Getting rid of my EVO tomorrow...Detailed post on why...

[xorbe]

Yeah, your Evo is dead in the morning, and hot in your pocket, because you are running some app that's not letting the phone sleep while the screen is off. (Why don't you let it sit on the charger at night?!)

I concur that the user shouldn't have to work so hard to squeeze out battery life, and that it's still taking me a while to adjust to the virtual keyboard. Though, there aren't any other phones I'd like to jump to at the moment. We'll see about that Samsung Galaxy S soon, I guess.

 

[Night Train]

It's now 10:49 pm and I just plugged in my EVO after some pretty heavy-duty use throughout the day. At one point, I was having multiple apps open, switching between making reservations for a flight in August and the calendar to make sure I had the dates right. That's after using it to listen to the music player for about 1/2 hour while eating lunch at a campground we visited this afternoon. Also did lots of Internet browsing again switching between several sites (love that Dolphin browser) and checking on scores on yet another open application (SportsTap).

That was before I turned on the 4G and the location radar and after using them forgot to turn them off for about 1/2 hour or so. That plus several phone calls, messages and emails. I had the brightness control on automatic. I'm sure I could have gotten more out of the battery had I kept is on a lower setting.

All things considered, I think the battery life is not too bad considering all the things this phone can do. Of course it could always be better, but I'm not complaining. It does help to know what you're doing and turn certain things off if you're not using them.

To the OP: See ya!

 

[KoukiFC3S]

Tmz app is junk. Good luck with your next phone.

 

[Grifter9931]

Well I switched from ATT where I had two lines, an Iphone 3GS and a Blackberry Bold 9000. I used my Bold for texting and phone calls and used my Iphone to browse the web, emails and get directions, both were fully functional except I did not have internet on the Berry.

I got my EVO on launch day and fell in love with the look of it, the screen size and quality, and how awesome youtube videos and all looked on it.

Now im starting to have a love hate relationship and am 80 percent sure I will be returning this tomorrow to get a Sprint Blackberry Bold 9650.

Why?

1.) Most importantly the battery life. Its horrible. Maybe I got a defective phone, Im not sure, but its not to the extreme where I have heard stories such as I charged it 100 percent, took it off charge, watched a youtube video and it was dead...its nothing like that at all...but its bad. My Bold had an amazing battery life and I could go two days of frequent usage without charging....the Iphone was usually gone after a full days use, but problem is, I cant even get a full days use of the EVO...Im lucky to get half a days use and with moderate usage.
Last night I charged it fully, took it off the charger at 10pm, sent a few texts, went to bed, woke up in the morning to a message my battery was lower then 15 percent remaining. And yes, I had a task killer running, and I shut the screen off and locked it.

2.) Texting. Plain and simple. I cannot get used to this stock keyboard. Gave up on that and tried Swype and Shapewriter, which are awesome and helped me alot, but I still cant text without looking where im scrolling, and I am not as efficient as I am with a Blackberry. Texting and calling are the two main functions of a phone and not getting a great texting experience for me was really driving me to switch.

3.) Running hot. The phone tends to run extremely hot, when doing things such as sitting in my pocket and locked. Maybe this is the issue causing my severe battery problems??

4.) Speed. I know this thing is running a snap dragon processor, but thats what really gets me. How can this thing be so slow and laggy packing such power? loading TMZ app and scrolling through this app you will see the lag there. Also lag can be found when typing using the keyboard, opening "people" and then clicking a person also create noticeable lag. Scrolling through your pictures and videos, selecting a picture to view, and then tapping to zoom, also very laggy.

Again, I wanted this phone to be all that I ever wanted, but it has failed to be that. I am not here trying to make Android look bad and say I support another platform. Certainly there will be those who say I am simply an "Apple fanboy" or a "Blackberry fanboy" The truth is I am not. I dont care which manufacturer puts out the best phone, but whoever does, thats what phone I will get. I have no allegiance and I think thats the best way to go.

So anyways I have talked to my friend and he has ordered me a Blackberry Bold 9650 and I will be swapping this out for them.

I just came from a 9650. Texting and battery life will be better. Phone quality and any kind of browsing will feel like you are in the stone age.
Good luck......

 

[ilivetowin]

Sorry I took so long to respond, I appreciate all the people who actually put in legit responses, not just "ohhh my battery rockzzaaa go andoridaaaa byyyeeeee op!" not an exact quote but you get the idea.

My post was not to bash Android at all, or to bash this phone, this was to let everyone know including people considering buying the phone some issues I personally had with it. One for instance the keyboard, I hated, my girlfriend however LOVED IT. So that is a personal preference.

The battery I do believe something is wrong with my phone after reading thru all your posts saying how good your battery is. Mine was awful worst I have had on a phone.

The sluggishness is there. People dont seem to want to admit it. Well in this post some did and attributed it to coding which I agree when Froyo is released many of these sluggishness problems may be fixed.

I am no new smartphone user or technologically impaired person either. I get bored of phones easily and often try alot of different phones. Heres some I have owned over the past two years:
Blackberry Curve 8310
Blackberry Curve 8900
Blackberry Bold 9000
Nokia Xpress Music Phone 5800
Iphone 3GS
EVO 4G
Blackberry Curve 8350

Of all of them my honest opinion was the Iphone was the best. Once it can ditch ATT, look out. Again that is my personal opinion. After that my favorite would be the Curve 8900.

In any case, After reading these posts I am convinced my EVO must be faulty due to the low battery performance. But overall I still have issues with the Keyboard which again, is a personal preference thing. Also going to a Blackberry I am well aware of its Internet limitations. I LOVED using the EVO to browse the web when I still had power left, especially checking out websites and seeing flash working on some...it was amazing.

I guess after two years of swapping phones in and out, Im actually just ready to settle on having a phone and not worrying about the extra features it may or may not bring. Plus I do not think 4G is all its cracked up to be, I have used 4G as I live in Philly and I do not notice much speed increases although I typically have 1 or 2 bars max of 4G coverage.

 

[bozman42]

Totally understand wanting to return it after your troubles, but I really suggest trying the hard reset for your battery, I know it doesn't make sense but I had the same exact problem with my phone.

I charged it up one evening and left it off the charger overnight (as a test) and when I woke it had approximately 15% battery left. I continued to deal with it for a week or so and finally broke down and did a hard reset yesterday. I charged it up yesterday evening, left it unplugged overnight, with WiFi on and only one bar of service on my nightstand and when I woke it still had 92% battery. In short, do the reset, you might be surprised!

 

[Raf]

Too bad you feel this way. Personally....and this goes for my wife as well, this phone is the shiznittlebambipbapsnap!

 

[auburnmk]

I hard-reset 5 days after purchasing and it helped my battery life immensely. I also did NOT re-install any task killer and my battery life improved. Something to consider and by no means do not want to hijack this thread with the task killer debate.

 

[flyawaymike]

1.) Most importantly the battery life. Its horrible. Maybe I got a defective phone, Im not sure, but its not to the extreme where I have heard stories such as I charged it 100 percent, took it off charge, watched a youtube video and it was dead...its nothing like that at all...but its bad. My Bold had an amazing battery life and I could go two days of frequent usage without charging....the Iphone was usually gone after a full days use, but problem is, I cant even get a full days use of the EVO...Im lucky to get half a days use and with moderate usage.
Last night I charged it fully, took it off the charger at 10pm, sent a few texts, went to bed, woke up in the morning to a message my battery was lower then 15 percent remaining. And yes, I had a task killer running, and I shut the screen off and locked it.

check to see if you're phone is constantly checking for a non-existant GSM signal.

change GSM auto prl to CDMA auto - Android Forums

turning that off made my phone run *much* longer

 

[flyawaymike]

if the samsung galaxy s pro has a bettera camera and louder volume with headphones im leaving also

guess you'll need a new username, eh?

 

[flyawaymike]

I hard-reset 5 days after purchasing and it helped my battery life immensely. I also did NOT re-install any task killer and my battery life improved. Something to consider and by no means do not want to hijack this thread with the task killer debate.

just wondering, as i've seen more than one mention of this about task killing apps being worse off to use - why is that?

 

[Ninjak]

Hmmm I came from a Pre. My Evo actually runs great. I have done the GSM to CDMA fix, (Phone was set to GSM btw) and I also did the battery green lite fix. (Which by the way only took 3 cycles. On to green Off to green, when I turned on again, 1 sec it was green)

I personally believe you have a faulty battery/phone. My phone has never ran hot..ever. My battery life is pretty decent imo...considering I have watched all of Alice in Wonderland, took phone calls, did emails, and basically showed off to Iphone guys/gals at work, and I still have 40% by the time I reach home. I also charge overnight. I always have. I have no clue why you would not with a smartphone...

Coming from the Pre which I still feel that Web-OS was good, just on crappy hardware and lacked dev support, I love my Evo. And yes I have used and setup crackberries and all other types of phones. This is my first Android phone and yes, colour me impressed. In the end though, get what works for you. If that is a crackberry, then so be it.

 

[Ninjak]

just wondering, as i've seen more than one mention of this about task killing apps being worse off to use - why is that?

Because from what I read, and experience for myself, is that the Evo/2.1 Android OS is smart enough to turn off what you are not using. I had the free task killer, and in truth I did not see a huge battery performance jump with it.

I did not see my battery improve until I switched off the GSM. That made the difference. Since that, I uninstalled my task killer and my phone is running fine. IMO, you do not need a task killer unless a app just hangs...and you can just use the native FC menu to kill the app.

 

[Mr. Berry]

I don't see how this stock keyboard is a problem, unless if you only text while driving.
My phone only heats up coz it's a HOT PHONE!! EEEEEWWW THIS PHONE IS HOT!!

 

[Ali Fazel]

Just to add my voice to the chorus, your task killer is what is eating your battery so bad. You've got an app that you use frequently that wants to run, and your task killer kills it. Then, because it still wants to run, it loads itself back up. While this is all happening, both your task killer and the app it's killing are keeping your phone from sleeping, thus draining your battery at an expedited rate.

Hope this helps you!

 

[AldousSnow]

Whether you need to use ATK or not, it all depends on if you need to terminate apps by yourself or by OS. I am not sure if there are any apps alive consume battery a lot. If you use ATK to kill some apps consume battery a lot, it might save your battery. But I have to say there isn't any app can save battery directly. Every app can consume resource and can consume battery. So I suggest you don't use ATK very often. According to google's investigation, 3g, wifi, internet, gps consume battery a lot. I suggest you turn off those kind of apps to see if your battery live a little longer.

Regards,
Rechild Support Team

 

[badbradd2]

I'm with the OP on this. I'm contemplating returning my Evo, but for the Droid X, but can't decide. Not sure I want to pay $10 more a month with Verizon...but what's $10 more a month for a phone with possible better battery and better service. Hmm....such a decision!

 

[VKitty]

Just to add my voice to the chorus, your task killer is what is eating your battery so bad. You've got an app that you use frequently that wants to run, and your task killer kills it. Then, because it still wants to run, it loads itself back up. While this is all happening, both your task killer and the app it's killing are keeping your phone from sleeping, thus draining your battery at an expedited rate.

Hope this helps you!

Right, so what do you do if its not killing them efficiently. Or if its not killing the ones you want to kill? For example it loads Sprint nav on start up, and if you use sprint nav, then close, it will still run in the background, and still drain your battery.

Not sure but the devs say that it closing apps is not a good way to work in a mobile environment.

We did not want to require that users close applications when "done" with them. Such a usage pattern does not work well in a mobile environment, where usage tends to involve repeated brief contact with a wide variety of applications throughout the day.

Some here say not to use Tasks Killers, others say if you dont use them it will extremely slow down your phone.

Others if you use a Task Killer you will kill your battery.


So, which is it?

 

[dragonsaints18]

My Battery Life is Fine...maybe a few suggestions.

I have seen a lot of complaints concerning battery life of the EVO. I had the same problem the first day I got the phone. Mine is running beautifully now. I'm not sure what change helped the most, but here are a few things that helped.
-If you are not in a 4g area, make sure 4g is off. I keep the 4G, Mobile, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Hotspot and GPS widgets(the small ones) on a favorites page. For me this allows me to keep the phone running the most efficient. When I am home, I turn on wi-fi (if you have it) and shut mobile internet off completely. I also turn off GPS and Bluetooth.
When I am out, I turn off WIFI and turn on 3g Mobile (not 4g unless you are in a 4g area).
I think that the issues with the phone, which will be included in some upcoming fixes (supposed to be), is that the phone continuously tries to access whatever features you have turned on. For instance, if you are not in a 4g area yet 4g is on, your phone is burning up battery life by trying to access the non-existent 4g. Goes the same for any other features or programs.
-The task manager/task killer app that I use is from the Android Market designed by Apollo. I have tested a few, but this one seems to do the job the best for my needs. Just remember that some downloaded apps, such as live wallpapers will be killed when the phone is idle. You can ignore the apps that you do not want killed by touching the icon and holding it a few seconds in the kill list. This is the list that pops up for you to select what apps you want to kill. Most programs that are needed will restart automatically if they are killed accidentally. I also noticed that this task manager/killer works great when your phone goes in sleep mode.
*Just as a note, I charged my battery to a full charge last night and took it off the charger. I unlocked it from sleep mode this morning and still had a full charge. I had no problem getting a full days use out of the phone, even with heavy internet and app usage.

I hope this helps your battery life. If you continue to have problems, feel free to shoot me a message. I will do my best to compare phone settings to make your phone run at it's best.
Good Luck,
Matt

 

[nmelkon1]

I spam task killer like its second nature to me now, until theres a froyo port with cam support I'm going to stick with the annoying stock os with uninstallable apps that keep popping up like amazon mp3,sprint bloatware etc, and 4G is coming to my town in a few days