Extended Battery/ Getting better battery life?

[Eollie]

Im sorry BGT we are just going to have to agree to disagree regarding the native task killer.

The first thing I read while I was waiting on my Droid X was never ever ever ever use advanced task killer to kill apps or freeze unwanted apps that you cant uninstall. This was from multiple rom devs and themers.


Your link is almost a year old, the android system has changed a great deal. I do know pretty much anytime I back out of a app it shuts down. Like I said there are some that keep processes running to check email, sms, and for updates. But for the most part backing out of a app shuts it down.

By killing the app outright you in turn cause more battery to be used when you restart it later. So you are being counter productive and wasting battery.

Task killers created before the os started including one. So many people were use to them and instead of trying the built in one they just continue to blindly use them. You mention killing off where...IIRC you are rooted and probably using TB, did you know you can freeze where and it will not start back up again until unfrozen? Therefore negating the need for the auto kill of atk.

 

[Bigtuna00]

...

This isn't productive, so I'm going to bow out. Good luck!

 

[Eollie]

The op was asking how to get some extra battery life.
Seeing as how he is using Zefies CM7 I would bet he has Titanium backup.
As most users here do. Therefore if you use the functions of TB to freeze apps you dont want to start ever and then utilize the native app manager there is no point in having ATK.

 

[Blastin]

no point in arguing, people are going to stick with ATK no matter what...

 

[mmarz]

I use a task killer to stop programs so that they don't run the way the developer wanted them to. Some of the apps like to stay on and "do things" for me. I don't see any harm in it.

 

[JerryScript]

I'm no expert on the inner workings of Android.

That being said, I started out using a task killer on my V. I fought with my V for a week trying to get the performance and battery life I saw others could get. I then stumbled upon several articles and threads regarding task killers and how they were not needed with Android. I uninstalled my task killer, and juice defender, and I saw an instant increase in both performance and battery life. This is my personal experience, I'm not saying it will be true for you!

It actually makes sense once you get a grip of how the system is working. If you leave an app in a semi-ready state, then it's initialization routines don't have to be processed the next time you use it, saving battery power each time you open it.

If you come home, and stay dressed, you can go back outside immediately, with no effort.
If you come home, and get undresssed, you will have to spend time and energy getting dressed again before you go back outside.
(nudist exempted from example of course )

If you're worried about an app doing something in the background that eats up your battery life, uninstall it, simple as that.

 

[mmarz]

Someone needs to make an app that unfreezes an app when you decide to run it, and then freezes it again once you close it. I don't care about the extra delay if it means I'll have more privacy and control. Having to uninstall a perfectly good app just because the developer decided that it should always be on kinda sucks.

 

[Eollie]

I uninstalled my task killer, and juice defender, and I saw an instant increase in both performance and battery life. This is my personal experience, I'm not saying it will be true for you!

It actually makes sense once you get a grip of how the system is working. If you leave an app in a semi-ready state, then it's initialization routines don't have to be processed the next time you use it, saving battery power each time you open it.

Jerry people that are holding onto ATK are just comfortable with it.
You will always see them complaining about battery life and cant understand why they cant get more than 6 hrs battery out of a full charge.

The whole reason ATK was created was because the early versions of android didnt have a way to kill running apps at all. And it was needed to help conserve battery. When 2.1 came out it had a built in app killer that negated the need for a third party app. So to keep making some cash off the community the dev started adding more things that had appeal. If you already had bought it you were given them in updates. What many people dont realize is these functions are just copied from other apps and just there to get your hard earned cash.

Ive seen people list there fav apps and when I see ATK and Titanium Backup I just shake my head in disbelief. Both apps have some of the same functions and people think they need them both. Its like I said the native app killer can be put on the home screen and combine it with Titanium Backup you have ATK plus a awesome backup app.

 

[zires]

Hey,

I think BGT's runtime is a bit unbelievable too.

 

[Eollie]

I'm a long time user of Advanced Taskiller (FREE). I just prefer the UI of it over the stock app manager.

I can understand liking a more polished UI.
All my point is people will post they use ATK and really what they are doing is essentially killing their battery by constantly killing off apps that is not necessary. Then you realize they are also using something like TB to make backups and whatnot. TB is a awesome product, it was recommended so heavily by people when I got my DX. I went ahead and got the paid version and havent regretted it ever. I have it set to make a backup every 18 hrs. I have yet to lose progress in any games when Ive flashed a new rom or had to restore a nana-backup.

I just wish people would realize ATK isnt saving you as much battery as you think. It really is costing you battery time. Because its a app that has to run at some point. If your looking to conserve battery just use the native one for a week you WILL notice a difference.

 

[Bigtuna00]

At this moment I have 81% battery, and 15h 1m 25s since unplugged, so I can't see at all how he can have ALL of the radios active and last 48h as I've already used about 20% with ALL radios primarily OFF in less than 24h

Maybe because turning radios on and off doesn't really make as much of a difference as every seems to think?

You've used 19% in 15 hours. That means you could easily stretch it to 75 hours for a full drain given this limited usage profile. Turn on all the radios, but keep the same activity level, and I think it's absolutely possible for it to decrease to 24-48 hours. I certainly didn't claim I could get 75 hours!

There's two issues here: how your usage affects battery life, and how bad configurations affect battery life. A poorly designed app absolutely will kill your battery within 6 hours. I've seen Google Talk do this on both the EVO and V. The only way to fix that (stock) is to make sure the app doesn't run.

No one else can tell you how your usage will affect the battery life. But I can say for *my* usage I'm getting 24-48 hours on a charge easily. Telling you what my usage is doesn't help you; yours will be different. But telling you what settings I'm using might (as I already did).

What I'm trying to point out is that the *first* thing you should be doing is eliminating known bad items. Badly performing apps (Talk, WHERE), the Time-Without-Signal bug, bad settings (Wifi sleep policy), poorly implemented ROMs; these things are not "normal" and should be eliminated. Then see where that leaves you. Now if you still need more battery life you can start worrying about things like turning radios on and off.

The OP is running a custom ROM that's already been demonstrated to have horrible idle battery consumption when compared to stock, and poor awake Wifi to boot:

http://forum.androidcentral.com/optimus-v/71693-optimizing-battery-drain-optimus-v.html

Should he waste time chasing his tail, turning things on and off, or address the real problem?

 

[mmarz]

Bigtuna00 is right about the radios. On or off they consume very little power unless they are being used. The CM7 roms are the only exception and that is when they use Wifi. My guess is the majority of battery issues are due to secret activity by apps that run in the background and constantly wake up your device. Apps that constantly need your location will use your radio and GPS. News and weather apps will download updates. Even if your screen is off, this activity could quickly drain your battery. So I guess if you do have apps like these, then turning the radios off would help, but the problem isn't with the mere fact that you have the radios on.

I'm working on a new set of data and tests that I'll release soon-ish. I'm going to do some download tests as well as other real world tests. I have much better equipment this time, and I'm going to condense the results into real world behavior. To make the tests fair, I'm gong to install the same apps on all of the roms.

BTW, I also leave my radios on, and I've gone 3.5 days without a charge.

If anyone wants to test this theory, uninstall everything from your phone besides the core system. Turn on 3G wifi GPS...whatever you'd like, and leave it in idle. You'll get at least a week out of it. (doesn't not apply to CM7 with wifi on)