thinking about getting a droid, how is the battery life?

[mscalero]

My two cents worth: From the time I first purchased my droid in mid December until now I have seen a major improvement in battery life. Some of the reasons for that are as follows: 1) it seems the battery performance improves after a few full charges 2) I used the droid when it was my "new toy" 3 times as much as I do now, having the high resolution display on for long periods of time will use battery 3) I have actually learned how to use the phone and that has helped. The phone has a built in battery usage meter that will point out where the battery is being used up..use this to identify and manage your battery use. Also, someone mentioned the power control widget earlier. I use this widget and would recommned it. Having the auto brightness turned on is a major help to battery life. Also, not leaving bluetooth on when not in use, and leaving wifi on when it's available will also help. I typically keep my phone off charge for around 16 hours and my battery drops to around 60% - 70%.

You are saying Auto Brightness on helps the battery? I keep mine on manual and at about 1/10th the brightness. I also have K-9 Mail which checks email every hour. Gmail is pushing and Seesmic checks twitter every hour.

I am a heavy user I'd say I get about 16 - 24 hours out of a charge. This is with texting light phone calling, light web browsing and listening to music about 2 hours total per day. I also run e-Buddy for about two hours a day.

 

[mscalero]

Wifi

I also had a question about Wifi and battery life:

If I am getting a lot of switching back and forth from 3G to 1X while at work, would it potentially save battery life for me if I leave Wifi on all day?

In my office I get about 1 of 3 Wifi signal bars, sometimes 2. Does the battery get worked over trying to get a stronger wifi signal? Just as the battery is worked over looking for the best cell signal?

There is also a setting to put Wifi to sleep when the phone is inactive, would this work the battery harder as Ipick up the droid from time to time to look at it, therefore reconnecting to wifi?

M

 

[seanubis]

Getting around 13-14 hours here, with a lot of Gmail and messaging use. Stays up most of the day, and the starts to drop quickly in the evening when I'm playing games and otherwise goofing off.

 

[Jmurr187]

Perhaps I could help a few of you guys out..and ask a few questions of my own..
Ive had my droid for about 2 months now and I could probably get away with 36-48 hrs with no charge (going from 100% to completely dead). First off, if youre having serious issues and can't figure it out, check your "battery use" (as said before) in settings>about phone>battery use/ and it will tell exactly what is talking up all the batter use. Second, definitely try the task killers. there are a few of them out there but i use "advanced task killer" and I think it works pretty well. Some people say it doesnt do anything but i think i does, you just have to remember to kill all the apps before you lock up your phone. THe last thing i can think of is check all your app's settings for updating. If your apps are constantly trying to update themselves it will definitely drain your battery down quicker than anything. One more thing you may want to consider is that you really only get an accurate reading of your battery life when your phone is not doing anything to heavy, like phone call or browsing. With any phone, the battery meter changes the readings based on what the current activities the phone is doing. If you make a phone call- the battery life will instantly drop down because it's trying to compensate for how much the call activity is actually wasting. After being on a 10 minute phone call, check the battery life and then wait 10 mins and go back to it. It will be higher than when you hung up the phone.
With all that being said, maybe someone could help me out-
I would say a majority of cell phone users charge their phones when the go to bed and unplug when they wake up in the morning. But, with my old phones, ive heard that its a bad idea to leave your phone plugged in longer than it takes to charge- it drains the overall life of the battery. Is that the same with the droid phones??? In the literature that comes with the phone it states that motorola products are safe to charge and prevent certain things.. or something. I figured they tried to fix that.
Any response would help,
Jmurr

 

[DroidUzerInAL]

I wasn't saying that auto brightness is the best way to save battery by display, but it is a huge improvement vs. always leaving the screen bright.

 

[dcarlton35]

Battery Life

Perhaps I could help a few of you guys out..and ask a few questions of my own..
Ive had my droid for about 2 months now and I could probably get away with 36-48 hrs with no charge (going from 100% to completely dead). First off, if youre having serious issues and can't figure it out, check your "battery use" (as said before) in settings>about phone>battery use/ and it will tell exactly what is talking up all the batter use. Second, definitely try the task killers. there are a few of them out there but i use "advanced task killer" and I think it works pretty well. Some people say it doesnt do anything but i think i does, you just have to remember to kill all the apps before you lock up your phone. THe last thing i can think of is check all your app's settings for updating. If your apps are constantly trying to update themselves it will definitely drain your battery down quicker than anything. One more thing you may want to consider is that you really only get an accurate reading of your battery life when your phone is not doing anything to heavy, like phone call or browsing. With any phone, the battery meter changes the readings based on what the current activities the phone is doing. If you make a phone call- the battery life will instantly drop down because it's trying to compensate for how much the call activity is actually wasting. After being on a 10 minute phone call, check the battery life and then wait 10 mins and go back to it. It will be higher than when you hung up the phone.
With all that being said, maybe someone could help me out-
I would say a majority of cell phone users charge their phones when the go to bed and unplug when they wake up in the morning. But, with my old phones, ive heard that its a bad idea to leave your phone plugged in longer than it takes to charge- it drains the overall life of the battery. Is that the same with the droid phones??? In the literature that comes with the phone it states that motorola products are safe to charge and prevent certain things.. or something. I figured they tried to fix that.
Any response would help,
Jmurr

Jmurr,

I have had a BB 8330 that I would leave plugged in overnight and the battery has not changed from before I was doing that. I only just got the BB last year so it is a newer phone. Now, this is only my thinking so I could be wrong but I think that it is built in that once you reach full charge, it maintains that charge but doesn't impact the life of the battery. I could be wrong so correct me if I am wrong, guys. We are working with Lithion-Ion batteries that have a lot of charge cycles and leaving it plugged in overnight is not going to hurt the battery. The way I get a lot of my info is by searching the internet through different search sites and I read that the battery equipped on the Droid has a year and a half's worth of charge cycles in it's like, if you charged every day and drained daily. So if it takes 2 days to go through the battery, that means you have virtually 3 years worth of battery life. I have yet to run into a battery that has yet to completely die on me and never be able to recharge it back up. Granted, when you get to the end of it's life, you are not going to have much of a charge anyway. I am planning to get a second battery for the Droid so that I can rotate them and if needed, have extra battery juice around if needed. Anyway, that is my 2 cents in. As stated earlier, if I am wrong, correct me and I will accept that. Thank you for reading.

 

[WarER4X]

I've heard that faraday cages are illegal for the purpose of blocking cell phones. But it might be dependent on where you live though.

Well, they didn't make it that way to disrupt our cell signals, but rather to keep our internal WiFi from being used by some dude camped out in the parking lot. Two of the major mobile carriers in our area that our company deals with (Cincinnati Bell and Verizon) both installed pico cells so that we can have cell service inside the building.

To the best of my knowledge, I don't think faraday cages are illegal because they are a passive system. They do not broadcast anything and, therefore, are not subject to FCC regulations. We have some controls test cells that are built with faraday cages around them to prevent outside interference during the testing process. On the other hand, the use of cellular (and other signal) jammers by unauthorized personnel is illegal because now you are broadcasting a signal and, therefore, subject to FCC regulations and licensing.

-SR-

 

[Neez]

Seems to me some applications really suck down the battery. For example, Quickpedia stayed running in the background after a search, accessing GPS almost constantly, and killed the battery in a couple hours.

 

[bling300c]

automatic task killer from the market (free) increased my batter life by a ton. I have everything killed when the screen turns off. I have to start my k-9 and touchdown emails programs everytime i want to check them but my battery will last a long time now.

If you combine ATK with Screebl you get a real winner.


good luck

 

[mobilemedic20]

I also had a question about Wifi and battery life:

If I am getting a lot of switching back and forth from 3G to 1X while at work, would it potentially save battery life for me if I leave Wifi on all day?

In my office I get about 1 of 3 Wifi signal bars, sometimes 2. Does the battery get worked over trying to get a stronger wifi signal? Just as the battery is worked over looking for the best cell signal?

There is also a setting to put Wifi to sleep when the phone is inactive, would this work the battery harder as Ipick up the droid from time to time to look at it, therefore reconnecting to wifi?

M

In my house, I have the same problem. I switched to Wifi when at home, and my battery life skyrocketed. So yes, I think it helps! I think this way the phone pulls all data in from the readily accessible wifi instead of trying to hunt down 1x or 3G signals.

I would say a majority of cell phone users charge their phones when the go to bed and unplug when they wake up in the morning. But, with my old phones, ive heard that its a bad idea to leave your phone plugged in longer than it takes to charge- it drains the overall life of the battery. Is that the same with the droid phones???
Jmurr

This is a common misconception that is somehow still perpetuated. All modern phones use li-ion batteries, which do not hold a memory, and will not somehow "overcharge." It's fine to plug the phone in overnight, and it's best to keep the phone topped off whenever you can. Allowing full discharges is bad for li-ion batteries, except for once in a while to recondition the battery (probably not completely necessary anyway). Just charge it when you can, and keep it charged!

 

[trentandrews]

I have noticed that anything the uses GPS really kills the battery. I also have problems when I listen to music(Slacker or Pandora) via my Bluetooth headphones.

 

[WarER4X]

The funny thing about GPS draining the battery is the GPS merely receives the satellite signals (no tansmitting involved, which is what really requires a lot of power). The real battery drain is that most location-based apps, once they get the GPS info, then go and constantly download data over the network to update the app based on location changes. That constant updating is probably what kills the battery. For example, Google Maps drains the battery probably because it has to keep downloading map images, not because it keeps receiving GPS info. Just a thought. Of course, in the case of maps, the heavy screen use doesn't help either. A good way to test that would be to use a GPS app that doesn't have to download data over the network. Perhaps a compass app)

-SR-

 

[mscalero]

Wifi

So maybe we should make a poll? How many of us find that enabling wifi actually prolongs battery life, in areas with a lot of 1X/3G switching?

I haven't had a change to try it but I will try tomorrow at work.

But another question is, is the level of wifi signal also effecting battery life? As in will my battery be better if I have 3 of 3 wifi bars all day compared to 1 of 3? Or does that not matter?

 

[entwined82]

So maybe we should make a poll? How many of us find that enabling wifi actually prolongs battery life, in areas with a lot of 1X/3G switching?

I haven't had a change to try it but I will try tomorrow at work.

But another question is, is the level of wifi signal also effecting battery life? As in will my battery be better if I have 3 of 3 wifi bars all day compared to 1 of 3? Or does that not matter?

It adds at least 4-5 hours of battery life to my phone.

I've had 2 bars of Wifi and full signal and have noticed that weaker signal = slower speeds = slightly longer times to load up a webpage = screen on longer = battery drains a LITTLE faster. Not a significant difference but its a series of reactions that does lead to a little bit more battery drain. We're talking fairly small differences though.

Auto-adjust brightness is a big help too.

 

[mscalero]

@entwind

That is interesting, I will give this a try tomorrow. When you say 4 to 5 hours are you referring to standby, moderate use, or heavy use?

I leave my screen at about lowest or slightly above lowest.

Mike

 

[entwined82]

A little bit of everything. I have periods of heavy use, and then I may go 2 hours without touching the phone but then I could be on it for an hour. Apps + 3G are a battery killer. Apps over Wifi seem to drain the battery way less, I think thats where my big savings come from.

 

[dboss007]

I just got my phone last week so I'm still in the 'new' use class I guess, but when I check my battery use most of the time the display is usually at 60% or higher usage. And this is with keeping the brightness at 0% when indoors and around 50% when outdoors. My battery life just seems to be kinda crappy right now because of the display based on the battery meter. I'm hoping things stabilize but its kinda crazy at this point that at 0% brightness my display is still sucking so much battery juice.

 

[Salacon]

Well, I've had my Droid for almost a month (got it Feb. 12th), so I guess I'm safe to throw out there how my battery does.

I usually get home from work (about 10 hours from leaving home to getting home) with about 60% battery, and that's with light to moderate use (texting, data, and maybe a bit of game playing) throughout the day; I'd say it's even a bit closer to moderate since I'm on it almost constantly during breaks. Plus I usually talk to the girlfriend for at least 5-10 minutes, sometimes the whole ride home. I know, not safe, but I head home at midnight, so while I'm not a person that feels right when talking while driving, I feel all right about it when no one else is on the road with me.

As a side note, I'm in an Extended Network (1x) while at work as well. I don't know if that messes with the battery at all, but I feel the phone holds out pretty well.

 

[mrothschild]

Most smartphones will get you through the day. There made to be charged every night. My Blackberry died and before I got my Droid I was using an old Samsung flip phone and the battery life was ridiculous. I didn't have to charge it for a week.

 

[Chillout80s]

Watch the apps you install too, the more you have running in the background at any given time will contribute to draining your battery. Some apps come defaulted as being on all the time even when they don't need to be so check your settings on your apps and adjust accordingly.