Battery Life - Fascinate vs. Storm 2

[jack22182]

One thing I'm noticing right away is that the battery life I had on the Storm 2 is much better than what I'm experiencing on the Fascinate given similar levels of usage.

I do a lot of email and mobile web and it just seems that the Storm 2 would make it to the end of the day with capacity to spare most of the time, but the Fascinate can't make it all day without some interim charging.

It also seems like it takes a lot longer to charge the Fascinate's battery. Both are 3.7 VDC. The Storm2 battery is 1400 mAH, and the Fascinate battery is 1500 mAH (very similar capacity).

Today I discovered that the Fascinate battery will still drain while it is connected to external DC power in the car if I run Google Navigation and have the screen brightness turned up all the way. It certainly does not drain as quickly as if it would with no external power connected, but over a 20 minute commute I lost 2% of power while connected to external DC. The only active apps were GPSTest and Google Navigation. I'd like it to pick up some juice, not lose it, when plugged into car power, so that hopefully at the end of a long road trip I'll have a full battery instead of a dead battery.

I have several USB car chargers. The Verizon branded one that I picked up for the Storm 2 won't work with the Fascinate. It charges the phone for a couple of minutes, then the phone reports "Battery Full, Please Disconnect Charger". When I use this charger on the Storm 2, it charges that battery faster than any other car or wall charger I own, so I think it might be a little bit high on the DC voltage and the Fascinate is just saying "no thanks, keep your high DC to yourself".

One annoying issue that I had with the Storm 2 is that the battery would sometimes get too hot if I was using the phone for navigation or streaming audio while charging it in the car, which would suspend the charging. So far I have not seen that with the Fascinate.

Any hints for better battery performance?

 

[dlongb13]

From all my experience with smart phones, Blackberry's rule the battery world. I switched from a Storm2 to the original droid upon its release and a full days use is now a tale of the past. Before that my many Blackberry's would get atleast a full days use.

But to answer your question:
1: Make sure you only have on WiFi and GPS when needed as these are serious battery hogs.
2: Widgets use up battery, not a ton, but more than not running them.
3: Live wallpapers (same as above)
4: This phone when you hold down the Home key presents itself with a task manager option, killing unused apps will prolong battery life.

But with all that, I have 30 freakin chargers. One by my couch, one by my bed, one at the office, one in my brief case, and everywhere else. I just plug it in whenever I am near one. To me its now a habit so I don't see at as nearly the inconvenience it originally once was.

Now blackberry chargers are really picky. My blackberry car charger works fine with it, and it did with my Moto droid as well. But the home chargers are a different story.

And yes if you are running GPS it tends to warm up a bit, as mine does, or well did. I have since rooted my phone allowing me to underclock my CPU when I am using my GPS so its keeps it a little cooler and preserves a little battery. But most of the time I am using my GPS I am in my car so I have in plus in anyways.

Hopefully some of my ideas give you a way to either fix your battery woes or make you realized its quite the uphill battle. Good luck either way.

Brady

 

[unchi]

Properly trained batteries are the best! Killed my Droid fascinate every night since I got it went from barely lasting 10 hours to me having to open 16 apps for 4 hours to kill it after 16 + hour day. You all should try it.

trust me it works!
i came from a storm 2 and now it lasts just as long

 

[packerbacker]

I think Android phones are battery hogs because they are so much more complex than Blackberry's OS. There's a lot more going on in an Android phone potentially. My Droid originals tho had EXCELLENT BATTERIES. My Droid 2 was a total drainer and my Fascinate is somewhere in the middle.

As pretty as the stock live wallpaper was on my Fascinate, I got rid of it. I turn the brightness down on days I know I'm going to be using it a lot. If I download an app and it drains my battery, if I don't absolutely need it, I get rid of it. Like the person above me said, you need to know what kills battery!

To comment on other things you said, yes, the Fascinate DOES take a long time to charge, compared to my Droid 1s and 2. My Droid 2 charged really fast, so it's a bummer how slow the Fascinate is. I turn it off when I charge it, and that speeds it up.

I haven't used my GPS yet but that is a bummer if it drains battery while plugged into the car like that.

The Fascinate, as far as I've seen, doesn't get very hot. My Droid 2 BURNED UP when I opened something simple like "Contacts" or "Messaging". That's precisely why I took it in and switched it out for the Fascinate- it was burning up and even freezing in my contact list for absolutely no reason (it's not like I have 2,000 contacts). I don't even notice the Fascinate getting warm, which is definitely a relief.

Despite the little problems each Android phone has, they are so worth it over a Blackberry or any other phone, in my complete unbiased opinion!

 

[jwebste9]

I disagree strongly. I had both the bb tour and storm 2. And both my droid and my fascinate are getting excellent battery life. Other than when u use navigation which kills it. I turn GPS on when I need it. But.I'm at school all day browsing on wifi sending and receiving emails and two hours of gaming. Got to have my daily dose of angry birds. Its off charger from six thirty till eleven at night and indicator still typically blue but close to going into whatever next color is.

 

[Trustno1]

Yeah I had a S2 for about a year and I had some really nasty battery drain problems. That being said, I did narrow down the source of the problem and got it to where it was supposed to be. I have a moto droid and it does seem to suck down battery a little faster but I believe the increased functionality and performance is worth it. Underclocking when not in use definitely helped to get more batt life out of my droid though.

 

[coltsbr]

Properly trained batteries are the best! Killed my Droid fascinate every night since I got it went from barely lasting 10 hours to me having to open 16 apps for 4 hours to kill it after 16 + hour day. You all should try it.

trust me it works!
i came from a storm 2 and now it lasts just as long

This is a very true statement. You should charge the battery full and let it drain all the way down a few times, the more the better. After that you will see a great improvment. I was lucky to get a day out the first week I had it and now after conditioning the battery I take it off the charger at 5am and when I'm done for the day around 10pm I am never less that 40%. 17 hours is not bad with almost half the battery left. I don't have a lot of apps running but do text a lot and and on facebook and going through my emails all day.

 

[joebob2000]

This is a very true statement. You should charge the battery full and let it drain all the way down a few times, the more the better. After that you will see a great improvment. I was lucky to get a day out the first week I had it and now after conditioning the battery I take it off the charger at 5am and when I'm done for the day around 10pm I am never less that 40%. 17 hours is not bad with almost half the battery left. I don't have a lot of apps running but do text a lot and and on facebook and going through my emails all day.

Ah, er, this is generally NOT TRUE AT ALL for lithium-ion or lithium-polymer batteries. The deeper the cycle (the lower you drain the voltage), the less power the battery will store on every charge for the rest of its life. It's simple chemistry. You might find that the phone predicts the battery life better after a few deep discharges, but only if you want the battery to be completely toast after six months should you heed the advice "let it drain all the way down a few times, the more the better". If the phone isn't adjusted to your satisfaction after two full cycles, DO NOT keep trying to drain it thinking it will get better! You can and will permanently shorten its life.

 

[coltsbr]

Ah, er, this is generally NOT TRUE AT ALL for lithium-ion or lithium-polymer batteries. The deeper the cycle (the lower you drain the voltage), the less power the battery will store on every charge for the rest of its life. It's simple chemistry. You might find that the phone predicts the battery life better after a few deep discharges, but only if you want the battery to be completely toast after six months should you heed the advice "let it drain all the way down a few times, the more the better". If the phone isn't adjusted to your satisfaction after two full cycles, DO NOT keep trying to drain it thinking it will get better! You can and will permanently shorten its life.

I guess I never thought of that. I just do it 2 or 3 times and it always seems to work for me.

Thanks for the advice.

 

[egg_head]

Ah, er, this is generally NOT TRUE AT ALL for lithium-ion or lithium-polymer batteries. The deeper the cycle (the lower you drain the voltage), the less power the battery will store on every charge for the rest of its life. It's simple chemistry. You might find that the phone predicts the battery life better after a few deep discharges, but only if you want the battery to be completely toast after six months should you heed the advice "let it drain all the way down a few times, the more the better". If the phone isn't adjusted to your satisfaction after two full cycles, DO NOT keep trying to drain it thinking it will get better! You can and will permanently shorten its life.

I concur.
Everything credible article I've read about lithium ion/lithium ion polymer batteries indicates that you should charge it when its partially charged and avoid draining it.
Your charge should theoretically last longer when charged off a partial charge.

[tapatalk on android]

 

[joebob2000]

I concur.
Everything credible article I've read about lithium ion/lithium ion polymer batteries indicates that you should charge it when its partially charged and avoid draining it.
Your charge should theoretically last longer when charged off a partial charge.

[tapatalk on android]

That's a good practice; there is no demonstrable "memory effect" in any modern battery technology, lithium or otherwise. The things that will shorten the life the fastest are low-voltage discharges and overheating. It's kind of a paradox; if you train the phone to run longer on a single charge (by draining the battery and causing the phone's prediction algorithm to flatten the curve) you will ultimately shorten how long the battery's usable life will be. If you are comfortable with spending $30 for a new battery in 6 months vs in 12 or 18 months, you can trade that for an hour or two of runtime per charge in the meantime. Like any personal habit, it's about what works best for you.

 

[jack22182]

Thanks for all the tips. Today I'm going to try to use the phone normally with no interim charges and just see how long it lasts under normal use.

Jack

 

[nerddrew]

I've had the phone for 5 days now ( I came from a Storm 1). After the first two days, I wanted to return it because of this battery life issue. It's my work phone so I've got exchange sync running all the time, I'm on it constantly for calls, etc. After reading a couple of threads here I did the following:
- Either turned off all auto updates on my widgets, or increased the update time. (1 hour for FB, stocks and AP news).
- I changed all my backgrounds to black (txt, email, etc).
- Turned off auto brightness. Even at the lowest brightness setting, I feel like I can get a tan from this thing.
- turned off google's GPS location, since it says it will continue to send location info even while you aren't using maps.
- I added "active applications" to my home screen to make sure I always know what's running.
With these changes I have definitely noticed an improvement, but any other suggestions are welcome.

Love this forum, btw. An active community about the phone has been awesome.

 

[glennp]

We have 2 fascinates and the battery life between the two are quite different. I have to charge at least once a day. My wife can go almost 2 days between charges. I asked her if she even used her phone and she said she does text msgs, a few calls and maybe some surfing on the web pus she checks her email and calendar. I do use my phone quite a bit more than she does but I didn't think that much more.

 

[skimore2020]

I came from the Tour/Storm2/Droid1. With the BB's I could get almost 3 days between charges. The D1 on the other hand sucked. I could honestly let it sit on my desk and not use it all day, with auto-updates turned off, and my battery would be dead after 8 hours of work. Just plain horrible.

My Fascinate is somewhat better. I can get a little over 1 full day on a charge with auto-updates on. I can't wait until science can create a week-long battery for smartphones.