Thunderbolt Battery Complaints + Tips/Tricks

[EvanGMan]

So here are the tricks I've seen so far to conserve battery:

1. Turn off LTE.

2. Turn of VZW Location Service. (Not sure if that actually does anything.)
Settings > Location > Uncheck VZW Location Service

3. Turn display down to 25%.
Settings > Display

4. Disable vibrate on key press.
(Depends on what keyboard you're using.)

If people want to contribute to this, feel free.

 

[menji]

Back around the 40th page or so, I remember I read someone using the ESPN ScoreCenter app...I highly suggest getting rid of it. I downloaded it last night, and adjusted the time it took to get score info, and my battery still dropped from 92 to 54 in about 30 mins. All i did was send three txt msgs. gave it another chance for this morning. My battery dropped another 20 percent in 10 mins. I got rid of it. and now my battery seems to be back to normal.

i still can't get it to bump charge though. so i said screw it. I'm worrying more about a drained battery than actually enjoying my new phone. The article at the end had a point, if it really is that bad, then get the extended battery. and I know for most of you that's not acceptable because you expect the battery to be working in the first place, but I guess I'm too carefree to care lol. no offense. my battery is decent, so I guess that is why i'm not complaining.

and i was wondering if i was the only one who had trouble getting the back cover off. I feel so much better and a lot less dumber knowing other people had the same issue =D.

 

[Cyber Warrior]

I'd like to add that I've been using Launcher Pro instead of Sense and while I realize Sense is still running, I've noticed a big difference in battery life. I really think that Sense just isn't as efficient of a Launcher. I had the same thing on my Droid X. When I used LPP vs stock Blur I got better battery life there as well.

I've always heard that Sense was a hog on the CPU. I switched to LPP the second day.

 

[ksi69]

Bought the Thunderbolt because my Fascinate is still waiting on Froyo. Used the Thunderbolt for four days - too heavy, terrible battery life, display almost unusable in sunlight. Returned it.

Rooted my Fascinate and flashed to Froyo. Phone is smooth as silk now, everything works flawlessly. It's now a better phone than the Thunderbolt.

 

[azdmelani]

Bought the Thunderbolt because my Fascinate is still waiting on Froyo. Used the Thunderbolt for four days - too heavy, terrible battery life, display almost unusable in sunlight. Returned it.

Rooted my Fascinate and flashed to Froyo. Phone is smooth as silk now, everything works flawlessly. It's now a better phone than the Thunderbolt.

To each their own, i had the fascinate and I am much happier with the tbolt. Pandora no longer force closes, the ringer volume is loud (I can hear it in the other roo, now) and the internet is much faster.

 

[racedog]

Bought the Thunderbolt because my Fascinate is still waiting on Froyo. Used the Thunderbolt for four days - too heavy, terrible battery life, display almost unusable in sunlight. Returned it.

Rooted my Fascinate and flashed to Froyo. Phone is smooth as silk now, everything works flawlessly. It's now a better phone than the Thunderbolt.

LOL

I also had the Fascinate, it wasn't very fascinating! I hated that thing. But you know the saying, "different strokes for different folks"!

R

 

[Kronko]

No complaints here. Today is my second day with the phone so battery will get better after a few more charges.

Today over 9 hours up time, awake time 2 hours, 50% battery.

I do not know what others do with their phones but I work every day for at least 8 hours, when I get home I need to do personal things a do some work in my computer. To kill the battery, you will need to have plenty of free time every day. Maybe the majority are kids or teenagers.

 

[pstellato73]

My Battery life has definitely gotten better over the last week. I think the kicker was switching from sense to LPP. I have been getting much better battery life with it.

I do not turn off location settings, as a matter of fact, I keep all three on at all times. I have my screen brightness down to 25% and I have 4G running all day long. I take it off the charger at 7am and don't have to recharge until about 8-10pm. yesterday I didn't have to recharge until 10:30pm and had it off the charger at the same time in the morning.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I really am liking this phone. I like that it's a little on the heavy side. It feels like a real mans phone, not like the girly Iphone. I love the screen, I love the 4G speeds I am getting. I like the kickstand and speaker. So far not having any problems with thing. I feel that the more I read about the newer phones and dual core, the more it influences me. But...........I am really happy with this phone and I intend to keep it.

Oh, BTW, the phone has an awake time showing 12 hours today and still at 40%.

 

[EvanGMan]

It could just be my imagination, but I feel as though my second charge of the day gets zapped much quicker than my overnight charge. I pulled my TBolt off the charger with 60%ish battery at 5, and by 8 I had 15% battery. I'm seriously considering either returning the phone, or splurging on the extended battery. I am tempted to go back to my MotoDroid, but odds are all LTE phones are going to have this problem.

 

[ThomasT626]

Today was VERY discouraging for me regarding battery life. Let it charge completely overnight, same with my Epic 4G. Took'em both off at 8:45am. At 9:30am, the Thunderbolt dropped 22% sitting in my car. At 2:30pm, it died completely. Barely did anything. My Epic 4G currently has 39% remaining and it's 9:19pm. That is flat out ridicuous and I'll be going to Verizon tomorrow to pitch a fit.

Any recommendations regarding whether to get the big, huge extended battery and door OR the Seido extended battery that fits as is? I need a good recommendation tonight, because I need to do something. I love the phone, but sheesh, this is ridiculous. I don't want an iPhone 4, but that battery lasts and that's pretty appealing in and of itself.

BTW, I really don't need any more battery saving tips. I've got that covered, trust me.

 

[tarheelDan]

My battery lasted from 7AM to 9:49PM. I noticed something interesting though: it may just be my mind, but the first 60% of the battery went away fairly quickly.

Once I got down to the 40's and 30's, the battery died much more slowly. I disabled power saver mode that tried to kick in at 15% and it took forever before it died completely.

I wanted to completely discharge the battery and then bump charge just this once to see if it helps, so I even set the screen timeout to never and upped the brightness to 100% and it took much longer than I expected for the last 6% to be used up.

Anyone else find it's not a linear relationship?

 

[lapeter]

Just my $.02 worth. I got my TB on Monday and had ordered the extended battery. Over the weekend I was really happy about the big battery. When I got it I put the big battery on. I don't mind the extra size, but I thought after I finish all the setting up and playing maybe I could use the small battery. Also with the big battery I left the brightness on auto and the only other "battery saver" thing I did was the Blockbuster deal. I use my phone for business and pleasure. I get a few emails and calls and texts a day. Some days are more than others. Today was about average. I don't know where to go to get the breakdown of usage either. I leave the phone charging all night and turn on at 5:45 AM. It is now 4PM Maui time and my extended battery is showing 56% left. I am sure on the little battery it would be dead by now. My thought is if this phone has heavy business, the only good option is the big battery. I don't want to change batteries during the day if I can help it. I am staying with the big battery and the little guy as a back up. For reference I am coming form a Storm 2 and I only had two regular batteries. There were days that I would need to use the back up battery. It really is an extended battery phone if you want to use everything IMHO.
Aloha.

 

[Bwangster12]

Wouldn't anyone know if it is safe to use wall chargers with the TB from other phones? I realized that both my old Palm Pixi charger and my LG enV3 chargers are both microUSB. Would there chargers work interchangeably? The output on the LG enV3 charger says:

Output: 5.1V=0.7A
Input: 100-240V-50/60 Hz 0.2A

The LG charger appears to charge the Palm, but I don't wanna try the Palm or LG on the TB until I find out if I'll ruin the battery.

 

[obidos]

On the blockbuster app updates is that only happening once you open the app or does it happen from day one? I have never opened the app, so should I open it to update and then say do not sync or is it fine since I have never used it?

I second this question. I've never touched the Blockbuster app. Do we need to open it and make the suggested changes?

 

[anonymous239411]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Upstreammiami
you have to call and *****!!!! this was made with the incredible and a bunch of people got half the price or even free extended batteries. but u cant call yet i dont think there selling extended ones for the tb just yet

Quote:
Originally Posted by gerardv514
Would one have to call HTC or Verizon to complain about the battery, and possibly get the 1/2 off or even a free battery? I'm on day 2 and my phone seemed like it died way quicker today than day one. I've added the brightness and power widgets to my main homescreen to help toggle power settings, so we'll see with day 3.

Any insight from anyone?? Upstreammiami do you have any knowledge of what happened with the incredible and those people in terms of half price of free extended batteries?

 

[ncruz408]

My experience

I just wanted to share my experience with battery life. At first I was very upset, because the first time I charged it to 100% it only lasted 5 hours with minimal use and with default settings. I was ready to return the phone within 3 days if it continued to do so. I came across to this forum that night and learned many things. I had to download the sc@taiwan app to turn off 4g, turn off wifi, bluetooth, and gps. I also installed Task killer for Froyo and turned off all the apps that I was not using at that time, dim the brightness of screen, turn off auto sync, and two full cycle charges (from 10%-100% charges). By doing so, my battery life has increased from 5hrs of minimal use to 14 hours with these settings and with moderate use. (Browsing the web, texting, youtube, pandora, HTC sense, occasional phone calls, and light gaming with angry birds and robodefense) I just received the HTC extended battery from Verizon and will update the battery life on an updated post. I am so glad, I have kept the phone and I am loving it more and more each day.

 

[J-Dam]

My battery lasted from 7AM to 9:49PM. I noticed something interesting though: it may just be my mind, but the first 60% of the battery went away fairly quickly.

Once I got down to the 40's and 30's, the battery died much more slowly. I disabled power saver mode that tried to kick in at 15% and it took forever before it died completely.

I wanted to completely discharge the battery and then bump charge just this once to see if it helps, so I even set the screen timeout to never and upped the brightness to 100% and it took much longer than I expected for the last 6% to be used up.

Anyone else find it's not a linear relationship?

I'm seeing the same thing. Stays at 100% for about 30 minutes and then drains fairly quickly (around 4 hours to 70%). From there on out though, it holds nicely. What i did was on the second day i owned it i let it drain completely (until the phone shut itself down) after a full charge. Then i charged it fully (with phone on) and did the bump charge. I am having great battery life. Lasted 22 hours today with moderate use.

I still see the pattern you are talking about, but my battery seems to have condition itself rather nicely.

 

[BuffaloMadMan]

Battery was very disappointing no 4G where I'm at all 3g or WiFi...battery would just drain to quick for simple things like phone calls (basic phone function) build quality is poor light leakage, battery door you have to rip off, can't charge on kickstand, sound muffled when kickstand is not down extremely annoying with voice calls on speaker, led notification was hard to see unless looking straight on, as for voice quality during calls the other end seemed muffled and could not understand the other person (constant problem) keyboard is baggy, as far as sense overall it wasnt that bad.....various times I did see lagging and widgets would not show up all the time just say waitimg..

Please don't flame me I know many members love htc but this phone is not for me just my opinion and I'm certain other people will have different experiences..but I actually need to use my phone throughout the day instead of letting it sit with light usage and bragging I'm getting 23 hrs plus ..really wish it was worth the hype

Im not new to Android either so I know what I'm doing good luck to you all and hopefully they get some updates out to you all

 

[areyow]

As the second day I've had my extended battery, I cannot see functioning without it. My phone has got some pretty heavy usage today (playing winamp/pandora for a large portion of the day) and internet usage, along with a lot of texting. The only thing i didn't do was stream video. I managed my entire day, and still have about 50% left on it. At first I was horrified at how bulky the extended battery was, but in reality I could hardly notice it. I wish it contoured more, but beyond that, I am an extremely happy customer!

 

[jeffnucci]

I'd like to add to my earlier post that I agree with a sentiment I'm starting to see around here with regards to our battery life or lack thereof. I have definitely tweaked settings to stretch out the battery as much as possible but I don't think being conservative with backlight timeout or Wi-Fi sleep is such a bad thing. If you go through your settings and look at how you have everything setup, how many of your settings are set how they NEED to be and how many settings are just a "my phone is capable of this so I want to always utilize it" case?

Also, USE YOUR PHONE. I've barely touched it unless I had a list of things I wanted to do and I found that it isn't very fun or useful. The last two days when I started using it heavily again, I found my battery life to be much better. It was the same on my Droid X when I first got it. Took about a month for it to be of maximum use.