Battery life when no service available; dead in 6hrs

[211]

I realized within the first week of owning this Sensation that the battery life is terrible, but over the last few days I've been helping a buddy tear the roof off his house. He lives in an area that just 'barely' doesn't get reception. Meaning, drive away from his house 50 yards and you're good, once in his driveway, nothing. So during the day I leave my phone in the car. Every day after working (6hrs max) my phone is dead; like DEAD, dead. Drained so far down it shuts the phone off and will not turn back on until it sits on the charger for at least 5 minutes or so.
Each moring I show up with a full charge (charging the whole night on AC power).

I realize the phone might be trying to find a signal and this is why it's draining the battery so fast but, c'mon! Less than 6hrs and it's dead? It's quite annyong to remember put it into Airplane mode every time I enter an area with no reception.

I hate to bring up the iPhone (the only other smartphone I've owned...) but I'd go into dead spots all the time, for days camping or hiking and it didn't care. I would't have to throw it on a charger till I got home.

 

[junglejunkie]

Turn on airplane mode if you are in a no service area for an extended period of time.

 

[HeyBob]

I had the same problem...in my house!

T best thing to do is to complain to T-Mobile... let them know their network has holes in areas you need it... let them feel the pain.

The second best thing I did was to enable WiFi calling when on a WiFi network... this kept the phone from looking for a GSM signal and significantly conserves battery.


As for turning the phone to airplane mode... that's only good when you know you're going into an area with no reception. It's too bad HTC or T-Mobile or App Developer couldn't do something with power management when there is no signal.

 

[211]

What does turning your phone on airplane mode do?

It disables all wifi and radio signals so while it's in airplane mode it's not actively searching for signals which is a large battery drain. That also means incoming phone calls and txt messages don't go through.

But as HeyBob mentioned, that's not ideal at all times because that requires you to "know" you're going into a permanent dead zone and actively turn on the airplane mode.
Sometimes service is just spotty and I don't want to kill my radio service.

It's just poor battery managment...

 

[HeyBob]

It disables all wifi and radio signals so while it's in airplane mode it's not actively searching for signals which is a large battery drain. That also means incoming phone calls and txt messages don't go through.

But as HeyBob mentioned, that's not ideal at all times because that requires you to "know" you're going into a permanent dead zone and actively turn on the airplane mode.
Sometimes service is just spotty and I don't want to kill my radio service.

It's just poor battery managment...

.... and call 611 on your phone and complain to T-Mobile about a dead zone or spotty coverage. Let them know that your problem is their problem.