Much better battery life 2.1

[Andrew Ruffolo]

My first post on here and I'm brand new to Android as well and I'm coming from a Palm Pre (among a LONG list of other smartphones sans iPhone). I just got my Hero in a trade for my TP2 that was just collecting dust (since I gave up on WM bugs and wanted something that just worked without tweaking the hell out of it) about a week before the 2.1 update came out so I was still running 1.5 I believe.

When I first got the Hero, my first impressions where that Android was killer and I wished I would've switched over sooner, it's like the best of everything all rolled into one OS but the battery life was just killing me, it was absolutely dismal. I take my phone off the charger at 7AM to head into the office and then the phone just basically sits on my desk unused for the most part until 5:30PM, well at about 2PM everyday the thing would be at about 30% left with NO use at all (with every setting that could potentially suck juice set to off) and I'd have to throw it on the car charger on the way home just so I'd have some juice left in it by the time I got home. I was ready to just sell or trade the darn thing because I didn't want to put an extended on it and double the size of the phone.

Right when I was about to throw it on CraigsList and maybe try out the Moment, the 2.1 update came out so I thought I'd upgrade just to get it over with and to see how it was and all I can say is holy crap, mainly on the SERIOUS improvement in battery life and overall efficiency of the OS. All I can say is that there's no way I'm trading this thing now unless it's in a partial trade for an EVO just so I don't have to blow my upgrade. But since I've upgraded to 2.1, my phone is still at 90% or higher by the time I leave the office, I don't have to use task killers now and I have most of my auto update settings still on with the exception of e-mail. What an improvement! I'm now completely sold on Android and I can't wait to dig in and see what this beast can do and I look forward to learning and contributing here

You installed the official RUU? Darn... you could have overclocked if you rooted it while it was still on 1.5 cool beans though, glad you like the phone! A killer I've seen is Facebook. If I'm using a ROM with Facebook sync unused, I save a ton of space.

 

[johnny hotsauce]

You installed the official RUU? Darn... you could have overclocked if you rooted it while it was still on 1.5 cool beans though, glad you like the phone! A killer I've seen is Facebook. If I'm using a ROM with Facebook sync unused, I save a ton of space.

Yeah, I'm using the stock RUU. I didn't even know about rooting or overclocking at the time since I was a total newb but I guess I'm locked down for now... No Facebook running, I don't even have a Facebook account.

 

[trooper54]

glad we could make a convert out of you, welcome aboard.

 

[coldheat06]

That one is built on the 2nd leak (same as DC 2.08.1). Konikub should have removed GSD.apk from the /system/app/ but give it a double check and make sure its gone. Check your Time Without Signal and mak sure its <<<<<<50% you can find it under settings--about phone--battery--battery information--cell standby. You can try flashing the OC for damage control (nadroid backup first) and then immediately install and setup Overclock Widget (advanced settings) when it boots. Next time its fully charged boot into recovery and wipe the battery info from the wipe menu.

Those are some little things that may help. I know the OC sounds like it wouldn't but you'd be surprized how little an impact it is, because you can set it to min300ish max 400ish while the phone is asleep. Setting it too low may cause you to miss phone calls

Good call on the GSD.apk file, it's still in there. What is the best way to remove it? I found it by connecting my phone as a USB. can I just delete it through the Explorer window?

 

[Andrew Ruffolo]

depending on your file explorer you could do it that way. Best way for me that works everytime, with the sdk installed:
cd c:\android-sdk-windows\tools
adb shell
rm /system/app/GSD.apk

 

[omadhaun]

I'm still a newbie to the Android scene (got myself a Hero the weekend before the 2.1 update) and I happen to have noticed a decrease in battery life since upgrading to 2.1. I'm using the Sugar-Free Kool-Aid ROM (Thanks Beezy!) and my radio is at 2.42.01.04.27. People have been telling me that it's harder to hear me since I updated my phone as well. My assumption is that it's related to the radio....is there a newer version of the radio to upgrade to?

Also, what are people's impressions with the EVO? Should I just upgrade to that once it comes out? I think I can still do that, being a new Sprint customer, since the EVO will be released within the "30-day Sprint Guarantee". The only complaints I have about the Hero is that the keyboard is laggy, the battery life is not as good as I expected, and the screen resolution is smaller than I hoped.

 

[RoadBicyclist]

I have a stock 2.1 and did notice until 2 days ago the outstanding battery life; then last night I changed my 3 POP e-mails to Download Frequency every 5 minutes...big mistake, now the battery is same as before. Or maybe even worse! Is this the cause of it? Battery lasts less this way?

Last night I also downloaded the app Where's my Droid? Is this app a battery hog?

Today at work I had to charge my Hero like I used to with 1.5 (stock also), but it was lasting more than 28 hours to go down just below 30%, that's unheard of with 1.5; I have switched the Download Frequency to 15 minutes a few hours ago, it seems to have improved slightly, we'll see. Any advice is appreciated. And yes, not planning to get out of stock for another month or two while I give 2.1 stock a run for its money.

 

[Andrew Ruffolo]

yeah both those things would negatively affect battery life. Original setup checks POP e-mail every 15 minutes, which is good enough for most. Gmail actually wakes up the phone manually so your battery life effect from gmail depends on how often you get e-mail. Your regular mail app is polling data from the towers 3 times more frequently. I would imagine Where's My Droid wastes more battery cause its polling GPS, which wastes even more power than the 3G radio.

 

[Angelo921]

Ive actually noticed a way better battery life once I started keeping my wifi on all the time. Whenever I was at work I had my Hero in my pocket and the signal wasnt that great and I guess the phone would try to look for signal to get my new emails or for whatever reason and I can always feel the phone getting warm. Now that Ive switched the wifi on and connect to my works wifi the phone doesnt get warm anymore and the battery last so much longer.

 

[RoadBicyclist]

yeah both those things would negatively affect battery life. Original setup checks POP e-mail every 15 minutes, which is good enough for most. Gmail actually wakes up the phone manually so your battery life effect from gmail depends on how often you get e-mail. Your regular mail app is polling data from the towers 3 times more frequently. I would imagine Where's My Droid wastes more battery cause its polling GPS, which wastes even more power than the 3G radio.

OK, I have switched my main account to 15 minutes, the other to every hour and the last one once a day. I have seen a huge difference today, battery back to lasting longer.

Where's My Droid is on its way out of my apps, I understand your reasoning behind it, even though as I mentioned, the battery today is a champ again.