Wow! 1d 30m 23s since unplugged, and still 17% left. Task Manager by Rhythm Software.

[kenlperry]

Yep! You read that correctly. My Evo stayed off the charger for over 24 hours and still had 17% battery life left. I'm amazed. For the longest time I stayed away from the many task manager apps, because I read so many negative posts about them. But with battery life that averaged between 10-12 hours per charge, I decided to give one a try. I'd typically get about 10 hours before I hit that 15% mark where the phone suggests that you plug into a charger. So anyway, I looked at several apps and Task Manager had pretty good comments, so I gave it a try about a week ago. I configured it to auto-kill many apps when the screen goes dark, and I also placed several of my apps on the ignore list, so they wouldn't be auto-killed. Well each day since installing Task Manager I've noticed an increase in my battery life. My average battery life has gone up to between 16-18 hours. But check this out. Yesterday, I removed my phone from the charger around 6am and didn't charge it again. As of this morning, the phone displayed 1d, 30m, 23s since being unplugged and it still had 17%. Like I said before, I'm amazed. I've never seen 1d(1 day) displayed on my phone ever, not even close to that, until installing Task Manager. So needless to say, I'm a fan. And I thought I should share this with you guys(and girls). If you're considering a task managing app, give it a try. If you don't get good results just delete it.

KP

 

[Cubfan]

On 2.2? I thought task killers generally didn't work with that.

 

[kenlperry]

Yes, I have 2.2(Froyo). And it seems that something is working. The way this app works is it supposedly auto-kills apps that you configure it to kill when the screen is turned off. You can also manually kill apps while the screen is on. I do notice that while the screen is on I can kill some apps and about a minute later, if I look in task manager they are running again(Peep, Friend Stream, Stocks, etc.). Now I don't know if while the screen is off, whether or not these apps continue to restart and if they do, whether or not Task Manager continues to Auto-Kill them. But whatever it does seems to be working for my Evo, atleast for the moment. It's been a week and I've seen a significant improvement of battery life and no side effects. FYI, I don't have mine setup to kill any System Tasks.

 

[capnhowdy18]

Task manager I believe only kills when the screen goes off. So for apps that constantly keep appearing when the screen comes on, you are actually wasting more batter to have those programs reload. Friend stream, I believe being one of them.

This is a repost from a battery thread I made yesterday. Obviously I don't use my phone as much as everyone else. Also, this is with a task killer with no auto killer. I only kill apps I open that don't usually run in the background. Anything that repeatedly reloads, like friendstream, I just left alone. I since have uninstalled it, and I'll see how that goes.

I actually get anywhere between 1 day to 3 days depending on how much I use my phone. Granted Im not a heavy user at all. I reset my phone right before the charge. This is with a stock battery.

I have 44:30 up time and a 1:54 awake time. It says 1d 17h 20m since last unplugged. Cell Standby 48%(no signal 1%), Phone Idle, 44% , Android System 6%. Display 2%(55m time on). I have 40% battery left.

Now this is on a weekend where I was in doing school work, so the phone wasn't use much at all. When I go away and do all my searching on the phone, I usually need to recharge by the end of the day.

 

[kenlperry]

@capnhowdy18, that's interesting. I hear what u r saying, but if that is in fact the case, then I don't know how to explain the coinciding increase in battery life I'm experiencing. I myself am a pretty heavy user. I rarely go 30 minutes without having my phone in my hand doing something(except when I'm sleeping of course). I have twitter messages constantly coming via text, I browse the web regularly, I text regularly, I have 4 email accounts setup and 3 of them check hourly for new mail, I use the facebook app regularly, I now view my webcams at home regularly, etc... So in the past, getting 10 hours was considered good by me. So 24 hours, for me, is, like I've stated already, AMAZING. I've actually installed 3 more apps after setting up Task Manager(Lookout, Seedonk(to view my webcams), and Tiny DVR). So I can't think of anything else that might be helping my battery life, other than the way I have Task Manager configured... But like I said, if someone doesn't like the results they can always delete it. So far it seems to be helping me out!

 

[capnhowdy18]

I'm not saying its not helping. However, it might help more. For instance, if peep keeps loading, if you just let it stay, it will use less batter. Now granted peep is an that probably doesn't take a lot to load anyway.

Also you could be closing certain apps that were running some intensive process in the background that did eat lots of battery. For instance Facebook, if you have the refresh rate up pretty high could use more battery. Closing it down might save battery. However, not as much as going manual refresh but leaving it open.

If a process is just sitting in memory, it uses no more power then if if that memory was empty. However, what does it batter is when those process are running, using the processor or accessing the internet. What would be probably beneficial is to start check what apps your closing before you close the screen and see whats running, and what that app might be doing.

FYI: I'm not saying using this task manager is bad. I'm just saying you might be able to squeek out a little more battery out of it if we get a bit more thorough.

 

[kenlperry]

@capnhowdy18, oh ok. I see what u mean. That's definitely something to consider as well. Thanks!

 

[Kedar]

Yeah I've gone 40 hours with Roms and whatnot.

 

[Gimik]

I'm at about 27 hours now and 60% charge left. I did plug in to get the new AR recovery, but it was only plugged in for about 30 seconds. Not extremely heavy use though. Some light web browsing, twitter, and email.

Not running any task killers at all.

 

[akarol]

Your task killer had NOTHING to do with your battery life. FACT! It's a placebo effect.

Do your research...

 

[Robbie317]

Your task killer had NOTHING to do with your battery life. FACT! It's a placebo effect.

Do your research...

Who cares.... A Placebo does what it's suppose to do.... Nothing really but it gives people the mental thinking that it's helping and that is all that really matters...

If using a task killer makes some one feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside weather it's working or not........... Leave'em alone....

On another note.... I average 16 hours a day on what I consider medium use with about 20 - 40% remaining depending on exactly how hard I am on the phone. I went almost 40 hours (with stock ROM... No rooting) with what I consider extremely LIGHT use.... I was traveling by car and 12 of those hours were spent driving and easily 16 hours were spent sleeping....

 

[capnhowdy18]

Your task killer had NOTHING to do with your battery life. FACT! It's a placebo effect.

Do your research...

Again, this is not entirely true. It is very possible that he has a rogue app, or some setting on in an app thats gobbling up battery life in the background. If he kills this app its saving battery.

As I said before, its definitely better to find out what app or setting that is, and change it then constantly killing it, but to say a task killer never has any effect on battery life is a bit short sighted.

 

[kenlperry]

Again, this is not entirely true. It is very possible that he has a rogue app, or some setting on in an app thats gobbling up battery life in the background. If he kills this app its saving battery.

As I said before, its definitely better to find out what app or setting that is, and change it then constantly killing it, but to say a task killer never has any effect on battery life is a bit short sighted.

@capnhowdy18, again you make valid points. Clearly I've been using my Evo consistently for the last 2 months and have seen a real difference(not an imagined one) in the last week. I agree with you that it's most likely one(or some) of my apps that was "gobbling up battery life in the background" that is now being slowed down by the Task Manager kill process. I'm open-minded enough to see that! I also wasn't even going to dignify the high and mighty akarol's useless post with a response. Perhaps I'm not smart enough to know what a placebo is. ha!!!

 

[Robbie317]

Again, this is not entirely true. It is very possible that he has a rogue app, or some setting on in an app thats gobbling up battery life in the background. If he kills this app its saving battery.

As I said before, its definitely better to find out what app or setting that is, and change it then constantly killing it, but to say a task killer never has any effect on battery life is a bit short sighted.

I agree.... I actually do have a task killer installed but I do NOT have it set to run automatically. I manually use it from time to time (Maybe once a day or every other day) and I typically kill every thing when I am done using the phone for what I think will be a while.

Does it give me better battery life? I honestly don't know... I tested ATK for a month when I had my Nexus One and the first month I had my EVO with regular use and the difference was minimal at best... at least in my testing. I actually feel I got better battery life when I just stopped worrying and obsessing about it. I think the early reviews on the EVO that harped on Battery life caused a lot of people to worry about it more than they should.

My EVO easily last me from Wake (7:30am) to bed (10 - 11pm) and on days I have designs of going out late I plug it up on the charger either at work or when I get home from work for a pick me up to make sure she last until 2 - 3 in the morning..

Only once did I have a major problem and I had to do a hard reset... The phone was barely lasting me 6 hours with NO use.. Fully charged got to bed and when I got up it was dead... wouldn't even power up... I used Spare Parts to try and isolate the rouge app... and it was some thing Android (it was a couple months ago so I don't remember exactly what was written but it was .android something) Task killer did nothing... So I had to reset.. then things went back to normal....

 

[Caitlyn McKenzie]

The problem with task killers is they mask the real issue: some app is devouring your battery. I get great battery life myself, and never use a task killer.

Not to mention, to people who don't do their research before installing (A lot of people), they begin to wonder why their SMS acts weird, or their homescreen keeps restarting, or their alarm clock won't go off...

 

[Robbie317]

The problem with task killers is they mask the real issue: some app is devouring your battery. I get great battery life myself, and never use a task killer.

Not to mention, to people who don't do their research before installing (A lot of people), they begin to wonder why their SMS acts weird, or their homescreen keeps restarting, or their alarm clock won't go off...

Well the poster in this case is having a great deal of success (real or imagined) with their task killer.... If he was posting problems while using the task killer this would be a totally different conversation...

For some one to come out and say "Hey I am getting great battery life since setting up my task killer to auto kill at X intervals." and then have people hammer him and tell him to do research and it's a placebo or what not is not fair to the guy who (Again real or fake) is having success and trying to pass on his knowledge...

 

[Caitlyn McKenzie]

The point is, he'd have more success with finding out the true culprit.

 

[splmonster]

I have gone over 30hrs of normal use with my EVO and never once have I used a task killer on it. Task Killers do more harm then good.

 

[Robbie317]

The point is, he'd have more success with finding out the true culprit.

That is why I have spare parts installed.... Rarely use it but that one time my battery all of a sudden was getting destroyed in under 6 hours with no use I was able to pinpoint exactly what was killing my battery.. I couldn't fix it and the Sprint store couldn't either but the rouge program in Android was keeping my awake and up times exactly the same... Only a hard reset fixed the problem..

I still say if he is having great success (Real or Imagined) leave it alone... Unless he ask for help with his task killer.................... I know plenty of people who do things the long and hard way and even if you point out a quicker and simpler way they are happy with what they feel works... No problem with that at all...

 

[kenlperry]

I have gone over 30hrs of normal use with my EVO and never once have I used a task killer on it. Task Killers do more harm then good.

I have a few friends who tend to have strong opinions on topics that they themselves have done little to no research on. With this statement you remind me of them. Going over 30 hours is great. I'd love for my Evo to do the same, but with my current usage, it just doesn't happen. But anyway, you clearly stated "never once have I used a task killer on it". So please tell me how you would know enough for your statement that "task killers do more harm then good" to hold any real weight?????? I'm not trying to be a smart-azz, but it sounds like you have absolutely no personal experience with task killers(based on your own statement). So how would you know if they actually do more harm than good or not?