How is the battery life for the Vivid?

[Deflord]

I currently have the HTC One X - and my daughter wants an Android phone but I am not exactly willing to go out on a limb and spend BIG $$ for her. So I came across the Vivid which is reasonably priced. And seeing that it does come with the ability to upgrade to Ice Cream - which is the key thing I must have for my daughter. (She is a teenager fyi) So question is - how is the battery life on those Vivid? Can it go a whole day without being charged? My old Androids (Froyo) the battery would just die really fast. I got my HTC One yesterday so Im not sure on the battery life with it. But want to ensure my daughter has battery that can last a whole day and not die in the middle of the day. Inputs would be appreciated.

 

[knighthawk321]

Battery life on the Vivid is good, but it also depends on the usage and service. My home area does not yet have LTE service. At home, I can usually get through my work day without a charge if I'm busy. If I'm playing a lot, I end up plugging in. I'm visiting Phoenix and Vegas this week, both of whom have LTE. LTE does seem to eat power noticeably faster, but the data rates are Lightning fast, too, so it's a trade off.

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[Deflord]

We live in a LTE network - (Houston) so that will work for me. Okay thats what I just wanted to make sure that she can get through the whole day at school with a full battery charged up. Due to medical reasons thats why it is essential for me to ensure that the battery last. I know the old Androids practically sucked when it came to battery life. Okay thanks for your input!

 

[here4kids]

with adjustments (low screen brightness, no active apps, etc) I got mine too all day in a low signal area, and 24 hours in a better signal area. make sure h do NOT put wifi on the "best" option.

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[knighthawk321]

By all means, unless you know wifi is available (in order to keep data charges under control) make sure she keeps wifi and Bluetooth Off. Those will suck down the battery in a hurry. LTE does pull more power faster than HSDPA, so that's also a consideration for any recent phone.

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[mrbro0ks]

A extended battery may be a good option if your worried about battery life. Though Juice Defender is also a great option. I use a extended battery and my average is about 2 1/2 days ago before I need to charge. If you do get a extended battery make sure you let it charge over night. I've found that if you take it off the charger when the phone says it's fully charged it doesn't last nearly as long.

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[switchblade696]

I recently had these results, they were based on medium usage, no gaming, the whole time connected to wifi or nerwork (no lte). Just texting and email, a few Facebook look ups, barely 15 minutes of Phone calls and the yellow straight line is stand by time whilst sleeping.

I'm running a custom Rom and kernel so its expected that battery performance vary amongst users,but this might give a pretty good idea of battery life. I think the main concern you need to care about when comes to battery is the screen time, these 4.5 in screens are power hunger monsters and will drain it very quickly, so it is advised to set it at the less bright configuration.

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[DreamPCs]

Well I'm a moderate to heavy user and before running a custom ROM I couldn't get through a full day without an additional charge. If you're going to stick with Android, I'd recommend ALL available options. Juice defender, extended battery, custom ROM with low-clocked CPU. Now I run a DeSensed ROM (Wajee 1.4) and without Juice Defender or an extended battery I get battery life that lasts upwards of 2 full days.

My first recommendation would be an extended battery since it basically doubles life time, then I would recommend Juice Defender (hey, it's free) and a Custom ROM if you're willing to take the plunge.

Also, there are other small tips to keep in mind. Turning off background data saves quite a bit of battery but she won't get instant notifications (for things like Facebook and emails and so on.) Leave WiFi on ONLY if connected to an access point. If not, the OS will continously look for networks in the area and as already mentioned the KILLS batteries rather quickly. Also, Bluetooth off unless it's being used.

Dark wallpapers and lowered screen brightness will both help to increase battery life. Try to stay away from things like Live Wallpapers or streaming services like Netflix or Pandora if you're looking for better battery life.

Sorry for the ramble, I'm typing this inbetween phone calls at work so... Anyway, I'll give some more tips if I can think of any others.

Good luck to you!

 

[vividrich]

I just got mine at the start of the month and am still in 'play with the phone all the time mode'. I unplug at 7:30 and get home at 5:30 and it's ready for a charge. It's my second HTC phone; I already have a car charger, USB charger cable at work, and an extra battery with charger at home

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[joyandme]

I've had my HTC Vivid several weeks and I'm charging it at least once a day, sometimes twice. I am using it for hot spot for my laptop, but even when I'm not, it still loses charge very quickly.

 

[vividrich]

At this point I'm at between 40-60% when I get home from work. Downloaded juice defender and use it at default settings. Last Sunday we went to a car show and after shooting 250 pics and using it at other times during the day still had decent life when we got home.

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[OperationA7X]

The way I use my Vivid, I needed an extended battery. but on stock battery, with me being a heavy drainer, I got 6 hours, so an average user should get 8-10.

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[I Monarch]

Short answer: No.

The Vivid has poor battery life. You can try to combat that by not using all of the features, keeping brightness low, etc, etc.

 

[Captian4Phones]

This is moderate usage for me on my day off. Just checking Facebook, android Central Forums, crackberry forums and testing friends. Also a battery that was brand new a week ago. Anyone know if the 2000mAh battery is worth it. I really don't want to have to use a different battery door.

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[KurtTX]

That seems like quite a drain for 5 hours. WiFi can kill the battery...if you have enough of a data plan, then kill Wifi. I have the big data plan so I choose to not use WiFi. I get usually 2 days out of a charge on stock battery...but I might not do as much as you do, though...I'm not into facebook.

Kurt

 

[Captian4Phones]

I'm constantly using my phone. Manually checking emails using Facebook twitter and a lot of YouTube and the like. Not to mention I'm having scores and such pushed to my phone (only on Saturday). And I sometimes have to do a lot of communication with my co-workers even on the weekend. My battery gets a workout for sure.

I use wifi at home because I grandfathered in to the unlimited data plan and don't want AT&T to throttle me when I'm out and about and need a fast/strong data connection.

I do have to say though, I haven't had to charge again today so it looks like JuiceDefender is doing a wonderful job.

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[Vic Nebulous]

Honestly...Vivid battery life is hands-down the worst of any device (phone, PDA, laptop, tablet) that I've ever owned. I got my Vivid in early June when my Moto Atrix was lost. Since then, I've become a slave to the car charger, the wall charger, etc., and if I leave home without one or the other, I just plan on being without the phone after a few hours. Whenever I get in the car, I must plug it in. When I go to bed at night, onto the wall charger it goes. Get to work -- USB charge through laptop. Meanwhile, my iPad runs a few days of heavy use, with WiFi always on, before getting down to 20%.

Horrendous battery life, which is a shame, because it's actually a very solid device.

I've installed Juice Defender, set it to "aggressive" mode, and made sure GPS, WiFi, etc., are not running in the background. Next step will be to permanently dim the screen down to where I can just read things, because the screen is usually the big juice sucker. I suppose I could bite the bullet and buy a second battery...but that's just lame. All these manufacturers should suck up to Apple and find out what their secret battery sauce is. Sure, you can't access those batteries, but they hold a charge nicely.

 

[vividrich]

I unplugged at 8 am and am just about ready to dip under 20%.

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[iN8ter]

Depends on how you use the phone.

Battery Life on my Skyrocket is bad on LTE if you're a moderate to heavy user. On the Vivid it's even worse (used to own it). If you're on LTE and you start using the phone at 8 am on LTE by the time you get to noon time you're already going to be turning off stuff like GPS or maybe toggling airplane mode here and there to save battery. Neither of these phones can last a full work day on moderate to heavy use on LTE.

Even on HSPA+ my Skyrocket and the Vivid would die by 3-4pm if I did quite a bit of Facebook Chat, Texting, or Web Surfing on it.

A lot of it has to do with how much power the SCREEN uses, cause I know when I used to tether my iPod Touch 4th Gen to my HD7 with a 1230 mAh battery on HSPA+ it could still last all day tethering the iTouch, but the battery would drain fast if I wasn't tethering and actually used the phone cause the screen kills the battery.

You don't want to give her a Vivid, TBH. Save money and get her an 8GB iPhone 4 or something, or perhaps a $99 4S. Not trying to start a debate, but those phones clearly have better battery life since they don't run as many things in the background and the software is a bit more optimized than the Android 4.0.3 + Sense 3.6 on the Vivid. Another decent choice would be the Atrix 2 (HSPA+ only, no WiFi direct or NFC but otherwise similar specs - 16GB SD Cards are cheap at Best Buy). The XPeria ion is actually a good choice as well, with LTE, SD Card Slot, better battery life, and a much better screen for a cheap price. The price may go down soon as the TL is coming to AT&T in a few days for $99 so if you can afford that you may want to wait. Not sure when the Windows 8 phones are coming, but if she has a Notebook you can upgrade for cheap that would be an optimal choice if she also uses a computer. They tie in very nicely together.

I wouldn't get a Vivid on contract at this point, personally. Not when you can get a One X for $99. It's not worth saving that much (as in, not really a lot of) money.

 

[vividrich]

I have very limited experience with the vivid on lte, but I've seen it eat battery quickly....

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