25% drain in 1 hour?!

[RyMac04]

Hey, I may be in the same boat as OP. This is my first smartphone, so I can only compare my experience with other's. I use it ALOT, and my daughter plays games on it too. However, I have to charge it over and over throughout the day. I thought that's the way it's supposed to be, like when I use my laptop. Now I don't know. I got battery defender (which, from what I understand improves your battery life over time by learning how you use it), and Advanced Task Killer, which I use all the time, esp when my phone slows down. Seems to help some (would appreciate negative feedback on those apps).

You have a Galaxy Nexus correct?

From my understanding, Ice Cream Sandwich no longer has need for the "task killer" apps that exist in the market. It manages apps on it's own and each app will either have an "exit" option, or you simply escape out of it, and ICS will idle the app.

 

[chevyguy8893]

not opposed to this, but don't want to ruin any chance of returning/exchanging if I infact have a bad phone?

It is pretty easy to re-lock the bootloader and return the phone to stock. http://www.droid-life.com/2011/12/1...the-bootloader-and-return-to-a-factory-state/

I installed the AXI0M 2.1 rom after rooting my phone. I did a battery stats wipe afterwards after charging the battery to full, and then drained till it was dead. I unplugged my phone last night around midnight, so the phone sat idle for a while. I currently have 64% battery life left after 10 hours since charged. I have streamed pandora on 4G, surfed the web a bit, played music from the music player, and played solitaire for a while. I am running the extended battery though which only makes a little bit of a difference. I do try to run on wifi whenever possible which may be a difference.

Games and the screen are the big battery drainers. Words with friends has never been battery friendly on any mobile device for me.If you want to see a list of running apps go into settings, apps, select running at the top, and scroll through the list to see what is running. You can also end apps here if you find something that you don't want running. Also, you can disable apps you don't use under the "all" tab.

 

[Mathmatikus]

How long is your screen on for? I get 2-3 hours of screen on time before my battery starts crossing the "charge me" line with screen at 50% brightness and eating 68% of the battery.

 

[thebignewt]

You have a Galaxy Nexus correct?

From my understanding, Ice Cream Sandwich no longer has need for the "task killer" apps that exist in the market. It manages apps on it's own and each app will either have an "exit" option, or you simply escape out of it, and ICS will idle the app.

You are correct. In fact no android phone benefits from task killer apps. I'm sure this phone is not much different from any other smartphone in what drains the battery: GPS, other radios (LTE and 3G Data, voice, BT, WiFi) and screens. This has a bigger screen so that may drain more than others. I don't know how much LTE drains vs 3G, but I'm sure it searches more. Voice is voice. WiFi is WiFi, and BT is BT no matter what the phone. GPS is a killer, as we all know, because it's using 2 radios (satellite and data) constantly to track position and redraw maps. Use one of those golf GPS apps and leave it on and see how fast it goes. You won't make 18 holes.

 

[zacharyalexstern]

welcome to the club man.....I'm having the same issues, I even got the extended battery, can't tell a difference in the battery life.

That's because there is no difference. The extended battery is only 10% larger than the standard battery. Wait for the Seidio Innocell to come out. That's the only real option.

 

[moosc]

Its simple you want 6plus hours leave your phone alone maybe use it 5% of time but stop olaying games stop doing any thing. I git 11hours but thats because i was sleeping with my phone. 5hours isnt bad on huge super amoled dual core 4g phone.

 

[jafels]

Im at ten hours with 3 1/2 hours of screen on time.

 

[byrds8]

Does it matter for battery stats weather you charge the battery in the phone or use an external charger? I keep just swapping my batteries. Im sitting at 9hr 51min with 12% left on the battery. Screen 56% of it and Ive played a bit of Defender, Great little War Game and Angry Birds along with Txt and calls.

 

[willlayb]

Im at ten hours with 3 1/2 hours of screen on time.

brightness all the way down?

 

[jafels]

brightness all the way down?

Auto.....yesterday i was at 13 hours with a little over 5 hours of screen on time and 10% battery left. I am using the hell out of this thing and usually get through the whole day....battery has been good for me.

 

[cj100570]

I'm posting in the official battery life thread but it's getting buried with no responses.

I am getting TERRIBLE battery life on my GNex. I love this phone, but a phone is not a phone when it must be plugged in all day long. Please help...

I'm testing all sorts of methods on how to conserve the battery. I've installed Juice Defender. I'm not using 4g. I use WiFi only at home. I do not have GPS on. I have 2 emails set to sync every hour, one gmail and one yahoo. I have twitter set to sync. I usually use auto brightness but have since switched to darkest.

I text and use GroupMe most often. Play words with friends and read twitter lightly. No web browsing today, no videos. After charging up my battery at work, and taking it off, I've lost 25% in 1 hour! I have done nothing but text and play words with the screen on the darkest setting. I use the Beautiful Widgets clock and weather on my home screen.

I have all touch sounds and vibrations turned off. I uninstalled Skype. I don't know what else to do. How are people getting 15 - 20 hours on this when I'm barely getting 5?

My stats are:
Screen - 60%
Words Free - 18%
Android OS - 13%
Android System 3%
All others - 2% or less


Thanks for any help / :'(

The answer to your question is in the stats you posted. Your screen was on 60% of the time. That's a huge drain on the battery. It's actually quite easy to get a full day, 8 to 12 hours, of use out of th GNex on 3G. I have 4 GMail accounts, Facebook, Twitter, Beautiful Widgets and various other apps syncing and I also play games amd surf the wide world web. I take my phone off the charger at 6 every morning and still have 30 to 40% when I leave work at 3:30. You have to keep in mind that using your phone heavily is going to drain the battery. By no means am I saying not to use your phone, but constantly doing so leads to battery woes. Long gone are the days of dumb phones that do nothing but make calls. We must adjust our expextations of what's normal for our multi-tasking, dual core, html browser with flash super phones.

 

[holmsc]

I was experiencing what I would consider to be awful battery life when I first picked up the Nexus the day after it went on sale. With the extended battery, I was seeing 5-8 hours of battery life with normal usage, and I was seriously considering returning the phone and getting a Rezound. I was also among those seeing very high Android OS usage, even if I wasn't turning the screen on very much.

I subsequently installed Juice Defender (free version) and within a day I was seeing about 15-20 hours of battery life with normal usage (remember, extended battery).

I wasn't a believer before but I'm a total Juice Defender convert. I'm convinced that the battery life on the Nexus can be improved via software updates, it seems like a bug to me. But until I get to try Cyanogenmod 9 with a low voltage kernel, I'm using Juice Defender 100% of the time. I recommend any of you with poor battery life try it out and report back if it works for you. At 15+ hours of battery life, even with 4G LTE enabled, I'm completely in love with this phone again!

 

[yapkuen]

The answer to your question is in the stats you posted. Your screen was on 60% of the time. That's a huge drain on the battery. It's actually quite easy to get a full day, 8 to 12 hours, of use out of th GNex on 3G. I have 4 GMail accounts, Facebook, Twitter, Beautiful Widgets and various other apps syncing and I also play games amd surf the wide world web. I take my phone off the charger at 6 every morning and still have 30 to 40% when I leave work at 3:30. You have to keep in mind that using your phone heavily is going to drain the battery. By no means am I saying not to use your phone, but constantly doing so leads to battery woes. Long gone are the days of dumb phones that do nothing but make calls. We must adjust our expextations of what's normal for our multi-tasking, dual core, html browser with flash super phones.

I'm pretty sure the 60% for screen means that the screen accounted for 60% of the battery drain, not that it was on 60% of the time that the phone was on battery power. Some of the OP's followup posts in this thread indicated he used the screen intermittently and rather sparingly.

 

[holmsc]

I'm pretty sure the 60% for screen means that the screen accounted for 60% of the battery drain, not that it was on 60% of the time that the phone was on battery power. Some of the OP's followup posts in this thread indicated he used the screen intermittently and rather sparingly.

You are 100% correct, this only means that the screen accounts for 60% of the battery drain so far. Everything in that list should add up to 100% all the time.

 

[wkupike2000]

I wasn't a believer before but I'm a total Juice Defender convert. I'm convinced that the battery life on the Nexus can be improved via software updates, it seems like a bug to me. But until I get to try Cyanogenmod 9 with a low voltage kernel, I'm using Juice Defender 100% of the time. I recommend any of you with poor battery life try it out and report back if it works for you. At 15+ hours of battery life, even with 4G LTE enabled, I'm completely in love with this phone again!

Picking up my Gnex friday so I'm curious about this Juice Defender. Anyone else have experiences to share?

 

[Quinn1981]

I've been limited gaming or fun on it to times when I'm plugged up or using USB. I can definitely eat up 10% in a sitting while just surfing. I find if I limited downloading apps or testing my speeds in an area, I get much better battery life. The screen is the worst I imagine. I'm doing more and waiting less. I find this has meant I've been using my phone more and keeping the screen on more often. I don't wait anymore and that's pretty sweet.

When I'm on wifi at the place or somewhere else, battery life also does much better. I also switched to 3G only and life was much better. I'm not sure on the numbers, but it was the difference between watching my % go down or just catching it every so often.

One way I noticed was a CPU tweaking app (just really adjusts kernel modules and such). It switches profiles based on battery left and while using it I found that it resets to the auto presets from my manual setting when the battery level was changing... or at least I thought so. Somebody in the app comments said the same thing.

Needless to say, it was switching back to auto pretty frequently. But ya, 4G is definitely limiting my battery life and I've tweaked quite a bit of things to optimize my experience (after rooting).

I think I saw my battery go from 30 to 20 in a 30-45 minute sitting at the coffee shop. Worth it to me. It was faster than the wifi. :-D

 

[Quinn1981]

Picking up my Gnex friday so I'm curious about this Juice Defender. Anyone else have experiences to share?

I tried it a bit. You need to pay for it to get any use out of it. There are other apps that don't take such a proactive approach in adjusting services and settings to save juice. I've been using CPU tuner. I like having a few simple presets that change based on my screen and battery level. I get enough of the CPU's time when I need it and save when I don't. I can make it through a day with occasional surfing sessions, but nothing serious.

 

[JtothaR]

Mine has been off charge since 930 pm yesterday and is now at 2%. This includes 3 hours of streaming audio over 4g and long text convos, and 4g on the whole time.

 

[JtothaR]

Oh, and for the guy who doesnt know how to close an app. Just open recent apps and throw away all the ones you arent using. It does make a difference.

 

[lament]

This was already mentioned but I wanted to reiterate: Words with Friends is a poorly coded battery hog. I used to have it on my OG Droid and uninstalled it for that reason.

Try uninstalling and going a couple days to see if that solves your "25% battery drain in 1 hour" issue.