My battery life report (Spoiler: It's good)

[Caitlyn McKenzie]

So, woke up this morning, after having the phone unplugged all night, for a total of 9 hours. The result? Still had 70% of the battery life left.

First, for those coming from Pre's and the like, this is not as good as what the Pre is capable of. With the uberkernels, it was not uncommon to have over 80% battery left over the same time period.

However, what is important to note is, 70% is not 0%. Many people were having trouble, insisting that the EVO couldn't even get through one night without dying. I think this easily demonstrates that there aren't any underlying issues with the EVO itself and battery usage.

So first off, a full disclosure of my settings. Many of you will note that I do NOT turn off major features! I, just like the rest of you, enjoy USING my phone.

A. I used OverclockWidget to underclock the CPU to the minimum allowed when the screen is off. You will need to use unrevoked to root your phone to make use of this. Make sure you enable the root before using the widget!
B. Wifi was on, and was set to remain on even when the screen was off (a setting found by going to Settings > Wireless & Networks > Wi-Fi Settings > Press Menu > Advanced > Wi-Fi Sleep Policy: Never).
C. Always on mobile data was ENABLED. I do not like having this off!
D. GPS is on (but not active. You should always leave it on if you plan on ever using GPS, as it uses no power when a GPS app is not active).
E. 4G was OFF. I don't have 4G coverage in my area, and thus can't tell you how battery life is with this. I will post an update in September when Cincinnati has 4G.
F. Brightness was set to auto, however, as you'll note, this was done overnight, and thus the screen was off 99% of the time.

Here are some notes about what I was running and not running:

A. I am NOT running ATK. I do use a tool called System Menu, to track usage and kill apps that may go out of control on a manual basis, but there is NO app installed on my phone that kills apps automatically. This is all Android, people.
B. I DID have HTC Sense on.
C. I DID have Facebook sync, Flickr sync, twitter sync, and weather sync, in addition to the usual Google account sync (Calendar, Contacts, and Picasa (via Nexus One Gallery App), not Gmail).
D. I DO use K-9 Mail with a PUSH IMAP server enabled. I do not use GMail.
E. I do not use the News or Stocks widgets, and disabled their syncing.
F. I do NOT kill services that I use commonly. I do kill the Sprint apps, but I honestly don't think they have an impact.

Long story short, I am very happy with my battery life on the EVO. If anyone has any other questions as to my setup, feel free to ask.

 

[Holsum]

I wish i would have taken a screen shot but my battery lasted from 11am yesterday until 7am this morning when i started charing it again and it was at 30%. Yes that is roughly 18 hours of USAGE (except while sleeping) and my phone worked flawlessly.

1) i still have background data
2) only sync gmail
3) screen brightness at around 25
4) 4g,wifi,gps,bluetooth off

I was on the phone with customer service for about an hour yesterday and sent about 200 text messages. I browsed facebook for over 3 hours throughout the day. and downloaded 4 apps. I i do have ATK but didnt use it.

the KEY in my opinion was fully charging it at 11am then TURNING IT OFF, fully charging it (because it was orange) and then turning it back on once it was FULLY charged. It took about 5 hours before it lost the first sliver doing this.

 

[bigblue4ever]

So, woke up this morning, after having the phone unplugged all night, for a total of 9 hours. The result? Still had 70% of the battery life left.

First, for those coming from Pre's and the like, this is not as good as what the Pre is capable of. With the uberkernels, it was not uncommon to have over 80% battery left over the same time period.

However, what is important to note is, 70% is not 0%. Many people were having trouble, insisting that the EVO couldn't even get through one night without dying. I think this easily demonstrates that there aren't any underlying issues with the EVO itself and battery usage.

So first off, a full disclosure of my settings. Many of you will note that I do NOT turn off major features! I, just like the rest of you, enjoy USING my phone.

A. I used OverclockWidget to underclock the CPU to the minimum allowed when the screen is off. You will need to use unrevoked to root your phone to make use of this. Make sure you enable the root before using the widget!
B. Wifi was on, and was set to remain on even when the screen was off (a setting found by going to Settings > Wireless & Networks > Wi-Fi Settings > Press Menu > Advanced > Wi-Fi Sleep Policy: Never).
C. Always on mobile data was ENABLED. I do not like having this off!
D. GPS is on (but not active. You should always leave it on if you plan on ever using GPS, as it uses no power when a GPS app is not active).
E. 4G was OFF. I don't have 4G coverage in my area, and thus can't tell you how battery life is with this. I will post an update in September when Cincinnati has 4G.
F. Brightness was set to auto, however, as you'll note, this was done overnight, and thus the screen was off 99% of the time.

Here are some notes about what I was running and not running:

A. I am NOT running ATK. I do use a tool called System Menu, to track usage and kill apps that may go out of control on a manual basis, but there is NO app installed on my phone that kills apps automatically. This is all Android, people.
B. I DID have HTC Sense on.
C. I DID have Facebook sync, Flickr sync, twitter sync, and weather sync, in addition to the usual Google account sync (Calendar, Contacts, and Picasa (via Nexus One Gallery App), not Gmail).
D. I DO use K-9 Mail with a PUSH IMAP server enabled. I do not use GMail.
E. I do not use the News or Stocks widgets, and disabled their syncing.
F. I do NOT kill services that I use commonly. I do kill the Sprint apps, but I honestly don't think they have an impact.

Long story short, I am very happy with my battery life on the EVO. If anyone has any other questions as to my setup, feel free to ask.

You know the phone already cycles the power of the cpu to the lowest setting when the screen is off without without using that overclockwidget... In addition the phone constantly adjusts the power of the CPU to match the demand. Not trying to knock you just saying... A pretty big thread already going about this and individual settings yadda yadda...

 

[Caitlyn McKenzie]

I hadn't seen any information about it doing so, but if that's true, more power to it. Doesn't invalidate the post though.

 

[knives of ice]

ok i will try out this overclock widget.... my question is what are you using for your settings when the phone is awake?

 

[beaker77]

I'm seeing the same results! I'm rooted using the Toast method though. Why doesn't HTC do something like this by default? Laptops have been doing this type of power management for over 10 years!

 

[Caitlyn McKenzie]

ok i will try out this overclock widget.... my question is what are you using for your settings when the phone is awake?

I don't change anything when the phone is on. I try to keep it simple. At most, I might turn off wifi if I am going somewhere where I know there will not be wifi.

 

[beaker77]

ok i will try out this overclock widget.... my question is what are you using for your settings when the phone is awake?

I'm scaling the CPU between 384000 and 998400 when the sceen is on. I've read that this can make the phone freeze or become unstable but it's working nicely for me. After 3 days no freezes. I have had Sense restart on me once but I think that is unrelated.

 

[mhespenh]

A. I used OverclockWidget to underclock the CPU to the minimum allowed when the screen is off. You will need to use unrevoked to root your phone to make use of this. Make sure you enable the root before using the widget!

I have heard issues about that screwing with some apps that work while the screen is off though- namely Grooveshark and Pandora. Have you noticed any problems?

 

[Caitlyn McKenzie]

I've used Pandora for hours using those settings with the screen off. No issue. Full disclosure, I do set it between 256000 and 384000, in case it needs a bit extra power, but Pandora has never once stuttered or crashed from it.

 

[Darth Mo]

I believe most people are in agreement that the phone is fine in standby mode.

It's when you actually do stuff with the phone that the battery life may be subpar.

 

[Caitlyn McKenzie]

I believe most people are in agreement that the phone is fine in standby mode.

It's when you actually do stuff with the phone that the battery life may be subpar.

I've seen people actually return the phone because they argued the phone was faulty, due to it apparently dying overnight from a full charge. They refused to believe it was their phone's setup, not the hardware.

 

[xandrake]

Vincent Brick of CSS?

 

[Darth Mo]

I've seen people actually return the phone because they argued the phone was faulty, due to it apparently dying overnight from a full charge. They refused to believe it was their phone's setup, not the hardware.

Well, you see, that's part of it.

If you have to turn a bunch of stuff off to make the battery last, that's not good. It's one thing if you're sleeping and you don't need to use it, but what's the point of having a 4G phone if you have to turn 4G off while using it to conserve. The battery?

I have a spare battery to get me through the day because I think it's silly to neuter the phone to save battery. But it would have been nice if HTC/Sprint provided a spare battery and charger as there's no way using the phone to it's full potential that you can get through an entire day on the stock battery.

EDIT: I apologize for derailing your thread a bit as you were concentrating on the overnight battery discharge issue.

 

[Caitlyn McKenzie]

If you notice I wholly agree with the idea of neutering the phone. I only turned off 4G because I have no 4G service where I live currently. Although I likely would turn it off at home, because it serves me no purpose when wifi is faster.

 

[Bigtuna00]

I'm not sure why your usage is so bad. 70% overnight is *terrible* in my experience. Currently I wake up with a full battery meter. The only difference between your settings and mine is:

-No overclock widget (no way I am messing with that).
-Always-on mobile data disabled. I don't know why you think you need this. I have it off and have noticed no difference in application behavior at all (same as this thread, which is what I followed: Tip-Trick: 61 hours, 24% battery remaining - Android Forums)
-Auto-brightness disabled (I found it annoying) but as you said it doesn't matter when the screen is off.

As mentioned in the thread I linked, the always-on mobile data seems to make a huge difference. Other than that all I've done (as the OP) is tweak the sync settings and disable various widgets when I don't need them (Bluetooth, GPS, and Wifi mainly).

 

[eagle63]

I have no idea what is typical for the EVO (or Android devices in general), but for some perspective, my Palm Pre (Sprint) loses between 1.5% and 2% battery per hour while idle. I've measured this many times, typically by doing what you did - check it before bed and again in the morning. Unless my math is wrong, you were getting a drain of about 3.3% per hour. That doesn't sound like anything to get too excited about..

For me, "idle" means: I have 1 exchange account, 1 Google account, and 1 facebook account syncing. Bluetooth on, couple of apps open, but otherwise nothing else going on.

 

[Kedar]

I use 5% (ish) in around 6-8 hours when not using it.
I set it to 245000 when not using it ... and it's on wifi.

 

[Caitlyn McKenzie]

I'm not sure why your usage is so bad. 70% overnight is *terrible* in my experience. Currently I wake up with a full battery meter. The only difference between your settings and mine is:

-No overclock widget (no way I am messing with that).
-Always-on mobile data disabled. I don't know why you think you need this. I have it off and have noticed no difference in application behavior at all (same as this thread, which is what I followed: Tip-Trick: 61 hours, 24% battery remaining - Android Forums)
-Auto-brightness disabled (I found it annoying) but as you said it doesn't matter when the screen is off.

As mentioned in the thread I linked, the always-on mobile data seems to make a huge difference. Other than that all I've done (as the OP) is tweak the sync settings and disable various widgets when I don't need them (Bluetooth, GPS, and Wifi mainly).

The problem is, always on mobile data is pretty much required for apps like Pandora to work correctly over a period of time.

 

[RayStinkle]

as a comparison, my nexus one lost 11% in 12 hours when i didnt use it at all. that was with gmail, gtalk, sync all going. and connected to wifi. 100% to 89% in 12 hours of idle time. its possible.