EB13 and battery life

[alestin]

On Eclair, I always had WiFi and GPS turned on, and I had great battery life.
After upgrading to EB13 Froyo, I noticed my battery life took a nose dive overnight when it was just idle. During the day, I didn't notice much difference.

First night, it went from 85% down to 40% overnight.
Second night, it was at 49%, and in the morning the phone had shut off.
Typically on Eclair, it would drain about 10% overnight if not charging.

Playing with many settings, and experimenting, I think I finally found the culprint - GPS.

When I turned off the GPS, battery life seems to return to my normal status.

With Eclair, leaving GPS on had no effect on battery life unless app were using it. But with Froyo, it seems GPS is constantly draining the battery. Perhpas it's seeking the signal which cannot find in the middle of my home.

So perhaps others with awful battery life can turn off GPS (if it was ON) and then see if that improves the batter life in general.

 

[stormglove]

Just thought I'd share my battery usage as I have been trying for months to get a good day out of my epic.

I'm using EB13 with midNIGHT rom 4.1 (standard edition) w/genocide kernal and TER mini theme 1.8.

I have unistalled the DRM files so I don't worry about turning them off. I still do have to toggle airplane mode, but here's what I got just today which has made me fall even more in love with my epic.

23 h and 32 min since charge (3% bat left)

4 hrs 10 min screen on (mostly playing games like euchre and bubble blast but also some internet usage and words with friends).

Wi-Fi on 17 hrs (mostly at home so used it all the time when I left I would turn it off as well as data services as I don't feel the need to be getting all the updates for the hour or two i wasn't at home.)

35 min voice calls and I had probably 30ish txts.

Overall I am extremely happy to have been able to get not only a full day but also a night. This is my second run using this setup and the first had about the same results on bat. I'm pretty much a noob at this whole rooting and flashing and just wanted to thank the AC nation as it has allowed me to use my phone to it's full potential. If you're scared to root and use roms just search around the forums, becuase there's a wealth of knowledge out there, from some awesome people, to help get you through it.

 

[mouseglider]

My battery life has always been good (it really depends on how you use it) - it is hard to compare your results against others though, as everyone uses their phone differently.

With that being said, my 4th day or so after my EB13 update via Samsung update.zip for Mac's (I own a PC, but I thought I would do the quick and easy way), I so far got 1day 5h 29m 14s with 28% left and under the same use my DI18 the stats were about 1day 2h 00m 00s with 25% left - so for me, EB13 lasts a little longer.

I also "never turn off my gps" and "never turn off my wifi - I have my wifi to never go to sleep in advanced settings" - I also have my screen and keyboard set to 1 min, which 50% of the time I will turn off before the timed 1 min sets in and the other 50% I just let it shut off by itself.

I do not shut functions off like wifi, gps, etc., I like to have access to my wifi or other functions I use on all the time without having to manually turn something on to use it or off to try and save battery - it kind of defeats the purpose in my opinion.

I do keep my widgets to a minimum though, I use LP and have 7 screens loaded and I have 12 total widgets running.

I do use my phone more as a computer/texting/web surfing than say a phone or for game playing - not to say that I don't play Angry birds every once in a while.

So far with the exception of the camera/video bug - I like EB13, but my DI18 was perfect! BTW DI18 and EB13 are both stock and are setup identically, the only thing that both are diffiferent than from completely stock are, that both are rooted only.

 

[Paul627g]

@mouseglider if your rooted you can flash a fix for the camera fc bug and the video lag..

xda developers (Camera fc fix & video lag) kernel for stock EB13- rooted.

 

[mouseglider]

Paul627g,

Thanks for the link, I have read about that before and was going to apply the patch, but since I am not familiar with Odin (I did watch a youtube video on how to use it last night), I didn't want to glitch my phone out, as I use it daily (almost 12x7) and try not to have any down time.

With that being said, I thought I read somewhere that doing the patch might not allow a smooth official EB13 update fix if they ever put it out? Anyways I can live with that bug for a while, and will probably patch the bug if I hear there is going to be no more Official updates by Sprint/Samsung.

What I would like to know but haven't found yet, is a fix for the slow gallary refresh (cache'ing?)

 

[garapueto]

Does anyone know if it is still necessary/recommended to put the phone in airplane mode for about 15 seconds after turning it on. Another forum said airplane mode eliminated the false signal searches that were killing the battery in 2.1. I used to do it and my battery could last for 2 days with light use (I turned it off at 7pm and back on at 7:30am. No more than 2 hrs of calls each day.) Just wondering if I needed to keep using airplane mode first.

I am finding that after reboot, I am still having to do this, too. Since I'm used to it already it's no big deal to me. I went a full week after my manual updated before I learned I still needed to do so.

 

[bender29]

Just thought I'd share my battery usage as I have been trying for months to get a good day out of my epic.

I'm using EB13 with midNIGHT rom 4.1 (standard edition) w/genocide kernal and TER mini theme 1.8.

...

4 hrs 10 min screen on (mostly playing games like euchre and bubble blast but also some internet usage and words with friends).

WOW! 4 hours display-on time! I would love to have that.

On DI18, I could get about 2.5 hours display time before hitting the <15% mark.

I haven't done real test with EB13 yet, but the numbers seems much lower.

For me, display time always seems to dominate battery usage - so all the stats about how "my phone lasts 18 hours" isn't useful as a comparison without display time stats. I mean, I bought this as a powerful smartphone that I'd be using in various aspects of my life, not as a cellphone-featurephone where standby time would be more of a concern.

 

[mcp6530]

WOW! 4 hours display-on time! I would love to have that.

On DI18, I could get about 2.5 hours display time before hitting the <15% mark.

I haven't done real test with EB13 yet, but the numbers seems much lower.

For me, display time always seems to dominate battery usage - so all the stats about how "my phone lasts 18 hours" isn't useful as a comparison without display time stats. I mean, I bought this as a powerful smartphone that I'd be using in various aspects of my life, not as a cellphone-featurephone where standby time would be more of a concern.

amen to that - so tired of reading about how long phones last without real figures! I can only get 2 - 3 hours at the most of display usage - if i keep my phone screen off overnight and sleep late, the thing will last 24-30 hours...but if i use it all day long, then 8-10 hours is it b/c of the screen being on 2 to 3 hours of it! I wish everyone would talk about display time.