My wife and I both got new Verizon Galaxy Nexus phones about two weeks ago. Having heard of the poor battery life, I immediately bought an official Verizon extended battery; wife stayed with the stock one. After both of us set up our phones and went through a few charge cycles, I noticed something odd: while her battery would last 24-36 hours with mid-level use, mine would die within 9-12 hours with minimal use (it has never made it overnight).
My first thought was that some widget or app was syncing or otherwise waking the phone when it shouldn't, so I removed all the widgets from my homescreens and disabled all syncing but Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Contacts. I also turned the screen down to minimum brightness. Still had the fast discharge issues.
Next step: uninstall all apps that I've downloaded. Battery still drains too fast.
Finally, I did a factory reset of the phone, and did not download any new apps. I thought maybe there was some deeper setting that I had overlooked that was causing the issue. After the reset, the battery had its worst performance yet at ~9.5 hours with bare minimum use (mostly overnight). Wife's phone was still going strong with about 34 hours of usage.
I am in wifi coverage all day (except when driving to/from work), so I have kept that on. Bluetooth and GPS have been off the whole time. Average time without signal is ~2%. 4G is also on. I also tried 1-2 charge cycles with the regular battery to make sure that it wasn't just a faulty extended battery, but it predictably resulted in even worse discharge time.
I have kept track of the battery usage stats both in the standard Settings as well as Badass Battery Manager, but nothing has seemed out of the ordinary. Right now I am charging up my wife's standard battery in my phone, and she is using my extended battery, to make double sure that I didn't just end up with two bad batteries.
Both of us are using stock ICS 4.04, and are not rooted.
She uses her phone for Google Talk, Facebook, Tamadroid (Tamagotchi app), etc. throughout the day (don't have more exact usage stats at the moment), while mine has been sitting practically unused for the last few days while I try to see if my various steps work, so the top drainers have been (in order) Mobile Standby, Phone Idle, and Screen On.
Last night when we went to sleep, my phone was at ~70% on the extended battery, and hers was about 14%. This morning, mine was dead and hers had 5% left.
Is there anything else I could have missed that could contribute to this issue? Unfortunately I do not have access to to my actual usage graphs/stats right now, or I would link them. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Otherwise, it's back to Best Buy to exchange for a new phone.
UPDATE: This was a hardware issue. Exchanged phone and saw immediate, drastic improvement. See my last post for more detail:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=30778596&postcount=32
It sounds like the battery to me. Not all batteries are created equally. The quality of the components is going to directly lead to the discharge rate, degradation over time, etc. It sounds like the battery you were sold sucks and the stock one would probably work better.
I certainly can't think of anything else you can try. It would seem that swapping batteries with your wife for a day would tell you for sure if it's something to do with the phone or the battery.
Stealthz said:
It sounds like the battery to me. Not all batteries are created equally. The quality of the components is going to directly lead to the discharge rate, degradation over time, etc. It sounds like the battery you were sold sucks and the stock one would probably work better.
I certainly can't think of anything else you can try. It would seem that swapping batteries with your wife for a day would tell you for sure if it's something to do with the phone or the battery.
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I am going to swap out the battery at a Verizon store later tonight, and see if it works any better.
To make a better comparison, compare screen usage as it is the big eater of the battery. You should find it on battery usage.
My galaxy Nexus can ve 2h30 with screen on (+ intensive app using) to get 0% from 100%
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Its hard to say why.. but is there anything wrong with the network on your phone? My brother got one, his dropped signal every 2/3 minutes and the battery lasted at least 4-6 hours, you can also check to see what your phone is using in the battery section in settings.
bOx Stash - https://www.box.com/shared/d8a46b7252c38069deb1
Got a new extended battery from Verizon, and it seemed to be working a lot better during the day. However, once I went to sleep the charge dropped like a rock! I am doing a new charge cycle with Badass Battery Manager watching over it, and will post pictures when it is done. I have no apps other than fully updated stock apps and the battery manager. This is incredibly frustrating because my wife's phone is not experiencing any issues overnight. It is looking more and more like this is a faulty handset...
Got some usage stats now. Here is the first full cycle on the new extended battery; seemed pretty good at about 1d 5h. Unfortunately, it has gone downhill from there.
looks like your phone was working for a signal alot of the time.
Here are the results from the next cycle; there is already a noticeable drop to just over 22h.
Oarsman05 said:
Here are the results from the next cycle; there is already a noticeable drop to just over 22h.
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yeah you have terrible signal. your phone is trying to push for a better signal, which causes more power drain.
if you look at your signal graph, you hit red signal, which is near dropped signal range.
This is from last night. After letting the battery completely discharge, I recharged it while the phone was off. It hit 100% around 12:30AM, when I went to sleep. Fast forward to 8:00AM, and the phone has discharged 66%! Obviously, I was not answering calls/texts/etc. during this time.
Zepius said:
yeah you have terrible signal. your phone is trying to push for a better signal, which causes more power drain.
if you look at your signal graph, you hit red signal, which is near dropped signal range.
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Yup, he seems to have a lot of horrible coverage in his area or his phone is in a terrible spot where there is hardly any signal.
Test your phone around your town or home.
Your signal should pretty much look like this
I'm usually full bars, rarely do I drop below to three.
If it helps, disable 4g until you need it.. it will saviour some of your battery.
bOx Stash - https://www.box.com/shared/d8a46b7252c38069deb1
withbloodskies said:
Yup, he seems to have a lot of horrible coverage in his area or his phone is in a terrible spot where there is hardly any signal.
Test your phone around your town or home.
Your signal should pretty much look like this
<image omitted>
I'm usually full bars, rarely do I drop below to three.
If it helps, disable 4g until you need it.. it will saviour some of your battery.
bOx Stash - https://www.box.com/shared/d8a46b7252c38069deb1
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This makes sense, but for that my wife's phone is usually in the same general area and is getting significantly better life. Could the signal difference at my work compared to home really cause that big a discrepancy? I am usually at 3 bars, according to Phone Radio's settings. This would also not account for the massive overnight drain that her phone does not experience 6 feet away.
I installed Badass Battery Monitor and CPU Spy on her phone for comparisons; I will check her signal levels when I get home.
Oarsman05 said:
This makes sense, but for that my wife's phone is usually in the same general area and is getting significantly better life. I installed Badass Battery Monitor and CPU Spy on her phone for comparisons; I will check her signal levels when I get home.
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Click to collapse
Well I hope its not a hardware issue on your phone.
I've seen way too many people having this issue recently.. .My literally only issue is my screen, its covered in tint. Yellow, red, blue, purple :/ funny I get a perfect hardware phone and get a ****ty screen. Not going to return it to take chances.
Its possible you may need to update your radio - depending on it, for various users it has different effects on battery life and signal.
Anyway looking forward to the results.
bOx Stash - https://www.box.com/shared/d8a46b7252c38069deb1
withbloodskies said:
Its possible you may need to update your radio - depending on it, for various users it has different effects on battery life and signal.
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The radio would affect the "time without signal," right? Last night (66% drop in ~7.5hr) it said I was without signal for 4% of the time.
Oarsman05 said:
The radio would affect the "time without signal," right? Last night (66% drop in ~7.5hr) it said I was without signal for 4% of the time.
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Click to collapse
Someone correct me if I'm wrong but.. the RADIO should help or make your coverage "signal" worse. If its hardware or just horrible signal the % loss should be a lot higher with normally about an hour of screen on it should show around 20-40% signal loss.
Normally signal loss is around 2-4%.
I would keep an eye on your signal bar "on the status bar" if it drops - plummets to an empty bar with an × then its possible you have a hardware issue. If it don't drop or if it does check the signal loss occasionally to see how much is lost.
If its horrible signal I do suggest a new radio to help you, if you dabble in the radio world.. please read carefully on them. They can cause serious issues if you get a bad download or wrong download "md5 mismatch". At the least harmful it can boot but without any type of signal etc.
Its easy to use but can be dangerous to your device if not handled properly
bOx Stash - https://www.box.com/shared/d8a46b7252c38069deb1
Mine is 4% loss also. I've never noticed any significant differences in battery life going from the cornfields to the city.
This phone is known for radio issues. It's pretty disappointing but I've just grown used to it.
Which radios are you currently on? Settings, about, baseband. Should say fc04 fc05 if you're on the latest.
Some people have better luck with different radio combinations depending on their phone.
From your battery Stats its like you barely use your phone. Could you show a screen shot of cpu spy?
Would you consider a different rom and kernel?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app
jfriend33 said:
Mine is 4% loss also. I've never noticed any significant differences in battery life going from the cornfields to the city.
This phone is known for radio issues. It's pretty disappointing but I've just grown used to it.
Which radios are you currently on? Settings, about, baseband. Should say fc04 fc05 if you're on the latest.
Some people have better luck with different radio combinations depending on their phone.
From your battery Stats its like you barely use your phone. Could you show a screen shot of cpu spy?
Would you consider a different rom and kernel?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app
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Click to collapse
Assuming you mean me, give me a few hours? Gonna throw on a full charge and wear it down. I'll give my screens of my phone when its near dead, I heavily use my phone. I'm surprised I was on 2hours with half battery after watching videos.
bOx Stash - https://www.box.com/shared/d8a46b7252c38069deb1
jfriend33 said:
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I have the same baseband as this image. I just added CPU Spy this morning. I will add some screenshots of it after my next full charge cycle.
If it is a faulty radio, would it be in my best interest to exchange the phone at Best Buy? I have about another week to do that if necessary.
I'm having similar issues, although it doesn't seem as bad. I'm going to take the chance of exchanging it because I also have 4G dropping issues, because like you said, we've got a week, and I'll exchange the phone as many times as I need to until I get a *new* one without any issues.
Kind of disappointing, my screen seems great.
Related
As I posted in another thread:
I am lucky to even get 12 hours with minimal use. No calls, just some texting and maybe browsing my bank website. Screen is always the killer for me, even on 20% brightness. If I go lower the screen actually flickers.
I bought the red HTC Chichitech batteries and they didn't help me at all.
Tried overclocking module, didn't change much.
The only app that ever shows any significant battery use (over 5%) is Maps, when I use maps.
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Click to collapse
I am rooted, S-OFF, using the Sense Modaco ROM. Battery usage was no better with the Stock Bell Rom before rooting or S-OFF.
My main concern is the screen flickering at low brightness. it's as if it's unable to decide on a specific level of brightness and makes me question if it's actually saving any power.
I set my phone to Auto brightness and I am going to see if that is actually worse of if it's on par with 20%.
Ugh - just realized there is another thread pretty much all about this. I thought it was a different issue. Still, does anyone know if there is a better batch of phones or something? I have a FutureShop warranty so it'd be easy enough for me to replace if it will actually provide a solution
No-one has posted anything, to my knowledge, about a different batch of phones having better battery life. I would check out the other threads about battery life (including those on the G2 side too) and see if you can get yours to last better. But it could just be something faulty on your phone/battery.
Auto-brightness would make it even worse..because there is some type of bug or something that isn't making it function like it should. I was also getting terrible battery life until I followed some of these steps: http://www.goodandevo.net/2010/05/20-tips-to-improve-htc-evo-4g-battery-life.html
Biggest killers are any widgets that are constantly updating..or facebook/twitter apps that are constantly updating. As well..i recommend SetCPU to underclock your phone when your screen is turned off. This should also help with conserving battery life along with some of the steps provided in that link.
steviewevie said:
No-one has posted anything, to my knowledge, about a different batch of phones having better battery life. I would check out the other threads about battery life (including those on the G2 side too) and see if you can get yours to last better. But it could just be something faulty on your phone/battery.
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Click to collapse
I am considering waiting a month or so and then having mine replaced. Unless I managed to figure something else out. My HTC Legend had better battery life.
Rickroller said:
Auto-brightness would make it even worse..because there is some type of bug or something that isn't making it function like it should. I was also getting terrible battery life until I followed some of these steps: http://www.goodandevo.net/2010/05/20-tips-to-improve-htc-evo-4g-battery-life.html
Biggest killers are any widgets that are constantly updating..or facebook/twitter apps that are constantly updating. As well..i recommend SetCPU to underclock your phone when your screen is turned off. This should also help with conserving battery life along with some of the steps provided in that link.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The reason I want to try auto or higher brightness is to see if lowering it was actually saving me any battery life. I am curious if there's a driver or display issues that causes it to use the same amount regardless of the setting. So far I don't seem to be running out any faster @ auto than I was at 20%, but it hasn't been a long enough time to tell for sure.
Also I am unable to do the battery tip for the evo because once I turn off the phone and go to charge it again, it's instantly green. But I am going to try it anyway even though it's green.
Since writing the first post I used the OC module to get my phone to 1.2ghz. I have SetCPU set to run on boot with the onDemand setting. I have a profile that says to slow the CPU when the screen is off. From what I've read it doesn't make a ton of difference with this particular phone, but we'll see...
rewen said:
Also I am unable to do the battery tip for the evo because once I turn off the phone and go to charge it again, it's instantly green. But I am going to try it anyway even though it's green.
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Click to collapse
Yep, that's what I found too, when you try and charge it thinks it's already charged and goes green straight away again. But as you said, worth a try.
I just wanted to report back and say that I had my phone replaced. So far so good:
- No screen flicker issue at low brightness
- Battery has lasted nearly 20 hours with moderate-heavy use (played NFS Shift, setup basically everything on the phone after rooting, installed all my apps, backups, flashed some roms, 20+ texts, 3-4 short calls, showing people random apps.)
If it's not all in my head then this is definitely much better now!
Curious. It seems that everyone who reports the screen flickering problem has poor battery life.
Defective displays?
I feel my battery life is pretty bad as well. I've unplugged the phone this morning at 7 AM. Now it's 2 PM, and I'm at 37%. In between, the only things I've done are: send/receive a few emails and chat on gtalk. Brightness is at 40%, animations are turned off, wifi and gps location off. Using latest Cyanogenmod (6.1.1) and have no screen flicker issues
Edit: 17 minutes later, it's now at 27%
How long have you had the phone for?
Initially the first few days I got the phone, battery life was really bad, could drain in a few hours.
After a week or two of use, I now have reasonable battery life, the phone can last all day with light usage and still have lots of juice left. Actually I think if you make a few calls and a few txts, battery could last 2 days. If you play with it, one day for sure but you need to plug in over night.
(if you're talking to me) It's quite new, just picked it up on Friday actually. Also I've kept on researching, and it seems that poor coverage (like I have at work, from 7 til 3) tends to drain the battery even more, since the phone keeps switching between HSPA, 3G, etc.
I had my first one for about a month at least. This replacement was from Saturday.
Today I've had my phone unplugged since 8am, it's 5:30pm and I have 45% battery left, but the screen is the #2 user. Standby is #1 @ 40% of my battery usage, due to over 4 hours of time without a signal. The screen is only 24% and has been on for 48 minutes. Voice calls is #3 at 23% battery usage, with 23mins of calling.
My other phone would have died by now.
Also I spent an hour of streaming bluetooth audio to my car. Bluetooth doesn't even register on the battery usage. I've never seen it use more than 2% and it's always on. I am not sure why people say it uses a lot.
Just want to share my experience.
I too had poor battery life. Stock Bell ROM. Got to 3:00 pm and it used to die. Use this for work. Pushing data all day from Exchange server, bluetooth on all day because I'm in and out of the car, talk on average 30 minutes per day, texting, surfing, tethering, blah blah. Believe it or not, my old Omnia II would get me thru the day no problem.
I was also tempted to return it. But I decided to try a few things. Installed Set CPU and a task killer at the same time. Shut down as many tasks as possible on start up. Widgets and accounts, except Exchange-push, run and sync every hour. I get about 40% battery by dinner. I am happy now .
I'm quite happy with my Desire Z's battery life, It lasts for about 36 hours with moderate use. I have Juicedefender and Ultimatejuice installed, data or wifi are opened only when an app needs data connection, this increased my battery life by 10 hours or sth like that. Nice app.
I had terrible battery life until I went overseas. It is a stock Bell ROM, but I arrived in Spain Monday and am using a Spanish SIM card.
My battery life has increased from 14 hours with Bell's 3G signal to my current 27 hours and 35% remaining battery using GSM and WiFi always on. Funny thing is that no matter where I am it says the screen is by far my biggest power drain.
Where did you buy your Desire Z and how did you get it replaced? I'm with Bell and they would take mine to send out for "repair" but not sure if that will do anything. This will take 3-6 weeks apparently and I'm not sure if they it is worth it.
I'm running 10 hours with that I consider fair usage (few calls, text, map/gsp, and facebook.) My display is the highest battery usage at 60% and on for about 1:45h. I'm very disappointed.
Hey,
it's the same with my G2.
Max 24h.
I've standard ROM installed.
No WiFi.
Brightness to about 30%.
Juice Defender is installed and I'm surfing and just the regular stuff, but even if it's just in standby, it's taking a lot of power (display takes most)
Best!
-blubberor
architect_ said:
Where did you buy your Desire Z and how did you get it replaced? I'm with Bell and they would take mine to send out for "repair" but not sure if that will do anything. This will take 3-6 weeks apparently and I'm not sure if they it is worth it.
I'm running 10 hours with that I consider fair usage (few calls, text, map/gsp, and facebook.) My display is the highest battery usage at 60% and on for about 1:45h. I'm very disappointed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I bought mine at FutureShop since I didn't think Bell would let me without buying at least a month of service (or being an existing customer). I also purchased FutureShop's extended warranty which is how I was able to get it swapped for a new one so quickly.
I use the extended battery for the evo. Lasts about 1.5 days with ass loads of use. Just have to trim the plastic edges a bit.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
I have a couple of those red chichitech batteries but I wasn't able to notice any improvement with the problem phone.
My Desire Z also has a flickering screen at lowest brightness, and with moderate use it dies after about 12 hours max. Even on lowest brightness the screen ueses 59% battery. I rarely manage to make it through the day without having to charge the phone. Im on stock ROM with latest OTA (1.72) btw.
Gonna have it replaced next week just cause of the flickering screen. Has anyone tried the 1700mAH battery from seidio?
...and I've verified that the custom kernel was installed by going into About Phone. Is there anything else I have to do for the new kernel's advatanges to, well, take effect? I took off SetCPU since in the dev forum they were saying that the kernel itself will do what SetCPU did.
Sorry for the newb question. I've just rooted my phone and started researching a bit and wanted to make sure I didn't mess up or leave something out. The actual visual part of the phone looks the EXACT same as before I put the new kernel in.
I appreciate any help you give me in advance
I'd recommend you just use your phone like normal for a few days - if your phone is anything like mine, you'll see marked improvement in your battery life. The other day, with light use, I still had 30% remaining after 25 hours unplugged (without bump charging)... impressive!
I was in the same position a week ago. I installed Lou's #8 on my stock rom and it seemed to drain my battery faster. But I let it drain until it shut off and then charged my phone overnight. Turned it back on, and guess what? My battery indicator was stuck at 100% for like an hour. I thought it was a glitch, but it wasn't. That day, I had a 21 hour uptime... before I installed it, I could barely get more than 4 hours before having to plug in.
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App
tim.ton said:
I was in the same position a week ago. I installed Lou's #8 on my stock rom and it seemed to drain my battery faster. But I let it drain until it shut off and then charged my phone overnight. Turned it back on, and guess what? My battery indicator was stuck at 100% for like an hour. I thought it was a glitch, but it wasn't. That day, I had a 21 hour uptime... before I installed it, I could barely get more than 4 hours before having to plug in.
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does it matter when I allow my phone to discharge the battery completely? I will have to keep it charged and plugged in tonight because it's also my alarm to wake up to, but I'll have the battery dissipating all day tomorrow until it hopefully dies.
VrikkGWJ said:
Does it matter when I allow my phone to discharge the battery completely? I will have to keep it charged and plugged in tonight because it's also my alarm to wake up to, but I'll have the battery dissipating all day tomorrow until it hopefully dies.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think it matters. Mine conveniently died just when I was heading to bed that night. I do use it as my alarm as well. Thankfully, it was a weekend night.
Update: Running it today, haven't seen much change yet (but it's only the first day). However, how can I check to see what my battery usage is (I know you can check in "About Phone" but is there a numeral amount that would tell you guys something of significance)? Therefore if I posted something like that here people could tell me, "That really sucks, it's not working for you", or "Hey, working fine!"
Also, where I sit at work doesn't have that great of a cell reception, meaning maybe one bar if I'm lucky. Would having no cell reception drain the battery so much that it's almost dead by the end of the work day?
Would turning my wifi ON help the battery usage reduce some because the phone wouldn't constantly be searching for 3G?
Thanks again for everyone's help so far!
Wifi uses a ton less battery over 3g and low cell reception kills battery fast. Just let the kernel do its thing also letting the phone die is a bad idea. Our batteries aren't designed to ever fully die.
VrikkGWJ said:
Update: Running it today, haven't seen much change yet (but it's only the first day). However, how can I check to see what my battery usage is (I know you can check in "About Phone" but is there a numeral amount that would tell you guys something of significance)? Therefore if I posted something like that here people could tell me, "That really sucks, it's not working for you", or "Hey, working fine!"
Also, where I sit at work doesn't have that great of a cell reception, meaning maybe one bar if I'm lucky. Would having no cell reception drain the battery so much that it's almost dead by the end of the work day?
Would turning my wifi ON help the battery usage reduce some because the phone wouldn't constantly be searching for 3G?
Thanks again for everyone's help so far!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sent from my Incredible using XDA App
VrikkGWJ said:
Update: Running it today, haven't seen much change yet (but it's only the first day). However, how can I check to see what my battery usage is (I know you can check in "About Phone" but is there a numeral amount that would tell you guys something of significance)? Therefore if I posted something like that here people could tell me, "That really sucks, it's not working for you", or "Hey, working fine!"
Also, where I sit at work doesn't have that great of a cell reception, meaning maybe one bar if I'm lucky. Would having no cell reception drain the battery so much that it's almost dead by the end of the work day?
Would turning my wifi ON help the battery usage reduce some because the phone wouldn't constantly be searching for 3G?
Thanks again for everyone's help so far!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are so many variables, I don't think there's any given number or threshold which will make us say "That really sucks, it's not working for you" ...
I've found that lack of cell service is the number one thing that will kill my battery regardless of kernel etc. I get between zero and one bars of (roaming) 1x at my house and if I set my phone somewhere that blocks the signal just a bit more, it can kill my batt. a lot faster. If your phone is using data throughout the day and you have a wifi signal available, I'd definitely experiment with leaving wifi on all day - that's what I do at home to have any data connectivity worth using. Using wifi like this doesn't seem to be too big a hit on my battery.
Also experiment with your phone to see if you can find a location or orientation which gives you a better phone signal - go to Settings -> About Phone -> Status and scroll down to see "Signal strength", this will be a number expressed as -dBm where the higher magnitude of the number (ie. -99 is a higher magnitude than -80) the worse your signal is. Keep in mind that this scale is logrithmic, so a change of magnitude of a few dBm indicates a fairly large signal strength change... So if setting the phone on the right side of your desk gives you -85 dBm and setting it to the left gives you -95 dBm, your battery will die faster with the phone set to the left... Keeping the phone in your pocket can really knock the signal strength down - experiment with the phone lying on your desk, check the signal strength and then cup your hands around the "bottom" end of the phone, covering the optical track ball and the buttons, etc... In my experience, just covering this antenna area like this drops my signal by 5 dBm or more.
One more thing which it sounds like you might be aware of already is that people report that due to small differences in hardware, these kernels don't work the same for different phones, so maybe trying a different one of Lou's kernels (or a different developers altogether) might work better for you (although trying each of the myriad kernels available sure sounds daunting to me). Good luck!
Any help is appreciated...I'm at my wits end with this phone. I've been unable to make it through a day of work since I've had it.
I charged the phone from 1130 to 7 am, at that point i shut it down and did the hour charge, at 8am when I got out of bed I turned it on, let it run 2 minutes, charged it for another hour +. When I took my phone off the charger to head out the door it was 9:14AM. Its now 11:10 AM and it already shows 79% battery. I've barely used the phone. (trying the HTC tricks or just letting it hang normal both seem to make no difference really).
Spare parts reports 9m51s used without sleeping, and 9.4% used, 6.6% screen on, 0.6% phone.
Wifi, bluetooth, 3g, and sync all off since leaving the house. I've done nothing but send a few texts and listen to a voice mail.
I dont get the best reception at my current seating area, but I am able to make some calls / get service despite. Could this still be the cause? If so - is there ANYTHING I can do to alleviate that?
I have CM7 02262011 nightly, build GRH78C - on zendroid CFS. I thought zendroid would help with battery life immensely (as many reported) but I've seen almost no improvement. At this point, I'm not even making use of the smart phone features - no wifi, no playing games, no browsing the web...as soon as I fire up a game the battery plummets. EDIT to add I've had this kernel and rom for about 4 days now, and I did clear battery stats after flash. All I've read would indicate this should be enough time for it to "settle out". Is that true? END EDIT.
At this point the phone is virtually pointless to me....is the battery life that bad? I see users talking about 18-20 hours with light usage - I generally put myself in that light usage category and I cant imagine making that mark. Any suggestions?
If your "time without signal" in battery usage is really high, that'll eat your battery super fast. Really, having a low signal constantly will do the same thing. Because where I live & work never gives me more than a bar or -90 dbm, my battery goes pretty quickly too, even without a high "time without signal".
I keep 3g, Bluetooth, and GPS off almost all the time & keep wifi connected at home. I recently switched to 2.37.6.2-SavagedZen-0.1.2-CFS-HAVS-WiMAX-Froyo+. I unplugged the phone 8 hours ago (I don't like to keep in charging overnight) and it was at 98%. When I got up an hour ago, it was still at 98%. My time without signal was 73%. I've used it heavily for the past hour & it's at 95% now.
My battery life isn't great by any means, but it's better than it was. I also use CPU Boost (a free app similar to Set CPU but with less options) to undervolt. I slightly undervolt to around 700 MHz while using it lightly & set it down to about 460 with a screen off profile. Since I rarely do anything that needs the full ghz processor, this doesn't affect my phone's performance & really saves battery.
Hope this helps
Sent from my badass HTC Supersonic (Evo 4g) using XDA Premium App
It sounds like poor signal is hurting you.. your phone may be constantly searching for better signal and killing your battery. Just be sure you have no wakelocks...
Also, when you wipe battery stats.. make sure you re-calibrate your battery as well. When I wiped stats it actually did more damage than good until I re-calibrated the correct way.
Thanks...I'll try under clocking a bit and see if it has a gain...I had that disabled up to now.
I put on ZenDroid-1.1.0-cfs-avs... (about phone shows it as 2.6.35.10ZenDroid) with anywhere from -96dBm to -104dBm. Could that be the explanation?
I'll have to monitor a bit more closely at home to get a better idea of service and battery consumption.
Thanks for you input and help though.
Anyone else able to comment on their signal strength and relative battery peformance?
Rippley05 said:
It sounds like poor signal is hurting you.. your phone may be constantly searching for better signal and killing your battery. Just be sure you have no wakelocks...
Also, when you wipe battery stats.. make sure you re-calibrate your battery as well. When I wiped stats it actually did more damage than good until I re-calibrated the correct way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could you elaborate on wakelocks? I havent heard of this before... (ill do some searching as well).
Again, could you possibly comment on re-calibrating? I was under the assumption that was letting it charge fully and drain fully after a wipe of stats. I wiped stats on a full charge, let it run down, and then charged back to the phone reporting 100%. Was that incorrect procedure??
Thanks for your input!
Have you let the battery drain and than recharge several times? Part of letting the phone "normalize" for a few days is letting the phone go through several charge and drain cycles. If you get "scared" when it hits 60% battery and plug it in, your not allowing the phone to properly calibrate your battery percentage.
Also, go into spare parts and your battery history and find out what is under "partial wake usage". That will let you know what is being used when your screen is off.
For comparison sake I'm on CM7 RC2 (same results w/ RC1 though) and savaged zen 0.1.0 CFS SBC. I have one push email account, sync always on, wireless data on when no wifi, no bluetooth, and no gps. My screen brightness is always at 25%, which is plenty bright. I also have several apps running in the background like weather update once an hour, kakao talk, gtalk, etc. With Wifi on at work (NOTE: wifi saves TONS of battery over using 3g), I unplug at 7am and at 11am I'm right around 90%. A few texts/gtalk and about 30 minutes of web browsing since unplugging. I generally leave work at 5pm with around 70% battery left. However, after I leave and start using the phone more battery does drop pretty quick. I can usually make it to 11pm, but I use the remaining 70% in those 6 hours as opposed to my "work battery" which is only 30% in about 10 hours. When you start using the phone you are going to get fast battery drop. The large screen and fast processor are the culprits of that.
Always keep in mind. You have a mini computer in your pocket. You are not going to get days of battery life like you would with a crappy flip phone. Laptops with gigantic batteries last 4-6 hours, and your phone is doing similar work on a much smaller battery. It's amazing these things can get 20-24 hours of use.
Well after poking around in spare parts at the prompting of you all, I found that my phone was without signal for something like 81% of the day. I put on airplane mode and put wifi on and i was seeing normal drain. Oddly enough, it seems my HTC Hero was able to stay connected to the network better in the same "office location" - as I didnt see that kind of drop.
Regardless, its no big to kick on airplane mode for most of the day and fire up normal service on short breaks or whatever else. So issue resolved all in all. I appreciate the assistance prompting me to look into the spare parts and its various features.
Again, with airplane mode on my numbers are MUCH more inline with that of other users. Thanks to you all!
thisperishedmin said:
Well after poking around in spare parts at the prompting of you all, I found that my phone was without signal for something like 81% of the day. I put on airplane mode and put wifi on and i was seeing normal drain. Oddly enough, it seems my HTC Hero was able to stay connected to the network better in the same "office location" - as I didnt see that kind of drop.
Regardless, its no big to kick on airplane mode for most of the day and fire up normal service on short breaks or whatever else. So issue resolved all in all. I appreciate the assistance prompting me to look into the spare parts and its various features.
Again, with airplane mode on my numbers are MUCH more inline with that of other users. Thanks to you all!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea, just gotta watch out for bad signal areas, as those are the biggest battery eaters. Some phones [of the same model even] handle areas differently than others. So if, like in your case in a bad area for extended periods of time, kick on airplane mode. Also like also said, turning off your 3G when not in use is also a big battery saver.
Rippley05 said:
It sounds like poor signal is hurting you.. your phone may be constantly searching for better signal and killing your battery. Just be sure you have no wakelocks...
Also, when you wipe battery stats.. make sure you re-calibrate your battery as well. When I wiped stats it actually did more damage than good until I re-calibrated the correct way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ditto! I wiped stats without knowing what they did, found that it got WORSE. Then I looked up how to actually calibrate. My battery life rules now
I also found that calibrating your battery helps. I realized that if I unplug and then plug my phone back in almost immediately that it has to charge a little more to get back to 100%. If you do a search for calibrating EVO battery you'll find detailed instructions.
I thought I would check and see how much battery is used overnight on my Nexus. What I found was that the Android OS kept the device awake over half the time. Also, for some reason the phone used battery as well.
I'm running stock 4.0.2, rooted and unlocked... is this typical?
Yes, this is known bug:
http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=22878
Don't forget to star that issue ...
And tell all your neighbors ... all your friends to star it as well.
Spread the word ... tell the universe ...
Google must fix this!
Hey Guys -
I shut off location services and my battery drained only 9% in 8 hours of non use last night... It used to be around 25%. I'm thinking that Android keeps waking to check where you are... Just shutting off GPS is not enough as it will wake to find your location via wifi or cell towers.
Just my 2 cents. Give this a try to see if that helps you guys out. Google still needs to fix this but it might be a good temporary workaround.
Rob
I typically see around 8-10% battery drain overnight off the charger. And I thought I had problems. If you are losing 25% over night that seems unacceptable.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App
tk123456789 said:
I typically see around 8-10% battery drain overnight off the charger. And I thought I had problems. If you are losing 25% over night that seems unacceptable.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It actually dropped from 100% to 24% overnight which is almost 10% per hour.
i lose 1% in 1.5hrs, on standby in ATT HSPA+ network, i thought that was pretty good.
gogol said:
Yes, this is known bug:
http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=22878
Don't forget to star that issue ...
And tell all your neighbors ... all your friends to star it as well.
Spread the word ... tell the universe ...
Google must fix this!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Roman has fixed it or at least it appears he has. I loaded his CDMA rom "[ROM] [AOSP] Android Open Kang Project - toro build 9 [Dec 21]" over at rootz and it is putting the phone to sleep when the screen is off. My phone had be staying awake 30 - 50% of the time prior to this. I've only had the rom loaded a short time, but in the last 40 minutes of non-use my Staying Awake time has been about 2 minutes. YMMV
Good luck.
Geezer Squid said:
Roman has fixed it or at least it appears he has. I loaded his CDMA rom "[ROM] [AOSP] Android Open Kang Project - toro build 9 [Dec 21]" over at rootz and it is putting the phone to sleep when the screen is off. My phone had be staying awake 30 - 50% of the time prior to this. I've only had the rom loaded a short time, but in the last 40 minutes of non-use my Staying Awake time has been about 2 minutes. YMMV
Good luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply... that's encouraging to hear. I'd like to stay stock for a while so hopefully 4.0.3 drops soon!
I know many people recommend rooting and using a custom rom, but I've had a poor experience with that. Having said that, I've been working on battery issues and this is a picture of my battery drain overnight. It basically took a nosedive.
What I don't understand is some people are getting great battery life from this phone. I've turned off all my widgets and followed many recommendations - but frankly I shouldn't have to do any of that and even so my battery life is abysmal.
Is there any answer to this problem short of rooting? Do I have any reason to believe that google will acknowledge and correct this issue?
By the way I had a Droid Razr for a month prior to the Nexus, and it would lose no more than 10% of it's battery overnight.
I do everything "wrong" (syncing, gps - wifi - data on) I have 5 widgets on my home screens and I loose less than a % per hour over night if not on the charger.
When I am using my phone I keep the screen on full brightness. This will get me about 12 hours of use with 4 hours screen on time.
I have no idea why some people get great battery life and others don't. There must be bugs floating around. Lets see what 4.0.3 brings. I'm unlocked and rooted but still stock.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
That's the frustrating thing - it's working great for some people.
I have to return mine because the headphone jack doesn't do stereo, maybe I'll get lucky and the new one won't have signal and battery issues.
The Razr never dropped voice or data - the Nexus drops both multiple times during the day.
McDeadagain said:
That's the frustrating thing - it's working great for some people.
I have to return mine because the headphone jack doesn't do stereo, maybe I'll get lucky and the new one won't have signal and battery issues.
The Razr never dropped voice or data - the Nexus drops both multiple times during the day.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would try a different radio. I wasn't exactly thrilled with reception at first. A North American radio changed that. But i would still give moto a step up on reception.
I think more people should also consider congestion in their city to how well battery life does. Can Make a big difference. Otoh though, that doesn't account for standby at night when you're asleep. It would seem to me no matter how your phone is setup 1% an hour should be the norm, unless your phone downloads a lot of data.
My grandma beat me down and took my nexus. Sent from a jitterbug with beats by dre.
McDeadagain said:
That's the frustrating thing - it's working great for some people.
I have to return mine because the headphone jack doesn't do stereo, maybe I'll get lucky and the new one won't have signal and battery issues.
The Razr never dropped voice or data - the Nexus drops both multiple times during the day.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ya, try swapping it, IDK... I have yet to drop a single call on my Nexus. One thing i can say is Samsung needs to look at their quality control. I definitely got a good one. I don't see the REAL problems others are having. The fact that most phones are fine, and some are duds is the one thing i will hold against Samsung. Gives a really good phone a bad name when so many have issues.
I can say its not all of them.
McDeadagain said:
I know many people recommend rooting and using a custom rom, but I've had a poor experience with that. Having said that, I've been working on battery issues and this is a picture of my battery drain overnight. It basically took a nosedive.
What I don't understand is some people are getting great battery life from this phone. I've turned off all my widgets and followed many recommendations - but frankly I shouldn't have to do any of that and even so my battery life is abysmal.
Is there any answer to this problem short of rooting? Do I have any reason to believe that google will acknowledge and correct this issue?
By the way I had a Droid Razr for a month prior to the Nexus, and it would lose no more than 10% of it's battery overnight.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats just horrible idle drain. Something kept it awake you can see.
I feel bad cause my gsm version is literally the best idle drain phone ive ever had. It stays dead flat for me and last night i lost about 1% every 2 hours, and tgat is witg data on and two gmail syncing etc. Its just awesome. I think there is something wrong with tge verizon model. My phone is stock too.
McDeadagain said:
I know many people recommend rooting and using a custom rom, but I've had a poor experience with that. Having said that, I've been working on battery issues and this is a picture of my battery drain overnight. It basically took a nosedive.
What I don't understand is some people are getting great battery life from this phone. I've turned off all my widgets and followed many recommendations - but frankly I shouldn't have to do any of that and even so my battery life is abysmal.
Is there any answer to this problem short of rooting? Do I have any reason to believe that google will acknowledge and correct this issue?
By the way I had a Droid Razr for a month prior to the Nexus, and it would lose no more than 10% of it's battery overnight.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is it related to wifi? Noticed most of your drain was while wifi was off.
My grandma beat me down and took my nexus. Sent from a jitterbug with beats by dre.
I just tried a new ROM last night and had an improvement with my phone sleeping more of the time the screen was off yet the battery drain doubled to 3%/hour. Can someone explain how that makes sense? My phone slept 10 of 11 hours during this time. And the CPU was scaled down at 350 mhz by the kernel the entire time while the screen was off. So confused...
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
Might need to calibrate battery.
My grandma beat me down and took my nexus. Sent from a jitterbug with beats by dre.
105437 said:
I'm running stock 4.0.2, rooted and unlocked... is this typical?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i have the same setup and loose less than 1% an hour, when the phone is idle
Thanks to the kind folks who have replied with questions, comments, or just sympathy
There are of course a lot of threads in this forum related to the Nexus battery life and I've been trying to do my own due diligence. I have removed every widget from the phone - even those which are just 'switches' and should not make any data requests. It was still draining.
Then I removed the fancy Light Flow lite app that gave me pretty notification lights - still drained.
Finally, I removed Battery Monitor Widget - the very app I was using to try to find the cause of my drain.
Took the phone off the charger at about 10:30 this morning. Used it for navigation for 20 minutes, ran the bluetooth for a bit and that took quite a bit off the battery. However, when I got home I forgot to turn the wifi on and set the phone down. Sitting there doing nothing connected to 4g the battery dropped less than 10% over three hours. I didn't look closely enough to see the exact numbers but overall I'm at 60% now after 6 hours of what I would call moderate use.
Most importantly, the phone seems to actually sleep now when not in use. I don't mind if the battery drops a bit faster during use - it has a great screen and wicked fast 4g. I just don't want it to tank when it's not doing anything.
For right now, it's acting exactly how I would expect and I'm very pleased. Will probably give it another day and then try to add back my beautiful widgets time/weather/calendar widget on the home screen and see what kind of damage that does. Maybe try a different battery widget as I like the percent left in the notification bar.
Good thing is, now I have a baseline that I'm happy with to measure my performance from.
Thanks again for those who've posted in this thread. Hope anyone else having similar issues might benefit from my experience.
And I'm right back where I started. Phone had insomnia last night. I took it off the charger at 100% last night at midnight and it died within five hours sitting on my night stand.
I feel like I make a thread for each phone I go through. First Blackberries, then Droid X, now Galaxy Nexus.
I am getting pretty horrible battery drain that is definitely worse than others' Nexuses. I have gone to the extended battery now for a few days, yet in the morning, when I unplug from charger (says 98% but charged?), with brightness only a quarter of the way up from lowest, I can literally watch the percentage (battery number mod in corner) drop one-by-one each minute or a few...So if I am actually using the phone, you can imagine it drops pretty fast. Yesterday, with very very moderate use the phone was still dead within 5-6 hours. It was at the mid-80s within an hour or more. Again, with moderate use.
It is stomach-dropping watching the percentage number just go down and down. Yet my friend's Gnex using the extended battery his first day did not hit 85% yesterday until 5+ hours later. The battery stats page on mine shows nothing with high numbers except Screen and Android OS, so I assume no apps are draining it. I am rooted with unlocked BL, on bigxie's deodexed ROM with softkeys mod, battery percentage mod, and power menu mod. I have 100-something apps and many widgets but no battery draining/updating ones. Others with the same ROM report fine battery.
I believe after using the ext. battery for a couple days, it should be "conditioned" if needed at all, yet I see no improvement.
I'm getting very angry watching this drop.. For example, 40 minutes off the charger with almost NO use except for turning the screen on here and there, I am at 94% battery with Screen at 46%, Android OS at 34%, Phone Idle 11%, Cell Standby 9%, and Android System 2%.
And then 1 hr 20 min in, at 88% battery with 55% Screen, 27% Android OS, 6% Phone Idle, 6% Cell Standby.
This doesn't sound normal right? Keep in mind, those numbers are with almost no phone use..very minimal settings menus visited and one update from Market.
Jesus, literally almost every time or two I turn the screen on just to check these numbers, I see the damn battery percentage drop a number. Not even using the phone how/as much as I normally would be. This is infuriating. Luckily, it doesn't seem to drain much with the screen off.
Quit checking and wait til the bug is fixed and blood pressure stabilizes?
Crazy world, ay?
Update to 4.0.2 or 4.0.3 with an improved kernel = success.
Use the phone for 1-2 weeks to stablize battery life - mine is better now than it was when I began using it. But the kernel/rom makes a big difference.
Thanks. Any suggestions on with combo to use now? 4.0.3 preferrably I guess.
Then why does my friend on totally stock 4.0.2, non-rooted have that great battery life from the first day using the extended battery?? I'm pretty much basing mine off of his and other's who are getting ridiculously long life. I never understood how it varies SO much. We should all have the same relative to usage.
just4747 said:
Thanks. Any suggestions on with combo to use now? 4.0.3 preferrably I guess.
Then why does my friend on totally stock 4.0.2, non-rooted have that great battery life from the first day using the extended battery?? I'm pretty much basing mine off of his and other's who are getting ridiculously long life. I never understood how it varies SO much. We should all have the same relative to usage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No. Because no two phones are set up the same. Too many variables to say relatively same usage. For instance, when i go to bed i get 2-3 hours standby per percentage point. Not everybody is going to get that.
Crazy world, ay?
@rbiter said:
No. Because no two phones are set up the same. Too many variables to say relatively same usage. For instance, when i go to bed i get 2-3 hours standby per percentage point. Not everybody is going to get that.
Crazy world, ay?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe, but the fact that I have no other visible outstanding draining factors, and I get no 4G at home and therefore have it set to CDMA only...I should not be seeing 1% drops almost every time I turn the screen on for more than 30 seconds. Especially with an extended battery.
God forbid I want to use GPS or 4G.
More battery life threads please.
case0 said:
More battery life threads please.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow, really? At first glance in all sub-forums I saw about two, if that. I have a legitimate concern, especially when my friend is getting about 4 times better life. Thanks for your help though in the device forum where this 'doesn't belong'.
..And over the course of only a few minutes of the screen being on maybe twice and sending one email, I saw it go from low 82-83 down to 77. ****ing awesome.
just4747 said:
Wow, really? At first glance in all sub-forums I saw about two, if that. I have a legitimate concern, especially when my friend is getting about 4 times better life. Thanks for your help though in the device forum where this 'doesn't belong'.
..And over the course of only a few minutes of the screen being on maybe twice and sending one email, I saw it go from low 82-83 down to 77. ****ing awesome.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You probably have a misbehaving app. Download better battery stats from the android apps and games section here at xda and let it run for a day or so and see what processes are being used the most and what your wakelocks are, etc.
Also, find a 4.0.3 rom with a kernel that can be undervolted and try that out.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
joshnichols189 said:
You probably have a misbehaving app. Download better battery stats from the android apps and games section here at xda and let it run for a day or so and see what processes are being used the most and what your wakelocks are, etc.
Also, find a 4.0.3 rom with a kernel that can be undervolted and try that out.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you, downloading now and will check it out.
I'll admit I'm using the GSM version so my experiences may not apply but for the first few days my battery life was utter crap.
Its been MUCH improved over the last few days, I dont have the wakelock issue and with the screen off the battery drain is literally only about 3% per hour, and thats with background data on.
YES, the screen DOES use a lot of battery, it isnt really avoidable and is somewhat expected with a 720p 4.6 inch super AMOLED screen.
The one thing I can recommend doing is finding a modded kernel and undervolting that CPU - It seems they've been really rather generous providing power to the thing, I've been able to take off at least 100-150mv across the board.
Antzor said:
I'll admit I'm using the GSM version so my experiences may not apply but for the first few days my battery life was utter crap.
Its been MUCH improved over the last few days, I dont have the wakelock issue and with the screen off the battery drain is literally only about 3% per hour, and thats with background data on.
YES, the screen DOES use a lot of battery, it isnt really avoidable and is somewhat expected with a 720p 4.6 inch super AMOLED screen.
The one thing I can recommend doing is finding a modded kernel and undervolting that CPU - It seems they've been really rather generous providing power to the thing, I've been able to take off at least 100-150mv across the board.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This - My battery on the stock battery on GSM sucked first few days, and I was really concerned I made a poor purchase. But with the screen on probably 5 or 6 hours of my work day it lives through the day and just enough to get home after that. I can charge it at work too, which I usually do. On my day off it survived 18 hours and still had ~20% battery life left on 4.0.3 AOKP/Francisco.Franco Kernel
From my experience, the battery life isn't bad. I did install the "extended" battery as soon as I bought the phone but is isn't much bigger than the stock battery. I am on stock rooted 4.02. With LTE off I use about 2% per hour in standby. With LTE on it is almost double that (3-4%/hour). I have several widgets running and gps enabled. (wifi when available) I can easily get a 16-18 hour day and have 50% remaining when I go to bed unles I sit around gaming for a couple hours.
I may try a new ROM tonight but I expect it will probably make things worse.
Im running a bone stock setup and im getting 12 -14 hours a day... normally I read posts like the one skiddingus posted and wonder why I never can achieve those readings so i feel your confusion . I do have 4g on and gps off screen is about 1/4 of the way up brightness wise