Develop Bugs

Horrible Batter Life - MikFroyo 4.4

As a base comparison, while I was running the stock HTC software (3.70) I could go 15-17hrs a day on a single charge. My typical day was to unplug the phone at about 8am and plug back in at about midnight. My average usage of the phone would be a little time in Angry Birds, a lot of crossword puzzles with an app called Shortyz (typically 2-3hrs a day), a lot of texting and email and some phone calls. Sometime I would have some usage of Google Nav. Wifi would be on 100% of the time, even when not connected to a network. When I finally plugged the phone back in I would typically have between 20-30% of the battery life left.
I flashed MikFroyo last week. Initially I did not wipe the user data first. I did wipe cache/dalvik. Updated profile and PRL on first boot. Everything was working fine, however, battery life was terrible. My typical battery life running MikFroyo has been 7-8hrs. About 1/2 what I was getting. And, with a typical day keeping me out of the house and away from a charger for 15hrs or more this is not a good situation. I am still using the phone the same way.
A few days ago I thought maybe the better actually had more life but the battery status was reporting it wrong. So, I wiped the battery stats, ran the battery down to 0 and then fully charged the phone. So far, I am getting the same reporting on the battery life.
Yesterday I had 100% at noon after another charge and by 6pm I was down to 20%. I love this rom and would like to keep running it if I can figure out how to get my old battery life back.
Thinking that it may have had something to do with the full wipe first I reflashed the rom, this time I did a full wipe/cache/dalvik twice before flashing the rom again. Battery life is still horrible. This does not make sense to me with MikFroyo using the same kernel as the HTC software and with all the bloatware that was removed plus my use of Titanium to freeze even more useless apps.
Anyone have any ideas what I can check to try to restore my original battery life?
Phone: Evo HW: 0003
Baseband: 2.15.00.11.19
Kernel: 2.6.32.17-gee557fd (HTC #15)
PRI: 1.90_003
PRL: 60674

Sounds like you have a wake lock. What's your up vs. awake time?

_MetalHead_ said:
Sounds like you have a wake lock. What's your up vs. awake time?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just restarted the phone and have been going through all of the settings screens again. So, both times are very similar right now. I will let it sit for a bit and check agian.
If it is staying awake for some reason, what would you suggest I look at to fix it?

mdixon4az said:
I just restarted the phone and have been going through all of the settings screens again. So, both times are very similar right now. I will let it sit for a bit and check agian.
If it is staying awake for some reason, what would you suggest I look at to fix it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It depends what is causing it.

I just checked again and the uptime and awake time are only a few seconds apart. So, it appears that I do have an issue with the phone remaining awake after it turns off the screen.
Back to my original question in regard to this: What should I check as possible causes?
Here is what is listed under Android System
Android System
HTC Widget Download Manager
Accounts & Sync
Network Location
Settings
Upgrade Settings
HTC Checkin Service
Setup
BrcmBluetoothService - Strange since Bluetooth is turned off
VPN Services
Rosie Utility
Settings Stortage
Thanks for the help

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=8066920&postcount=1
Check out #9 on this post and see if it helps.
I've been on Mik's ROM for a weeks now, and I LOVE it!
Can't give you a battery comparison as I am on a 3500 mAh battery with netarchy 4.3.1-cfs-nohavs-nosbc Kernel.
You may want to flash a new Kernel and see if that helps as well. Won't be an apples to apples comparison with the stock sense with stock kernel, but if you are looking for better battery in general, I know that it has definitely improved mine.
-DreamSQK

Downgrade your pri back to 1.77 and all will be well again. This has solved many a battery problem, you're wake time will no longer be 100%. Give it a shot, always nand first just in case.

ifly4vamerica said:
Downgrade your pri back to 1.77 and all will be well again. This has solved many a battery problem, you're wake time will no longer be 100%. Give it a shot, always nand first just in case.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My PRI with this ROM and the stock software is/was 1.90. Can you give me a quick run down of what the PRI is and why going back should help?
Thanks

mdixon4az said:
My PRI with this ROM and the stock software is/was 1.90. Can you give me a quick run down of what the PRI is and why going back should help?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Many people have reported 100% awake time with the 1.90 and different ROM/Kernel combinations. There is debate on what it actually is ... I won't go into that but give it a shot you shouldn't have ill effects and I'm betting the 100% wake will be fixed. If not you can always go back to 1.90. If you search there are plenty of threads on this. It was just discussed in the Mik thread also. Calkin has a whole thread on it. I'm on xda app right now or I'd post a link its "all radio wimax pri versions" or something. Just grab the 1.77 pri zip and flash away. Let me know how it works.
Evo Sent

try what he said that kernel is amazing!
DreamSQK said:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=8066920&postcount=1
Check out #9 on this post and see if it helps.
I've been on Mik's ROM for a weeks now, and I LOVE it!
Can't give you a battery comparison as I am on a 3500 mAh battery with netarchy 4.3.1-cfs-nohavs-nosbc Kernel.
You may want to flash a new Kernel and see if that helps as well. Won't be an apples to apples comparison with the stock sense with stock kernel, but if you are looking for better battery in general, I know that it has definitely improved mine.
-DreamSQK
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

here is the link to all of the radios just incase you didnt find it...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=715485

I had an issue with battery life with the first MikFroyo I flashed and the PRI downgrade was the answer. Also a netarchy kernel helped even more.

I flashed PRI v1.77 and netarcs 4.3.1 cfs-havs-nosbc. Will let you all know how it goes. I don't want to jump the gun either way without giving it some time to really show me what it will do.

There is nothing wrong with the PRI or the rom! You should find what is keeping the phone up. It certainly is not a PRI!

luist4498 said:
There is nothing wrong with the PRI or the rom! You should find what is keeping the phone up. It certainly is not a PRI!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
for some people flashing 1.77 PRI it gives better battery life lots of people done it and it has helped alot with battery

Here, use this kernel too when you've figured out the rouge app.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=719763

snowboarda42 said:
Here, use this kernel too when you've figured out the rouge app.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=719763
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i saw in your signature that you are using the netarchy 4.3.2 beta, is this beta kernel better than the stable 4.3.1?

snowboarda42 said:
Here, use this kernel too when you've figured out the rouge app.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=719763
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Apparently there is still something going on. The Uptime vs Awake time seems to be more in line now but the battery is still dropping like a rock. It has only been off the charger a couple of hours with about 10min of uptime and it has already lost 25% of the battery.
So far today all I have used the phone for is about 20 minutes worth of calls and three text messages. Any other suggestions about what I should check?

mecampo said:
i saw in your signature that you are using the netarchy 4.3.2 beta, is this beta kernel better than the stable 4.3.1?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
mdixon4az said:
Apparently there is still something going on. The Uptime vs Awake time seems to be more in line now but the battery is still dropping like a rock. It has only been off the charger a couple of hours with about 10min of uptime and it has already lost 25% of the battery.
So far today all I have used the phone for is about 20 minutes worth of calls and three text messages. Any other suggestions about what I should check?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
List what Apps you have installed, how often you have stuff set to sync, etc.
What are your current awake vs Up times? Are you using it as much as your up time says?
Also, netarchy says
NOTICES: If you are noticing abnormally high battery drain and/or uptime, and you've updated to PRI 1.90, it has come to my attention
that this PRI has been problematic for a number of people, often resulting in large uptimes and/or poor battery life.
This issue affects people regardless of whether or not they are using a custom kernel
Downgrading your PRI and NV to 1.77 has been reported to resolve this issue.
You can find all PRI and NV versions by clicking here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
mecampo said:
i saw in your signature that you are using the netarchy 4.3.2 beta, is this beta kernel better than the stable 4.3.1?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, I like it a LOT. I haven't gotten any FC or problems except with SetCPU but that was because I had set on boot checked. Everything else is phenomenal! It seriously is like SBC without the SBC, netarchy is the man. I'm off the charger for 3 hours today and at 90% after medium-heavy use (GPS, Gmail, etc).

With all the advice you're getting here (cannot necessarily disagree w/ anything altho I've had no problems on PRI 1.90)...once thing to keep in mind. Make sure you give any new kernel you flash 2 to 3 full battery cycles (full charge to dead back to full). You won't get a good idea for how it's working w/out a large enough sample size.

Battery Life - What else is there?

I seem to have run into some kind of battery drain issue. It occurs every few days and a reboot always fixes it for a few more days.
An example was this morning. I pulled the phone off the charger. I drove to a location about 10 minutes away, put the phone down and it literally sat idle for 1.5 hours. When I picked up the phone, the battery life was down to 62%. It started at 100%.
Most times when I sit the phone down for any length of time, the percentage barely dropa, maybe two to three percent.
As I said, if I reboot the phone, the drain will stop for a few days.
At the moment, the cpu is running 20% with the highest consumed by the xda app. Battery shows an uptime of ~85 hours with an awake time of ~20 hours. My current Current is 378mA.
My usage shows 23 standby. 23 wifi. 22 phone idle. 21 Android. 8 display.
These numbers, I think, are okay.
What else can I look at?
I am rooted, running VaelPak 3.1 on a nohavs nosbc kernel. I've also been running into a issue where I have to reboot the phone by pulling the battery because a reboot done through software doesn't complete. On the way back up I see a FC on System.
So, I have a work around but I really want to crack the mystery.
Any thoughts, anyone?
Rebooting now...

Sounds like something is running in the background sometimes and draining the battery. Restarting must kill the process/app. Personally id just wipe the phone and reinstall everything again. Idk if the PRI/NV issues only affect certain ROMS or phones, but if you look into the netarchy-toast mod thread its says that version 1.90 can cause battery drain issues. Since downgrading to 1.77 i have had no issues.

Ok but if you downgrade doesn't that mess up? Or no?
Swyped from my sexy EVO.

ctbenk said:
Sounds like something is running in the background sometimes and draining the battery. Restarting must kill the process/app. Personally id just wipe the phone and reinstall everything again. Idk if the PRI/NV issues only affect certain ROMS or phones, but if you look into the netarchy-toast mod thread its says that version 1.90 can cause battery drain issues. Since downgrading to 1.77 i have had no issues.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hadn't downgraded NV to 1.77, but I downgraded PRI to 1.77. I can't seem to find out what NV is... Definitely noticed a difference for the better when I downgraded PRI.
Yes, I am likely to wipe soon.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

jacoballen22 said:
Ok but if you downgrade doesn't that mess up? Or no?
Swyped from my sexy EVO.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Downgrading PRI did help my battery life.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

Hmm but what if I'm using myns warm 5?
Swyped from my sexy EVO.

jacoballen22 said:
Hmm but what if I'm using myns warm 5?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I couldn't really say. I believe PRI and NV are scripts that can be applied via ROM Manager after your ROM load. That's how it works with VaelPak anyway. Can't say another the other ROMs as I've never run them...

Losing 1% every two minutes.

Myns warm two point two RLS 5 pri/nv 1.9. Phone has been on 5 hours standby. I have 24% left, what's the problem? I haven't used it much st all since I'm currently at work. 6% without a signal so that isn't it, then what is? Anyone got any ideas?
Swyped from my sexy EVO.

Do you have wifi or 4G on...? 1.99 has been said to cause battery life problems with people. You can try downgrading to 1.77.

Go to settings/about phone/battery use and see if there are any apps running at the top of the list. My phone was awake all the time and I found "Flight View" to always be at the top of my batt usage so I un-installed it. I also went to settings/applications/running services and closed out a bunch of apps that I didn't need running.
Since I killed the flight time my battery time has gone from 10-12hrs at the most to a steady 16-18. Over the weekend I got 32hrs on a charge which has never happened before.

Wifi for 2 hours and awake time was 1 hour.
Swyped from my sexy EVO.

Flash Calkulin's format all .zip, wipe your battery stats, and reflash your ROM. Always does the trick for me.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

Never hurts to demo different kernels as well. Ever since I have switched over to Savage Zen & MIUI (Although I am familiar with Myn's as well) My battery life has sky rocketed. Thats with SetCPU maxed out on the SZ setting as well. I woke up today and it took my phone almost 30 minutes to drop from 100% to 99%. A first since I bought it.

TheMagicalSock said:
Flash Calkulin's format all .zip, wipe your battery stats, and reflash your ROM. Always does the trick for me.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1
That should fix it.

TheMagicalSock said:
Flash Calkulin's format all .zip, wipe your battery stats, and reflash your ROM. Always does the trick for me.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Even on 1.9? Also do I have to fully reflash or just dalvik/cache?
Swyped from my sexy EVO.

jacoballen22 said:
Even on 1.9? Also do I have to fully reflash or just dalvik/cache?
Swyped from my sexy EVO.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's probably safer to reflash.
boot into recovery
flash calk's format all
flash rom
flash kernel (if you're using one)
reboot

Should I do a nandroid also?
Swyped from my sexy EVO.

stat30fbliss said:
Never hurts to demo different kernels as well. Ever since I have switched over to Savage Zen & MIUI (Although I am familiar with Myn's as well) My battery life has sky rocketed. Thats with SetCPU maxed out on the SZ setting as well. I woke up today and it took my phone almost 30 minutes to drop from 100% to 99%. A first since I bought it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Will it work with mkfroyo 4.4 and how heavy is your usage? I'm using netarchy-toastmod-4.2.2-cfs-nohavs-universal-signed for my kernel and I go from 100-99 in about a min with all radios and syncs off. Is it also safe to just flash a kernel or should I wipe everything and flash it?

either wipe battery stats or new kernel

nilesskate2 said:
either wipe battery stats or new kernel
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
were neighbors, im in GR too!

fixxxer2008 said:
were neighbors, im in GR too!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
unfortunately Im just north of gr, so no 4g for me

I think I'll try netarchys 4.3.2 with 1.77, sounds good?
Swyped from my sexy EVO.

Welcome to the EVO

No, more like welcome to pri 1.9. I used to get 15 hours light usage, and 12 on moderate. This radio was a stupid idea, I have yet to find a kernal that doesn't tear my screen.
Swyped from my sexy EVO.

jacoballen22 said:
Myns warm two point two RLS 5 pri/nv 1.9. Phone has been on 5 hours standby. I have 24% left, what's the problem? I haven't used it much st all since I'm currently at work. 6% without a signal so that isn't it, then what is? Anyone got any ideas?
Swyped from my sexy EVO.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If that time without signal is ACTUALLY accurate, and not the classic 'time without signal bug' (I'm not sure if it exists for these newer ROMs at all), then yes, that's probably it.
If you a) have EVDO 3g and/or 4g turned on and
b) are going in and out of signal
that probably means that, wherever you are, you are typically having VERY POOR signal. Do you typically find very low reception bars around wherever you were?
One thing that murders smartphone batteries is low reception.
When reception is weak, the phone gets 'Louder' so that it can communicate with the tower. This requires a LOT of battery power to achieve.
One of the problems with the CDMA Samsung Galaxy S series is exactly this. If I'm in certain towns around my city (Buffalo, NY), my Fascinate battery goes in a few hours (fading in and out of reception, or just very weak reception the whole time, or at least going in and out of EVDO) from a full charge to dead.
If you're actually getting poor reception (as Sprint doesn't offer the best signal strength everywhere), but you usually keep signal (where some other Sprint phones won't, because their antennas can't get 'Loud' enough), your battery is disappearing as a result.
If you can open up Spare Parts app, look at Battery History, then change 'Other usage' to 'Partial wake usage', you might find a culprit killing your battery if you had a lot of awake time. Otherwise, I'd pin it on reception.
BTW, using WiFi instead of EV or 4g uses about 1/5 of the battery per data that you transfer, and the savings is even greater if you have very weak cell signal. Just food for thought.

Ok, it is definitely not an app doing it. I got kik messenger on lock down(force stop when done using) and why does it die fast on wifi too?
Swyped from my sexy EVO.

jacoballen22 said:
Ok, it is definitely not an app doing it. I got kik messenger on lock down(force stop when done using) and why does it die fast on wifi too?
Swyped from my sexy EVO.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
flash pri and nv to 1.77 and flash a different kernel. i use sbc, also after the first day u wont see better battery life , for me it takes couple of days. for the first like 2 days i get horrible battery life then like by 3-4 day im good or atleast getting better

[RADIO] The AUS radio (26.06.02.27) is the root of excessive battery drain

There are way too many thread where this is relevant and I think it is important enough to warrant its' own thread. I can confidently confirm the 26.06.02.27 is the source of many battery drain issues. I'd been battling battery drain on standby using CM7 for the past week and narrowed it down to the radio.
If you are using Virtuous or CM7 (I obviously use both), I recommend using either 26.04.02.17 or 26.03.02.26. Both radios are offered here:
http://files.virtuousrom.com/vision/radio/
Please do not discuss HOW to flash radios in this thread. There are many guides on that subject. Mods, if you think this should be part of the other threads, I understand. There's just so much misinformation out there I wanted to make sure to get my findings out there.

Finally some common sense! I too arrived at the conclusion that the radio was the cause of the dramatic battery drain, but only after pulling my hair out and removing most every app and turning off all syncing. I've been on the .26 radio since yesterday and battery is back to normal.

How did you determine that? I've been using this radio for two weeks now and I have not notice any drain. Just last night, I charged my phone at around 30% after two days of use.
Sent from my HTC Vision using Tapatalk

Hosermage said:
How did you determine that? I've been using this radio for two weeks now and I have not notice any drain. Just last night, I charged my phone at around 30% after two days of use.
Sent from my HTC Vision using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Without changing any other configuration, I've done tests over the past few nights with the phone on standby the entire duration without being touched. Using the .27 radio, I was seeing 5-6% drain per hour, versus 1-2% with the .17 and .26 radios. Nothing else changed and my usage was constant.
If you're having success with the .27 radio, you're probably an exception. I suspect most people are going to have problems with it.

mejorguille said:
Finally some common sense! I too arrived at the conclusion that the radio was the cause of the dramatic battery drain, but only after pulling my hair out and removing most every app and turning off all syncing. I've been on the .26 radio since yesterday and battery is back to normal.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had the exact same issues with the 26.06.02.27 radio as well, excessive battery drain.

rmk40 said:
Without changing any other configuration, I've done tests over the past few nights with the phone on standby the entire duration without being touched. Using the .27 radio, I was seeing 5-6% drain per hour, versus 1-2% with the .17 and .26 radios. Nothing else changed and my usage was constant.
If you're having success with the .27 radio, you're probably an exception. I suspect most people are going to have problems with it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need to take into consideration that these radios perform differently depending on the location of the user which is why it's impossible to determine which radio is actually the "best".

infamousjax said:
You need to take into consideration that these radios perform differently depending on the location of the user which is why it's impossible to determine which radio is actually the "best".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's not true either, WWE are the "generic" radios that have decent performance in all areas. It's the provider specific radios that generally have the issues.

I do kind of notice more than usual normal drain when I use my phone but when it is on standby it is awesome. I can keep it on standby for 4 hours and the battery will still read 100%. I have flashed the lib files associated with this radio also.
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App

I have been running the .27 radio for a couple weeks and see no excessive drain. I had drain issues a couple times before using the .27 radio but those were determined to be from a stray app and market updating issues.
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App

Oh snap. I just changed to that radio last night. I did notice a bit of battery drain but not as much this morning. I'll continue to use it and see what happens. I've heard that the reception with this radio is apparently really good which is why I'm trying it.
We'll see what happens. Thanks for letting us know, rmk40! Hopefully I fluke out and it doesn't cause excessive battery drain though

infamousjax said:
You need to take into consideration that these radios perform differently depending on the location of the user which is why it's impossible to determine which radio is actually the "best".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Of course but keep in mind this radio was released for the Australia market. No where else yet. So it's not that surprising it's causing drain for most people.

Didn't change much for me. I was hoping for improved reception but didn't get that either

I have to agree with the OP. I flashed the Aus radio to fix my GPS in which it did but having using my phone for like 3 hrs lastnight and draining down to 9% left I had to flash the TMO OTA radio back. After flashing the .26 back and running fix_permissions my GPS is working and my battery life is better.

can anyone make a recovery for this?
.26
for some reason flashing through computer wont work for me -___-
thank you in advance.

I havent noticed a drain using SenseGinger 1.0.1

I updated hoping it would solve gps with newest nightlies but no bueno. My battery has actually improved. I'm on 26 hours with 22% life left on moderate use
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App

Let's put it this way. The .27 does in fact give off a serious battery drain, in certain areas. Seems like us on the west get significant battery drain while those on the east like it more. Maybe?
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA Premium App

Shaquiel Harris said:
Let's put it this way. The .27 does in fact give off a serious battery drain, in certain areas. Seems like us on the west get significant battery drain while those on the east like it more. Maybe?
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i live on the west and i do notice a battery drain.
but .27 is the best radio with the fast 4g speeds for me
.26 was horrible when it came to that
going to try .17 and will report back
Update :
4g speed is good. Not as great as .27
Battery so great far is great so I'm happy
Reception is the same so far as well.
Will report back in a few days.

bstylz911 said:
i live on the west and i do notice a battery drain.
but .27 is the best radio with the fast 4g speeds for me
.26 was horrible when it came to that
going to try .17 and will report back
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tell me how .17 goes.
Maybe in a few months, .27 will be good for all of us. Just im tired of killing myself over this damned .27 radio. im back on .26 and i dont think im going to leave it.

Shaquiel Harris said:
Tell me how .17 goes.
Maybe in a few months, .27 will be good for all of us. Just im tired of killing myself over this damned .27 radio. im back on .26 and i dont think im going to leave it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why do u choose .26 rather than .17?
Look at my update.
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App

Radio Version - Battery Life

All,
One thing I noticed in reading these posts and seeing people's device information in their signature is that there are a few versions of the radio that people are running. Some have stayed on an older version, while others have upgraded to newer versions.
I am wondering if a particular version gives us the best overall coverage and battery life. I would appreciate it if you could respond with the version you are running. I would like to compile the responses and see which versions people are running. I am then going to test each version for a couple of days and see the implications of each version on battery life.
Thanks,
Steve

radio can influence battery. it all comes back to your dbms reading, the lower the better. try a few of the radios and see what happens.

9.01 now. Ran 7.28,4.08 and 5.06 before though. 4.08 wasn't bad.
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA Premium App

This discussion is all over the place but a dedicated thread with battery results is good. we need to post our location as well as screen shots. im on long island and 04.08 does well with data speeds. im in a building heavily protected meaning they do well blocking reception and i am able to pull 3g in 99% of the time with an occasional drop to 1x.

I just flashed 09.01 from 04.08 and went from -84 dbm to -80 dbm sitting in the same spot.

stevefxp said:
All,
One thing I noticed in reading these posts and seeing people's device information in their signature is that there are a few versions of the radio that people are running. Some have stayed on an older version, while others have upgraded to newer versions.
I am wondering if a particular version gives us the best overall coverage and battery life. I would appreciate it if you could respond with the version you are running. I would like to compile the responses and see which versions people are running. I am then going to test each version for a couple of days and see the implications of each version on battery life.
Thanks,
Steve
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From my experience the radio has a lot to do with battery life. The radio effects how your phone communicates with the local towers. The difference between radios are tweaks within the voltages. Your best best is to try them all and see which one gives you the best happy medium between reception, call quality, data speeds and battery life. I personally get slightly fast data speeds with the newer 4.08 and 5.06, however I did notice that my battery was draining faster while using data, so I went back to 9.01 which seemed like the happy medium for me. Just because 9.01 works well for me, doesn't mean that others will have similar results. Just like how the same type of phone can act differently with kernel voltage changes, the same goes for radios.
Remember when testing different radios to rule out any variables that may change your results. An example of this is when I was testing out the newest radio, I updated Dolphin HD also. After doing so, I ran into an issue with web pages stop loading half way. I originally blamed the radio for this, but then remembered that I had also update the browser. It turned out that the newest update had some bugs and this was one of them.