Photon Battery Life

[wcdove24]

After coming from the EVO 4G after a little over a year, I am actually surprised at the battery life of the Photon. I use it the same as my EVO if not more (playing with it), and I'm able to leave my house and go through a full work day making phone calls, sending text, and periodically picking it up to mess with a few applications and when I get home I don't have to rush in and take the charger out of my pocket to plug it in. So far...So good

 

[VDub2174]

After coming from the EVO 4G after a little over a year, I am actually surprised at the battery life of the Photon. I use it the same as my EVO if not more (playing with it), and I'm able to leave my house and go through a full work day making phone calls, sending text, and periodically picking it up to mess with a few applications and when I get home I don't have to rush in and take the charger out of my pocket to plug it in. So far...So good

I'm in the same boat as you. I had the EVO 4G and had to make sure I had chargers everywhere for when it was about to die.....lol With the Photon, I was able to put my car charger away and rarely use my charger at my desk.

 

[coopdro]

I'm currently 8 hours since plugged in and at 90%. This is far superior to my Evo 4g. I was one of those people with a stand-alone charger and spare 1750mah on hand along with chargers everywhere I went. I don't have to pay near as much attention to battery life now. Was one of the main reasons I swapped + dual core processor.

 

[bonanzabucks]

I'm currently 8 hours since plugged in and at 90%. This is far superior to my Evo 4g. I was one of those people with a stand-alone charger and spare 1750mah on hand along with chargers everywhere I went. I don't have to pay near as much attention to battery life now. Was one of the main reasons I swapped + dual core processor.

I have to ask how much you're using your phone and if you're using it a lot, what's your configuration? I get good battery life with mine, but nothing like this.

 

[whatsitsname]

People who are posting battery life should really have a screenshot of the battery usage next to it. Yeah my battery life is great on standby but using Netflix will drain it dead in about 3 hours (not much better than my EVO).

 

[bonanzabucks]

People who are posting battery life should really have a screenshot of the battery usage next to it. Yeah my battery life is great on standby but using Netflix will drain it dead in about 3 hours (not much better than my EVO).

What app are you using for the battery percentage in your status bar?

 

[whatsitsname]

What app are you using for the battery percentage in your status bar?

Battery monitor free. Not the "battery monitor widget" one.

 

[bonanzabucks]

Thanks. I downloaded it and it's great to get an accurate read on the battery. I'm finding out my battery life is better than I suspected since the battery bar icon and quick settings can be misleading. Quick settings also only shows battery as increments of 10%. Definitely multitudes better than my rooted Epic was. I only rooted that device because stock battery life wasn't so good.

By the way, what app are you using for the screen shots? I thought you can't do that if your device isn't rooted? Unless you are...

 

[whatsitsname]

Screen Grab
Screen capture app for Atrix *Updated* - xda-developers

 

[tlaz]

? See where you power is going: Tap Home > Menu > About phone > Battery > Battery use.

milominderbiner - Thanks for such an incredible resource for newbies. I know you from PreCentral, don't I?

One thing I noticed for the Photon, the battery usage info is actually found here:

Tap Home >Settings > Battery & data manager >Battery usage

 

[mcp6530]

"battery monitor free" doesn't work for me - only getting increments of 10% - maybe it's cuz i'm using launcherpro, not sure....any other suggestions?

 

[gmonkey88]

I'm confused. I hear nothing but good things here about the battery life with the Photon. However, I've had mine for a little over a week. I only check gmail, play words with friends, text, make phone calls and check facebook. I charge my phone over night, unplug it at 6:30am, its dead by 2pm. My screen brightness is down to about 25%-30%, screen time out is 30 seconds. I changed battery mode to Maximum Battery saver. As I type this, its 12:19 in the afternoon my time, im at 15% battery life. I had the droid x before this and my battery could last all day with brightness at 50, more frequent facebook checks and 30min - 1hr of gaming a day. Any ideas?

 

[gmonkey88]

I'm confused. I hear nothing but good things here about the battery life with the Photon. However, I've had mine for a little over a week. I only check gmail, play words with friends, text, make phone calls and check facebook. I charge my phone over night, unplug it at 6:30am, its dead by 2pm. My screen brightness is down to about 25%-30%, screen time out is 30 seconds. I changed battery mode to Maximum Battery saver. As I type this, its 12:19 in the afternoon my time, im at 15% battery life. I had the droid x before this and my battery could last all day with brightness at 50, more frequent facebook checks and 30min - 1hr of gaming a day. Any ideas?

Now that I look at everyone's screen shot, my phone signal at work is terrible. 1 maybe 2 bars, sometimes nothing. Could this impact my battery life?

 

[MacBook]

I'm confused. I hear nothing but good things here about the battery life with the Photon. However, I've had mine for a little over a week. I only check gmail, play words with friends, text, make phone calls and check facebook. I charge my phone over night, unplug it at 6:30am, its dead by 2pm. My screen brightness is down to about 25%-30%, screen time out is 30 seconds. I changed battery mode to Maximum Battery saver. As I type this, its 12:19 in the afternoon my time, im at 15% battery life. I had the droid x before this and my battery could last all day with brightness at 50, more frequent facebook checks and 30min - 1hr of gaming a day. Any ideas?

WOW! You def have a bad battery or something Because mine comes off the charger at 7 am and I wont have to charge it till about 11 pm or so and thats with moderate/heavy use.. try getting a new battery from sprint.

 

[MacBook]

Now that I look at everyone's screen shot, my phone signal at work is terrible. 1 maybe 2 bars, sometimes nothing. Could this impact my battery life?

Absolutely... The phone will waste plenty of juice searching for signal.

 

[dullgeek]

My experience, so far, is that I get about 10% drain per hour. A lot of it seems related to poor signal strength. When I look at engadget's battery pics, they have a lot more green on the "phone signal" section than I do. Mine is mostly yellow. Also, my "screen on" section is a lot more blue than engadget's. Both of those contribute a ton towards the difference.

That said, I used my sprint FrankenPre2 in the same locations (getting the same signal strength) and I used it about the same amount daily. 10% drain per hour on a 1650 mah battery (on the Photon) is a *LOT* worse than 5% drain per hour on an 1150 mah battery (on the Pre). I don't think all of the difference can be attributed to the signal and screen usage. But (of course) I'm just guessing.

 

[bullitt5094]

Don't know what I'm doing right, but no battery problems here. I've had mine about a week (and love it BTW). After a couple of full charge cycles I'm only having to charge mine every-other day with power left! I don't watch movies on it but I make a decent number of phone calls a day and a good bit of email/texting. Currently I'm getting about the same battery life as my now retired Blackberry Tour. The phone is bone stock and on default settings at this point.

 

[tsrich]

Absolutely... The phone will waste plenty of juice searching for signal.

I've definitely noticed this. Normally I'm here in Raleigh where I get good signal, and I've gotten great battery life. If I'm not using the phone much, I'll still have 70 percent at the end of the work day.

I spent several days visiting relatives in north Atlanta, which has crappy Sprint coverage. The phone was losing > 10 percent every hour just sitting on the counter. If I used it any, it would burn through the battery in 6 or 7 hours.

Fringe coverage just kills Android phones on Sprint's network.

 

[Puzzlegal]

"battery monitor free" doesn't work for me - only getting increments of 10% - maybe it's cuz i'm using launcherpro, not sure....any other suggestions?

Battery circle, by Adrien Ulrich, will give you a more precise reading.

 

[chasen]

hi guys, first post, but it seems to be good one.

after THREE hours of use, it's DEAD.
now this is in roaming. Just using the phone as a clock, no surfing web or anything.

that's crazy!
my nexus s 4g lasted me at least six hours in roam...