Should I send it back?

[Spookydad]

My daughter and I have owned our Skyrockets for about three weeks now. We absolutely love the phone!

She is a teenager and almost by definition is a heavy user of her phone, but I am a light to moderate user. My phone doesn't seem to last as long as hers does. I have already had the battery replaced and I got juice defender ultimate to try to save battery.

Last night I charged the phone and left it on the nightstand. I made sure to turn off the wi-fi and gps. I don't have any accounts that sync up or facebook updates. I have a clock app that does weather but I have it check only once an hour. I didn't get any text messages or calls. The phone is stock and we are in Houston so there is 4G available. We have a microcell in the house.

According to the battery usage indicator, the display is taking up 53% of the battery.

This morning, after roughly 9 hours of being essentially "off", the battery was down to 79%. Is this normal? Do I send it back?

Neil

 

[Ronnie2]

If you left wireless data connected, that sounds about right. Especially if you're in an LTE area as LTE is a battery hog. I'd just make sure to turn off wireless data if you're not using the phone, the battery will last much longer that way.

 

[anon(153966)]

I say connect to WIFI as much as possible, that's what seems to 'save' the battery. LTE is really a battery killer...

I have WIFI at work, and at home. So it is only the 'in-betweens' that miss out on WIFI. The battery seems to last at least 14-15 hours with average use.

 

[dalvik]

yes, being on wifi always saves the battery. my phone can last for 20 hours on wifi if im not using it and from full charge it'll drop to about 70% also, i always leave GPS on as it only being used when you start certain apps that require it (e.g google maps.) also I'd suggest disabling "location" in the stock browser as your phone will try to use gps when browsing some sites.
however I must say I sometimes leave my phone over night without connected to wifi and from full charge it'd drop to about 79% too. its quite normal. why dont you get a spare battery on amazon for about $20 I always did and do that with all my phones. its small enough to fit into the wallet and you wont have to worry about the phone dying on you in a middle of the day.

 

[Spookydad]

Thank you for the responses. I am still in my first 30 days so I don't want to find out later that I should have got a new one. I work out of my house so I can charge it whenever I need to, so if this is normal, then I don't have a problem with it. I was told to keep my first battery so I have a spare OEM battery, that if not perfect, does give me a back up plan.

When you say wireless data, what does that mean? Presumably if there is nothing being downloaded and juice defender has set it into night mode from 2 am to 6:30 am, there should be no data being transferred back and forth. Am I missing something?

Also with the microcell, I know it isn't hunting for towers as I have 5 bars consistently.

 

[Sn1per 117]

There may still be some data in the background. You can turn off all data by going to settings under mobile networks. You'll still be able to get texts and calls though unlike if you turned on airplane mode.

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk

 

[dalvik]

wireless data is basically your 3g/LTE connection. I dont use the juice defender but it has some nice features that this phone lacks such as schedules when and at what time you want your syncing to stop and start again.
just one more thing i'd like to add, android phones especially LTE enabled ones eat through battery like there's no tomorrow. your phone seems to perform about the same as mine. which I personally find normal for the current stage of smartphone technology. iphone may give you a much longer battery life however it is a different OS architecture and implementation. like i said a spare battery would be the best choice if you want to stick with this phone. especially since you got one for free already.

 

[Spookydad]

Thanks for the replies.

I was only considering trading it in for a replacement because I think this is an awesome phone.

I am going to test it again tonight side by side with my daughter's phone. I will try leaving the wireless on.

 

[JerseyJet]

Just one more thing to consider before your 30 days runs out. The HD version of the Skyrocket is suppose to be available this Sunday (the 8th). Same phone with an HD display.

 

[eban44]

Might want to download a data monitor to see if any data is being used over night. Also did you turn off google sync of your contacts?

 

[boredpnoy]

pick up a galaxy nexus extend battery last longer than our oem battery you can get one at your local verizon store

 

[jontalk]

One of this forums members, Skyrocketeer, had mentioned in another thread that he 'conditioned' his battery by letting it run all the way down, and then trickle charging it using the USB rather than the AC adapter. This takes some time, but he found that once he did the trickle charge a couple of times, he was getting much more life out of it. Here's the thread I am mentioning: http://forums.androidcentral.com/ga...ry-conditioned-now-getting-over-30-hours.html

I'll be interested to see if the HD has any other improvements other than the Super AMOLED HD display. If not, I think I may just pull the trigger and get the standard SR and await the ICS update.

 

[dalvik]

pick up a galaxy nexus extend battery last longer than our oem battery you can get one at your local verizon store

isnt it a bit thicker than the skyrocket's battery? i read that the back cover doesnt close completely with it.

 

[anon(153966)]

For two days straight the battery has been very good. Albeit I've been on WIFI at home and at work. As a test, tomorrow I'll turn the WIFI off while am at work...

 

[eban44]

isnt it a bit thicker than the skyrocket's battery? i read that the back cover doesnt close completely with it.

It is a little thicker, but the back cover still closes all the way, just have to press a bit harder on the left side where the battery is close to the edge. Still snaps shut.

 

[jsarino]

It is a little thicker, but the back cover still closes all the way, just have to press a bit harder on the left side where the battery is close to the edge. Still snaps shut.

Interesting...might consider this for my spare.

Since getting LTE in our area last week, so far, battery life on mine doesn't seem noticeably shorter. Could be because I'm on wifi for 10-12 hours/day though and I'm charging my phone for part of that time. I was getting 24-30 hours before LTE (HSPA+).

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy SII Skyrocket using Tapatalk

 

[dalvik]

It is a little thicker, but the back cover still closes all the way, just have to press a bit harder on the left side where the battery is close to the edge. Still snaps shut.

thanks.. i might consider getting one... did you notice a significant difference with this battery vs the original one?

 

[Spookydad]

I put the two phones side by side last night and unplugged the charger at the same time. As far as I could tell everything was set up the same.

This morning after 7 hrs 45 min on battery, hers was at 91% mine 71%

From the battery usage screen, they were very similar but mine had Google Maps 5% and Quickoffice 5%. Neither of these apps were actually running, nor in memory.

Mine has juice defender ultimate and is set to shut everything down from 2am to 6:30 AM

I installed AppTraffic this morning and it pulled up data usage on all the apps since the last reboot 4 days ago. According to the stats, Google maps had used 4.65 MB of data and Quick Office 17.79 kb. I had been using Google maps the other day so most of the usage would have been from then. I used Quickoffice once to look at a single pdf file. Together they are less than 5 MB and even if that was ALL last night, 5 MB of usage should not account for 20% extra battery usage.

 

[dalvik]

just out of curiosity.....
are you sure you didnt set JD to kill some processes that need to be running and they're constantly trying to reactivate themselves and getting killed in an endless loop? this might also consume the battery. (just my guess)

 

[anon(153966)]

Spookydad, that is odd. As a test, maybe restore to default, load only your email (Contacts, Calendar, etc) and social media apps, and then let it run for 24-48 hours and see if it is any better...

Long process, but...