New EVO Battery Life Sticky: Please Contribute

[HalizDad]

I bought an extended battery, and all of my problems went away until i updated to gingerbread. Even with an extended battery, I cannot make it through more than ten hours without charging my phone. Before I would be at 60 percent after ten ours. Damn you gingerbread!

I'm running GB 2.3.5 with an extended battery and can get 24hrs with heavy usage, or 48hrs with moderate. It's not GB; it's a user setting somewhere. I have a Platinum Series (Seido) 3500mAh battery from BB. $75.00 including tax. I wish I'd bought this battery a long time ago.

 

[vulcan001]

I'll throw in my 2 cents. Currently my phone runs on most recent CM7 rom with an extended battery I got as a gift bought at the SprintStore. I would've gotten the Seido one instead but too late. I get through the day with pretty heavy usage. Currently im trying this out to see if my battery holds out from an article I read about li-ion batteries. I let my phone partially drain & giving it a charge to create a digital memory on it unlike niCAD batteries that have a charge memory. From what I know the battery cant be drained completely since each cell must be charged to a certain voltage. But its mentioned that its good to let it almost drain completely not fully to gain back the accuracy of the battery gauge since it loses accuracy over time. Ive also used setCPU to set up a profile & it saves some juice.

Article:
http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/fiv...ttery-life/289

 

[dtreo]

im right there with you. i just turned my phone on from charging over night, turned off, and 5 minutes later, 80(something)%

I agree. I've certainly noticed a significant drop in battery life since the last software update pushed out, along with my wife's EVO and two other friends. Over the summer, we were all really enjoying the EVO and I've loved it for over a year now, but the past couple of weeks since the update has been noticeably bad. I spoke with Sprint technical and they said "it's a known issue with the EVO" but there isn't much they can do until Google/HTC pushes out a fix. They said they could revert me back to prior software, as they've also done on one of the LG's. None of us are rooted, we all run our phones pretty lean and don't use 4G or GPS, so nothing has changed except the software update that brought on the battery issues. It sucks cause I had been loving mine and am not really interested in making a change for a while.

 

[MikeyrInFL#AC]

I have experimented with "battery conditioning," "topping off" and changing wall chargers. Here is what I have determined through a process of elimination. First, I should say that everyone's EVO 4G is different due to downloaded apps and other configuration elements. Everyone's solution may also vary but I believe my findings will apply to a broad range of users.

Many users have experienced a rapid drop in battery charge within the first 10 - 20 minutes of taking their phones off the wall charger - this seems to occur primarily when the phone is left on the charger overnight. As a result, many users start their day with anywhere from a 10% to a 20% battery handicap.

It is undeniable that the phone and wall charger work in such a way that when the phone reaches 100% charge, the phone goes onto battery use with no trickle charge at all. Your phone is running on battery. The drop of 10% - 20% in the first 10 - 20 minutes is not actually a drop; rather, it appears this is the phone going to the true battery charge that was initially misreported.

"Topping Off" works to a limited extent, especially if the phone is removed from the charger just as soon as the led goes green. I strongly suspect the same is true of the original charging session; that is, if the phone is removed from the charger just as soon as the led goes green. (hard to do if you're asleep)

I also suspect that what is described as "battery conditioning" also works because the phone is removed from the charger just as soon as the led goes green.

The last item I looked into was the wall charger itself. I read a post by someone (I wish I had noted the name so I could give credit) who suggested these problems seem to go away when you stop using the OEM HTC wall charger. Like me, that user also had some Palm Pre wall chargers that he used. In my case, I also have some cheap aftermarket Chinese wall chargers. Using a process of elimination I have confirmed to my own satisfaction that when using the OEM HTC wall charger this initial drop in battery during the first 10 - 20 minutes is the most pronounced. When I used either my Palm Pre or the cheap aftermarket wall chargers, the problem was entirely eliminated. I strongly believe that HTC has a problem it should address with its OEM wall charger. Ironically, you can buy inexpensive aftermarket wall chargers for less than $10 that will cure this problem.

I now reserve that cable for PC connection and no longer use it for charging my phone.

 

[olorin]

Ok, I've not gone through all 45 pages so sorry if I'm repeating something from page 10. I've found two different ways to get GREAT battery life from my Evo!

1. I downloaded Juice Defender Ultimate (yes,.I forked out 5 bucks) & got incredible results. I typically work a 10-12 hour day, & have traditionally had to keep a charger next to my desk for periodic daily use. However, after installing Juice Defender, I am no longer married to my charger. In the past, my battery would die before I left work, if left uncharged... but no longer! For instance, the other day I pulled my phone off the charger & used my phone heavy before work. When I finally arrived, I was at 85% (previously, the kiss of death). By the time I left work, my battery was at 61% (no charging). I drove home &, after light charging on the car, my battery was at 65%. I tinkered all night with my phone & finally went to bed at 12am & my battery was at about 40%. I FORGOT TO PUT MY PHONE ON THE CHARGER & woke up at 430am, & found my phone at about 35%! By the way, I was constantly running live wallpaper, but I typically keep 4g turned off (although JD will manage th is, also). Here is why this works: Juice Defender shuts off my Network radios while the screen is off. I use the advanced setting & have JD turn my radios on every 30 minutes so that my apps & widgets can update. I never thought I could get this good of results from a simple app!

2. If you are rooted & flash rooms & can live without Wimax, MIUI has very similar battery life to what I described above. Honestly, I'm not sure why... my guess is that they've built similar radio management features into the ROM, but that's just speculation.

Finally, I'm currently running the latest official build of Cyanogen Mod 7. However, my wife has an unrooted Evo Shift & she is also getting great results from Juice Defender.

 

[olorin]

I have experimented with "battery conditioning," "topping off" and changing wall chargers. Here is what I have determined through a process of elimination. First, I should say that everyone's EVO 4G is different due to downloaded apps and other configuration elements. Everyone's solution may also vary but I believe my findings will apply to a broad range of users.

Many users have experienced a rapid drop in battery charge within the first 10 - 20 minutes of taking their phones off the wall charger - this seems to occur primarily when the phone is left on the charger overnight. As a result, many users start their day with anywhere from a 10% to a 20% battery handicap.

It is undeniable that the phone and wall charger work in such a way that when the phone reaches 100% charge, the phone goes onto battery use with no trickle charge at all. Your phone is running on battery. The drop of 10% - 20% in the first 10 - 20 minutes is not actually a drop; rather, it appears this is the phone going to the true battery charge that was initially misreported.

"Topping Off" works to a limited extent, especially if the phone is removed from the charger just as soon as the led goes green. I strongly suspect the same is true of the original charging session; that is, if the phone is removed from the charger just as soon as the led goes green. (hard to do if you're asleep)

I also suspect that what is described as "battery conditioning" also works because the phone is removed from the charger just as soon as the led goes green.

The last item I looked into was the wall charger itself. I read a post by someone (I wish I had noted the name so I could give credit) who suggested these problems seem to go away when you stop using the OEM HTC wall charger. Like me, that user also had some Palm Pre wall chargers that he used. In my case, I also have some cheap aftermarket Chinese wall chargers. Using a process of elimination I have confirmed to my own satisfaction that when using the OEM HTC wall charger this initial drop in battery during the first 10 - 20 minutes is the most pronounced. When I used either my Palm Pre or the cheap aftermarket wall chargers, the problem was entirely eliminated. I strongly believe that HTC has a problem it should address with its OEM wall charger. Ironically, you can buy inexpensive aftermarket wall chargers for less than $10 that will cure this problem.

I now reserve that cable for PC connection and no longer use it for charging my phone.

I have the same drain, but I had only noticed it yesterday & today, but now I understand why... I switched from my old reliable Palm Pre charger & used a Samsung charger two nights age. Funny, my battery dropped from 100% to 82% right away & then stopped. At 82% I get normal battery drain... I'm going back to my palm charger! Thanks!

 

[DrGreene]

My Evo is running mikg 3.0 + 2.1, which would be the newest version, along with LauncherPro and the aggressive Freedom kernel.

I have noticed that when my phone is idle, like right now, the battery life is good. It barely moves, which is to be somewhat expected. Overnight, it drops maybe 6 or 7%. However, when I use it, it literally falls at 1%/minute. Is that normal? I sat on the toilet earlier at work and fiddled with my phone, mostly just sending texts, and in 20 minutes of messing around, I literally lost 20%+ in battery. When I look at my battery report, I'd say a good (80%) is taken up by the screen. Is that normal? I run the automatic bright/dim for my screen.

I'm thinking obviously my screen has a lot to do with this, but I'm jarred by the crazy way the battery level drops when I use the thing, vs. when its idle. Anyone have any advice, thoughts?

 

[olorin]

No, it shouldn't drain at 1% a minute. I've been constantly browsing with mine for at least the last half an hour (while running live wallpaper) & I'm at 90%. While I do use some battery saving techniques (see above), those are primarily designed to help while the phone sleeps, not so much while browsing. Are you using 4g? That will drain the battery pretty fast. Of course, I'm using CM7 ROM, so part of the difference could be the roms.

 

[some0guy0]

awesome post, very in depth!

 

[Phoenix013]

Great Post! I just wanted to add two more major battery suckers. Both the HTC weather/ time widget and live wallpapers. Im still a sucker for the HTC Weather/time widget. Theres a running joke between me and my husband ( who both have the Evo 4g). If theres not a power source somewhere..I wont go. No, the phone just stays at home!

 

[gphunkplp]

underworld v.08 with sbc by ca1ne is a wonderful kernel for battery life paired with dk v.77 deluxe rom amzing results i only charge my evo once a day.

 

[androidknight]

Re: ** (New) Battery Saving Tips **

most likely its the app. turn off some unused apps may help. or get a spare battery.