Develop Bugs

Battery Life - Screen Time

I see several threads talking about battery life but no one has shown their actual "screen on" time which is what really counts, as it tells us how long have you actually been using the phone for.
I am starting this thread in order to try to collect a more accurate representation of how long the Galaxy Nexus battery lasts, using screen on time as the biggest factor (which it is).
So, in order to find this out, owners of the GNexus, please go to the battery stats section and tap on the "Screen" line, which will tell you for how long has the display been on.
How long are you guys seeing the display last until the battery is really low?
As a frame of reference, I remember seeing about 6-7hrs max on the Galaxy S2, when used with mainly black backgrounds.

I'm interested in this too. While each person's usage will differ, a couple of figures/screenshots would help gauge how much more battery the large screen uses as compared to phones some are planning to switch from.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk

From my testing using 3g browsing the phone lasts at most 4 hours with screen on. This is at manual 40% brightness since automatic brightness makes the screen too dark for me. Battery life is definitely worse than galaxy S2 in fact it is so bad that I an considering returning the phone.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

darkoroje said:
From my testing using 3g browsing the phone lasts at most 4 hours with screen on. This is at manual 40% brightness since automatic brightness makes the screen too dark for me. Battery life is definitely worse than galaxy S2 in fact it is so bad that I an considering returning the phone.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ok..... ive had a quiet day of usage .... few calls, several texts, couple of pictures, bit of browsing and ten mins testing video capabilities. my stats are :
7h 15m on battery
screen 57%
android os 17%
phone idle 8%
mobile standby 4%
media server 4%
vplayer 3%
Android system 2%
Voice calls 2%
Browser 2%
wifi 2%
and my battery is still at 65% !!!
i never used to get this much juice out of my HTC Desire !

wilbur-force said:
ok..... ive had a quiet day of usage .... few calls, several texts, couple of pictures, bit of browsing and ten mins testing video capabilities. my stats are :
7h 15m on battery
screen 57%
android os 17%
phone idle 8%
mobile standby 4%
media server 4%
vplayer 3%
Android system 2%
Voice calls 2%
Browser 2%
wifi 2%
and my battery is still at 65% !!!
i never used to get this much juice out of my HTC Desire !
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please go back to battery stats and tap on "Screen" to know exactly how much time has the screen been on for. That is what we really need to know.

The standby life of the phone with the screen off is fine. However, with the screen on it gobbles power and lasts 4 hours max. Here is screenshot of my usage today:
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"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
. This is with about 3 and a half hours of browsing over 3G.

Guys, thanks for the screenshots but please tap on the Screen percentage bar to show actual screen on time. That is the statistic we need.

Here it is, it is actually worse than I thought the screen was only on for 2h 27min:
I did manually set the brightness to around 40% since as I said before auto-brightness is too dark for me.

Thanks, that's what I needed. It is indeed pretty bad, as I expected SAMOLED is still an awful choice for web browsing.

Spybreak said:
Thanks, that's what I needed. It is indeed pretty bad, as I expected SAMOLED is still an awful choice for web browsing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's the case with all screens. Until battery technology gets an update (in two to four years time) we won't see a better performance without extended battery.
That's just how it is. It never bothered me on HTC Desire. During one day I don't use the screen more than three or four hours in total. At best I use it one hour in the morning during the process of getting to work and one hour to get home and then an hour in between during calls, checking news or reading e-mail. I personally am totally fine with it, it is not meant to replace a computer or a tablet that both have much better power supply simply thanks to their size.

my screen has now been on for 1h 32 mins
(total 8h 34 and now 64% battery)

shame......we need more people to chime in. I've heard about better battery life than a few hours of screen time.
Only reason why i like iPhone....can browse internet for hours and hours and hours and GPS

I also do not usually use the phone more than 3 - 4 hours a day during a weekday. However on weekend or when travelling I do need a longer-lasting phone. I was hoping it would last as long as Galaxy S2, but unfortunately it doesn't.

kristovaher said:
That's the case with all screens. Until battery technology gets an update (in two to four years time) we won't see a better performance without extended battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not exactly true. AMOLED and SAMOLED screens have different power requirements depending on what is showing on screen. Most websites have a white background, which for AMOLED screens means almos 3 times as much power usage as a standard LCD screen. So, technically LCD screens are better for browsing as their power usage remains constant no matter what you are looking at.
Just check out Anand's battery performance chart:
The iPhone wins because it has a smaller screen which is also IPS based and therefore very energy efficient. As you go down the list you'll see the only SAMOLED screen with "decent" performance is the Galaxy S2, and even then it's almost 3 hours worse than the Atrix, for example (granted the Atrix has a larger battery, but not by much).
What saddens me is how newer devices are targeted almost as mini-tablets thanks to their huge screens yet by using Super AMOLED screens they are limiting what you can use them for. The Galaxy Note barely lasts 3-4 hours browsing according to some tests.
I hope to see some more positive results soon, because as it stands I'm not happy with what I'm seeing from the Nexus.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

On my Nexus S, I set the brightness to 8%.
And that's enough for me.
I have auto brightness toggle ready at the home screen if needed, for example during outdoor use.
All in all, I use my phone mostly indoor. Super AMOLED at 8% brightness is more than enough
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

For me it never really depend on the phone it was mostly something around 3-4 hours.
What counts as well is how good the drain in the deep sleep state is.
It wasn't a problem to survive 24h with my SGS II but with Desire, which is what I'm using now, I wouldn't bet on it.

ics just doesn't seem worth it...
this makes me sad
i've had the atrix since it's been out and i've really been hoping to upgrade to something just as solid. for all the complaints i've read about the atrix i figured many other phones were better yet i go read on other phones and find the atrix wins out all the time. i'm running cm7.1 (not nightlies) and not o/c or u/v and my phone sports screen times over 7 hours. i can play any game. the phone has very decent ppi thanks to qHD on a 4" but the pentile sucks. gps is spot on...ok i could go on forever, i guess from what i'm reading, i'll just wait till the next 720p screen comes out with maybe like tegra3 next year, hopefully it'll come with lte by that time which is really what i wanted to upgrade to. 4.0 ics just doesn't seem worth the 3-4 months i'll have to wait vs the sacrifices i'd have to make...

that's pretty bad i am considering the nexus but that battery stats damm worse than de gs2

really unsure what the concern is. id never have got this much out of my Desire-
51% battery
screen 56%
screen time 2h
and thats with a fair amount of tinkering now.

My biggest gripe with this phone: Battery Life

I LOVE the Galaxy Nexus, but the rate at which the battery discharges is just ridiculous. I'll use the phone for 15 minutes doing things like Twitter or Web Browsing, and it'll discharge 5% in that time. To me, that is horrible. I'm being really conservative too. Throughout a day I try not to play videos, games, or anything else intensive because I know it'll ruin my battery life. Even on standby it discharges 5% in an hour. Typically I lose about 10% an hour and my max has been 12 hours so far.
I have auto sync turned on and keep the screen low when possible. I NEED auto sync on because of the nature of my work. Compared to my iPhone 4S battery is downright pathetic.
Today my usage consisted of one phone call, a few text messages, lots of Twitter, and light web browsing. Nothing too crazy. Again I'm being really conservative with my usage whereas on my iPhone I can do whatever I want and not worry. I'm just not seeing how people are getting 15+ hours and claim heavy usage. I'd love to believe that! The battery drains so fast during normal usage it may be a deal breaker for me.
{
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"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
Edit: My battery discharged 2% just while writing this post.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App

It sounds like your definition of light usage is wrong.
I wouldn't consider heaps of twitter and some web browsing light usage. I would consider it moderate usage, in which case you seem to be in line with everyone else.
I agree with you in that the battery life isn't quite what I would have liked. Ideally I wouldn't have to worry about battery at all, and I'd be able to play games and browse the web as much as I like, but for normal usage it's fine.
The next Nexus though, man, that will only have to be charged once a month. I can't wait.

Niksko said:
It sounds like your definition of light usage is wrong.
I wouldn't consider heaps of twitter and some web browsing light usage. I would consider it moderate usage, in which case you seem to be in line with everyone else.
I agree with you in that the battery life isn't quite what I would have liked. Ideally I wouldn't have to worry about battery at all, and I'd be able to play games and browse the web as much as I like, but for normal usage it's fine.
The next Nexus though, man, that will only have to be charged once a month. I can't wait.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Twitter hardly taxes the processors at all. Refreshing it every so often should hardly take any battery life at all. Web Browsing I can understand, but my total time browsing today probably amounts to 10 minutes total.

I wonder how much of the drain is attributed to the 4.65" screen. It's a monster.
-Sent from my Arc (LT15a)

I expect the battery life go improve within the first few cycles. I had a similar experience with the Nexus S last year.

AdamUpNorth said:
I wonder how much of the drain is attributed to the 4.65" screen. It's a monster.
-Sent from my Arc (LT15a)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most of it. 720p Super AMOLED HD is killing the battery. The only way to last a long time is to not turn the screen on.

rashad1 said:
I expect the battery life go improve within the first few cycles. I had a similar experience with the Nexus S last year.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've had the phone for a week so far.

almost 3hours of screen from 10h standby!! mate give us a break and get back 4s. !!
heavy usage not low!
i can see low signal (coverage) what can also produce higher battery drain.
twiter running 24/7 in backround sync on + wifi + games...
i dont know what you want... you will never get anything similar from for example HTC sensation or even your favourite 4s.
dont take it on bad way..but if you dont know what to do - try to save your battery..
-lower your screen britness
-remove/disable apps that are producing the heavy drain (use betterbatterystats app)
-stop playing games - if you wanna long life for your battery.
-etc...
Best regards

People using a G2x claim to get a day and a half... I'm lucky to get out of work. Push email for work is to blame I think. I get tons of emails (100 a day) and I think its taxing. From your pics, the screen used over 50% of it. That's a lot.
Sucks.
Also make sure your aren't turning on the screen every 5 minutes to check the status. Since your coming from an iOS, are you closing apps properly (back = close, home = minimize).
I'm not saying your crazy but just saying.
LG G2x - 2.3.7 CM7
Asus Transformer - 3.7 Revolver OC/UV

rashad1 said:
I expect the battery life go improve within the first few cycles. I had a similar experience with the Nexus S last year.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had the same thing happen with the Nexus One. The battery wasn't that great but, got better after a few charge cycles.
I've never had a Android phone that could match the battery life of the Iphone. I can sit the iphone down at night without putting it on the charger and, if it's at 100% it will be at about 90-95% when I wake up. I did the same thing with my Mytouch 4G and, it was at 15%
To the OP, I would recommend keeping a charging cable with you when you out and about especially in your car. I've had car docks with a few of my android phones and, always keep the phone docked when I'm driving somewhere. It really helps.

What you also need to remember is this is the first release of ICS and is still in development so battery life my be improved in the next update. Like you mention iPhone4S there was massive battery leakage in the first release of IOS 5 which Apple apparently fixed in the newest update.. So maybe in the next update we can expect some bugs ironed out.

Used to only have ONLY 2-3 hours screen ON on my Vibrant so I know how SAmoled looks like.
I know iphone battery is good, but you need to consider the screen size too..
Get a spare battery with your "light usage", but I am thinking how much would it cost becoz of the NPC antenna.

Too good thing is, unlike iPhone, you can buy a spare battery and carry it with you.

3 hours of screen use is what the problem is. That is a long time. I wouldn't complain about that at all.

Storm T said:
3 hours of screen use is what the problem is. That is a long time. I wouldn't complain about that at all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
exactly what i am trying to say
+1

Hunteres said:
almost 3hours of screen from 10h standby!! mate give us a break and get back 4s. !!
heavy usage not low!
i can see low signal (coverage) what can also produce higher battery drain.
twiter running 24/7 in backround sync on + wifi + games...
i dont know what you want... you will never get anything similar from for example HTC sensation or even your favourite 4s.
dont take it on bad way..but if you dont know what to do - try to save your battery..
-lower your screen britness
-remove/disable apps that are producing the heavy drain (use betterbatterystats app)
-stop playing games - if you wanna long life for your battery.
-etc...
Best regards
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I already said I didn't play any games today and my screen brightness is low. For some reason Shadowgun stays in the battery info screen. I played the game two days ago and manually closed it out. Even after rebooting the phone its still there.
I'm being 100% real, stop trying to make excuses or act like I'm an iPhone fanboy. The Galaxy Nexus combined with ICS is the best phone I've ever used! I'm just terribly disappointed with the battery life.

Twittering all day is sucking up battery because of all the data use. Dude, youre not a light user with 3 hours screen time moderate, possibly heavy depending on background stuff sycing automatically. You have some tweaking to do, not whining.
Sent from my samsung gt i9250 which is in the wrong country.

Storm T said:
3 hours of screen use is what the problem is. That is a long time. I wouldn't complain about that at all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
3 hours is not that much. Seriously. It shouldn't be damn near dead after 10 hours. Imagine if I decided to play a game for 15 minutes or watch 2 YouTube videos.
I bet if people were getting an hour and half with this phone, all the fanboys here would say the same thing. "Man, an hour and a half is a long time! You should be happy with that!".

pukemon said:
Twittering all day is sucking up battery because of all the data use. Dude, youre not a light user with 3 hours screen time moderate, possibly heavy depending on background stuff sycing automatically. You have some tweaking to do, not whining.
Sent from my samsung gt i9250 which is in the wrong country.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've tested out the battery difference by turning off auto sync. Doesn't make a difference at all. Fact of the matter is that the battery drains like crazy when the screen is on.
I'll just turn my phone on because actually using it is frowned upon here.

tylose said:
Too good thing is, unlike iPhone, you can buy a spare battery and carry it with you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Except they aren't out yet

[TIP] How I get ~24 hours of battery power from my Galaxy Nexus nearly every day!

I will defer to the xda mods if they think this thread is redundant. I have been using my Galaxy Nexus now for ~3 weeks. During that time, I have seen my daily battery life improve from ~10 hours to a little over 24 hours before needing a charge. I have listed out the power saving strategies I've developed during these 3 weeks following the screenshot [PROOF]:
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"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
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"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
1.) Calibrate your battery using the following methods here: Battery Calibration.
2.) While on battery power, set your Nexus display's brightness level to ~30%. I've found that particular brightness level to be a sweet spot. Auto brightness does not work for me, so I hard set the level. I am able to get between ~4 to 5 hours total of screen time a day on battery power at that level. There are many Android Market apps/widgets that will allow you to set power profiles depending on your location and power draw and/or charge.
3.) Along with conservative display settings, I turn off cellular data entirely, or only use 2G (Edge) when connected to a WiFi hotspot. I have an unlocked I9250 Worldband GSM Galaxy Nexus, so I'm unable to address 4G LTE. But if I did have access to 4G LTE, I imagine the only time I would use it would be for tethering while the phone is plugged into a power source. Regardless, 3G (HSPA+) can be a significant power draw, and 4G doubly so. When on WiFi, 3G and/or cellular data is off entirely. My guesstimate is this saves me between 15 - 20% battery power throughout the day.
4.) I set application accounts to sync and updates only when on WiFi.
5.) Avoid rebooting or powering off the phone while on battery power. I've noticed a loss of between ~2 - 5% when rebooting the phone on battery.
6.) No live wallpapers, and the image I do use for a wallpaper is very dark. I set the homescreen widgets to nearly transparent and white text. I'm certain this conserves battery power, but by how much I can't say. [REFER]:
7.) During a typical day for me, I'm constantly using Twitter, Google+, Facebook, Gmail, the ICS Browser, TapTalk, and of course the homescreen widgets connected to network services. I would consider myself an average to heavy user depending on the day. All Gmail is pushed. My widgets update between 1 - 3 hour intervals. You can tell by the screenshot provided my WiFi signal is always on, my Awake and Screen On times are between 4 to 5 hours total of the 24 hours available. As you can see from the screenshot, during that 24 hour period I did not top off with a power charge during that time.
Any other tips for extending battery life are welcome. I hope this helps.

Cool. I keep my phone plugged in when I am in the car or desk and that seems enough for me without having to compromise. 4G is a real killer

Are you using Tasker to kill data when on wifi and enable it when not?
I was under the impression the OS did this automatically
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

FYI, the original poster is a HSPA+ user. Entirely different experience from a LTE user.

Err... if there is anything I take away from this thread, its: "If you want 24 hours of battery life on your Google Nexus, don't use it."
It's hard to say for certain, but it sure doesn't look like you used your phone very much over 24 hours. :|

sc4fpse said:
Err... if there is anything I take away from this thread, its: "If you want 24 hours of battery life on your Google Nexus, don't use it."
It's hard to say for certain, but it sure doesn't look like you used your phone very much over 24 hours. :|
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Total time the screen was on was between 4 to 5 hours total out of that particular 24 hour period. Depends on your definition of "use", but I've seen definitions of moderate to heavy smartphone use defined in various forum posts throughout XDA somewhere between 3 to 6 hours of screen time on a single charge. YMMV.

zoetrope said:
Total time the screen was on was between 4 to 5 hours total out of that particular 24 hour period. Depends on your definition of "use", but I've seen definitions of moderate to heavy smartphone use defined in various forum posts throughout XDA somewhere between 3 to 6 hours of screen time on a single charge. YMMV.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Based on that image, there's no way you got even 3 hours of screen on time.

wonshikee said:
Based on that image, there's no way you got even 3 hours of screen on time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm certain it was over 4 hours, I remember digging into the screen stats under the battery settings before taking a screenshot. I don't have a screenshot of the screen stat window during that 24 hour period.
Don't believe me? I don't really care. I have nothing to hide and nothing to prove. Just relaying my experience with the GN battery over a 3 week period.

I would rather keep 4g on and just charge throughout the day. Why pay a premium if you're not going to use it, but I suppose you don't have 4g so you don't care.

sc4fpse said:
Err... if there is anything I take away from this thread, its: "If you want 24 hours of battery life on your Google Nexus, don't use it."
It's hard to say for certain, but it sure doesn't look like you used your phone very much over 24 hours. :|
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This. Doesnt look like 4-5 hours screen time because the phone isnt awake enough.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

I don't see a problem with the battery life for the size of the phone.
I'm sure it would go a day and a half before needing a charge with my usage (which I consider 'normal') but I plug it in everynight while I sleep anyway.
The battery life definately improves after a few charge cycles.

I agree with sc4, you basically are saying not to use the phone. You do not have to take such extreme measures just to get good battery life. I get pretty good battery life and I don't disable anything.

Well I thought it was a nice post. Jeez. Especially if you compare to most of the crap that comes up in the general section.
I couldn't find where he said "dont use 4g der". I believe the idea he presented was to turn off 3g/4g while you're on wifi. Do you need 4g AND wifi? Easy, common sense. Thumbs up.

Just so you know: WiFi uses the same amount of power to transmit/receive data as 3G. You're not saving anything by turning off the 3G radio while on WiFi since the only thing it's being used for is phone calls and text messages.
In addition, being in WiFi all day long can *really* improve your battery life. It's easily the biggest thing on your list. Why? Because the cell radio isn't constantly trying to maintain a data signal to the 3G towers. It maintains a connection but it doesn't have to negotiate for it almost at all...saves a lot of battery life.
Oh, and that Battery Calibration post is ridiculous. When you first get a phone just discard it fully then charge it up fully. Do it once every few months for the life of the phone and you'll find you maintain great battery life. Outside of that, keep it plugged in as *OFTEN* as you can to maintain longevity.
Also, according to your screenshot, your screen was on a *maximum* of 3 hours, but most likely around 2 1/2. That means the data connection most likely wasn't used much more than that, as well. That's very light use over a 24 hour period.
---------- Post added at 08:31 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:31 PM ----------
smot13 said:
Well I thought it was a nice post. Jeez. Especially if you compare to most of the crap that comes up in the general section.
I couldn't find where he said "dont use 4g der". I believe the idea he presented was to turn off 3g/4g while you're on wifi. Do you need 4g AND wifi? Easy, common sense. Thumbs up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, no, you wouldn't...but it turns off the LTE radio when on WiFi anyway...so that's a moot point.

One more tip:
If you use vibrate on keyboard, shorten it to as low as possible.
This is possible using SwiftKey
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

hotleadsingerguy said:
In addition, being in WiFi all day long can *really* improve your battery life. It's easily the biggest thing on your list. Why? Because the cell radio isn't constantly trying to maintain a data signal to the 3G towers. It maintains a connection but it doesn't have to negotiate for it almost at all...saves a lot of battery life.
Oh, and that Battery Calibration post is ridiculous. When you first get a phone just discard it fully then charge it up fully. Do it once every few months for the life of the phone and you'll find you maintain great battery life. Outside of that, keep it plugged in as *OFTEN* as you can to maintain longevity.
Also, according to your screenshot, your screen was on a *maximum* of 3 hours, but most likely around 2 1/2. That means the data connection most likely wasn't used much more than that, as well. That's very light use over a 24 hour period.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
@ hotleadsingerguy
I'll leave 3G running for the next couple of days, see if there's any difference. Thanks for the info. Are you saying the screen on time reported by the OS is not reliable? If not, know of any apps that do report battery stats and usage reliably?
Galaxy Nexus I9250

@rbiter said:
This. Doesnt look like 4-5 hours screen time because the phone isnt awake enough.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed that is not 4-5 hours of screen time. It is blatant in the graph u provided. Look at the screen and awake times. Here is mine with only 2 hours of screen time but over an hour of voice.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App

To push more, set the animation etc. to 0.5x in the developer options. This should reduce the cpu usage a little bit.
And turn off auto rotate as it consume quite a lot of cpu power. Most probably this is just a bug, there has been a report in the Google code bug yracking.

zoetrope said:
@ hotleadsingerguy
I'll leave 3G running for the next couple of days, see if there's any difference. Thanks for the info. Are you saying the screen on time reported by the OS is not reliable? If not, know of any apps that do report battery stats and usage reliably?
Galaxy Nexus I9250
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Qhen you go to battery stats tap on the screen percentage. It will tell you exactly how long screen has been on.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

republitarian said:
Agreed that is not 4-5 hours of screen time. It is blatant in the graph u provided. Look at the screen and awake times. Here is mine with only 2 hours of screen time but over an hour of voice.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree. I did not get a screenshot of my screen time when I took the screen pic of the timeline graph. I was relying on memory, but after comparing republitarian's pic which has roughly the same timeline span, looks like my memory failed me. Mine is somewhere between 2 - 3 hours of screen time as well. My bad.
Galaxy Nexus I9250

[Q] SIII LTE Poor battery life USA AT&T

I received my Galaxy SIII on Monday and haven't been able to complete a full day with light to moderate usage. Yesterday after about 11 hours of mainly standby / light usage I had about 3% battery before I was able to charge it.
Is this normal? I'm coming from an iPhone 4 (this is my first android phone) and was quite excited about this. But if I can't make it through the day what's the point. I have noticed at times that the back of the phone can get quite warm, not hot, but definitely warm. Perhaps I have a faulty battery?
I've heard Android can be a bit notorious for poor battery life, but I didn't expect that I wouldn't be able to use it for the fear of the phone not lasting the day.
My iPhone 4 I could use it quite often throughout the day and end the day with close to 40% battery life and if needed I could last through the night well into the next day without a charge.
Will I have to carry around a spare battery / charger at all times.
Here are some screen shots from today. I've been awake and unplugged for nearly 3 hours, barely used the thing and I'm already at less than 70% with HIGH cell signal standby.
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}

This is a picture of my screen
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S III using Tapatalk 2

Hmm, looks like yours may be fairing better than mine based on your usage. Looks like you used it for a good 40 minutes.
When I use mine I can watch the battery percentage drop. I really hope that this is an issue with my phone and not the phone in general. I really like the phone and it's a nice change from the iPhone (little quirks here and there but still nice).
However, if the battery life is this bad (bad IMO perhaps this is actually good), then I think I'll have no choice but to return this phone - assuming I can. Otherwise I guess I'll have to drop the money for extra batteries.
I've gone as far as basically making email manual. I've turned off that stupid S-Voice thing so it won't wake up by me saying "Hi Galaxy". Guess I'll turn off WiFi and GPS (though I feel I shouldn't need to). I have battery saving mode on as well and I've dimmed the screen down to what looks like 20%...
EDIT: also, the maps that used 6% of total battery usage was me just taking a look at the widget and disabling it. Less than a minute of usage...

Your phone is not sleeping. Install better battery stats to see what is keeping it awake.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

Also cell standby means you are in a low signal area which from your screenshot appears to be correct.
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joshnichols189 said:
Also cell standby means you are in a low signal area which from your screenshot appears to be correct.
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Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately I can't do much about that since I'm at work
Do you have a recommendation for a good battery monitor? One that preferably doesn't cost money?
When it was awake I believe I had been messing around with it. I've checked it again and it hasn't been awake that often (just spurts). Looks like it's periodically syncing with my email, while I realize this will cause the battery to be drained I wouldn't expect this to be too large a deal. I would think I should be able to have my phone idle and still be able to receive emails without it causing too much of an issue. All my accounts are set-up through IMAP (minus my exchange account - which I've set-up to run manual during peak hours and check once an hour during non - peak hours) so the emails should be pushed to the device since I shouldn't be polling the servers (although it's possible I don't know too much about IMAP....).

patmann03 said:
Unfortunately I can't do much about that since I'm at work
Do you have a recommendation for a good battery monitor? One that preferably doesn't cost money?
When it was awake I believe I had been messing around with it. I've checked it again and it hasn't been awake that often (just spurts). Looks like it's periodically syncing with my email, while I realize this will cause the battery to be drained I wouldn't expect this to be too large a deal. I would think I should be able to have my phone idle and still be able to receive emails without it causing too much of an issue. All my accounts are set-up through IMAP (minus my exchange account - which I've set-up to run manual during peak hours and check once an hour during non - peak hours) so the emails should be pushed to the device since I shouldn't be polling the servers (although it's possible I don't know too much about IMAP....).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Better battery stats is free if you search for it on XDA and from your above screenshot it is awake without the screen being on for a while. I think you have an app using up CPU processes.. poorly written apps will do this
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If WiFi is enabled and I'm connected does mobile data get disabled?
I also found an App called Juice defender, is this something that is recommended to use?
I got the BetterBatterStats app installed. I'll do a full charge, then see what it has to say.
Thanks for your help.

patmann03 said:
If WiFi is enabled and I'm connected does mobile data get disabled?
I also found an App called Juice defender, is this something that is recommended to use?
I got the BetterBatterStats app installed. I'll do a full charge, then see what it has to say.
Thanks for your help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's what I am here for juice defender is good for longer periods for use so yes you might want to look into it. Wifi does not automatically disable mobile data I do not believe.
I also think you can load up better battery stats right now and it will tell you data
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joshnichols189 said:
That's what I am here for juice defender is good for longer periods for use so yes you might want to look into it. Wifi does not automatically disable mobile data I do not believe.
I also think you can load up better battery stats right now and it will tell you data
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Click to expand...
Click to collapse
He'll have to full charge first to get a reference point for BBS. And as far as I know, once Wi-Fi is on, mobile data is off.
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K Rich said:
He'll have to full charge first to get a reference point for BBS. And as far as I know, once Wi-Fi is on, mobile data is off.
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Click to collapse
I don't know, I am pretty sure I thought the same of BBS but tried it for the hell of it last time and it was able to pull my stats from the current charge because they were just pulled from the system anyways.
Mobile data is not toggled off in the settings when wifi is on
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I just got and activated my S3 on Wednesday and am having the exact same problem. I'm also on ATT and am coming from an iphone 3GS. First day I had the S3 I barely got 8 hours out of it, most of that time in standby mode and with nothing but the stock apps installed. Yesterday I cycled the battery and drained it to completely dead to where the phone wouldn't even try to turn on. I then charged it to 100% with the phone turned off. I then unplugged it to see how much battery life it would drain on standby overnight. In about 6 hours while I was asleep it went from 100% to 93%. Then I left home and between that time and now, 7.5 hours, with minimal use which included less than 20 minutes of phone calls, downloading 3 apps, syncing email a couple of times, etc.. no games, no videos, no music, no internet browsing, nothing....
Battery is now down to 24%
Screen - 1h 42m 26%
Android OS - 10m 7%
voice calls - 17m 5%
and the rest of the stuff at about 5% or less,
basically, in 7.5 hours of doing almost nothing, with power saving mode turned on and juice defender also active, my phone has gone from 93% to 24%.
Before I got the phone I read several reviews that said the battery life on these phones was supposed to be excellent. I can't imagine that this is what would be considered excellent. My iphone, which I replaced because the battery was dying, would easily last twice as long as this and that's with heavy use including games, pandora, youtube, and internet browsing.
Aside from the short battery life I'm also experiencing horrible wifi issues. On my wifi at work it will constantly disconnect and reconnect over and over. I had my iphone sitting next to the S3 and the connection was rock solid.
I contacted samsung and ATT and they did not have any suggestions or solutions but the guy from ATT did suggest taking the phone to an ATT store and they would give me another battery to try and if that didn't work I could exchange the phone.
I hate running around exchanging stuff but I'm very disappointed with this phone so far. Half the battery life of my iphone and horrible wifi connectivity isn't what I'd expect from a phone which has been touted as being significantly better than the iphone 4S and possibly even the iphone5 when that's released.
Any suggestions? I'm really trying to love this phone but so far...meh....not so much..... I love the screen, the interface is very cool, it's lighter than my iphone, but if I can't get more than a couple of hours of very light usage and no solid wifi connectivity, I don't know.... Once I get these problems ironed out I have a couple of other total newb questions about things I need to do with it but first things first...if I can't solve these problems, this phone won't work for me. Hope you guys can help! :good:

I'm glad (but not glad) to hear I'm not alone. It really is frustrating. I've been in the process of charging my phone which is taking a long time in and of itself (although I am connected to USB on my PC). It's been plugged in for 2 hours and gone up 24% eh.
I'll probably take it to the AT&T store and talk to them about it. If I can't get is solved I'll probably exchange it, but that exchange would have to be a guarantee that I'd either get the iPhone 5 when it comes out without having to pay full price, or perhaps the HTC One X, but I hear that isn't much better either. I have a friend who has the HTC One X (or the variant of it on Sprint) and he get's two days of battery life with some gaming even.
I do not want the 4S since IMO it's a worthless upgrade from the 4.
I'm located in the suburbs of Chicago so I have 4g LTE just about everywhere, granted my signal is a bit weak in my building... by a window.
If you come up with anything let me know and vice versa.

Yeah, you're definitely not alone. I've read some other posts on this and other forums of people complaining about the same thing. I have 30 days to return it so I really want to see if I can figure out how to make it work. If not, I'm going to do the same thing you're thinking of -- take it back and hopefully they'll let me go back to using my old iphone until the iphone 5 comes out, then get that one at the new contract price. Like you, I have zero interest in the iphone 4S.
I have to say, this is really frustrating and disappointing. I was expecting an "iphone killer" and instead I've wound up with a phone that with light to normal usage is pretty much dead by 3 in the afternoon. I can't work like this.
And like you've noticed, it does charge very slowly. Even through usb my iphone would charge very fast. 20 minutes in my car would give it about 15% more charge. The S3 goes up maybe 2 or 3% in the same time. I can live with this but not with the battery life or wifi problems.
btw, I'm trying another full discharge cycle tonight to see if that helps any. I really hope I can get this resolved. When I got the phone I started shopping for accessories like a car dock, screen protector/case, etc.. and was ready to order some but held off when I saw how crappy the battery life was.

No one has said this yet, but you are using a different version of SGS3 from us. You should go over to the ATT LTE boards and get help.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app

patmann03 said:
I'm glad (but not glad) to hear I'm not alone. It really is frustrating. I've been in the process of charging my phone which is taking a long time in and of itself (although I am connected to USB on my PC). It's been plugged in for 2 hours and gone up 24% eh.
I'll probably take it to the AT&T store and talk to them about it. If I can't get is solved I'll probably exchange it, but that exchange would have to be a guarantee that I'd either get the iPhone 5 when it comes out without having to pay full price, or perhaps the HTC One X, but I hear that isn't much better either. I have a friend who has the HTC One X (or the variant of it on Sprint) and he get's two days of battery life with some gaming even.
I do not want the 4S since IMO it's a worthless upgrade from the 4.
I'm located in the suburbs of Chicago so I have 4g LTE just about everywhere, granted my signal is a bit weak in my building... by a window.
If you come up with anything let me know and vice versa.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am also in the Chicago area weak signal will destroy your battery so that could have a LOT to do with it. The sprint One X also is 3G only for the time being, so it doesn't have those life-sucking "4G" issues.
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BonesHopkins said:
I just got and activated my S3 on Wednesday and am having the exact same problem. I'm also on ATT and am coming from an iphone 3GS. First day I had the S3 I barely got 8 hours out of it, most of that time in standby mode and with nothing but the stock apps installed. Yesterday I cycled the battery and drained it to completely dead to where the phone wouldn't even try to turn on. I then charged it to 100% with the phone turned off. I then unplugged it to see how much battery life it would drain on standby overnight. In about 6 hours while I was asleep it went from 100% to 93%. Then I left home and between that time and now, 7.5 hours, with minimal use which included less than 20 minutes of phone calls, downloading 3 apps, syncing email a couple of times, etc.. no games, no videos, no music, no internet browsing, nothing....
Battery is now down to 24%
Screen - 1h 42m 26%
Android OS - 10m 7%
voice calls - 17m 5%
and the rest of the stuff at about 5% or less,
basically, in 7.5 hours of doing almost nothing, with power saving mode turned on and juice defender also active, my phone has gone from 93% to 24%.
Before I got the phone I read several reviews that said the battery life on these phones was supposed to be excellent. I can't imagine that this is what would be considered excellent. My iphone, which I replaced because the battery was dying, would easily last twice as long as this and that's with heavy use including games, pandora, youtube, and internet browsing.
Aside from the short battery life I'm also experiencing horrible wifi issues. On my wifi at work it will constantly disconnect and reconnect over and over. I had my iphone sitting next to the S3 and the connection was rock solid.
I contacted samsung and ATT and they did not have any suggestions or solutions but the guy from ATT did suggest taking the phone to an ATT store and they would give me another battery to try and if that didn't work I could exchange the phone.
I hate running around exchanging stuff but I'm very disappointed with this phone so far. Half the battery life of my iphone and horrible wifi connectivity isn't what I'd expect from a phone which has been touted as being significantly better than the iphone 4S and possibly even the iphone5 when that's released.
Any suggestions? I'm really trying to love this phone but so far...meh....not so much..... I love the screen, the interface is very cool, it's lighter than my iphone, but if I can't get more than a couple of hours of very light usage and no solid wifi connectivity, I don't know.... Once I get these problems ironed out I have a couple of other total newb questions about things I need to do with it but first things first...if I can't solve these problems, this phone won't work for me. Hope you guys can help! :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Almost 2 hours of Screen On, is not bearly doing nothing. It's nearly a 5" light bulb you're leaving on.
Your signal may also not be as good as on your iphone in the same areas. But both of you seem to be on par. Yes android devices don't last as long as an iphone. There's more to do and more do on an Android than an iphone. You're also in your honeymoon stage..

Did some research found this link to force hspa so it disables lte or wont connect to it. Going to try that. Not sure if this disables the antenna and you'd still get the battery drain.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1338109

patmann03 said:
Did some research found this link to force hspa so it disables lte or wont connect to it. Going to try that. Not sure if this disables the antenna and you'd still get the battery drain.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1338109
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No you will not experience the battery drain if you disable LTE in this way.
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SlimJ87D said:
No one has said this yet, but you are using a different version of SGS3 from us. You should go over to the ATT LTE boards and get help.
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Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If I'm understanding you correctly, are you saying that the ATT S3s are different than the other S3s and are expected to get less battery life?
btw, where are the ATT LTE boards you're talking about?

another battery life issue

I'm sure this question has been asked before. But I'm coming from an iPhone so Neff help with this.
As soon as I start using the phone in the morning when it's connected to WiFi. Within a second of using it or 2 minutes if we're being realistic. The phone loses 2%. Is this normal ? Coming from an iPhone where 100% would last at least 20-30 mjnutes. I can't seem to find anything draining my phone either !

I think a longer observation period (a full day / through the night) will give a better idea of how your battery performs. Use the default power settings or other batter monitoring application like GSam Battery Monitor and compare it against other users here.

myth1001 said:
I think a longer observation period (a full day / through the night) will give a better idea of how your battery performs. Use the default power settings or other batter monitoring application like GSam Battery Monitor and compare it against other users here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If did that across the whole day yesterday let me show you the result. I usually charge when the phone gets to around 35-40%
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"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
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[/IMG]

muzia22 said:
I'm sure this question has been asked before. But I'm coming from an iPhone so Neff help with this.
As soon as I start using the phone in the morning when it's connected to WiFi. Within a second of using it or 2 minutes if we're being realistic. The phone loses 2%. Is this normal ? Coming from an iPhone where 100% would last at least 20-30 mjnutes. I can't seem to find anything draining my phone either !
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just got my phone & I'm having the same issue, I read online that after a few charging cycles we should have alot better battery life

MyNameIsRamo said:
I just got my phone & I'm having the same issue, I read online that after a few charging cycles we should have alot better battery life
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Had about 3-4 days worth this end will keep an update here. So far not bad been intense usage for about 2-3 hours lost about 25 percent. Could be worse

muzia22 said:
Had about 3-4 days worth this end will keep an update here. So far not bad been intense usage for about 2-3 hours lost about 25 percent. Could be worse
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well that's alot better than what i'm currently getting so there's hope

muzia22 said:
If did that across the whole day yesterday let me show you the result. I usually charge when the phone gets to around 35-40%
[/IMG]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well that's 3.5 hours of screen on time and you're at 45%. That doesn't look bad to me.
Sent from my HTC One_M8 using XDA Free mobile app

myth1001 said:
Well that's 3.5 hours of screen on time and you're at 45%. That doesn't look bad to me.
Sent from my HTC One_M8 using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay just making sure I'm getting the full potential of the phone Lolz reviews kept saying 6 hours but that's assuming they let it get to zero

muzia22 said:
Okay just making sure I'm getting the full potential of the phone Lolz reviews kept saying 6 hours but that's assuming they let it get to zero
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Any update?

Got nearly 20 hours off charge with moderate usage throughout the day with a mixture of WiFi and 4G. Turning power saver at 50. Phone had 33 per cent left by end of day.

MyNameIsRamo said:
Any update?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Look above

MyNameIsRamo said:
I just got my phone & I'm having the same issue, I read online that after a few charging cycles we should have alot better battery life
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Urban myths and old wives tales. Cycling the battery doesn't "improve" battery life on a Li ion battery. What you are possibly doing is making the battery meter more accurate (placement of the "high" and "low" flags that correlate voltage with "full" and "empty"). But its just a means of measurement, and this doesn't affect the battery life itself. Meaning, it doesn't "improve" battery life any more than messing with the fuel gauge in your car would increase or decrease the amount of gas in the tank.
---------- Post added at 12:18 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:15 PM ----------
muzia22 said:
As soon as I start using the phone in the morning when it's connected to WiFi. Within a second of using it or 2 minutes if we're being realistic. The phone loses 2%. Is this normal ? Coming from an iPhone where 100% would last at least 20-30 mjnutes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This doesn't mean anything. The battery % is just an estimation based on battery voltage remaining versus how the phone "thinks" you are going to use it. Comparing 98% on Android versus 100% on iOS is apples to oranges. There is no standard for this, or reason to believe they are in anyway comparable.
As previously noted, 3.5 hours screen-on time with 55% drain (45% remaining) is very normal, even good. A lot of things affect battery life, not least of which is how you use your phone, and cell reception in your area. You will see a wide array of variance in the battery life people get. And since yours seems actually pretty good, I wouldn't worry about it.

redpoint73 said:
Urban myths and old wives tales. Cycling the battery doesn't "improve" battery life on a Li ion battery. What you are possibly doing is making the battery meter more accurate (placement of the "high" and "low" flags that correlate voltage with "full" and "empty"). But its just a means of measurement, and this doesn't affect the battery life itself. Meaning, it doesn't "improve" battery life any more than messing with the fuel gauge in your car would increase or decrease the amount of gas in the tank.
---------- Post added at 12:18 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:15 PM ----------
This doesn't mean anything. The battery % is just an estimation based on battery voltage remaining versus how the phone "thinks" you are going to use it. Comparing 98% on Android versus 100% on iOS is apples to oranges. There is no standard for this, or reason to believe they are in anyway comparable.
As previously noted, 3.5 hours screen-on time with 55% drain (45% remaining) is very normal, even good. A lot of things affect battery life, not least of which is how you use your phone, and cell reception in your area. You will see a wide array of variance in the battery life people get. And since yours seems actually pretty good, I wouldn't worry about it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks [emoji3] it was actually &37 percent but that's still pretty good with the battery save g options available I should be able to exceed a full day in the event of an unplanned night out !

To be fair, I feel like Apple designs their phone where their first 20% will take forever to drop but as soon as it passed that point it falls to 0. And yes I've seen it shut down at 10, turned it back on it's at 2. Where as this phone's last 15% seems to take forever to drop.
Sent from my HTC One_M8 using XDA Free mobile app

id say thats pretty good life outta the battery. the more you use it the more its gonna drain. and those getting like 6 hours of screen on time are strictly on wifi at an office or something. if your out roaming with LTE and the such your probably not going to get 6 hours...

Intense usage on 4g with lots of camera usage and uploads music and a few phone calls. So far so good! Had more than enough when I got home to leave without changing I case I needed it

Teo032 said:
To be fair, I feel like Apple designs their phone where their first 20% will take forever to drop but as soon as it passed that point it falls to 0. And yes I've seen it shut down at 10, turned it back on it's at 2. Where as this phone's last 15% seems to take forever to drop.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I feel the M8, and my past Android phones take a disproportionate amount of time to drop the first few % as well. Maybe not as much as what you are mentioning for the iPhone (couldn't personally comment). May have to do with the saturation charge that occurs when the battery nears full (in fact, you should actually leave your phone on charge for some time after it says full).
Also, the battery meter on any phone is far from accurate. It often can't really be trusted with be within 5 or even 10%. So that would explain why you saw it "jump" down 8%.

Yeah my point was that all these phones' measure battery differently and not exactly accurate so you shouldn't compare Apple to oranges. Oh and the jump in percentages was referring to the iPhones. If anything Android tends to jump up when turned back on lol.
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