Why is battery life on Android devices so bad? - Android Software/Hacking General [Developers Only]

[Cross posted at Nexus One General]
Since I got the Nexus One over a month ago, I've realized that its battery life is somewhat problematic. However, it lasted long enough to go about my day, especially considering that I always had a charger at my disposal.
I use it chiefly for listening to music, so I naturally brought it with me when I did the annual NYC Century Bike Tour. I wanted to record a GPS track of my ride (I rode the 100 mile path) but knew it would probably kill my battery really fast, so I used my G1 and RMap as my GPS device.
The Nexus One had NOTHING except for phone service (on EDGE), TouchDown (Exchange email push) and music (with Mixzing, recommendations off, equalizer on) on for the ride. The G1 only had its GPS radio on, nothing else. Both devices spent most of their time with the screen off.
The G1 was dead in about three hours. The Nexus One was dead in five. FIVE hours! Brand new device! That's not bad battery life; that's just unacceptable. My iPhone 3GS certainly lasted longer than that. Even my old Windows Mobile HTC Raphael outlasted the both of them!
What can I do about this? I'm willing to get a bigger battery at this point, but I don't want to buy one and realize that the OS is really at fault here (like I think it is).

When I buyed my first android phone I tought that with gtalk always connected it will suck all my battery but I use my Galaxy S during all day with at least 1h30 of music by bluetooth and a lot
of net browsing, installing, modding and at the end of the day I still have battery to go out and charge it after. Oh and my phone has a bigger screen (more battery use) so you might have a battery issue or maybe you let wifi bluetooth and all hardware on during the day ....

was background data / autosync on? That tends to kill my battery. Also,you should check your device's battery usage via different apps from settings > about phone > battery.
The percentages are not of the battery % but what percentage of the overall usage is taken up by what. You may be having a non-sleep issue with the N1 because of apps you have on it thats not on the G1

Different processes
I could be wrong but the Qualcomm's Snapdragon processors in Android phones (N1, Incredible, Droid X, and Droid 2) are made with a 65nm process rather than a 45nm process like the Apple's A4 processor (iPhone) and Samsung's Hummingbird processor (all Galaxy series). Chips made with the 45nm process have lower power consumptions.

Related

Come in and share your experience (Raphael is the worst )

Hello everybody
i have bought htc touch pro like a month ago and i am very unsatisfied with its performance i used to have an iphone and then iphone 3g....and also i used to hate the iphone but now i am convinced the iphone is the best (i know it is missing some stuff but at least i was satisfied with the performance)
htc touch pro almost has the worst battery life if you use wifi or talk and text alot it is dead in the matter of 2 to 3 hours....also the worst touch screen compared to the iphone this is a primative touch screen.....if you didnot reboot the device in 24 hours you will find the most slow performance and you will see the battery dies so quickly that will make you ask why is it dying and i am not even using the phone.
btw it takes like 3 to 4 hours to charge this phone and it dies in the matter of 15 hours so technically u cant even use the phone a complete day.
this phone freezes on a daily basis if u r using it like a normal pda to check ur mail and go over stuff on wifi ...it come to a point and decides to stop working and just freezes like this.
the buttons below the screen are so bad, it is not easygoing as it should be and this circle with the cursor keys has a very limited applications where it should be of great use (can u imagine what it would be like to have this circle with the application of an ipod classic one)
basically this not a cheap phone and compared to its price this phone is the worst among all the other pdas and i have only mentioned like 25% of its flaws so i wouldnt recommend that anyone buy it......i cant even sell this thing again since i have bought it.
In my opinion this phone needs a good software to handle it cababilites and to work on this problems.....windows is a big dissapointment every where.
this phone is like a car with a very good engine but with a very bad driver ....where the software is the driver
please if some managed to solve any of these problems i would really appreciate an advice
i have none of those problems...
Do you have any software in there to help you clear memory and close out programs? Do you utilize Task Manager to close and empty memory? If the program does not have a close feature you are leaving it open and running it in the memory most likely causing most of your bog down issues.
This will also eat up some battery life as the phone is trying to keep track of XX number of applications running in the background. It could also be causing some of your freeze up issues.
On the other hand, WinMo phones are not for everyone as it handles a bit different than your average Sony Ericsson or LG phone.
I dont really experience any of the problems you mention above. Battery life is quite impressive for a phone of this kind, and its performance is really good! Just make sure you check your running tasks once in a while and close the ones draining the most memory (you can sort the list after memory usage). This clears up memory and reduces battery usage.
Good luck!
yes, i have spb pocket plus with its close menu thing. i close my apps every now and then, but havent seen any (very little) change in battery with all apps closed/menu disabled
Sorry to hear you've had such a bad experience with your TPro.
I on the other hand have been using WM PDAs for about 10 years and think the TPro is the best yet. (I've also used SE, nokia and even apple!)
The performance isn't blistering (Yet but it almost as fast as the HTC universal I had (With the 128MB RAM and over clocked to 625Mhz) There have been some good improvements with the cooked ROMs and this thing has only been out for 6 weeks.
The range of features are pretty much second to none. Ok multitouch is missing, but at least I can use a stylus! I believe there will be a multitouch interface on the TPro using the buttons pad pretty soon
Battery life is not as good as my SE that used to last 10 days. But then again it didn't do 1/10 of what this baby can. I'm currently getting about 2days of moderate usage from the phone. If I use wifi continuously to surf at the airport I get about 5hrs. Thats almost as much as my dell D630 with an extended battery and most of the power saving features turned on. Compared to my Universal it lasts for ever!
To be honest your view of this phone depends pretty much on how you use it. If you want something that looks pretty and you just want a phone with an MP3 player that occasionally allows you to use the web: get an iphone!
If you want something that can do pretty much anything you want it to and your happy to do some fine tuning get a WMobile device.
WizP said:
Sorry to hear you've had such a bad experience with your TPro.
I on the other hand have been using WM PDAs for about 10 years and think the TPro is the best yet. (I've also used SE, nokia and even apple!)
The performance isn't blistering (Yet but it almost as fast as the HTC universal I had (With the 128MB RAM and over clocked to 625Mhz) There have been some good improvements with the cooked ROMs and this thing has only been out for 6 weeks.
The range of features are pretty much second to none. Ok multitouch is missing, but at least I can use a stylus! I believe there will be a multitouch interface on the TPro using the buttons pad pretty soon
Battery life is not as good as my SE that used to last 10 days. But then again it didn't do 1/10 of what this baby can. I'm currently getting about 2days of moderate usage from the phone. If I use wifi continuously to surf at the airport I get about 5hrs. Thats almost as much as my dell D630 with an extended battery and most of the power saving features turned on. Compared to my Universal it lasts for ever!
To be honest your view of this phone depends pretty much on how you use it. If you want something that looks pretty and you just want a phone with an MP3 player that occasionally allows you to use the web: get an iphone!
If you want something that can do pretty much anything you want it to and your happy to do some fine tuning get a WMobile device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well spoken. I totally agree with you.
Sounds like you haven't even applied the tweaks here to increase performance (very easily done). Mine has been fine.
no problems with my TP, battery lasts 3 to 4 days.
had it 3 weeks now not had to reboot it yet because of failure.
Hands down best phone i've ever had. Very powerfull and fast. Stock ROM sucked though, flashing it with one of the cooked ROMs gives you a completely different device.
I disconnected it from the charger this morning at 6.30 AM, it's now 12.30 am and i'm at 82% of my battery. 31 phonecalls, 19 emails, 3 sms, push email on, bleutooth on. So i cannot possibly complain about the batterylife. In the evening when i go to sleep at midnight i'm often at 30-40% wich is very good considering the heavy use.
I want a phone with this properties otherwise why would i have bought it .....other than that i always check my task manager and close the open applications every 2 to 3 hours .....the phone as i said has a very good hardware but the thing that bothers me the most is the battery life (i use my phone to check my mail alot and i receive alot of phone calls daily due to my work but i cant make it through the day if i dont charge it in the middle.
and something else i didnt try the tweaks because i beleive that the phone should work fine without them and better with them but i cant see that my phone works fine.
also fyi since i got the phone i added some applications to it as i was happy it was a windows mobile so i can add as much as i want but after i saw the battery life i now have no applications installed except the one i have seen here with the battery life tweak.
guys i see that you are happy with your phone and i am ok with that but i have had some bad experiences with it that i am not happy about
easily the best and by far the most stable wm device ever (at launch). battery life could be better, but you should be used to that with wm device i think. it always lasts a day for me.
it has 9 functions I use on a daily basis that other phones do not have, if you dont need these functions then an iphone is probably your best bet.
cisc0 said:
no problems with my TP, battery lasts 3 to 4 days.
had it 3 weeks now not had to reboot it yet because of failure.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From what cisc0 and WDawn say, I'm almost convinced there is something wrong with my battery.
I leave the phone on charge durring the day on my desk, it takes a rediculous 6+ hours to charge from just under 10% to 100%. From 5:30pm to the next morning at 8am it will be back down to under 10% and it doesn't seem to matter if I use it a lot or not at all.
My TYTN II Kaiser charges in about 1 hour and lasts nearly 3 days, used exactly the same way with phone & WiFi on on permanently (no data or bluetooth or anything else).
The TYTN II and Kaiser are almost exactly the same +50mah on The Touch Pro battery and a slightly faster ARM processor. Assume the WiFi, Radio chipsets and charging circuits are similar too - but might not be.
I've put all the tweaks on but havent really noticed any difference.
Gav_ said:
From what cisc0 and WDawn say, I'm almost convinced there is something wrong with my battery.
I leave the phone on charge durring the day on my desk, it takes a rediculous 6+ hours to charge from just under 10% to 100%. From 5:30pm to the next morning at 8am it will be back down to under 10% and it doesn't seem to matter if I use it a lot or not at all.
My TYTN II Kaiser charges in about 1 hour and lasts nearly 3 days, used exactly the same way with phone & WiFi on on permanently (no data or bluetooth or anything else).
The TYTN II and Kaiser are almost exactly the same +50mah on The Touch Pro battery and a slightly faster ARM processor. Assume the WiFi, Radio chipsets and charging circuits are similar too - but might not be.
I've put all the tweaks on but havent really noticed any difference.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you guys using the a/c adapter to charge or mini-usb cable? Because using the usb takes longer to charge and also doesn't charge nearly as well than if you use the a/c adapter.
Also, out of curiosity, did you charge the battery completely before first using the device out of the package? It's always good to fully charge and fully drain a cell phone on first use, otherwise some people report battery life issues.
applied all the tweaks...
and seriously... this is the best phone I owned.. most of the problems people complained about, I don't face...
either I am very lucky or blessed...
WizP said:
Sorry to hear you've had such a bad experience with your TPro.
I on the other hand have been using WM PDAs for about 10 years and think the TPro is the best yet. (I've also used SE, nokia and even apple!)
The performance isn't blistering (Yet but it almost as fast as the HTC universal I had (With the 128MB RAM and over clocked to 625Mhz) There have been some good improvements with the cooked ROMs and this thing has only been out for 6 weeks.
The range of features are pretty much second to none. Ok multitouch is missing, but at least I can use a stylus! I believe there will be a multitouch interface on the TPro using the buttons pad pretty soon
Battery life is not as good as my SE that used to last 10 days. But then again it didn't do 1/10 of what this baby can. I'm currently getting about 2days of moderate usage from the phone. If I use wifi continuously to surf at the airport I get about 5hrs. Thats almost as much as my dell D630 with an extended battery and most of the power saving features turned on. Compared to my Universal it lasts for ever!
To be honest your view of this phone depends pretty much on how you use it. If you want something that looks pretty and you just want a phone with an MP3 player that occasionally allows you to use the web: get an iphone!
If you want something that can do pretty much anything you want it to and your happy to do some fine tuning get a WMobile device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well said man. I totally agree. Very satisfied with my TP and I 'm pretty sure that many of Windows Mobile limitations will be fixed by xda experts.
One of the (basic) reasons to choose my TP was XDA forum.
By the way, Thank you guys.
orlandojumpoff said:
Are you guys using the a/c adapter to charge or mini-usb cable? Because using the usb takes longer to charge and also doesn't charge nearly as well than if you use the a/c adapter.
Also, out of curiosity, did you charge the battery completely before first using the device out of the package? It's always good to fully charge and fully drain a cell phone on first use, otherwise some people report battery life issues.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm using the AC Adaptor.
One thing though, if the phone is switched off (fully off) it charges within 2 hours. But when on (even with the screen off) it takes 6+ hours.
The first time I charged it was with the AC adaptor, fully charged, but the phone was switched on. Would be worth trying to reset the memory in the battery and re-chargin with the phone off - but no idea how to reset the battery or if it is possible.
Other than this and thanks to fixing all other problems with tweaks from here, great phone. I'm sure a fix for this will be found.
Gav_ said:
I'm using the AC Adaptor.
One thing though, if the phone is switched off (fully off) it charges within 2 hours. But when on (even with the screen off) it takes 6+ hours.
The first time I charged it was with the AC adaptor, fully charged, but the phone was switched on. Would be worth trying to reset the memory in the battery and re-chargin with the phone off - but no idea how to reset the battery or if it is possible.
Other than this and thanks to fixing all other problems with tweaks from here, great phone. I'm sure a fix for this will be found.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well i hope the sprint version is improved somewhat.. they went out of their way to add a better battery to the diamond, so maybe they tweaked the TP's as well.
Ill give you my mogul for your touch pro ALL DAY LONG.
I am going to get a new mogul on the insurance replacement, it will be bran spankin new for you. I will even throw in an extra (old and looks like it) for parts
The TP is hands down the best device ever...and compared to the WM devices available on the American market...there is nothing that comes close. Fastest, prettiest, most useful device ever. All phones that are used for more than just dialing numbers have their share of issues (that's what happens when you multitask...even humans gets sloppy when they do it). I am so happy HTC created something to keep me from the iPhone and Blackberry. I have never been this happy before.
I am in so much love, think I'm getting an HD when it comes out. I will alternate between the two depending on my mood. But the great news, I'm not like the 80% of my friends that have an iPhone and can't Copy/Paste!

Touch Pro & Battery life dispute!

It has been quite interesting to watch all those threads for the above topic which of course lead to nowhere so far.
I would not exclude myself of the dispute, however we need to think of the issue in a practical methodology and thus conclude what the facts would lead to.
There has been many complaints and unhappy people about the battery life in Touch Pro and many other models. Just a simple question I ask; What would be an acceptable avarage battery life with one full charge? I am sure responses will vary coz there is no standard expectation nor a universal benchmark for this issue!
Whatever the vendor guarantees as an operating expectency measured in hours, is more or less what you gonna get although many wont accept it, but this is it, you gotta live with it!
There are 1000s of users with 10000s of applications and conditions that have high expectations, but they all get even results, so why complain?
What I am trying to highlight is if many have expressed their dissatisfaction of the battery life, I just say; who's right & who's not? Do we all expect to have the same results? My device may run for 3 days with one charge and couple of calls throughout, others may have tougher uses and expect a battery to last for 7 days in a row with just one single charge?
Just think about it and have a collective understanding.
Cyber-mate said:
It has been quite interesting to watch all those threads for the above topic which of course lead to nowhere so far.
I would not exclude myself of the dispute, however we need to think of the issue in a practical methodology and thus conclude what the facts would lead to.
There has been many complaints and unhappy people about the battery life in Touch Pro and many other models. Just a simple question I ask; What would be an acceptable avarage battery life with one full charge? I am sure responses will vary coz there is no standard expectation nor a universal benchmark for this issue!
Whatever the vendor guarantees as an operating expectency measured in hours, is more or less what you gonna get although many wont accept it, but this is it, you gotta live with it!
There are 1000s of users with 10000s of application and conditions that have high expectations, but they all get even results, so why complain?
What I am trying to highligh is if many have expressed their dissatisfaction of the battery life, I just say; who's right & who's not? Do we all expect to have the same results? My device may run for 3 days with one charge and couple of calls throughout, others may have tougher uses and expect a battery to last for 7 days in a row with just one single charge?
Just think about it and have a collective understanding.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ya made a wise statement here.....couldn't agree more ...
yep, 2nd that
a wm device drains a lot more battery than other phones because it does sooo much more. and its not device specific either
maybe if someone creat app to change CPU to 200- 300 and so on if don`t used for heavy apps will incress battery life. In the PSP there is app like this ans when I used it only for play music set procesor to 100 Mhz
I have had the phone for a week now. I like it. I like how pretty much everything works. I don't see much of any problem but the battery life. Why didn't they put a larger battery in. My Mogul has a 1650 in it. Yesterday morning the phone had a complete charge. I went to worship and used it very little in the morning. By noon time where I showed the phone off to a friend who is thinking of getting one, the phone charge was down below 50%. It should have been 70 or 80% and no less, IMHO.
I've posted this link before on a different section.
http://www.hardwarezone.com.au/reviews/view.php?id=2726&cid=24&pg=6
I get nearly 4 hours as well if I use mine full on. Tried watching a full length movie and my battery meter shows ~50% afterwards.
I thought OP might be interested in seeing this review.
I don't think it's really an issue of someone being right or wrong. I think 24 hours is just a particular limit for cellphones, and once it dips below that we start to worry about the next time we'll be near a power plug. After all, these are devices that we use on a daily basis.
If the batteries lasted 2-3 days, then it wouldn't be a big deal if we forgot to charge once in a while (late night, canceled flight, forgot charger, etc). But as it is, people are having trouble pushing it past 24 hours even under modrate usage, which means if they miss even one charge cycle, they're dead in the water the next day.
Of course usage is a different issue; but if you start modifying your usage habits in an effort to prolong battery life, that's still the same problem. You could turn off 3G, stop mail checking, always close background apps, etc; but without any of those features you might as well use a regular dumbphone -- no point in getting a device like the Touch Pro in the first place.
Last week we went on a short holiday. Both my girlfriend and I have a TP running RomeOS v1.13. She has a GSM prepaid card and I have a GSM/3G/H card.
Her battery lasted 4 working days occasionally calling home to check on the kids and sending a few SMS messages.
I used my phone to check email and LIVE messenger. My battery lasted no more than 20 hours.
So if you by a full featured phone, just to use it as a basic phone you won't complain that much I think. If like me you want to use a full set of features pffffffff... And if you don't mind I would like to keep it at that
My first serious WM phone (I don't count the ridiculous HP 6315) was the Samsung i730. I am a very heavy user and I got used to charging it in he car & carrying a spare battery in my pocket. If it made it to 6PM without going dead I was happy.
The Touch Pro has the same screaming 528 mhz processor speed, plus a vga screen. If it makes it to the end of the day, then I'll be more than happy (haven't received mine yet, it's in the mail). There's always a trade off for speed and resolution. I'd rather carry an extra battery than have a frustratingly slow processor.
I've had my TP for a week now and with a pretty heavy usage, my messenger is almost always on, some internet browsing and a little bit of monkey island on scummvm, my battery lasts 2 days. I can live with that.
Mr.Raato said:
I've had my TP for a week now and with a pretty heavy usage, my messenger is almost always on, some internet browsing and a little bit of monkey island on scummvm, my battery lasts 2 days. I can live with that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which Messenger are you using? I'm trying to find a good Google Talk client that won't drain my battery.
The battery should be expected to last a day. Past that, would be nice, but I do not feel it is necessary...
If the phone won't even last me a day (and "a day" for me is 14-16 hours at school and work) then it really isn't going to work for me. I hate trying to search for 5-10 minutes to have the phone plugged in during the middle of the day to try to extend the battery to make it just past that 12 hour mark for me.
The CDMA Touch Pro doesn't seem to do too well. Sitting idle, it had about 40% battery after 14 hours, but then dropped extremely quickly after that... I must have sent 10-12 texts and was in a call for about 10 minutes the entire day, no programs running in the background, only the cell radio turned on.
Cyber-mate said:
It has been quite interesting to watch all those threads for the above topic which of course lead to nowhere so far.
I would not exclude myself of the dispute, however we need to think of the issue in a practical methodology and thus conclude what the facts would lead to.
There has been many complaints and unhappy people about the battery life in Touch Pro and many other models. Just a simple question I ask; What would be an acceptable avarage battery life with one full charge? I am sure responses will vary coz there is no standard expectation nor a universal benchmark for this issue!
Whatever the vendor guarantees as an operating expectency measured in hours, is more or less what you gonna get although many wont accept it, but this is it, you gotta live with it!
There are 1000s of users with 10000s of applications and conditions that have high expectations, but they all get even results, so why complain?
What I am trying to highlight is if many have expressed their dissatisfaction of the battery life, I just say; who's right & who's not? Do we all expect to have the same results? My device may run for 3 days with one charge and couple of calls throughout, others may have tougher uses and expect a battery to last for 7 days in a row with just one single charge?
Just think about it and have a collective understanding.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with you 100% - except here is the problem: the vendor guarantees (well, doesn't "guarantee", but no vendor really "guarantees") a battery life that is absolutely not right.
On the Touch Pro, Sprint says the phone has a standby of 406 hours - that's 16 days! Incredibly misleading, and in my estimation definitely not accurate. That's the biggest problem I have with the whole battery issue.
Also, in comparison, my Mogul was suppose to have 340 hours of standby and 30% less talk time - but my Mogul lasted a LOT longer than this phone. I could talk, surf, play games, and have it still last longer than this phone. That doesn't make any sense.
eryeal said:
I agree with you 100% - except here is the problem: the vendor guarantees (well, doesn't "guarantee", but no vendor really "guarantees") a battery life that is absolutely not right.
On the Touch Pro, Sprint says the phone has a standby of 406 hours - that's 16 days! Incredibly misleading, and in my estimation definitely not accurate. That's the biggest problem I have with the whole battery issue.
Also, in comparison, my Mogul was suppose to have 340 hours of standby and 30% less talk time - but my Mogul lasted a LOT longer than this phone. I could talk, surf, play games, and have it still last longer than this phone. That doesn't make any sense.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Alright, alright, alright! Let's not mention the biggest and silliest gimmick PPC vendors made us believe in specially those of high-end CPU ones
I might have been worng in choosing "guarantee", but who says! When you read "Stand-by" I am sure that the vendor wouldn't in gods name mean "with any GSM/CDMA network"! I mean just think about't!! Why in heavens name would they shoot themselves in the foot by committing such a thing
I could defy anyone who would tell me that "Stand by" is a standard by itself! Haven't you read "The above are subject to network and phone usage" in phone specs?
In addition to the above, network signal strength matters and is very fundemental to extend/shorten battery life too!
Whether or not the battery was of 1300mAh or 1600mAh, it is all the CPU power management and I am pretty sure that Qualcomm is unlike the Intel XScale as the olden memories remind me of
Like most of you rightly said; change your habit and the battery life will change accordingly.
Just a last lil thought, why isn't there a quick options made available in the market for a higher amperage batteries? If one would care about the total gram units, then I recommend to live with the supplied battery.
Let's all cherish the memory of the HTC Universal, that baby was a hot long-lusty orgasmic son of gun device ever was.
I feel the term "standby time" has been used loosely, never in working with wireless phones have I found a machine that is capable of being on this long without being charged. Notice the "up to" that is always there on these kinds of stats too. What does up to mean? Probably something to do with turning off all the radios so the phone can't actually do anything, it might as well be off.
No matter what you do, computers require a lot of power to maintain themselves in any sort of "on" state. If there are any background processes happening (i.e. cellular radio sniffing for incoming calls and sms) you are really only burning power at a rate less than that of radios + screen.
Phones consume more power than phones did even a few years ago, hell they consume a lot more. Does anyone remember first-gen digital phones? 2 hours battery life, talk/standby, didn't make a difference. In fact the batteries used in mobile phones have changed (lion/nicad etc) probably a lot less than the manufacturers' ability to use less power to get the job done.
You can always strap on a bigger battery, but then you have a bigger phone, making it even HEAVIER!
Ultimately, as others have posted before me, that when you buy a touch pro, it is because you are looking for all the functionality that the machine entails. If you use all of the functions at the same time you are burning the candle at both ends. We buy a phone with a gps, bluetooth, wifi, 3g, vga screen qwerty, 3.2mp camera, etc because we need (or want) all of these features at the same time. When you are using the gps while having bluetooth on visible, screen full bright, wifi still on and music playing, don't be surprised your battery won't get you through the day.
I think that the general consensus here is that typically we should be able to get about 1 day out of the pro. Any more, we are lucky, any less, you either have a defective unit or you may have unrealistic expectations of the device.
That being said, after a few weeks go by and you find yourself actually being able to put the damn phone down for a while, battery life will seem longer too
My experience:
I've come from an XScale phone, which runs Linux and doesn't have 10% of what Pro does (like GPS, wifi, 3G, SDHC support, VGA screen, G sensor, light sensor, etc.) and even without all that it doesn't have a great battery life. I had to recharge it everyday sometimes, because I had pretty heavy use (especially A2DP audio).
With the Pro I can do that and much more and still get at least a full day of battery, which for me is good enough.
Tell me one device that has the same size does everything the Pro does with better battery life.
Unfortunately we are still to see better batteries, which I've read a lot about, especially that nanowire technology which supposedly makes them 10x better, but until then there isn't much we can do. So I don't think it's fair to blame a manufacturer, HTC or not, for poor battery life, because IMHO they did an impressive job on making such a small device with so much power, and still manage a full day of moderate use.
I find that TF3D is a real power hog too. Although I really like the interface, I am trying a run with SPB Mobile Shell instead
It is 3:30PM EST now, I unplugged the phone after a solid charge at 8PM, immediately changing to SPBMS.
It is now about 20 hours later and I have 63% remaining, that is a 37% discharge. I have been using the phone normally for the purpose of this experiment and normally the phone would be at about 30% remaining with tf3d.
There is a thread about this here
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=441767
Hi All,
I'm wondering if besides the GPS, WiFi, 3G and Bluetooth.... the application processor, running at 528MHZ is not a cause for this poor battery life time?
Adrian
The reasons why we read many different opinions is that people use phones in very different ways. I can usually cope with the short battery life but sometimes it is really annoying. It just needs a few hours in a bad coverage area and the battery drains completely. Or an unexpected need for TomTom to make the battery go flat before I get back home in the evening. I used an HTC P3600 (which is a very similar phone from a featureset point of view) for two years and I never had to worry not to listen to music at the airport or on a plane because I wouldn't be able to use the phone after landing. Instead I have had this problem already twice with the Pro... this terrible battery life is really spoiling my user experience with this phone.
Smaniac said:
Tell me one device that has the same size does everything the Pro does with better battery life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, as I said in my previous post, discounting the hardware keyboard and the fact that it wasn't a very attractive phone my old HTC P3600 used to do exactly the same things with a much longer battery life.

[Q] Battery life?

How is the battery life on the MT? If it's poor (stock), have you found a good utility app to help it last longer?
I usually get about 24 hours of battery life on mine. I have gps turned off most of the time and I'm on wifi a lot with light to moderate usage. I did notice that if I have the GPS on, that the battery does go down much quicker. I assume that's because it keeps trying to get a location even when I'm indoors and it's having a hard time.
Although, I've read a lot of people complain about poor battery life so YMMV.
It depends greatly on whether data is working or not. Usually, I'll have around 90% battery 2 hours into the day. But if data isn't working, like today, I'll go down to 80% in as little as 20 minutes.
Usually, I'll have around 20% after 12 hours. Been giving it a charge in the afternoon, and it hasn't been an issue.
I use Juice defender, and it does wonders for my battery life.
I've found battery life to be comparable to other Android devices; with effective battery management, mine gets me through the work day. My wife has the Optimus V and I have coworkers, one with a Droid X, the other with an Evo; my battery life is no better and no worse than any of those devices. With any smartphone you're going to have to turn off unused radios and turn down screen brightness if you're going to be away from a charger for a long period of time.
Sent from my MOTWX435KT using Tapatalk
Heavy use is the real killer on the Triumph. With just the screen on (minimal brightness) and network on (bad coverage), I can drain the battery by about 1% every minute. And that's no exaggeration -- Battery Indicator Pro keeps track for me. I'm working on a spreadsheet to help chart battery drain during different scenarios.
Thanks for all the replies. Basically what I was expecting, but like to have confirmation
Now to find a good place to buy one. Will probably hit Bestbuy due to return convenience and policies.
Edit: Purchased at Bestbuy, and actually ran into Sprint rep who had one I could look at. We exchanged a few geek tips.
One thing I noticed: I have an LG brand microUSB charger, and the phone would not charge from it when turned on, tho it would charge when turned off. I had an older Motorola microUSB charger and it works fine either phone on or off.
I am getting a whole day of battery life with heavy use. I turned off the background data and turned off all sync. Using the email client with one hour pull with imap instead of the gmail client... Couldn't be happier with the phone...
Sent from my MOTWX435KT using Tapatalk
Yeah, I have also found that turning off sync can get you through the day with less battery used.
Depending on how much I use the Triumph, I can run the battery down in about 2-3 hours (with constant use) or have it run all day long and in to the next day (if I only use it for 1 or 2 short calls during the day.)
My motorola Triumph's Battery Life
I have waited months to post my reviews. I had a Virgin Mobile Intercept and upgraded to this the day after it came out.
Battery life is HORRENDOUS. Not sure how anyone can possibly say its "OK". Sure if you are sitting at home or in the office all day, You can continually have it plugged in and charged. My lighter socket doesn't work in my car ATM so thank GOD I don't drive a lot, and for long periods, I would be SCREWED.
Essentially yes if you turn off GPS, Wi-Fi, Syncing your emails and such, etc etc, then your battery will last longer. But what good is the phone then? I have owned many other androids and they worked for almost a full day with moderate usage with ALL of those things turned on and sync'ing (including Latitude and automatic check-ins). I have lost all of that. I have google talk catching up for hours-old conversations whenever I hit a wifi spot that's saved in my phone.
Juice Defender was my "solution" But it has rendered my phone practically useless for anything besides just having a phone handy when needed. No apps, no moe use of all the bells and whistles that I loved about android in the first place!
I am dealing with it. It just sucks. Sure there are other smartphones with similar issues, and poor battery life, but this has to be possibly the worst or one of the worst. It just is highly unfortunate that this is the case.
Also: Bluetooth syncing works 50% of the time. Constantly have to turn it off and on to get my jawbone(s) to sync. God forbid you answer a call and want to switch over to bluetooth. In those cases it works about 20% of the time.
This is not a good phone for people who are out and about all day or drivers of any sort, unless you have it plugged in the entire day. Forget about using it as a GPS unless its plugged in either, that will drain you battery to 0% in less than an hour.
People say this is due to poor design and rushed to market with crappy signal reception and GPS reception, same with bluetooth antennae. This might be the case, I ALSO have mine suddenly have NO BARS for no reason and I have to power off and on the phone to get a signal back.
ALSO half the time I am out and about and need data connection over 3G, even with bars I get NOTHING. It's very frustrating not to be able to use the phone for what I want to use it for.
I will be getting rid of this puppy as soon as possible and I would do it sooner if I didn't want to avoid a 2year contract.
The good part about the phone is it is MUCH faster and responsive than the Intercept and Optimus. Much better camera (has a flash - FINALLY!) and HD video. Front facing camera is nice to have but of course weaksauce in the resolution dept. Overall A+ for effort, D- in execution.
kneel said:
I have waited months to post my reviews. I had a Virgin Mobile Intercept and upgraded to this the day after it came out.
Battery life is HORRENDOUS. Not sure how anyone can possibly say its "OK". Sure if you are sitting at home or in the office all day, You can continually have it plugged in and charged. My lighter socket doesn't work in my car ATM so thank GOD I don't drive a lot, and for long periods, I would be SCREWED.
Essentially yes if you turn off GPS, Wi-Fi, Syncing your emails and such, etc etc, then your battery will last longer. But what good is the phone then? I have owned many other androids and they worked for almost a full day with moderate usage with ALL of those things turned on and sync'ing (including Latitude and automatic check-ins). I have lost all of that. I have google talk catching up for hours-old conversations whenever I hit a wifi spot that's saved in my phone.
Juice Defender was my "solution" But it has rendered my phone practically useless for anything besides just having a phone handy when needed. No apps, no moe use of all the bells and whistles that I loved about android in the first place!
I am dealing with it. It just sucks. Sure there are other smartphones with similar issues, and poor battery life, but this has to be possibly the worst or one of the worst. It just is highly unfortunate that this is the case.
Also: Bluetooth syncing works 50% of the time. Constantly have to turn it off and on to get my jawbone(s) to sync. God forbid you answer a call and want to switch over to bluetooth. In those cases it works about 20% of the time.
This is not a good phone for people who are out and about all day or drivers of any sort, unless you have it plugged in the entire day. Forget about using it as a GPS unless its plugged in either, that will drain you battery to 0% in less than an hour.
People say this is due to poor design and rushed to market with crappy signal reception and GPS reception, same with bluetooth antennae. This might be the case, I ALSO have mine suddenly have NO BARS for no reason and I have to power off and on the phone to get a signal back.
ALSO half the time I am out and about and need data connection over 3G, even with bars I get NOTHING. It's very frustrating not to be able to use the phone for what I want to use it for.
I will be getting rid of this puppy as soon as possible and I would do it sooner if I didn't want to avoid a 2year contract.
The good part about the phone is it is MUCH faster and responsive than the Intercept and Optimus. Much better camera (has a flash - FINALLY!) and HD video. Front facing camera is nice to have but of course weaksauce in the resolution dept. Overall A+ for effort, D- in execution.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This post is harsh. But I agree with most of it. Overall, the Triumph fits with a prepaid phone reputation: niggly bugs, poor battery life, poor service quality when compared to a higher end device.
The main problem here is that you'll be totally dependent on the community for real bug fixes. Every phone has bugs. But the bugs on the Triumph affect core usability and are on a totally different level. I would not count on Motorola to fix these bugs. If you're the tinkering type and a patient person, this may be worth it. But anyone who thinks that they are getting "something for free" is sadly mistaken. You are paying $25 a month for cell phone service, which is great . But all these bugs will make you pay with your time. How? Time looking for new roms, apps to fix bad battery life, time wondering why the touchscreen response is poor, time working around the bugs in every day life. If that is fun to you (and it may be for most people on this forum), fine. But you are paying with your time. Lesson learned is not to be so quick to fall for the specs. The company offering the phone and their track record of pushing out updates should play a large part in my decision next time.
I usually have WiFi turned on all day, and sync. I use the phone on my breaks and at lunch. When I get home I troll forums heavily and watch netflix occasionally. Not to mention Pandora for at least an hour per day. The battery will last if I dont plug it in until the next morning. Bottom line is that a lot of these issues can be fixed with quality software, and a battery cycle of 18-24 hours is something I can definitly live with. Compared to my Ascend, the Triumph is soooo much better in battery dept.
Sent from my rooted Moto Triumph
Battery issues
I am not sure why a lot of people have issues with battery, I unplugged my phone over 7 hrs ago and right now have 57% battery left, now before you hang your head at this look at my usage:
-Over 1 hour of talktime out of 7 hours.
-50+ texts back and forth
-10+ emails back and forth
-5-10 youtube videos
-5-10 pages of web browsing
-dl and install apps
-facebook at least 2-3 times every hour
And some more fiddling around so basically I have been on the phone non stop for 7 hours and its lost only 43%
That said, most of that usage came from the first 4 hours where it lost 36%(1+ hour of talktime, youtube videos im not really shocked there)
6th hour i texted and browsed etc only 5% battery used.
7th hour I just sent back and forth a couple of texts and only 2% battery used.
All this when i dont use any applications like task killers etc..i just let them run the way they want. Also no wifi, everything over 3g.
so imo if it gives that kind of battery its good enough for me. I was really scared when i bought cuz people were complaining so much about its battery but im fairly surprised. One factor that could be though is that I am not running the GPS, no need for it yet, when I do ill update what kind of usage i got.
I get 23 hours battery life with HEAVY usage and 30 if mostly idle. Many may disagree but if you live or work in a Wifi zone, keeping wifi on and setting it to never sleep greatly INCREASES battery life. 3G radio uses more juice especially if low signal or always searching. If you click on Battery Use and see your "time without a signal" is anything over 20% then you will most certainly see increase on battery life if you leave wifi locked on while in a wifi zone.
Also, side note: I have a 1500mah Anker battery that also increases juice time I recommend it!
Sent from my Rooted MOTWX435KT using XDA App
23 hrs with heavy usage? Unless yours came with a 2300ma battery and not the paltry 1380ma battery, there's NO WAY you're getting 23 hours under heave usage.
I'm using a 1500mah calibrated battery and yep, its true I leave wifi on and set to never sleep when I'm at home or work. If not, 3G absolutely murders my battery. My phone drops between 3% and 5% per hour.
Sent from my MOTWX435KT using XDA App
Well today I am having less luck with battery life. I watched two movies on Netflix and constant Facebook. I unplugged at 10:30am and it is now 4:48pm and I am at 52%.. still using 1500mah battery.
Sent from my MOTWX435KT using XDA App
troll somewhere else
I just came from a Samsung Epic 4G. I have to say battery life it at least the same but probably better on the Triumph. The battery is also quicker to swap out on the Triumph. Between the already better battery life and ability to quickly swap, I'm more than happy.
garrmack said:
I just came from a Samsung Epic 4G. I have to say battery life it at least the same but probably better on the Triumph. The battery is also quicker to swap out on the Triumph. Between the already better battery life and ability to quickly swap, I'm more than happy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As horrible as the Triumph batt life is then I'd hate to think how bad the Epic 4g's life was...wow!

[Q] Battery life

Hi,
I'm going to buy this phone, but i heard that battery life isnt good. Can someone tell me sth about it? Is there possibility to use this phone for whole day (6am - 10pm at least) with average usage?
Sent from my LG-P970 using xda premium
Yes, you can easily make it that long as long as you're not running it extremely hard. I'd say I use mine average, some may consider it light though. Mine has been unplugged for 17 hours and still has 35% battery left. I have 2 emails syncing (push, not interval), an average of 100 texts a day, light web usage (15-30 minutes), and the occasional game. I also am connected to WiFi most of the time, have GPS always on, and have my screen brightness set to low, but it's still plenty bright in most situations. I play the occasional game but it isn't as often, plus I have background apps such as weather syncing with a live tile. This is also on a phone that hasn't been broken in as well. It's only 2 days old, so it'll get even better over the next two days.
Hm so it seems that battery life is normal, i mean like in other smartphones But i will wait for other opinions before i decided to buy it
Sent from my LG-P970 using xda premium
zax880 said:
Hm so it seems that battery life is normal, i mean like in other smartphones But i will wait for other opinions before i decided to buy it
Sent from my LG-P970 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, it's pretty normal for a smartphone. You can easily get through a day with moderate use, but never expect to get through 2 days. I chose the 820 cause the HTC 8x has the same size screen but is almost as large as the HTC One X and it doesn't have a removable battery or an SD card slot; and the 920 is just to big for me. I have a One X and its a great phone but it's bigger than I care for, and Windows Phone just works.
After a weeks use and several discharges my battery is starting to improve, I can now get through an entire day 6:30am-11:00pm with average use but no more as it really does need to go on charge before it shuts down, I find this adequate enough but still hope an update can improve things slightly in the future.
When I say average use I mean a few txts & short phone calls and a bit of browsing, 2x email accounts sincing every hour, weather app & wpcentral running in background plus manually checking feeds on people hub for twitter & facebook etc on a regular basis ,Location and 3G on constantly(Good signal), Tap&send off & Dark Theme as uses less power.
Hopefully what happened to me yesterday won't happen again. I had decent battery like throughout the morning with 9 hours since last charged at 54%, that's 18 hours total and I'm fine with that. I only sent a few texts over the next 2 hours with nothing running in the background except for a weather live tile that has been there since day one and when I looked at my phone the battery saver had kicked in at 20% after only 11 hours since last charge. Luckily I was around a charger, but this should not have happened.
Sent from my HTC One X because the XDA app is better than on my WP8 Nokia Lumia 820
I read http://www.wpcentral.com/skype-and-constant-syncing-problem-windows-phone-8 and since uninstalling Skype have noticed a slight improvement, Whether this is just coincidence I do not know, The Battery still sucks though
AndyFZ1S said:
I read http://www.wpcentral.com/skype-and-constant-syncing-problem-windows-phone-8 and since uninstalling Skype have noticed a slight improvement, Whether this is just coincidence I do not know, The Battery still sucks though
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wonder if that can happen even when I haven't signed into Skype? Because I haven't but that sounds like my exact issue. And it hasn't happened since either, just like they had said they haven't had issues.
Sent from my HTC One X because the XDA app is better than on my WP8 Nokia Lumia 820
Personally, I'm getting spectacular battery life with this phone. After about 2 weeks' ownership, I have not had less than 2 full days of use, and right now, incredibly I must add, it has been off the charger 2 days 3 hours and is still at 66% according to the battery control panel.
I have done little more than disable a couple of background tasks, and run the phone from 100% to zero a single time. I haven't installed much (not Skype), and while I'm not a heavy user, I'm not always moderate either.
I'm on AT&T and typically in LTE zones, with wifi for work and home locations. It has an EAS account with "as items arrive", and an IMAP account which checks hourly. Bluetooth, NFC, location services all enabled as usual.
Had the Lumia900 before this, and received a similar 2-day runtime, but not like this. Chalk me up to "pleasantly surprised" verging on "far exceeds expectations".
Use black background can save lot of power.
Battery life good
I have this phone and I can get 2 full days of charge with: wifi on,location services on,push email x2,some browsing and apps,moderate calling and texting.
Have to admit I get about one and a half days out of mine, two at a push with WiFi,data on 2 emails syncing and me on it constantly, yep the battery life is pretty good ?
Sent from my RM-825_eu_euro1_217 using Board Express
I'm thinking about getting this as my first Windows phone and my two main concerns are battery life and form factor (thickness + weight).
I can get 2 days of light to medium usage out of a charge. It's not quite as good as my iphone 4s but it's within about 10% of it and it's better than my atrix 2.
I had one day where my battery dropped like a rock... in hindsight I think it was because I had signed up for some podcasts so the phone was downloading 4 huge podcasts in the background one after the other. So don't be surprised if you run into a similar situation during the first weeks usage of the phone where it's downloading content in the background (maps, podcasts, music, etc.).
As for form factor... I went into the store to check out the 920 and 8X... I didn't even have the 820 on my radar. After checking out the 8X and 920 I picked up the 820 and it felt like the best form factor to me... immediately. Keep in mind that I prefer the wider 16:10 aspect ratio screen on the 820 vs. the 8X (I also prefer the power button on the side) and I found the 820 more comfortable to hold than the 920. I'm also a sucker for the inky blacks of AMOLED. I'd highly recommend going to a store and checking them out to which one is the best fit.
It's definitely a better size (smaller, rounded) and weight (lighter) for me. Also it's not slippery like the 920 color models can be. It's quite plain, by comparison. Screen is great, more readable than my 900 was.
It's solidly a 2-day phone in my usage. Frankly, the wireless charging back seems unnecessary, now that I see how rarely I'd need it.
Great to hear so many of you are getting good battery life, This is my second handset as the first developed a fault and was sent back, Battery was bad enough on that one, Maybe the rubbish battery life I am experiencing has something to do with the stock O2 ROM&Radio ? And possibly the poor reception in my area, Am hoping an update will fix this
AndyFZ1S said:
Great to hear so many of you are getting good battery life, This is my second handset as the first developed a fault and was sent back, Battery was bad enough on that one, Maybe the rubbish battery life I am experiencing has something to do with the stock O2 ROM&Radio ? And possibly the poor reception in my area, Am hoping an update will fix this
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My wife's 820 was getting good battery life for the first 3 weeks, but in the last week or so the life started falling off a cliff. Its now only lasting about 1/2 day before kicking into battery saver mode with typical use.
Settings:
-Wifi is off
-NFC/tap&send is off
-High-sensitiviety touch option is off
-BT is on and only used occaisonally.
-email was set to check "as items arrive" but we changed that to 15 minutes to see if it woudl help (it didn't)
-no trouble getting 3 or 4 bars in LTE mode
-double-checked that apps that have background tasks that can be disabled are disabled incuding Nokia drive (made no difference)
Gonna try messing around with it for another day or so and then I guess we'll do a warranty claim for a faulty battery through AT&T.
danchar4 said:
My wife's 820 was getting good battery life for the first 3 weeks, but in the last week or so the life started falling off a cliff. Its now only lasting about 1/2 day before kicking into battery saver mode with typical use.
Settings:
-Wifi is off
-NFC/tap&send is off
-High-sensitiviety touch option is off
-BT is on and only used occaisonally.
-email was set to check "as items arrive" but we changed that to 15 minutes to see if it woudl help (it didn't)
-no trouble getting 3 or 4 bars in LTE mode
-double-checked that apps that have background tasks that can be disabled are disabled incuding Nokia drive (made no difference)
Gonna try messing around with it for another day or so and then I guess we'll do a warranty claim for a faulty battery through AT&T.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same exact thing has been happening to me. I just removed a lot of apps to see of any of their background tasks was causing it, they weren't. The battery lasts a real long time when I'm not using it for the first part of the day, but then it just dives. I checked it after 9 hours and still had 84% left (only sent a few texts for the morning); checked it 3 hours later after only sending a couple emails and it was down to 60%. It seems like it lasts a long time while not doing anything at all, bit the moment you touch it, it just stays awake and burns it down. Very very frustrating and is about to run me back to my One X.
Sent from my HTC One X because the XDA app is better than on my WP8 Nokia Lumia 820
Just called AT&T USA and they do not have Nokia 820 batteries in stock at the warehouse for warranty replacement. They said I need to buy a battery at the retail store and they will reimburse my account for the full amount. Full phones and phones without battery&back cover are the only items in stock for warranty replacement at the warehouse.
If I am unable to find a new battery at local stores, they said to call back and they would just send an entire new phone+battery.
danchar4 said:
Just called AT&T USA and they do not have Nokia 820 batteries in stock at the warehouse for warranty replacement. They said I need to buy a battery at the retail store and they will reimburse my account for the full amount. Full phones and phones without battery&back cover are the only items in stock for warranty replacement at the warehouse.
If I am unable to find a new battery at local stores, they said to call back and they would just send an entire new phone+battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Setting up a whole new phone is a PITA when you're just talking about a new battery. As loosely as the battery fits, I'm hoping a company makes a larger one that fits but doesn't need a larger back. Seidio does this a lot.
Sent from my HTC One X because the XDA app is better than on my WP8 Nokia Lumia 820

Hows your battery life?

I got my HTC One Mini yesterday and I'm getting pretty good battery life so far, how is it for you guys?
I'm using jmz's Stock Rooted Odex WWE Rom and Jmz M4 Kernel 9-04-13. I unplugged my phone around 9 AM this morning and it's now 1:45 AM and I'm at 48%.
I installed 12 apps, torrented a 315MB file using uTorrent @ about 600 kb/s, watched 23 minutes of 720p video using MX Player with hardware decoding, watched about 15 minutes of YouTube videos, went on Facebook for about 20 minutes, browsed the internet for about 5 minutes, browsed a forum using Tapatalk for about 15 minutes, made about 5 minutes of calls, sent/received about 20 texts, read a manga chapter, used it as a flashlight for about a minute, used it as a remote for XBMC for about 2 hours, flashed a kernel, and took a couple of pictures, a 30 second 1080p video, and a Zoe to test out the Camera. All of this was over Wi-Fi.
I think I could easily get 2 days out of the battery as my typical usage would be lighter. How is the battery life for you and what Rom/Kernal are you using?
Stock UK Vodafone Rom recently updated with the it's package.
Well...I am sadly unimpressed by the battery. I've had mine now for just under a month and don't get a day.
I use it to surf the BBC website (in mobile mode) over 3g and at other tines WiFi.
I make calls about 30-60mins a day and play a version of bubble breaker.
I can literally see the power drain when surfing the web. This us the single most draining activity...much worse than when I used my desire.
I have configured all power save options, disabled all non essential apps, and ensured the phone is not burning background or unnecessary apps.
Still it goes rapidly. It's a shame but I like the phone so will live with it.
2 days...yes if all you do is make calls. Anything more demanding not a chance I'm afraid. I have tried, a lot.
So it is now 1.10pm and I have 52% and at 9 am I had 100%. No video no gaming but a mix of BBC on WiFi and 3g (i have a femtocell so no burning power while looking for a signal).
Nice phone in so many ways but battery life, in call quality and control, are very poor.
All the best,
Sam
I am planning to buy HTC one mini, Wanted to get real idea of battery life, so this was helpful. Could you laso tell me if that 1GB RAM is a problem maybe once you have 60-70 apps ? I thinking of 2 years life at least so was concerned?
zopeon said:
I am planning to buy HTC one mini, Wanted to get real idea of battery life, so this was helpful. Could you laso tell me if that 1GB RAM is a problem maybe once you have 60-70 apps ? I thinking of 2 years life at least so was concerned?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For me it isn't too much of an issue, but they really should have equipped it with 2 GB of memory, 1 GB has been the standard for about 2 years. I have 42 user apps installed and most of the time I can have multiple apps open without any slow downs. Occasionally if I have multiple heavy apps running (Maps, Facebook, Pandora, Chrome ect.) it can slow down due to the lack of memory, but if I close one it speeds right back up. If you read any reviews you'll hear something along the lines of it's stupid that they only gave this phone 1GB of memory, but for most people it won't be a problem which I agree with. I'd suggest trying it out at a local store before buying it. Different people will see things differently, to some the HTC One Mini and S4 Mini will seem slow compared to the regular One and the S4, to others it will seem very fast.
ok guys please keep in mind that your mobile connection eats your power rly ****ing bad. I did a lot of tests with the mini and i'm was even able to get 5days with 25% left. Camera or wachting videos coast a lot of power as well but music is ok that does not need that much power.
Its all about your connections and how good the signal is, so if you want a longer battery life only use wifi.
The device has smaller screen size, lower resolution, half the number of cores, lower clock speed, lower powered GPU, half the RAM, no NFC or OIS. It should get *better* battery life than the full-sized one all things considered, though the smaller battery will definitely even this out somewhat. I wouldn't be surprised if under typical moderate-high usage involving CPU and screen this device should hold out similarly to the HTC One but in standby, etc it will be a bit lower.
Notebookcheck and GSMArena have done thorough battery testing, though notebookcheck doesn't test standby time and GSMArena's standby time testing method is a bit suspect.
Anandtech haven't published a review of the Mini yet but in their review of the Galaxy Note 3 you can see some battery tests they did of the HTC One Mini and it holds out pretty well considering it's not a phablet.
I bought mine two weeks ago. On the first week, my battery just last 10 hours at least and after a few days of experimentation of various settings and process monitoring, I can last 24 hours with still 20% remaining.
My daily usage can be define as quite conservative as I'm busy at work most of the day.
Here's my activities to give you an idea:
Call - at least 3 minutes a day
SMS - least 20 messages a day
browsing via HSPA / 3G - at least 1 hour a day
browsing via wifi - at least 1 hour a day
playing games - at least 30 minutes a day
reading / composing / sending emails - I set this to manual, at least 5 times a day (when I'm at home)
Frequently Used Apps:
Chrome
stock Calendar
stock Mail
Keep
stock Music Player
Cordy
Twitter
ES Task Manager
ES File Explorer
Google Play
Youtube
System Panel
Disabled Apps:
Facebook
Linkedin
SoundHound
7 Digital
Google Search
Google+
Hangouts
Kid Mode
Maps
Plurk
Hope this can help somebody to have an idea.
No matter what the phone, you tend to see battery life tests showing 8+ hours of web browsing battery life. However, real life never matches up to this expectation, with 3 or 4 hours of web browsing much more typical. This is the case with all smartphones - even a device like the Note 2 or Note 3 (albeit with higher expectations to begin with: - a Note 2/3 may tests 11+ hours web browsing but typically get 4.5+ in real-life conditions).
Unfortunately this leads many to believe that their brand new device (or its battery) is faulty. But in most cases this is not true.
I'll attempt to explain the real reason for the discrepancy.
Most importantly, the battery life tests are exclusively limited to that activity or task. For example, fully charging the smartphone, continuously web browsing for 8+ hours until the phone dies. In reality when we use our phones, the phone will be on standby, or doing other tasks, at other times. For example, 8+ hours of web browsing from a full charge is not the same as getting 8+ hours of web browsing over a 16 hour day. Those other 8 hours, even if the phone are on standby, are going to use up some of your battery, too.
The single biggest battery drain of a device is usually going to be the screen, unless you have specifically forced the screen brightness to a low (<33%) amount. At full brightness, a smartphone may burn through battery after only 3.5 hours of web browsing even if it could last 8+ hours at 40% screen brightness (the brightness control is not usually linear in terms of power draw). Review sites tend to standardise on a particular brightness level that is relatively low (the reason for this is often that allows fair comparison with devices that just can't get as bright). The bottom line is that 8+ hours of screen on time at lowish brightness might drop to half that or lower if you let auto-brightness bring up the brightness during the daylight hours or when outdoors, or if you prefer higher brightnesses.
Often, battery life tests will be done over wifi with mobile phone reception disabled entirely. This is not realistic as with a smartphone you're usually connected to a cell tower even while you're using wifi, so that voice calls and texts can still come through. Also, cellular uses a lot more energy while idle than wifi does. So even if you set the brightness really low and do nothing else with the phone, you still shouldn't be surprised that you can't get 8+ hours of web browsing if you also have the phone connected to a cell tower in the background. Some sites will conduct battery life tests over the cellular network instead of wifi, and typically these will get much lower battery life ratings (eg. 4+ hours, even with the same brightness level as for the wifi test).
Bottom line is, don't head back to the shop if you only get 3 to 4 hours screen on time during the day with web browsing. This is entirely normal for *some* usage patterns. You can improve it by:
Disable auto-brightness and set the brightness to a low-ish value, say 30%-40% of maximum. This might be able to double your screen-on time compared to full brightness.
Avoid using the phone much in direct sunlight. For the brightness to be high enough to read in direct sunlight, you'll be burning through your battery quickly, and if you've set the brightness manually to a low level as advised above, you won't be able to read it in direct sunlight.
Connect to wifi (but of course, only if you trust the wifi network to be secure and respect your privacy).
Realise that if you ever play CPU- or GPU-intensive games (most casual games shouldn't fit in this category) then a beefier battery or external battery booster may be a good investment. There's not much you can do about their battery use.
Only after considering the above should you hunt through battery usage analysers and wakelock detectors. In many cases even a misbehaving wakelock that keeps your phone partially awake all day has a low impact compared to having the screen on full brightness for just 20 or 30 minutes.

Categories

Resources