Battery Life sucks

[venk25]

I bought a Marquee recently and the battery life sucked. I got it replaced and the second one is no different.

I typically take the phone off of charger around 8 AM. I'd browse for maybe 15 mins (news, facebook etc.), make a couple calls on my 30-minute commute to work. And then, maybe a couple short calls while at work. By noon, it'd be almost dead. I connect it to charger for a couple hours at work and after I make a couple calls on my commute back home, it's almost dead again. And it takes a loooong time to charge. What someone quoted earlier "it drains faster than it charges" is absolutely true.

Sprint says I can get it replaced again. I seriously doubt I got two brand-new lemons and doubt another Marquee is going to be different.

These are my typical settings.

Bluetooth off
WiFi off
GPS off
Brightness - never more than 10%
Background data - on. I want to use my "smartphone" atleast for this.

I had a LG Optimus before this, with same set of apps and exact same environment (home & work locations, talking & browsing habits etc.), but with WiFi & GPS on always. It'd last me at least for 24 hours, or longer if I call less.

I've read the thread on http://forums.androidcentral.com/sp...improve-your-battery-life-responsiveness.html.

I also read http://forums.androidcentral.com/sprint-lg-marquee/138138-cell-standby-battery-drain.html. Could it be the CDMA radio issue in my geography?

If I don't find a way to fix it, I'd have no choice but to return it before my 30 day period (BestBuy) and go back to my sweet old Optimus.

 

[nosajsam]

I am getting what I consider great Battery life w/ mine (18+ hours). Definitely could be a Radio issue. It seems that something else is possibly is running in the background OR you could have a defective charger.

Are you using the stock charger?? If not, this could have an effect here. Try downloading the Battery Monitor Widget from the market.

What other apps have you installed?

 

[Mes3]

Idk about charging slow. On any 4.8v charger that works (aka: grounds the phone correctly) I get 1% a min. Seems pretty decent to me.

 

[venk25]

Thanks for the replies.

... It seems that something else is possibly is running in the background OR you could have a defective charger.

Are you using the stock charger?? If not, this could have an effect here. Try downloading the Battery Monitor Widget from the market.

What other apps have you installed?

Well, on the Marquee, I have the same set of apps that I had on my LG Optimus. Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Facebook and Skype are the only constantly-on and/or data consuming apps I can think of. Default settings on all these apps.

I've had custom ROMs on the Optimus always (sROM last). Maybe that helped with battery life on Optimus.

I don't know what bloatwares come with Marquee. With custom ROMs yet to be created, are there any bloatwares that are worth freezing with Titanium backup? I don't have Titanium backup yet (haven't root'd yet).

Charger - I was using the Optimus charger (700ma) and a bluetooth headset charger (probably lesser ma). I now started using Marquee charger. Battery fully charges in about 3 hours.

I installed Battery Monitor Widget and also bought JuiceDefender Ultimate. I fully customized JuiceDefender (took a while to understand all options and configure ) and was able to almost get through each weekend days (with overnight charging). Will know better once I get into weekly routine. JuiceDefender claims approx 1.85x battery life improvement. BTW, JuiceDefender is an awesome app

One thing that still annoys me is that I have to go through hoops to get barely acceptable battery life - which I didn't have to with my Optimus or Droid X (other line).

Idk about charging slow. On any 4.8v charger that works (aka: grounds the phone correctly) I get 1% a min. Seems pretty decent to me.

1% per min = 0-100% charge in 1.6 hrs !! What are these 4.8v chargers and is the stock Marquee charger a 4.8v? If not, where to get one (just to know ...)?

 

[nosajsam]

Well, on the Marquee, I have the same set of apps that I had on my LG Optimus. Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Facebook and Skype are the only constantly-on and/or data consuming apps I can think of. Default settings on all these apps.

well, any of the above could also be a factor here...especially if you have them set to constantly on

I don't know what bloatwares come with Marquee. With custom ROMs yet to be created, are there any bloatwares that are worth freezing with Titanium backup? I don't have Titanium backup yet (haven't root'd yet).

None that I have found or had to stop w/ Titanium Backup.....in fact I uninstalled this app as I felt it wasn't needed on this phone & didn't make a difference (for me).

Charger - I was using the Optimus charger (700ma) and a bluetooth headset charger (probably lesser ma).

This is definitely part of the problem as well...especially with your charging time. It seems like you have fixed that problem by using the stock charger.

btw...check out this thread
http://forums.androidcentral.com/sprint-lg-marquee/138598-lg-marquee-ac-usb-charging-you.html

I installed Battery Monitor Widget after reading the link I posted above (thx Akumax!) & found that some of my chargers & cables were not working well with this phone. Once I determined which ones worked best, I uninstalled the app.

I installed Battery Monitor Widget and also bought JuiceDefender Ultimate. I fully customized JuiceDefender (took a while to understand all options and configure ) and was able to almost get through each weekend days (with overnight charging). Will know better once I get into weekly routine. JuiceDefender claims approx 1.85x battery life improvement. BTW, JuiceDefender is an awesome app

Yes, both apps are great & do their job well. Before I installed Juice Defender I was getting a consistent 18-22 hours battery life & didn't see much improvement after I installed it....so I took it off.

One thing that still annoys me is that I have to go through hoops to get barely acceptable battery life - which I didn't have to with my Optimus or Droid X (other line).

Every phone is different & needs a bit of tweaking to perform better. I mean just a few simple tweaks can get you decent battery life on this phone....it seems by simply using the stock charger & installing a few apps you have much better battery life now.

 

[ndno]

Just got my phone yesterday. Very nice display!!! It felt sluggish the first time or couple times when it was setting up. After I created an account and let the market do its thing, everything felt smooth again. I did switch to LauncherPro Plus which is a lot smoother than the stock launcher. Did a data speedtest and got 700Kbps-1.3Mbps download and 500-700kbps upload, pretty nice considering it's only 3G.
So far so good but battery does seem to drain fast. I installed Juice Defender and a task killer to kill background tests. Has anyone tried rooting this phone and removing some of the Sprint bloatware? I think the bloatware is probably making the phone a little sluggish and probably draining more battery than it show. I'm too afraid to try because there is no way (that I know of) to back up the stock software and recovering if I mess up. I can't wait for a CyanogenMod ROM for this... I sure hope so this gets one, please!

 

[farfromuman]

Just got my phone yesterday. Very nice display!!! It felt sluggish the first time or couple times when it was setting up. After I created an account and let the market do its thing, everything felt smooth again. I did switch to LauncherPro Plus which is a lot smoother than the stock launcher. Did a data speedtest and got 700Kbps-1.3Mbps download and 500-700kbps upload, pretty nice considering it's only 3G.
So far so good but battery does seem to drain fast. I installed Juice Defender and a task killer to kill background tests. Has anyone tried rooting this phone and removing some of the Sprint bloatware? I think the bloatware is probably making the phone a little sluggish and probably draining more battery than it show. I'm too afraid to try because there is no way (that I know of) to back up the stock software and recovering if I mess up. I can't wait for a CyanogenMod ROM for this... I sure hope so this gets one, please!

My battery drains twice as fast when I am at work, probably because of lower signal and more exchange use. I also notice the "Awake" time is usually above 50% and corresponds to the increased battery drain.

There is no need to delete anything just freeze the apps with Titanium or command line.
On my phone I froze SmartShare, SprintID, SprintZone, SprintMobile Wallet, Email (I use EE), BluetoothShare services (BT still works fine with my car and my home receiver), Update Device and some other apps that for some reason like to run as services when they clearly don't have to. Usually those services do not consume any CPU cycles but they are always resident in the memory and prevent other applications that I might actually use from being stored in RAM.

 

[ndno]

My battery drains twice as fast when I am at work, probably because of lower signal and more exchange use. I also notice the "Awake" time is usually above 50% and corresponds to the increased battery drain.

There is no need to delete anything just freeze the apps with Titanium or command line.
On my phone I froze SmartShare, SprintID, SprintZone, SprintMobile Wallet, Email (I use EE), BluetoothShare services (BT still works fine with my car and my home receiver), Update Device and some other apps that for some reason like to run as services when they clearly don't have to. Usually those services do not consume any CPU cycles but they are always resident in the memory and prevent other applications that I might actually use from being stored in RAM.

Thanks for the Titanium tip!!! I'm going to freeze Google Maps. It keep relaunching even though I disable GPS and location service. I searched on the web and ppl said to log out of Latitude; I did that and Google Maps still launches. I don't use GPS much so unless I use Google Maps for something, which is not very often. This phone needs an efficient ROM!!! It can sure use some tweaks! The browser is SO SLOW and SLUGGISH. I installed Dophin Mini and use it instead.

 

[Mes3]

I have the Mugen 1800mah direct replacement coming tomorrow. I see about 15-18 hours as is now, but would love to get 20+. Hopefully this battery will help. If not, never hurts to have an extra!

 

[ndno]

My battery drains twice as fast when I am at work, probably because of lower signal and more exchange use. I also notice the "Awake" time is usually above 50% and corresponds to the increased battery drain.

There is no need to delete anything just freeze the apps with Titanium or command line.
On my phone I froze SmartShare, SprintID, SprintZone, SprintMobile Wallet, Email (I use EE), BluetoothShare services (BT still works fine with my car and my home receiver), Update Device and some other apps that for some reason like to run as services when they clearly don't have to. Usually those services do not consume any CPU cycles but they are always resident in the memory and prevent other applications that I might actually use from being stored in RAM.

Hi farfromuman, can freezing with Titanium be done without rooting the phone first? I'm hesitant to root my phone because there seems to be no reliable method to recover to original stock software. I'll seen several people already messing up their phones in the rooting thread. I just got this phone from BestBuy (it's $0!!!) but I want to get full insurance protection before I do anything that can potentially brick it. By the way, I'm on SERO Premium

 

[farfromuman]

Hi farfromuman, can freezing with Titanium be done without rooting the phone first? I'm hesitant to root my phone because there seems to be no reliable method to recover to original stock software. I'll seen several people already messing up their phones in the rooting thread. I just got this phone from BestBuy (it's $0!!!) but I want to get full insurance protection before I do anything that can potentially brick it. By the way, I'm on SERO Premium

You will have to root to be able to freeze, the software issues a command that requires root.

 

[goducks3620]

I rooted mine and use Autostarts to disable some programs from starting up when I boot it, including the Sprint programs. Not sure if it helps with battery but it's one less thing to task the processor.

 

[nosajsam]

I'll seen several people already messing up their phones in the rooting thread.

several people are messing up their phones because they are not following the instructions &/or reading through these forums.....Rooting & UnRooting this phone is VERY easy if you follow the instructions I posted in the other forum & also again below

How to Root.
Try these drivers here: (thx again to tcaudill01)

LG USB drivers here: LGUnitedMobileDriver_S4981MAN32AP22_ML_WHQL_Ver_3. 2.1_2.exe

Your device must be in USB Debugging mode. To turn it on, go to Settings > Applications > Development and check the box. Note that you can only select this while the phone is unplugged.

After installing the USB drivers connect the phone to the PC.
Pull down the notification bar at the top of the phones screen and click on USB Connected.
Set the phone to Internet Connection mode (CHARGE ONLY not Mass Storage).

Download LG_Esteem_Root.zip

Unpack and open run.bat

How to Unroot
Use root explorer and delete superuser.apk from the /system/app folder. Go to the Android market and download and install super user. Use root explorer again and delete su from /system/bin. Go to the market and uninstall super user.

Do a factory reset & you will be back to square one.

 

[ndno]

Thanks nosajsam!

EDIT: I just called and added the $8/mo Total Protection Insurance just in case I mess up my phone. I'm ready to hack this sucker.

 

[KMfiremedic111]

This is what I have done and I get a full day of use out of my phone. Calls, Text, Web, etc. I charge my phone every night. At night take your phone out of wifi. Plug your phone in. Let it fully charge to where it says "Charged". Keep it plugged in and turn off the phone. Let it charge longer until you see the battery icon turn fully green. About 20-30 minutes. Still keeping your phone plugged in turn it back on and let it boot up. Once booted then unplug the phone. Do this each and every day and you will get fantastic battery life from your phone.

**This is assuming you have the best battery saving settings set on your phone already. About mine:
Screen is only about 27%. Set to go off at 30 seconds, no auto syncing of apps and no auto updating of apps. No live wallpaper, no hepatic feedback, no sound on keypress, no GPS on, wifi set to go to sleep when screen is off.

 

[kotrile]

Curious if anyone tried the extended batteries (1800 and 3900mA versions). What were the results? I'm thinking of getting the 1800 version so that I don't have to get a special back cover. Any info would be appreciated.

 

[ChampN252]

I get about 9 hours on a single charge. I'm wanting to over and under clock my phone, but I don't want to be a Guinea pig

 

[ChampN252]

I just show the dual layer batteries too and i'm really interested in those. Mugen for $100 and another one on Amazon for $40 I think