My idle time is amazing, I can get about 20 hours with 3:30 of awake time. Similar to my Incredible with a aftermarket kernel. Not bad at all but I wish the awake time was more.
Thunderbolt Battery Complaints + Tips/Tricks
- Thread starter Cyber Warrior
- Start date
Quick update: after making sure the new battery is fully charged (phone off, charged till green) I believe the battery life is truly better. At 25% brightness, I have been using the phone quite extensively for the last 3.5 hours and I still have 78% left. Previous battery would have gone to less than 50%.
Activities ate browsing, emails, forums, installing apps, and map.
Battery...
I waited a few weeks to make the move to the TB. I purchased the extended Battery that does not require the bumped cover and I am not having any issues. I have to charge the TB as much as I did my DI.
Everything is stock. I have not had the need to root yet but I did recently add JuiceDefender and it seems to be getting about a 20% increase in battery life.
I do not live in a 4G location, but I travel a lot and have been using 4G for about a week or two. That did not seem to make any difference in battery life. (acceptable to good)
Don't know if this helps with a decision to purchase a TB, but I am glad I did.
I waited a few weeks to make the move to the TB. I purchased the extended Battery that does not require the bumped cover and I am not having any issues. I have to charge the TB as much as I did my DI.
Everything is stock. I have not had the need to root yet but I did recently add JuiceDefender and it seems to be getting about a 20% increase in battery life.
I do not live in a 4G location, but I travel a lot and have been using 4G for about a week or two. That did not seem to make any difference in battery life. (acceptable to good)
Don't know if this helps with a decision to purchase a TB, but I am glad I did.
An amazing way to save battery resources for what is really needed 
Join Angry Birds Anonymous and uninstall immediately!
----on a more serious note...i'm luving the tbolt and extended battery!
I now realize why my winMob6 phone lasted for several days per charge...it was soooo boring.
Join Angry Birds Anonymous and uninstall immediately!
----on a more serious note...i'm luving the tbolt and extended battery!
I now realize why my winMob6 phone lasted for several days per charge...it was soooo boring.
Exactly. My BlackBerry lasted longer because all I did was email on it. Web browsing, youtube, and apps were painful.
How I increase battery life
First, I bought the Seidio extended battery (dubious at best).
I have a task manager that kills apps running in the background, which I check frequently.
I downloaded an app that turns off the 4G radio; runs 3G instead. If I want 4G, just turn it on again.
This increased battery life to where I have about 75% power left at the end of the day with light to moderate usage.
BUT - after charging up the phone last night, I turned it off. This morning, on turning it on, I had 94% remaining. Where did 6% go while the phone was off?
First, I bought the Seidio extended battery (dubious at best).
I have a task manager that kills apps running in the background, which I check frequently.
I downloaded an app that turns off the 4G radio; runs 3G instead. If I want 4G, just turn it on again.
This increased battery life to where I have about 75% power left at the end of the day with light to moderate usage.
BUT - after charging up the phone last night, I turned it off. This morning, on turning it on, I had 94% remaining. Where did 6% go while the phone was off?
I have the same problem. I unplug and battery is down to 95% or so. This morning I woke up unplugged my phoneand took a shower. By the time I was back to my room 25 minutes later I had 81% battery left. Something is leaking the battery on this phone.
My Thunderbolt's duplicitous battery life
I apologize ahead of time for the length of this post. I include a lot of details in the hopes that i might help other who are suffering through poor battery life on the Thunderbolt.
When I got my Thunderbolt, I didn't have high expectations for the battery life. For the first three weeks of owning the phone I got about seven hours of battery life. I'm a moderate user at worst and left it on 4G all of the time. I used a task killer and Lookout. Turned GPS and Bluetooth off when I wasn't using it. Two non-Gmail accounts synced at 30 minutes and an hour. I turned the screen brightness way down too.
About a week and a half ago, the battery life took a turn for the worse. I wasn't even getting three hours out of it in standby. I didn't make or receive any phone calls Messaging was minimal. Tweetdeck was set to refresh at an hour. I uninstalled my task killer and Lookout. Set weather to update manually. Checked my signal strength. Was baffled by those claiming to get several days of battery life on a stock battery.
After calling Verizon, they sent me their tips, all of which I was following except for toggling the 3G/4G on and off. Reluctantly I set my phone to 3G. Reluctantly because, I paid for a 4G device not a 3G device with 4G occasionally. Instantly my battery life improved. I got through the day with 90% remaining on the battery. I charge my phone every night. When it is on the charger I toggle the 4G on. Why? I have no idea. It is a neurosis I suppose. It is probably the same reason I logged the battery percentage by the hour later that week. One day last week my Thunderbolt restarted on its own. The first time that I am aware of it doing it. The reason I mention this is because I had read that sometimes when the phone restarts on its own it is updating something. I'm not sure if that is a conspiracy or not. After the restart, I noticed that Lookout was still installed. So I uninstalled it (again)
The following day, when I took my phone off the charger, I forgot to toggle off the 4G. Three hours after taking it off the charger I remembered that I hadn't toggled it off and I was expecting less than 33% on the battery life. To my surprise, the battery was still at 95%. So, rather than turn off 4G, I left it on to see how long of a battery life I could get out of it. By the end the day I more than 80% left on the battery. Again, I'm not a heavy user of the phone (or any mind-altering substances). For about four days I got great battery life. Then the battery started to tank again ... and I was sad again. However, after I was done crying, I check my phone to see if anything was amiss. I hadn't installed any new apps. Updated a few, which I immediately regretted. As my battery drained and I could only helplessly watch, for some reason (probably the only thing in my life that could come remotely close to a stroke of genius) I decided to restart the phone and the battery which was at about 75% was down to 65% when I put it on the charger about five or six hours later. Today, I am pleased to report that after taking it off the charger six hours ago, my phone still retains about an 80%.
I cannot explain why the battery life has so greatly improved. I can only imagine that there is something that turns on and runs constantly if the phone is left on for too long. It makes sense to reboot the phone every once in a while. They are small computers and I've noticed if I leave my computers on for long periods of time, they get cranky. For those who don't, I would suggest restarting your phone every few days. I cannot guarantee that it will work but it did for me. For me it may have been a software issue. For other it could be a software and hardware issue. As someone mentioned it could be the battery itself.
I hope this helps.
I apologize ahead of time for the length of this post. I include a lot of details in the hopes that i might help other who are suffering through poor battery life on the Thunderbolt.
When I got my Thunderbolt, I didn't have high expectations for the battery life. For the first three weeks of owning the phone I got about seven hours of battery life. I'm a moderate user at worst and left it on 4G all of the time. I used a task killer and Lookout. Turned GPS and Bluetooth off when I wasn't using it. Two non-Gmail accounts synced at 30 minutes and an hour. I turned the screen brightness way down too.
About a week and a half ago, the battery life took a turn for the worse. I wasn't even getting three hours out of it in standby. I didn't make or receive any phone calls Messaging was minimal. Tweetdeck was set to refresh at an hour. I uninstalled my task killer and Lookout. Set weather to update manually. Checked my signal strength. Was baffled by those claiming to get several days of battery life on a stock battery.
After calling Verizon, they sent me their tips, all of which I was following except for toggling the 3G/4G on and off. Reluctantly I set my phone to 3G. Reluctantly because, I paid for a 4G device not a 3G device with 4G occasionally. Instantly my battery life improved. I got through the day with 90% remaining on the battery. I charge my phone every night. When it is on the charger I toggle the 4G on. Why? I have no idea. It is a neurosis I suppose. It is probably the same reason I logged the battery percentage by the hour later that week. One day last week my Thunderbolt restarted on its own. The first time that I am aware of it doing it. The reason I mention this is because I had read that sometimes when the phone restarts on its own it is updating something. I'm not sure if that is a conspiracy or not. After the restart, I noticed that Lookout was still installed. So I uninstalled it (again)
The following day, when I took my phone off the charger, I forgot to toggle off the 4G. Three hours after taking it off the charger I remembered that I hadn't toggled it off and I was expecting less than 33% on the battery life. To my surprise, the battery was still at 95%. So, rather than turn off 4G, I left it on to see how long of a battery life I could get out of it. By the end the day I more than 80% left on the battery. Again, I'm not a heavy user of the phone (or any mind-altering substances). For about four days I got great battery life. Then the battery started to tank again ... and I was sad again. However, after I was done crying, I check my phone to see if anything was amiss. I hadn't installed any new apps. Updated a few, which I immediately regretted. As my battery drained and I could only helplessly watch, for some reason (probably the only thing in my life that could come remotely close to a stroke of genius) I decided to restart the phone and the battery which was at about 75% was down to 65% when I put it on the charger about five or six hours later. Today, I am pleased to report that after taking it off the charger six hours ago, my phone still retains about an 80%.
I cannot explain why the battery life has so greatly improved. I can only imagine that there is something that turns on and runs constantly if the phone is left on for too long. It makes sense to reboot the phone every once in a while. They are small computers and I've noticed if I leave my computers on for long periods of time, they get cranky. For those who don't, I would suggest restarting your phone every few days. I cannot guarantee that it will work but it did for me. For me it may have been a software issue. For other it could be a software and hardware issue. As someone mentioned it could be the battery itself.
I hope this helps.
I'm lookin for a battery app that shows the status of the batter in 1% increments. Anyone want to help me out?
What is "Android System" in battery use screen? My phone was on standby for hours and Android System was at the top of the usage.
That normally means you have a rogue process going. Reboot and all will be well. I've seen this occasionally on the Dinc and Bolt.
Cheers, It seems to be the least resource hogging one out there with some customization.
FWIW... After taking the extended battery off the first charge yesterday morning at 9am and using the heck out of the Tbolt, i've decided to put it back on the charger tonight as i post this 36 hours later. That may not be any record, but i'm pleased. The battery is showing 32% in Spare Parts with the majority of power use going to the wi fi radio and screen, and a close 3rd to "Android System".
Tonight will be the second time the extended battery has been charged.
I was pleased with the first charge results.
My wife is still utilizing the stock battery with all the stock items running as vzw store sent her tbolt home. She gets about 6 good hours of active use (those darn battery eating birds!). She is pleased and luving the HTC Sense and droid apps.
cheers,
Thom
====PS on second charging of extended battery; Tbolt taken off charger ~0900 Thursday 28th. As i post this PS the battery is showing 35% in Spare Parts...so ~53 hours off charger. There was a little over 8 hours of use between voice/sms/mail/web/music/youTube/games. The more i use the Tbolt the more pleased i am.
Tonight will be the second time the extended battery has been charged.
I was pleased with the first charge results.
My wife is still utilizing the stock battery with all the stock items running as vzw store sent her tbolt home. She gets about 6 good hours of active use (those darn battery eating birds!). She is pleased and luving the HTC Sense and droid apps.
cheers,
Thom
====PS on second charging of extended battery; Tbolt taken off charger ~0900 Thursday 28th. As i post this PS the battery is showing 35% in Spare Parts...so ~53 hours off charger. There was a little over 8 hours of use between voice/sms/mail/web/music/youTube/games. The more i use the Tbolt the more pleased i am.
Last edited:
mclarryjr
Retired Moderator
- Nov 2, 2009
- 5,516
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I used Seidio 1750 battery in my Dinc and Seidio 1600 in my Bolt and the Bolt seems to last a little longer for me. Only difference is I twicked my sync time more on my bolt.
Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk
RyanYaddow
Well-known member
- Apr 29, 2011
- 53
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Maybe it's just me... but I get at LEAST 24 hours of moderate/heavy use on my Thunderbolt constantly connected to WiFi. My phone is rooted but everything else is the same. No overclocking or custom ROMs. Maybe I got lucky? But it's been a few weeks since I've had this phone and have never had any battery problems.
Airplane Mode Does a Great Job Extending Battery.
Using the Airplane mode when you do not expect to make or receive calls or access the Internet does a fantastic job of limiting battery drain. I charged my ThunderBolt to 99%, placed it in Airplane mode, and went to bed. The next morning it was still at 99%!!! In other words, placing the phone in Airplane mode saves the battery about as well as completely turning off the phone. The benefit of this approach is faster start up in the morning -- you just take the phone out of Airplane mode instead of having to wait five minutes.
Listening to stored music, watching stored videos, playing games, and reading from the Kindle app are all possible in Airplane mode; and the battery still lasts quite a long time enjoying those features. Based on testing it appears that with a full battery you could watch at least four hours of stored HD video using mid-level display brightness and headphones while in Airplane mode and still have some battery left.
The built-in FM radio will not work in airplane mode, but it does still work when in standard mode with all the wireless and network settings turned off. You can also turn off the "Mobile Network" setting to save juice and still make and receive calls. The Mobile Network setting is just for Internet access.
When the phone acts up and heats up and starts draining the battery fast despite you having turned off all antennas and force stopped most apps, rebooting also seems to help set things right for some reason. It must stop some background processes that other steps do not seem to shut down. The new HBO GO app is great, but it may be one of those apps that keeps draining the battery somehow until you reboot the phone.
Using the Airplane mode when you do not expect to make or receive calls or access the Internet does a fantastic job of limiting battery drain. I charged my ThunderBolt to 99%, placed it in Airplane mode, and went to bed. The next morning it was still at 99%!!! In other words, placing the phone in Airplane mode saves the battery about as well as completely turning off the phone. The benefit of this approach is faster start up in the morning -- you just take the phone out of Airplane mode instead of having to wait five minutes.
Listening to stored music, watching stored videos, playing games, and reading from the Kindle app are all possible in Airplane mode; and the battery still lasts quite a long time enjoying those features. Based on testing it appears that with a full battery you could watch at least four hours of stored HD video using mid-level display brightness and headphones while in Airplane mode and still have some battery left.
The built-in FM radio will not work in airplane mode, but it does still work when in standard mode with all the wireless and network settings turned off. You can also turn off the "Mobile Network" setting to save juice and still make and receive calls. The Mobile Network setting is just for Internet access.
When the phone acts up and heats up and starts draining the battery fast despite you having turned off all antennas and force stopped most apps, rebooting also seems to help set things right for some reason. It must stop some background processes that other steps do not seem to shut down. The new HBO GO app is great, but it may be one of those apps that keeps draining the battery somehow until you reboot the phone.
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