The following settings, applications, usage levels, and recommendations, will directly affect how much power the TB consumes. Finding the right balance between functionality and energy use is up to you. There are many settings where I suggest turning off vibration. Leave them on - if you want to - but be aware that vibration requires power.
If you scroll toward the bottom, you will also find an explanation and procedure for "bump charging" and a link to an external site that ran both OEM and 3rd party batteries through their paces. Results are worth a read.
Settings > Sound Settings:
- Sound Profile: normal or silent.
- Vibrate: unchecked.
- Vibrate feedback: unchecked.
Settings > Accounts and Sync:
- Background data: If this is selected, apps can send and receive online account information even if you are not currently using them.
- Auto-sync: If this is selected, everything listed below it will sync based on how you've configured it. If unchecked, you will have to manually sync each app.
- Under manage accounts, select each account (including weather, news, stocks) and modify their sync schedules.
Settings > Display Settings:
- Brightness level: Drag the brightness slider to the left to decrease (lowest consumption) or to the right to increase the screen brightness (highest consumption). Auto brightness attempts to manage this for you based on lighting conditions.
- Screen timeout setting: The lower the better.
- On screen animations: turn off.
- Notification Flash: Turn off if not using.
Settings > Wireless & Networks (most have widgets to control them):
- WiFi: Enable when WiFi connectivity is available. It consumes less power than the cellular data network (1x, 3G, or LTE).
- WiFi Settings: Open > click the menu capacitive button > then select advanced. If you click the pull-down menu, by default, it is set to never. Leaving it set to never is good. Otherwise, the phone will revert to the cellular data connection when the device goes to sleep, which consumes more power.
- Bluetooth: Uncheck when not in use.
- Mobile Hotspot: Uncheck when not in use. Plug the TB into a power outlet when using.
- Mobile network: Disconnects TB from Verizon's data network until you re-enable. Analogy: the equivalent of powering down your cable modem. If you do so, no application would be able to connect to the internet, but at least your modem would stop sucking up power. That said, WiFi will still work if enabled.
Settings > Location Settings:
- Location settings: It's a common misconception that checking one or more of these boxes increases battery consumption. It's the apps - that use GPS - that will affect battery consumption. Leave all of these checked if you have configured an app (like weather) or plan on using another app that uses GPS (like Nav). The GPS radio will only be active when these apps are in use.
Settings > Power:
- Enable power save: Check this and tweak the settings below it. Lots of good stuff in there.
Settings > Language & Keyboard > Touch Input > Text Input:
- Uncheck Vibrate when typing.
Applications:
- Gtalk - by default it is set to automatically sign you in and will run in the background. This can disabled within the Gtalk settings.
- Mobile Hotspot - make sure you have your TB plugged in when in use.
- Navigation and/or VZ Navigator - when feasible, try to keep your TB plugged in when in use.
- Go through each and every app in your app drawer. If you see an app that looks like it might access the internet periodically, then open it up and see if there are settings to control update frequency. Examples: Friend Stream, Mobile IM, Peep, etc.
- Widgets that display battery, CPU, and memory utilization will consume more power because they are polling the system for information.
- Live wallpapers consumer more power than standard wallpapers.
- Wallpapers/apps: the color white consumes more energy than the color black.
- Task Killers: If you can't resist the temptation to use a task killer, please use extreme caution. Task killers - although unecessary - can be used to safely close applications that you have installed. Where they become problematic, is when you use them to close pre-installed apps or services. In many cases, these services and/or apps, have dependencies on other services/apps. Closing one could have an undesirable affect on another. There are others that the OS or HTC relies upon in order for things to work properly. If it senses it is no longer functioning Android will try to restart it. A war breaks out and the battery is the loser.
What is and how do I Bump Charge?
I first heard about bump charging back in the early days of owning the Incredible. I read a thread starting with
this post and decided it wasn't something I wanted to do. That's just me though, and I realize it's a popular thing to do. That said, here is how it's done:
- Power up (if not already) and plug your TB into a power source. As the battery is being charged, the notification LED shows a solid orange light.
- Wait until LED is solid green, indicating it is fully charged.
- Unplug, press and hold the power button, and select the option to power off.
- Once powered down reconnect power source.
- The LED will show a solid orange light again, indicating it is charging.
- Once it's green, unplug the TB and use the power button to power up up the TB.
- Once Sense has loaded plug the phone back in again. You will notice that the LED is now orange again.
- Repeat steps 3-7 process until the light is green immediately upon plugging it back in (approximately 3-4 times).
Other considerations that impact battery life:
- Frequent web browsing.
- Voice call frequency.
- Weak coverage areas and/or searching for signal.
- Fringe 3G/1X/4G areas where there phone bounces back and forth between each.
- If you are in a 3G only coverage area, the fact that 4G is a feature of this phone, does not mean battery is being impacted. In fact it isn't any more than when you are in a 1X only coverage area where 3G is available.
- Overclocking (when available) will increase battery consumption.
- High temperatures.
- USB car chargers only output 500mAh - regardless of their rated output. The TB will see it as a USB host (like a PC/laptop) and will not draw any more power than that. Use a 1A car charger like this $5 charger from Motorola. The Verizon charger is rated at 750mAh out. If you're in your car using Nav or more, 750mAh will not keep up. The wall charger pushes 1A - get a car charger that matches.
- There are probably tweaks that HTC will be able to make to enhance battery life, but the real culprit is battery technology has not evolved as fast as the functionality of the modern smartphone's. We are now driving the equivalent of a Ferrari with a 2-gallon gas tank.
3rd Party Battery Test Results:
- These results do not include testing for any TB OEM or 3rd party batteries. However, it is still an informative guide as to how well each of these batteries fared under testing.
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