How is battery life on Froyo EC05 so far? *poll added*

[boomerbubba]

This what you want -> Locale for Android | AppBrain.com

or you can go to the marketplace and search for "Locale" - it is expensive though at $9.99

I don't use it, but looked into it when I was trying to figure how to increase battery life.

No, I want no part of Locale. It cannot know with accuracy where I am without using GPS, which is the biggest power hog of all. (I do run GPS, but only when I choose to run some other app such as Maps, Navigation, or My Tracks myself.) And I choose not to enable the non-GPS "Use wireless networks" setting to estimate my location constantly from cell towers. So Locale would be useless running in the background because it would not know where I am.

 

[boomerbubba]

I don't have 4G in my area yet so I have it disabled in the device settings. But I don't see a 4G only setting in juicedefender. So I assume the auto toggle for carrier data would toggle both 3G and 4G data if they are both enabled in device settings.

I very much doubt that Juicedefender toggles 4G on the Epic. Wimax 4G is Sprint-specific and the 4G radio function is separate. And even when I use the "Data network mode" prompt that Epic Froyo pops up after I hit the Power button, it does not disable 4G. For that I just use the Notifications bar.

BTW, in my experience 4G uses less power than 3G when the 4G signal is strong, and 4G is used in lieu of 3G. But when the 4G signal is marginal, it is better just to disable it so the phone is not constantly trying to connect to 4G, then failing over to 3G. The best power performance of all is Wi-Fi, which is why I keep its Advanced sleep setting at Never. Otherwise, when Wi-Fi sleeps the phone falls back to 3G search for towers to get background data, which is much more power-intensive.

Overall, Juicedefender and Tasker are inherently unable to manage Wi-Fi or cell radios as well as a well-trained user can do manually. They just do not have the basic environment data (Where am I? What networks are available?) for free. And it's not really hard to form good habits. I know when I want to use Wi-Fi and when I want to use 4G. So it is no big deal to change those settings, along with Bluetooth, from the Notifications bar. Typically I do all that at once when I enter or leave my home or my car, in a few seconds.

The only advantage I can see in Juicedefender would come from its ability to disable data services for long windows of time, such as 15 minutes. But I want instant email notification, which I consider a major benefit of carrying a smartphone. The only other background services I use are a minimal weather widget and a battery meter widget. (The latter would not be necessary if the Epic's own meter icon told the truth.)

 

[kugumby]

I have no problem with this, and never had under any stock version of the Epic OS. Here is what I do:

1) Settings -> Wireless and network -> Wi-Fi Settings -> Advanced -> Wi-Fi sleep policy -> Never.

2) Whenever you are away from Wi-Fi service, disable Wi-Fi manually from the Notifications bar. When you want to use Wi-Fi (I typically use it at home, for example) toggle it back on the same way.

This is how my phone is/was set up. The only difference is that since EC05, the wireless radio keeps scanning for wifi networks every 3 seconds even though I have a rock solid signal that I am connected. It didn't do that (scan for networks while I had a good connection) when I was running EB13 or DI18. (Or if it did, it didn't eat my battery.)

FYI, my phone is stock.