Develop Bugs

Two identical phones with massively different battery usage. What's going on?

A friend and I both have a desire, updated to the latest version of Android and running 5.09 radio. Neither of us use it extensively and I can get easily through the day on a charge, mostly having upwards of 30% battery charge left when I go to bed, while his can barely do 8 hours before needing a recharge.
He's already taken it to the store to have it looked at once and it came back performing the same.
I've been looking at his currentwidget log and the consumption seems fine to me, however the battery drain is much larger than I'd expect in return.
http://pastebin.com/0Crvm1xR
Anyone have any idea what's going on? Please help!

Are you two using same ROMs..??

I'm rooted, he's not, but I'm using basically the same thing. My battery usage hasn't changed, while upgrading from 2.1 to 2.2, his hasn't either. But his has been crap from the beginning.

Swap phones for a few days. Perhaps he's in an area where by reception is poor compared to you. The phone would use more power trying to get a better signal?
Sent using XDA App

Does he play games all the time? Does he use GPS, Bluetooth, WLAN? And you?
how does it perform in airplane mode?
Install Android System Info and take a look at the task list, CPU load should hover around 10-20% after a few seconds. If it's higher find the task and report back.

He said if he just leaves it on the shelf with sync disabled, no calls and no notifications, it gets 12 hours tops. I get 48 like that.

Does he use Live Wallpaper? I found out that if I use a plain picture instead of live wallpaper, the power drain is much lower.

Has anyone even looked at the currentwidget log?

IceBone said:
Has anyone even looked at the currentwidget log?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, and you're losing battery very fast in what looks to be an idle phone. Every few minutes the power drain is shooting up for a period and then fluctuating to higher than it should be in idle (between 7-70mA drain in idle means the phone isn't idle). Many services and widgets that are known as power hungry seem to be running too. Due to the logging limitations, I can't see if they are the ones causing power fluctuations or otherwise.
I mean, have you done any one hour experimentation with cell on vs. cell off to see the battery loss differences?
What about cell off, display off for an hour vs. cell on, display on for an hour - what are the percentage drops in both cases for the device?
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- HTC Desire via XDA App -

Can't really test like that, since he lives 150kms away. I'll see if he can lend the phone to me for a few days and I'll run both in an as identical manner as I can.

If people like andycted and bemymonkey have much spare time to reply, that would help you much since I consider them more expert in this area (they know far more than me).
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- HTC Desire via XDA App -

Calibrate the battery?

Battery Life

Hi
Had my phone a little over 24 hours and I may have a very poor battery
I have a LIVE screen on the one with the water and the leaves plus, I haven't made or received any calls but I have used it a little for internet and a few text messages
The green bar was on full about 5 hours ago and if I had to guess how long my use has been I would say 30 mins in total of the 5 hours, now my battery is indicating less than half full
Imagine if I was out all day making and receiving calls?
Does this sound normal?

This is normal for the first week or two , the battery is adjusting itself to your needs
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

It's absolutely normal and you'll really notice a difference in about ten days, a couple of weeks the most.
That said, live wallpapers do use more battery. I much prefer a static dark one

adding to that make sure your phones nicely drained before recharging to ensure you get a nice full charge for next time... i took my desire's battery at least 5 days to start having a long term charge

bettery
same here took a week also what really helped me is having advanced task killer and setting it to kill unwanted apps after i lock the screen

i dont think you should use task killer, the apps will end them selves, i used task killer and got alot of force close after and errors etc
however force stopping unwanted applications is also good.

Android system 30%
cell standby 25%
phone idle 17%
android OS 15%
Display 11%
Internet 2%
5 H 55M 55S unplugged, hahaha no joke its all 5's
and now my battery is almost dead surely this cant be right
has anyone ever been given a replacement battery for their phone or do they ask for the phone to be returned if this is infact a fault

Battery sucks, phone is power hungry. Get used to it
I've had 2 desires since a week after it was released, i can count on one hand how many times I've got through a day without plugging my phone in.

I get about 2 days on my phone if I don't mess around with it a lot or get many calls. I normally plug it on overnight. Every night.
Nowadays that seems normal for a smartphone. Personally I think the battery life is slightly better than the iPhone 3GS.
Angry Birds means it lasts about 4-5 hours...
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

It's all down to how your using your phone. If you have a live wallpaper and many widgets and apps that run in the background like running in the notification bar, then yes, your phone will die pretty fast. Also it depends on how much CPU your burning. When I first got my Desire, I was like WTF. This is useless battery life and was starting to play hell. Now it's fine. I can leave it for 2 days easily if I just text or flick through settings. It just depends on what your running.
BTW, no one should have a task killer. It defeats the purpose of Android. You can get a lot of force closes and other things. Just leave them alone and let the OS handle the apps. Android does end the process if it's idle, eventually, but it's not using anything really other than a bit of memory just to keep it going a little.

As GoogleJelly pointed out, it really does depend on what you do with your phone and what's apps/processes are running on it while the device is using battery. Even I found the battery life pretty poor at the beginning...I found it quite annoying having to charge this thing nearly every day.
After some light tweaking, I managed to get the battery life to go over 3 days and I now have no reason to complain about my phone Mind you, I'm not a heavy user....As for background apps, I think i've got about 5/6 apps running at a time...
EDIT: I've attached a screenshot of my battery meter.....

What app are you using to view your battey history?

I also tested task killer when I got my phone. I thought it was fixing battery life, but after bedding the phone in a bit I took it off to see how much difference it would make and I didnt notice any difference at all...
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

GoogleJelly said:
What app are you using to view your battey history?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I configured Quick Battery app to go to battery history from my phone settings every time I tap on it. You can view your battery history through:
Settings > About phone > Battery use.
If you want the graph, just tap on the top layer which shows the length of time you've been on battery.
EDIT: This works for Gingerbread based ROMs (it's the standard feature lol)...can't remember this being on Froyo.

infinityharry said:
adding to that make sure your phones nicely drained before recharging to ensure you get a nice full charge for next time... i took my desire's battery at least 5 days to start having a long term charge
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is irrelevant with Li-ion as this is a myth from the ages of NiMh batteries. Your battery will not get ruined if you don't discharge it completely before first charging.
Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk

efcgenius said:
Android system 30%
cell standby 25%
phone idle 17%
android OS 15%
Display 11%
Internet 2%
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
great guideline, thx

Evil_Cid said:
I configured Quick Battery app to go to battery history from my phone settings every time I tap on it. You can view your battery history through:
Settings > About phone > Battery use.
If you want the graph, just tap on the top layer which shows the length of time you've been on battery.
EDIT: This works for GIngerbread based ROMs (it's the standard feature lol)...can't remember this being on Froyo.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah right, cheers for that. Didn't know it was all built in

One of the main reasons why new smartphone owners experience fast battery drain lies in the simple fact that they fill up seven homescreens with widgets that sync over mobile internet every hour or even more often, which really kills the poor juice like a massive gas leak.
After about half a year of use I've reached a stage where I use just 2 screens on my Desire (CM 6.1.1), of which page no2 is a full 4x5 agenda and Page one has just one actively updated widget (home weather).
Combined with restricting network usage of random apps by means of DroidWall and underclocking the processor at certain parameters (eg. battery <50%) the phone lives for 2 days pretty easily, with moderate browsing, music etc included.
But TBH I've really decided that the battery usage is absolutely random because some days it just drains like there's no tomorrow with no apparent reason that I've been able to identify. Carry a spare microUSB wire tbh :/

I read so much myths in this thread concerning Li-Ion batteries.
First of all Li-Ion batteries do have instantly the capacity they are intended for. Even 5 charges won't change that. The only thing which can change over time and charge-cycles is your phone recognizing a new voltage level as "full" (read more: "calibrating htc desire battery") or you playing less with the phone or having power-consuming apps uninstalled.
Also a full first charge is not necessary. This "requirement" are from past days with NiCd or NiMH battery-types.
Read more: http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/charging_lithium_ion_batteries

System of a pWne!^ said:
I read so much myths in this thread concerning Li-Ion batteries.
First of all Li-Ion batteries do have instantly the capacity they are intended for. Even 5 charges won't change that. The only thing which can change over time and charge-cycles is your phone recognizing a new voltage level as "full" (read more: "calibrating htc desire battery") or you playing less with the phone or having power-consuming apps uninstalled.
Also a full first charge is not necessary. This "requirement" are from past days with NiCd or NiMH battery-types.
Read more: http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/charging_lithium_ion_batteries
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The calibration during the initial week or so of using the phone arises from phone-side calibration, not the battery itself, which is why deleting battery stats from recovery can at times resolve battery issues :V
Phone didn't last half a day after flashing CM 6.1.1; after a couple of days I charged it to 100%, deleted the stats and voila, it's about as perfect as a terrible smartphone battery can get.

[Q] Battery consumption: I need your help for a comparison

I found a very good program for my Motorola MB525 (Defy) for monitoring the battery draining from the market.
It's name is Batery Monitor Widget and it's free.
With 81% of battery it says only 7 hours and 16 minute left without doing anthing!!! The data is on and Wi-Fi connected to my home network.
Is it normal?? In the night in airplane mode after 9 hours it drain 8%-9% of battery. Again: is it normal???
If you can try this application and report your results...I think there is some application that drain my battery!!
Thanks!

Not really a comparison here, just a little story.
Yesterday i screwed up my Defy playing around with some rom. Nothing terrible, but i had no time to re-flash another rom, i had to go to work. So, i pickep up my old SE xperia x1.
After an entire day, 4-5 calls and several sms, that phone drained less than 10%. Then, last night i put the x1 in stand-by, well, that was a real stand-by, no power consumption at all.
Now i'm back to Defy, 2 hours, 15% drained...
All this just to say android is amazing but terribly hungry of power, even when the screen is off, even when airplane mode is on. I don't need a comparison to know about it
EDIT:
you said your wifi was left on, well android is hungry of data too. Even if you do nothing while wifi is on an amount of data still flows, sometimes i can see several mb downloaded by my Defy in a few hours, but no real usage by me. This also contributes, you should try to turn the wifi off or disable background data when you don't need it.

In standby (3g, sync only calendar and contacts) I have 1-1.5% battery consumption / hour. I think this is normal
With my normal usage i have some 20-40% left at the end of the day... also Ok.
WIFI on & connected will consume a lot of battery so I am not surprised.
BTW I also had an Xperia X1 and the consumption was roughly the same as the Defy... In fact more than 1-2 days on a charge I very rarely had on any of my smartphones with normal usage.

matrix866 said:
Is it normal?? In the night in airplane mode after 9 hours it drain 8%-9% of battery. Again: is it normal???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
last week I was working in the forest for a few days with no signal at all, so I turned on airplane mode: I remember it going from 45% in the morning to 42% in the late afternoon!
(with everything turned off, just used it occasionally to have an idea of what time it was)

eiben_robert said:
In standby (3g, sync only calendar and contacts) I have 1-1.5% battery consumption / hour. I think this is normal
With my normal usage i have some 20-40% left at the end of the day... also Ok.
WIFI on & connected will consume a lot of battery so I am not surprised.
BTW I also had an Xperia X1 and the consumption was roughly the same as the Defy... In fact more than 1-2 days on a charge I very rarely had on any of my smartphones with normal usage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's ok to be an android fan, i like it too, as i said it is amazing. But, battery life is definitely NOT the strong point. I can compare the two phones now, at this moment. Honestly Defy's battery life is a lot shorter.

xdaid said:
It's ok to be an android fan, i like it too, as i said it is amazing. But, battery life is definitely NOT the strong point. I can compare the two phones now, at this moment. Honestly Defy's battery life is a lot shorter.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what's the other phone you compared?

I really don't have problem with Defy's battery life. As far as my memory serves, all cell phones I ever owned (7~8, all nokia, se, moto) could standby (just standby and don't use at all) for a week or made around 5 hours call. In my case Defy can also standby for a week or allow 5~6 hours usage.
I'm on a 2g network (probably helps alot), as I have wifi at home and at work. I have an exchange email, a gmail, 2 yahoo mails, and a weather app, all allowed to sync at default settings. I don't have facebook or twitter. GPS and bluetooth are enabled only when necessary (occasionally). I overclock Defy to 1000Mhz with SetVsel, and underclock to 300 when screen off. With conscious observation over some time, I find that 1% battery is consumed around every:
- 2 hours standby with wifi off; or
- 1 hour standby with wifi on; or
- 3~5 minutes usage (calls, emails, surfing,...)

thats some amazing battery life u got there abc ...what rom are u using?

hey guys, just a quick question. with which setting do you think i'll have longer battery life: 800MHz/58vsel or 1000MHz/56vsel? btw, i got my phone stable at 800MHz/45vsel
Sent from my MB525 using XDA App

Peglezn said:
thats some amazing battery life u got there abc ...what rom are u using?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was using the orange 2.2, and am using the finland 2.2 now. Both have similar battery usage.
But I have uninstalled some stock applications which I don't use but keep running in background, like BlurHome.apk (with Launcherpro), InPocketService.apk, ToggleWidgets.apk (with ExtendedControls), WeatherWidget.apk (with FancyWidget), VSuiteApp.apk etc.

xdaid said:
It's ok to be an android fan, i like it too, as i said it is amazing. But, battery life is definitely NOT the strong point. I can compare the two phones now, at this moment. Honestly Defy's battery life is a lot shorter.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You may be right, I had the Xperia X1 something like 1 year ago.
I had until now FSC T830, HTC Hermes, HTC Diamond, Xperia X1, Samsung i7500 Galaxy (my first Android), Acer Liquid and now the Defy. As far as I remember I always had to charge every night (or every 2 nights at best)
Overall I think Android battery life is worse than Windows mobile was BUT I also have more background programs running now than I had in the WM days.
What I definitely don't like in Android battery life is lack of consistency. One week you get30-40 hours at a charge and suddenly 12 hours... Than you have to make detective work: look what new App might be the guilty one, check what's running in background, reboot and see if it happens again, factory reset, etc. I guess this is the price of freedom

Im on uk 2.2 and i get three days at a push i jus have a weather widget on sync every 3 hours.
Iv also undervolted 300/16 600/29 800/39 with setvsel on performance mode and up threshold on 99% and limit to vsel 1 when screen iz off
Im on three uk so im constonly on 3g and use no wifi etc etc with normal sms usage and a few calls through out off 1 charge
Sent from my MB525 using XDA App

thats the most i get out of mine =/

Peglezn said:
thats the most i get out of mine =/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There has to be something wrong in your case. I find that there seems no wifi/2g/3g connection. Could that be the problem?

I dont use 3g ..cuz its expensive in my country ..and I only turn wifi on when I need it
And that shouldnt be the case ...I think id loose a lot more battery if wi-fi would be on all the time

[Q] Battery Issues . Please vote!!!

I think the most complained about issue with SGSII is the battery.
But is it such a big issue.
My situation : Inspite of heavy use I usually make an entire work day with atleast 10-20% battery left.
I always have a micro usb cable in my locker at work which is an emergency back up.
The reason for poll : To correct my ignorance as I think majority of people are unnecessarily complaining

I'm with you, OP.
Certainly, the battery life of the GS2 is unimpressive. I would even agree if someone said that the battery life is below average.
But it does seems like a lot of people who complain about the battery life just have unrealistic expectations. Using the phone will lower the battery level. That seems pretty natural to me. If you're going to keep the display on for over an hour, you can't expect the battery level to dip just 1% or 2%.
Then there are people who talk about the Android-OS bug. They show some impressive data on usage depending on scenarios. It's an interesting read and I understand what they're trying to say. But at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter to me. Before I knew about the Android-OS bug, my usage patterns meant that my battery level drops to about 30% by the time I get home from work. After I read about the Android-OS bug, it didn't change my usage patterns and my battery performs same as before.
Sure, it would be great if the battery never dips below 90% but unless the day comes when we have tiny self-sustaining fission reactors built-in to your devices, it won't be happening. (I'm thinking about that thing that Doc Ock invented in Spiderman2, just smaller.)

ohyeahar said:
Sure, it would be great if the battery never dips below 90% but unless the day comes when we have tiny self-sustaining fission reactors built-in to your devices, it won't be happening. (I'm thinking about that thing that Doc Ock invented in Spiderman2, just smaller.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You got me all excited.
I dream of the day when we have batteries the size of a grain that will last for few years, like most watches

Missing selection
never happened rarely charge .
jje

JJEgan said:
Missing selection
never happened rarely charge .
jje
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
may be next time

Completely depends on usage. Generally have 30-40% remaining everyday - screen use of 3-4 hours. gmail, FB on 30 min syncs, EDGE always on. Ended up with 78% remaining on a day on which I had a lot of work to do (so less time on the phone)
Can't expect more from a smartphone at this point of time. (using Lite'ning ROM 1.5, Tegrak OC 1.4 Ghz)

Unfortunately My device battery life is poor too

I can make it most of the day through work without recharging, and that's considering having both bluetooth turned on and either music or podcasts playing most of the day, and that the building I work in being very good at blocking wireless signals, so my phone spends alot of time trying to find a connection.

Knock on wood, ive been really lucky
i have an optus ke2 that has been rooted and all ive done is remove the optus stock and other not need apps, and so far, still being at the stage where the phone gets turned on every 5 min, ive needed to charge every second day or so with brightness on full.
i love my SgsII

How many of you with bad battery life have also got an sd-card plugged in?
I've just taken mine out (class 10 16GB) and it seems to have improved battery life?

Without SD card, and with power saving mode on, I get 3 days but with only EDGE on and routine voice calls.
Facebook takes the most battery and also the browser, I feel.
BUT NO WIFI and NO 3G! Its bad, thinking of extended battery if I have to used all that stuff.

[Q] Utterly HORRIBLE battery life across batteries and ROMs

Hey XDA
I'm having absolutely HORRIBLE battery life with my GIO. I've gone through extensive testing to find the root of the problem but nothing seems to be the cause. So far i've had to charge twice, maybe three times a day.
So here's the story. A couple of months ago I noticed my Gio's battery was dying quicker so I flashed another rom [Particle Mod] over it. I was happy, until I found out the problem persisted. Then I flashed a 2.3.7 Cyanogen mod, the battery still wasn't lasting and the battery life was only slightly worse owing to CYMOD.
I then flashed the GALAXYICS beta, and it's getting even worse. I've even bought new 1600mAh batteries to see if it was the battery's fault. Apparently not, so I went back to stock for a day or too to see what it was like, and I was still lucky to get 12hrs out of it with featherweight usage.
I simply do not know what to do, I've tried numerous battery mods [flashable zips etc] and they've only done a tiny bit. Lately I've been playing with clockspeeds but it seems to only make a difference if I raise the minimum speed, the extra top end performance is nice though.
So, what I'm saying is this normal for a Gio? Is it a hardware fault? software? 4th dimensional? I'm at a loss, and I think the infamous Samsung cell standby drain is to blame.
Attached is screenshots of general battery screen, Cell standby and the Graph. I've been switching between 2G and 3G, Airplane mode on and off, and listening to music for an hour or so and It seems to have utterly crippled the device doing simple tasks, and I've done EVERYTHING to minimize the drain by lowering screen brightness to %0, turning off vibration, animations, wifi, GPS, BT, radio, everything except google contacts sync and a couple of root things in between like deleting the batt stats.
The new batteries help somewhat, but I still can't last long enough for a single school day... FFUUUUU!
I really don't want to have to buy a new phone, I'm only 14 so I can't work to get one, and I can't just ask my parents because then I'm just being a spoilt brat. I want to make this phone last as long as possible [Until I can work for a Google Nexus or something] and the battery isn't helping.
Thanks for reading.

Yeah you're a spoiled brat. This is not great but not extraordinarily bad. My epic 4g touch spends the day on the charger.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda app-developers app

Well, it seems to be all right with your battery. And your '1600 mAh' battery was just a fake. A lot of people get scores like this

What I am worried about is not so much the capacity, it's the RATE at which it drains. I see a lot of "stair steps" on my graphs so I'm not so sure, especially when checking the other phones in the house "a Galaxy Ace and 2 HTC Incredible S's] they seem to have a more consistent curve, I notice my batteries will drain by as much as %5 in half a minute, which is either a reporting bug or inconsistent strain.

Have you tried to do a wipe and test it with no installed apps?

Do not trust the "stairs", it is just bad reporting (as you said).
In my case when I switch on 3G or WiFi, it happens that the battery drops by 10% instantly.
The only value that is relevant is the total duration between a full charge (100% charge + several hours still plugged) and the "low battery" indicator.
According to my own experience, the things that drains the most are :
- 3G network : this is the main factor, by far.
If you can, try to stay in 2G mode most of the time, switch to 3G when needed, and as soon as not needed anymore go back to 2G.
- WiFi / BT
If you switch On/Off very often, or is always On and you moves very often (changing hotspot), then WiFi / BT will be a very important battery drain factor.
- Multimedia
Videos / MP3 drains battery a lot.
If you can, switch to "airplane mode" or switch off the phone during night.
Finally, with 3G / WiFi / Multimedia usage mix, a "One Day" autonomy is good.
I'm sorry but you will not find any smartphone that can pass "One Day" with that usage type.
With my own usage (very few calls, sms, wifi) and with above tricks, my Gio lasts 4-5 days.
PS : As you mentioned, available ROMs are very unequal as far as battery drain is concerned.
Stock ROMs (and moded ones like Adrenaline) are the champions of battery life, while ICS ROMs are the worst.
CM7.2 ROMs are in between.

I agree with Vilo76. When you don`t have wireless or 3g, or play any music/games, you can actually get a few days of life from your phone, but if you do some of the stuff i just said, the battery life is going down like crazy...
The only think you can do to get some bit of juice out of your phone is if you format your battery, but actually that is just for a better battery reading, not actually extending your battery life...

By the way, I can't figure out why phone manufacturers don't use more long lasting batteries ...
There are many many examples of batteries that are about the same size as a phone one, but deliver way more mAh.
Among others :
- House wireless alarms keypad batteries are the same size but can be as much as 3000mAh ...
- Classic cylindrical AA or AAA accu can be as much as 4000mAh ...
While a typical phone battery hardly ever exceed 1500mAh.

Okay, I'm back and I have some results for today
3G Is DEFINITELY using more in Australia on idle, while 2G is a bit less brutal
There is something cause my phone to wake intermittently, I've turned sync and location services, and killed any apps that may be checking the net etc, but it's still waking up with screen off.
---------------------------
Today I decided to do something bit extreme, I ran the phone an airplane mode all day with the original "dead" battery, I only lost %20 all day with 1hr or so music usage, phone standby is up but Cell standby isn't there at all [Obviously].
Something's telling me that's it the cell radio and whatever is waking my phone up is causing the suck. I'm upgrading to GalaxyICS CM9 beta10 today with a full dalvik, battery and cache wipe, so we'll see how that goes
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MORE NEWS
Good news this time! I've installed a Cyanogen Mod 7.2 on their [The one that's updates through Goomanager] and the battery is holding steady at 100 idling for 1hr on 2G.... Not sure if I have to calibrate but I think I've fixed it, it's working better than stock!