Better battery life guide/help (How long does your battery last?)

[ericdives]

You might have a rogue app installed (not a "bad" app, just one that keeps your phone awake). Are you sure you have the D18 update installed?

 

[jerseykat1]

how would I check to see if I have d18 installed. I am pretty sure I have all updates. I did the check in "about phone" and it said all is up to date.

Ok I just cbecked and I do have the di18 build installed.

How do I go about hunting down a rogue application?

Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

 

[ericdives]

First go through the process of powering your phone off and then back on. See if that improves things over a day or so.

Then, for rogue apps, uninstall an app you might suspect (may want to power cycle after doing so).

D18: Go "Home" - "Menu" - "Settings" - "About phone" and scroll down - look at "Baseband version" and "Build number". Both should end in "D18".

 

[jerseykat1]

My build numbers end in DI18 not D18. Did you mean di18 or do I have the wrong build? Baseband and build both say the same.

Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

 

[williest311]

Is there a reason that media hub starts back up after a phone call or facebook sync?

 

[jerseykat1]

Ok I am not sure if this is old news or not. But I made a battery life discovery (I think).

I turned 4g off last night and left my phone off the charger starting with 91% and 7 hours later it only drained down to 83% wich is just a little over 1% per hour which I believe to be what a normal drain should be when the phone is locked.

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[ericdives]

I turned 4g off last night ...

Yes, 4G takes up a lot of power - more if it's not actually connected.

It's been recommended for some time now that you turn off GPS, 4G, and Bluetooth if you're not actively using them.

WiFi is fine to keep on *if* you're on a WiFi network. If you're not, turn it off - it will continually burn battery life attempting to connect while your 3G also takes some battery life being connected.

And yes, my bad, it's DI18.

 

[jimmyz]

Yes, 4G takes up a lot of power - more if it's not actually connected.

It's been recommended for some time now that you turn off GPS, 4G, and Bluetooth if you're not actively using them.

WiFi is fine to keep on *if* you're on a WiFi network. If you're not, turn it off - it will continually burn battery life attempting to connect while your 3G also takes some battery life being connected.

And yes, my bad, it's DI18.

+1- I have found my best battery life is with wifi on and connected (I have it set to never sleep)- I'm assuming that 3g also uses quite a bit of battery on the epic

 

[ericdives]

3G's power draw, from what I understand, is minuscule when compared to 4G. I haven't done any hard and fast testing, but the difference in power draw between 3G and WiFi probably isn't quite as bad as the difference between 4G and 3G.

Your 3G power draw is heavily impacted by the quality of your signal, too; if you have a decent signal, it's probably not that big a deal when compared to WiFi (you'll get better battery life, but not vastly better). From all the reviews, 4G's power draw is huge even if you have a good signal.

 

[jerseykat1]

Ok so this has to be the main problem. I just went all day long without charging and I have 29% power left at 9pm est. I took my phone off the charger at 8am this morning. Not only is my battery life much better with 4g off but my gmails come in much more consistant than when I have 4g turned on. I am now geeting the type of battery life I have gotten used to on my blackberrys. I think I am going to keep the phone. I can simply turn 4g back on whe the need arises. I dnt have juice defender or anything special done to my phone. Drm turned off, 4g turned off, wifi turned off, and gps turned off. Ohh and I got rid of weather bug as it is pretty hard on the batteries. I have to find a better weather app/widget.

With 4g off I only loose 1% battery per hour when not in use.

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[jerseykat1]

Automatic task killer! This free app will turn your battery life from a zero to a hero. I did good on batteries yesterday but I installed automatic task killer this morning and well let's put it like this. 8am to 6:30pm and my battery is at 70%. This is with moderate use. My wife also has an epic and I installed this app on her phone this morning around the same time and she is around 65% battery life now but she used her phone more than I did today. The app is a little confusing to configure, but make sure you take the time to figure it out or it will close things up on you while you are using it. Good luck.

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[Aero]

Yes, 4G takes up a lot of power - more if it's not actually connected.
It's been recommended for some time now that you turn off GPS, 4G, and Bluetooth if you're not actively using them.
WiFi is fine to keep on *if* you're on a WiFi network. If you're not, turn it off - it will continually burn battery life attempting to connect while your 3G also takes some battery life being connected.
And yes, my bad, it's DI18.

I don't knwo who is recommending it but it isn't very studied. leaving gps enabled when locations ervices are not attempting location doesn't use any battery, I have run tests.
4G also is not the issue people think it is, it just depends.

the real battery killers on epic are the drm service, and it actual voice connection which you can see clearly with the searching for signal reports.

 

[jvoegele]

the real battery killers on epic are the drm service, and it actual voice connection which you can see clearly with the searching for signal reports.

Can you explain what you mean by "the searching for signal reports"?

 

[ragnarokx]

Can you explain what you mean by "the searching for signal reports"?

From your home screen hit the menu button, then go to Settings>About phone>Battery use. You will see "Cell standby". If you click it, it will say "Time on" and then under that, if your phone has been searching for signal, it will say "Time without a signal". If this value is ~50%, then it is killing your battery and you need to toggle Airplane Mode on and then off. It's a strange fix, but it's all we have until this bug is fixed.

 

[jerseykat1]

I am going to run a 4g test today and see how it fairs. Yesterday with light usage at 10p I had about 70% battery life left. Toda I will use the phone lightly as I do most days that I am home and see how the battery fairs with 4g turned on. I'm too concerned about testing gps. That guy is probably correct if no apps are using the gps radio I can't see why it would drain power. I will report back tonite or in the morning.

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[shaunpeezy]

I am going to run a 4g test today and see how it fairs. Yesterday with light usage at 10p I had about 70% battery life left. Toda I will use the phone lightly as I do most days that I am home and see how the battery fairs with 4g turned on. I'm too concerned about testing gps. That guy is probably correct if no apps are using the gps radio I can't see why it would drain power. I will report back tonite or in the morning.

Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

i leave my gps on all the time and it doesnt kill my battery at alll. at least not that i noticed. and i could easily get through a day with fairly heavy use.

i browse the internet a lot and stream music via last fm. probably 50 txts total. maybe 10 minutes of talk time max. play angry birds for 30 mins to an hr some days. and i dont see any problems with my battery

 

[pcdebb]

After supposedly fully charging my phone, it beeps, and a message states I'm fully charged and to unplug phone. the battery in the status area looks full, but my battery widget sometimes says anywhere from 98~96% the INSTANT I unplug the phone. I verify this number with the info code being dialed. sometimes I will leave it plugged in just to try and "fill it up".

I've removed bloatware from the phone, but I do have apps that still run without me doing it so I ATK them (I do not leave ATK running). 4G is off, wifi is on (uses home network), GPS is off until needed. I've been making it to about 25% left at the end of the day usually, but today was a heavy day, needed a quick boost and now at 37%.

I'm on my second battery.

 

[ragnarokx]

After supposedly fully charging my phone, it beeps, and a message states I'm fully charged and to unplug phone. the battery in the status area looks full, but my battery widget sometimes says anywhere from 98~96% the INSTANT I unplug the phone. I verify this number with the info code being dialed. sometimes I will leave it plugged in just to try and "fill it up".

Once it gives the fully charged beep, try unplugging it, turning it off, and then plugging it back in. Let it charge while turned off until it says the battery is full again. That usually gets me to 100% or at least a few % higher than normal.

 

[jerseykat1]

Ok it is not quite the end of the day for me, however I have come to the conclusion that 4g does indeed kill the battery faster. While my battery life is much better than what is was straight out of the box with 4g on, it is not as good as it is with 4g off. Yesterday at the end of the day I believe I had 70% left and that was late, while today it is only 7:46pm and as I type the low battery waring just popped up. The usage today and yesterday is very close to the same. I am sure there is a difference in usage but not enough to warrant such a big difference.

So according to my 2 day test with all conditions being identical except for the fact that 4g is left on during the second day. It would appear that 4g is indeed a battery killer. Leave it off unless your doing some web surfing.

The gps, I don't think I am going to test it because I don't ever use it, and if I feel the urge to use it, its not too dificult to turn back on.

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[remipmc]

i get about 12-14 hours moderate use. i usually check for DRM in the morning and kill it. I never do the airplane mode trick, but i will try doing that more often to see if can squeeze more juice of this thing. i usually plug in when it hit 10% or less, which is anywhere from 10-12hrs.