Is the battery indicator accuate?

[SoDev]

Long press an empty section of a home screen. Select "Widgets" When the widgets appear, select "Get More HTC Widgets" at the top of the screen. The battery widget is the first choice

Big help to an Android noob! Thanked!

 

[Cory Streater]

Does that widget drain the battery?

It is a widget that is polling the battery/system for status, so yes it will to some extent.

There's already a sticky on this, but it's worth mentioning here as well, since it has come up. Some of these bullets overlap.

• Task managers - be extremely careful with these. Froyo has a built in task management within Android. If you kill system processes or apps that rely on other apps, your phone will go into an endless loop of trying to restart them, which impacts battery life even further.
• Update frequency for social network apps, the HTC Widgets that use the network to download updates, Facebook sync, and pretty much anything that auto syncs with the network on whatever interval it is configured to update
• Get detailed information about what's using what from settings > about phone > battery use
• Check GTalk auto sign in settings or any other IM app for that matter.
• 3G/4G data arrow activity (frequent solid white arrows?) could indicate problems. Something is pounding the network and is consuming battery life if those arrows are solid white more often that not.
• Check email configuration (update frequency for Exchange, IMAP, Gmail,
• Check 3rd party applications setting (including battery percentage widgets & instant messaging applications)
• Update frequency settings for various applications in settings > accounts & sync.
• You can get detailed information about what's things are consuming battery life via settings > about phone > battery use. Remember though, it is based on total percentage. If it says display is equal to 75% of the total, that doesn't mean you have a display issue. It just means that everything else collectively makes up for the other 25%. I would be more concerned if you had an app with a really high percentage.
• GTalk auto sign in settings.
• 4G/3G data arrow activity - the arrows are solid white - something is using the network.
• Check email configuration (update frequency for Exchange, IMAP, Gmail, POP)
• Do not use USB chargers in the car. Use one like this one with an output of at least 1A. The TB will not draw any more than 500mAh from a USB car charger, which is not enough to keep up if you are running GPS and other radio type functions.
• Turn on power saver to automatically switch to power saving mode when the battery level goes down to the level that you set. See ?Optimizing
• It's a misconception that just because an app is shown as running in the app list, it is consuming battery.

 

[schartzr]

So my widget said I was at 100% as it was charging. Then was fully charged. I took it off the charger and with in 30-45 seconds it dropped to 95%. Is this right? I know the samsung phones do this but OUCH I cannot lose 5% that quickly.

 

[Rhyyker]

So my widget said I was at 100% as it was charging. Then was fully charged. I took it off the charger and with in 30-45 seconds it dropped to 95%. Is this right? I know the samsung phones do this but OUCH I cannot lose 5% that quickly.

I think this has to do with the "bump charge" thing some people were talking about. Basically your phone runs off the battery even when you are charging, so when you pull it off the charger it technically isn't at 100% anymore. I noticed this with my incredible as well as the thunderbolt.

The solution is apparently to charge the last hour or so with the phone shut off, it worked on my incredible but I haven't found time for this ridiculous "off" concept on my tb yet lol.

 

[thedeceiver]

It is a widget that is polling the battery/system for status, so yes it will to some extent.

There's already a sticky on this, but it's worth mentioning here as well, since it has come up. Some of these bullets overlap.

• Get detailed information about what's using what from settings > about phone > battery use
  

Great points that Cory brought up but I wanted to mention something about this one... a lot of times apps you install on your phone are calling native services in the Android OS. So, for example, Yahoo Mail's app KILLS battery life because it's using Android's cloud listening service to get new mail notifications. Those new mail notifications a ding against the Android OS in terms of battery usage, not the Yahoo Mail app. So, you can't always trace it back accurately but it'll give you an idea.

Another thing to consider is that if your battery life is good now but suddenly goes downhill, start uninstalling apps that you had installed recently to find the culprit.

 

[racedog]

I did a bump charge right out of the box. Mean't I couldn't play with the phone for a few hours but I'm not seeing any battery issues. This is my experience and YMMV but it might be a good idea to get a good bump charge on your battery asap.

R

 

[Koato]

I think this has to do with the "bump charge" thing some people were talking about. Basically your phone runs off the battery even when you are charging, so when you pull it off the charger it technically isn't at 100% anymore. I noticed this with my incredible as well as the thunderbolt.

The solution is apparently to charge the last hour or so with the phone shut off, it worked on my incredible but I haven't found time for this ridiculous "off" concept on my tb yet lol.

I had a feeling that it runs off battery while charging...

My battery charged at a normal rate up until 98-99% and took FOREVER to get to 100%

 

[Rhyyker]

I had a feeling that it runs off battery while charging...

My battery charged at a normal rate up until 98-99% and took FOREVER to get to 100%

I think they made it that way because it helps the "health" of the battery over time? I'm no expert but that's what I gathered from other threads. Mine also does that odd thing where the last couple percent take forever. I think it's actually faster just to shut it down for the last 5% or so.