charge it lasted 2 hours the first time and about 3 hours the second. Wifi, Blue-tooth and talking wears it down in about 15 minutes.
So I charged it over night and tried it today. Same thing using the phone it drained in about 2 hours. I have the screen down to the lowest setting. I do not have location finding on either GPS or Wireless. No sync and I used Advanced Task killer making sure I read the article here for proper usage of the app. I recharged it and at 11am went to ATT which is 15 minutes from my house. By the time I got there after one call it was at 45% and hot has you know what.
They gave me a new battery and said it could be the phone, but try this first. So I got home and used it till the battery went dead,about 3 hours with heavy usage. It still became hot but not like with the old battery. Then I put Wifi on and started browsing 100% to 60% in about an hour. Got a call and used Blue-tooth first turned off Wifi and it started getting very hot again. Still it lasted till I put Wifi on again and registered on this site and it went to the yellow marker.
I started to reply on the phone for this thread and I decided to just charge it again and reply on my regular computer. So do I bring the phone back for another or give it a day or two to see if it gets better. How hot do your phones get?
I really do use it allot for e-mail and Internet. I hardly use any apps and I came from a Bold after getting tired of them breaking and having to replace it 4 times along with a Pearl 3 times. Plus you cant beat the Browser and how everything works on the Droid.
On top of that I hear RIM is getting a new OS system and I did see a demo phone today. Still the screen is no where near has big and I am not sure how much of the boarder with the Icons will disappear. I don't want to get into a RIM discussion on this tread so I will stop here.
So I charged it over night and tried it today. Same thing using the phone it drained in about 2 hours. I have the screen down to the lowest setting. I do not have location finding on either GPS or Wireless. No sync and I used Advanced Task killer making sure I read the article here for proper usage of the app. I recharged it and at 11am went to ATT which is 15 minutes from my house. By the time I got there after one call it was at 45% and hot has you know what.
They gave me a new battery and said it could be the phone, but try this first. So I got home and used it till the battery went dead,about 3 hours with heavy usage. It still became hot but not like with the old battery. Then I put Wifi on and started browsing 100% to 60% in about an hour. Got a call and used Blue-tooth first turned off Wifi and it started getting very hot again. Still it lasted till I put Wifi on again and registered on this site and it went to the yellow marker.
I started to reply on the phone for this thread and I decided to just charge it again and reply on my regular computer. So do I bring the phone back for another or give it a day or two to see if it gets better. How hot do your phones get?
I really do use it allot for e-mail and Internet. I hardly use any apps and I came from a Bold after getting tired of them breaking and having to replace it 4 times along with a Pearl 3 times. Plus you cant beat the Browser and how everything works on the Droid.
On top of that I hear RIM is getting a new OS system and I did see a demo phone today. Still the screen is no where near has big and I am not sure how much of the boarder with the Icons will disappear. I don't want to get into a RIM discussion on this tread so I will stop here.
While on standby and in Flight mode, my phone went from 97% to 58% while sitting on my desk at work for 9 hours today. I called the store where I bought it today to see if they have any in stock - they have 4 coming in tomorrow and offered to put my name on one of them. They'll be disappointed when I show up to exchange an phone instead of buying a new one. My GPS is still not good (despite all the suggested resettings), and the battery is hopeless.
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