Help, my battery life sucks!

Chris3D

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Sep 21, 2010
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To date, I haven't seen it and I really get the impression that the kool-aid around here stops any of you from expecting that either.

I think you're comparing apples to oranges. On the hardware level, they're just too different to make any blanket conclusions with regard to battery life. The newest BB Torch, for example, has a 624MHz processor, a 3.2 inch screen and weighs 5.7 ounces. The Fascinate has a 1GHZ processor, 4 inch screen and weighs 4.1 ounces - 1.6 ounces LESS. And earlier BB's had even smaller (and sometimes FAR smaller) screens and slower processors.

It is unfortunate that the carriers load up Android phones with all kinds of battery sapping bloat, but that can be solved by rooting and removing it. You won't get an argument from me that that shouldn't be necessary, but it is what it is.
 

joebob2000

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I think you're comparing apples to oranges. On the hardware level, they're just too different to make any blanket conclusions with regard to battery life. The newest BB Torch, for example, has a 624MHz processor, a 3.2 inch screen and weighs 5.7 ounces. The Fascinate has a 1GHZ processor, 4 inch screen and weighs 4.1 ounces - 1.6 ounces LESS. And earlier BB's had even smaller (and sometimes FAR smaller) screens and slower processors.

It is unfortunate that the carriers load up Android phones with all kinds of battery sapping bloat, but that can be solved by rooting and removing it. You won't get an argument from me that that shouldn't be necessary, but it is what it is.

Newer, faster CPUs can be more efficient, especially in standby (see: pentium 4 2ghz vs core 2 solo 2ghz). I would never complain if the full throttle runtime is poorer on a newer, 1ghz 512mb ram device is less than an older 600mhz, 256mb ram device. However the standby time is just as bad (if not much worse) and there are other reasons for that (lack of sensible optimizations) than the cpu speed or features. We need to be asking the hard questions here, that is all i am saying. How can android get better?
 

voghan

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There is a cool app called Auto WiFi Toggle. It checks to see I'd a WiFi network is available, if not it turns off WiFi, if found WiFi stays on. WiFi will save your battery a ton is being used.

Sent from my SCH-I500 using Tapatalk
 

F34R

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I havent found a single use case where the fascinate can outlast the BBs i have used. Maybe our luck is just different. If the android platform is supposed to work better than this, then maybe I need to ditch the fascinate. However, if we (the android community) are going to ignore the stuff the BB does right and simply say "hey look how terrible the browser is" then we are setting the bar WAY too low for a smartphone. I want to see Google competing with RIM on every level, not just multimedia, that's my point here. To date, I haven't seen it and I really get the impression that the kool-aid around here stops any of you from expecting that either.

You are misunderstanding my position. I'm saying that with the amount of use I have with the Fascinate, the batter life is comparable to my Tour with the way I used it.

If I used my Tour for the amount of stuff I use my Fascinate, I'm sure the battery life would suffer a lot more than it did with the type of usage I had for my BB.

Can the battery life improve? Of course it can. I look at different ways to do just that, every day. What services are being used that don't need to be, bloatware, etc., all taking juice that I don't need it. I love my BB, and miss the functionality I had with it. However, I've grown into wanting a little more out of my phone, and the Fascinate gives that to me. Have I made a sacrifice in pure battery life? Yes. Have I gained a lot more flexibility, usage, and other features, at the cost of some of that juice? Yep. I'm still able to get through my daily activities, raging from 12 to 18 hours without thinking I have to stop doing X to save my battery.
 

voghan

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Actually, I can get three or four days on my HTC Hero. It's rooted, running a custom rom with almost no usage at all. it's my test phone with no coverage, just wifi. I still get gmail emails and texts via google voice. It's got a 3.2" screen that is drastically darker than the Fascinate's. I maybe pick it up five times a week when I want to test a change to my app on a phone with a small screen. See a Android phone can go multiple days without charging.
 

F34R

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Actually, I can get three or four days on my HTC Hero. It's rooted, running a custom rom with almost no usage at all. it's my test phone with no coverage, just wifi. I still get gmail emails and texts via google voice. It's got a 3.2" screen that is drastically darker than the Fascinate's. I maybe pick it up five times a week when I want to test a change to my app on a phone with a small screen. See a Android phone can go multiple days without charging.

There ya go.. no antenna bleeding the battery. If I didn't talk on the phone, and turned off the cell antenna, I'm sure my battery would last a long time too lol.
 

NOsquid

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My BB tour actually lasted a month on a charge after I deactivated and bought the Fascinate. Just made the battery dying sound the other night.

lol
 

F34R

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My BB tour actually lasted a month on a charge after I deactivated and bought the Fascinate. Just made the battery dying sound the other night.

lol

I've had my Fascinate since launch, and my Tour has been sitting on my desk and hasn't died yet.
 

joebob2000

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The thing that just stings is that with my BB, if I just left it in my pocket (still running GPS and tracking my whereabouts on Latitude, syncing email, signed in to IM, ready to take calls, etc) it would last at least 72 hours, if not more. With the fascinate the same use case (just staring at the phone not using it at all) nets me MAYBE 18 to 24 hours of runtime. Maybe the phone is just broken, who knows, but it's a kick in the nuts thinking that *this* is a step in the right direction.
 

NickA

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Sep 15, 2010
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The thing that just stings is that with my BB, if I just left it in my pocket (still running GPS and tracking my whereabouts on Latitude, syncing email, signed in to IM, ready to take calls, etc) it would last at least 72 hours, if not more. With the fascinate the same use case (just staring at the phone not using it at all) nets me MAYBE 18 to 24 hours of runtime. Maybe the phone is just broken, who knows, but it's a kick in the nuts thinking that *this* is a step in the right direction.

I have to agree with you on this stat. I wrote an app for fleet/delivery drivers. They would receive a list of stops/work orders on their BB curve. My app would intercept and map the routes to the houses. They would grab a phone in the AM, throw it in the truck, and bring it back at 5:00 with a charge left on it. It ran the whole day, constantly reporting their location back to the office.