My Battery findings....

[tcapote]

Well, I did not really monitor my battery previous to the OTA from last week. But my findings seem interesting post OTA...more testing to be done.

What peaked my interest is that I seemed to have great battery life at work, but when I got home, battery sucked, even thought I have a good 4G connection.

What I realized, is that I used Wifi at work and 4G at home. On 4G, I lose 7-10% battery per hour and my mA usage is between 150-300mA. No matter where I am, I live in a strong 4g area, in So Cal. I started to think it was an app or apps etc...nope. On wifi, I lost about 10% in 3 hours and mA usage during that time was between 30-60mA

I am using Battery Monitor Widget Pro to track my usage. My next test, when I am out tomorrow, is to change to 3G, with LTE OnOff and see what my usage is like while I am out.

YMMV, but I have verified this cycle over the last 3-4 days and they have been consistant. Next the 3G test.

 

[bjboucher]

I leave 4g off most of the time and at idle i use around 40mah. It goes up to 200 or more at load depending on what i'm doing.

 

[canesfan44]

I keep LTE off unless I need it. I've been lucky, I guess, because I have had any problems with my phone other than the not so great battery life (I think a lot of the people complaining about every little thing were expecting way too much and wouldn't be happy no matter what phone they had). I have to say, that the OTA gave me a significant boost in battery, almost double. I now have absolutely no problem making it through a day, even when I'm running LTE the whole time. The first couple of days after the update I didn't really notice any change. Then, last Sunday, I was out to dinner and noticed my battery was getting low. It was at that time that I realized that I didn't charge it at all the day before. I was at about 30% and it was going on it's 45th hour without a charge. I'm very impressed with the battery improvements and love this phone.

 

[OC Nut]

In my case, the OTA has significantly improved the 4G radio drain. I was getting 8%-10%/hour drain prior to the OTA in standby on 4G; that has now been reduced to 3%-4%/hour during the working day and surprisingly, almost negligible (1%/hour or so) at night when I have syncs turned off. Wifi drains at 1%-2%/hour on standby.

All this is assuming I don't hit a "rogue process" problem, which suddenly puts the drain up to 10%-20%/hour unless I reboot (which costs 5%-7%). Unfortunately, this happens frequently enough that I still have to worry about battery level and check it constantly to ensure nothing bad is happening.

However, on good days, the phone will now last 15+ hours with light use for me -- on 4G. Pre-OTA, the phone would be down to 30% by 2pm and done before 4pm without a charge.

While 3G was less of a battery than 4G pre-OTA, I think that might not be the case anymore (or at least much less so).

 

[paintdrinkingpete]

I've noticed the same thing. I'm rooted and running DasBAMF 1.6.3, but have the radio that was included with the OTA.

Since installing, my battery life on WIFI is incredible (1-2%/hour), but I've noticed that on 4G my battery drains MUCH quicker, to the tune of 8-10%/hour...pretty similar to what the OP stated.

I've considered reverting back to the old radio to see if that makes a difference.

 

[tcapote]

After running half the day today on 3G, my 3G battery life was excellent. 4hours, 14% on the stock battery.

So my findings bear out the issue, regarding battery life being the 4G. Maybe just a So Cal thing?
Verified: Battery on WiFi is outstanding, 2-4%/hour usage, 30-60mA average
Verified: Battery on 4G, 7-10%/hr usage, 150-300mA average

and today:
using LTE On/Off, ran on 3G, 2-4%/hr usage, 30-75mA average

This is using Battery Monitor Wideget Pro, a stock TB, original battery. Tests done in So. Cal. over the past 3days. My TB does have the OTA update from last week. Never tested previous to the OTA update. I don;t seem to have the reboot issue others are experiencing.

So unless some apps know when it'son 4G and loves to start us doing something, seems 4G communication is a battery killer. Not apps or my usage.

Curious if anyone else has tried this testing?

 

[FrankXS]

Curious if anyone else has tried this testing?

Although your testing is interesting, it doesn't prove that 4G is running the battery down faster. It may very well be the "negotiations" for a compatible signal (i.e. 1x, 3G, 4G) that causes the battery drain. That's what I have been promoting all along. By setting your phone to no-4G, you are eliminating the constant search for a usable 4G signal (even if you are in a 3G-only area). And then the switch to one if available. If not available, then the handshake agreement on 3G. By eliminating all these negotiations, you are gleaning better battery life. I don't believe it is specifically the 4G technology that is causing more battery useage.

-Frank

 

[midas123]

My finding ... Before the OTA and any tweaks - I charged my phone to 100% - take it to bed with me and when I wake up it would be at 83% give or take 1% ...

After the OTA plus a few tweaks - it is now at 92% ... so much better

1. After the OTA I did a factory reset
2. Then Blockbuster - I downloaded the update - then disabled movie updating
3. I changed my home screen to just black - actually it looks good with all the colorful icons on it

What I didn't change
1. I did NOT change screen brightness - I left it on auto
2. I leave my GPS setting and 4G on all the time

 

[paintdrinkingpete]

I've noticed the same thing. I'm rooted and running DasBAMF 1.6.3, but have the radio that was included with the OTA.

Since installing, my battery life on WIFI is incredible (1-2%/hour), but I've noticed that on 4G my battery drains MUCH quicker, to the tune of 8-10%/hour...pretty similar to what the OP stated.

I've considered reverting back to the old radio to see if that makes a difference.

UPDATE: After posting the above thread, I reverted back to the old, pre-OTA radio. I've left my phone on 4G since then (wifi off), and the battery does seem to be doing better. It's a small sample size, and I've been home the entire time (no switching of cell towers), but for the last few hours my battery is draining at rate of 4~5% per hour. Before flashing the radio, I was getting a pretty consistent 8~10% drainage on 4G, even if the phone was in standby the entire time.

I'll watch it for a few more days and see how it does.

Based on what I've been reading, different people have been getting very different results using the various radio versions -- so there's a good chance what works on one device won't work on another.