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Why is Android's battery always so darn inaccurate

My icon in the notif bar looks like 80% and it is 40% lol. I don't get it.

hah2110 said:
My icon in the notif bar looks like 80% and it is 40% lol. I don't get it.
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Strange, I haven't noticed this.
1) What phone are you using
2) What ROM are you running
3) Have you wiped your phone along with the cache?

akapoor said:
Strange, I haven't noticed this.
1) What phone are you using
2) What ROM are you running
3) Have you wiped your phone along with the cache?
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Click to collapse
Almost every Android phone. It is a known problem.

I don't seem to have an issue with it.
When it reaches 75%, my bar is 3/4s. When it's 50, its half-way...etc...etc...

hah2110 said:
Almost every Android phone. It is a known problem.
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Click to collapse
Awsome job answering 3 questions with a random statement.
I know the phone stores the info about the battery in a file. This file includes the max charge the battery can charge too. There is a method somewhere on these forums that show how to drain your battery, wipe the file, then do a full charge so the phone can relearn the battery and the correct settings get saved.
I believe flashing new roms and doing storage wipes can cause this file to be removed and created with false info.

WoZeR said:
Awsome job answering 3 questions with a random statement.
I know the phone stores the info about the battery in a file. This file includes the max charge the battery can charge too. There is a method somewhere on these forums that show how to drain your battery, wipe the file, then do a full charge so the phone can relearn the battery and the correct settings get saved.
I believe flashing new roms and doing storage wipes can cause this file to be removed and created with false info.
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Click to collapse
No... It has nothing to do with this. Every Android phone I've had... Regardless of whether it is brand new, stock, rooted, flashed, new kernel, anything... Doesn't matter.

May I know how many android phones you previously had?
not trying to flame btw.. but i dont have that case with my phone.. and this is my first phone

You have tokinda program the Lion Batt internal charger first, you charge them full->run till dead--> repeat process 2 times and then the system will be way more accurate. Try this and reply in about 3 days the results.

lagu805 said:
May I know how many android phones you previously had?
not trying to flame btw.. but i dont have that case with my phone.. and this is my first phone
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John512 said:
You have tokinda program the Lion Batt internal charger first, you charge them full->run till dead--> repeat process 2 times and then the system will be way more accurate. Try this and reply in about 3 days the results.
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Click to collapse
You guys are still missing it. The ICON is not accurate but the internal sensor is. Jeebus. Look at these links... and it seems as my answer is in the first two sentences:
http://senk9.wordpress.com/2010/06/07/android-app-of-the-day-battery-left-widget/
http://www.androidjunkies.com/index...ets-you-keep-watch-of-your-power-app-reviews/

Honestly, if "it" truly bothers you, why not just put the overlay ontop so you get the "real" percentage.

It's work just fine for me, usually +/- 3% at most, works great on froyo.
Calibrate if it is way off
Sent from my HTC Magic using XDA App

I'm trying to understand how android calculates battery percentage, and from my testing it seems that the battery meter is hard coded into each particular phone model. This link seems to kinda verify this.
http://www.android-x86.org/documents/howtoconfigurebatteryservice
Does anyone know where in the system the battery file is located? Either the battery driver, or the algorithm it uses, or even a stats file. Anyone able to point me in the right direction? Thanks.

Daveenna said:
It's work just fine for me, usually +/- 3% at most, works great on froyo.
Calibrate if it is way off
Sent from my HTC Magic using XDA App
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How abouts do you calibrate the visual battery indicator at the top of the notification bar to be within 3%??
Are you talking about something else like the battery charge status reading?
I've experienced the same problem as the OP on all my Android phones as well. It is a problem when you think you have 75% charge and all the sudden you are getting low battery warnings.

same here. Notification Bar battery is hilariously off.

akapoor said:
I don't seem to have an issue with it.
When it reaches 75%, my bar is 3/4s. When it's 50, its half-way...etc...etc...
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oh yea? mine goes to nine percent...and takes forever for it to shut down. only when i shut down the phone or reboot it, does it not come back on. lol

Just had a thought about battery life

Ok. I was responding to a thread about my phone and no reboot's. I notice that some else posted they charge there phone with it off. When i first got my phone I charged it with it off the very first time. Has anyone else done this and not had problems or done this and it still bad battery life? I have had mine unplugged since about 5:30 am and at 7:08 at 38 percent in the staus menu.

royale192 said:
Ok. I was responding to a thread about my phone and no reboot's. I notice that some else posted they charge there phone with it off. When i first got my phone I charged it with it off the very first time. Has anyone else done this and not had problems or done this and it still bad battery life? I have had mine unplugged since about 5:30 am and at 7:08 at 38 percent in the staus menu.
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My battery life is quite good and did not charge it out the box.

royale192 said:
Ok. I was responding to a thread about my phone and no reboot's. I notice that some else posted they charge there phone with it off. When i first got my phone I charged it with it off the very first time. Has anyone else done this and not had problems or done this and it still bad battery life? I have had mine unplugged since about 5:30 am and at 7:08 at 38 percent in the staus menu.
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ive done the full dead to full charge (plus one hour of charge time)
i get 14 hours of use usually and thats heavy use
people need to realize this is a DUAL core phone its gonna eat battery (especially with stock drivers/software)
dont like it go back to your razor......
( there are MANY MANY MANY HELPFUL TIPS ON HOW TO PROPERLY CONDITION A BATTERY PEOPLE SHOULD USE GOOGLE!!!)
/rant

nate420 said:
ive done the full dead to full charge (plus one hour of charge time)
i get 14 hours of use usually and thats heavy use
people need to realize this is a DUAL core phone its gonna eat battery (especially with stock drivers/software)
dont like it go back to your razor......
( there are MANY MANY MANY HELPFUL TIPS ON HOW TO PROPERLY CONDITION A BATTERY PEOPLE SHOULD USE GOOGLE!!!)
/rant
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Hey sorry for the confusion but it was not a helpful tip. I was just stating my specific way i charged my device, but your right it is a dual core phone. I hear the thunderbolt has pretty bad battery life LOL

royale192 said:
Hey sorry for the confusion but it was not a helpful tip. I was just stating my specific way i charged my device, but your right it is a dual core phone. I hear the thunderbolt has pretty bad battery life LOL
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Unfortunately, as far as I know dual core is supposed to mean better battery management.
So there's that.

Profondo_Rosso said:
Unfortunately, as far as I know dual core is supposed to mean better battery management.
So there's that.
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Yup, I know that most would say companies only advertise that as a ploy to sell more devices, but theoretically it really should be true.

baldwinguy77 said:
Yup, I know that most would say companies only advertise that as a ploy to sell more devices, but theoretically it really should be true.
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Which leads me to believe, as others have stated, that it is most definitely in the software.

Profondo_Rosso said:
Which leads me to believe, as others have stated, that it is most definitely in the software.
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Click to collapse
I agree, especially after reading Chris Soyars' post about the battery driver. Not only does that mean our reading of the battery is directly affected, but it also leads us to believe that other drivers on the G2X could be poorly coded as well.

The battery life is ridiculous
Honestly I"m coming from a Sony Erisson w810i dumb phone due to lost of my Samsung Eternity 6 months ago. And I have to admit that it was worth waiting for this phone back when they announced at CTIA. I was so close to jumping onto the mt4g, but this unbelievable phone totally held me back. After waiting and suffering for 4 months from my dumb phone I finally got my hand not only on my first android phone, but also a dual core phone. Man this phone is blazing fast without any lag, going from apps to apps. Once I got it out of the box, I noticed the battery life was around 30%. After playing with it for about 30 minutes, it completely die out. I charged it while I was doing the factory reset. After the reset, I turned off my phone and left it charged 8 hrs while it's off with the battery charging screen. Waking up at 9:00am, it was 100% completely fully charged. Left the house to school and at 12:30p.m, it was down to 5%. It's been only 3 hours and 30 minutes! Before the battery started to drain I had wifi, syn emil, bluetooth and even brightness on low. Also, I had GSM/WCDMA on Auto, so that wasn't the cause either. My second attempt charging cycle to full battery, well see how it goes. If the battery doesn't last me over 6 hrs, I'm definitely going to return it for another new one. I'm having a bad impression on my first smartphone and I will do anything I can to get it the way it should be. It just unacceptable and ridiculous. Oh by the way, my phone is not yet rooted or done anything with it beside downloaded few apps and games. ^__^

i had this issue last night when I plugged in my phone it showed charging and 38%. woke up this morning 8 hours later and it still showed charging and 38%, I'm thinking what the f, this never happened with my nexus one. so I plugged the phone into another outlet and used a different charger and left it for an hour and it still showed the same thing. It wasn't until I restarted the phone that it showed 100%, but I find that odd. don't have the slightest clue why this happened.
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA Premium App

baldwinguy77 said:
Yup, I know that most would say companies only advertise that as a ploy to sell more devices, but theoretically it really should be true.
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Click to collapse
I took my friend to a T-Mobile corporate store to show him the G2x I bought. I bought mine through TMO Loyalty so I had to wait for it to ship.
Anyhow, there was an LG rep there trying to showcase the G2x and G-Slate and I asked him how the battery life is for the G2x. He told me 6 days on standby and about 5-6 hours of continuous talk time.
I'll check to see if he's still there and take a PTO if I need to, to be there with him and call my office and let them put me on hold and see if the phone has enough juice to make it for 5 continuous hours.

Unfortunately tmo decided to add some apps that run by themselves....after I deleted them I havnt had any apps open without me opening them.....I get about 20 hours wth a lot of use. This is the best battery life I have gotten on any android phone
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA App

I don't see how to get 20 hours out of that battery! Are you on edge? any live wallpapers? Account syncing?

Battery drain in standby issue?

Hi all,
My 6 days old Sensation (Vodafone contract UK) discharge a huge amount during Standby (200-350mA). I got the number via Battery Widget Pro 1.65. For the first few days I did deplete the battery fully before charging it to full. Today I have factory reset it to the original condition at around 4pm with 58% battery full. Now at 9pm, it is only 18%. During this time, I spent about 1 hour with the phone, the rest is standby. I set the widget to monitor with 1 minute interval and when looking at the log file, it can be seen that the phone consumed from 200-400mA during the standby time. Coming from HD2 with Android modded 3-8mA standby consumption, this is a huge huge dissapoinment!
Is this because of my battery or is this my phone? Should I ask for a replacement? What about you, did you see similar pattern?
Thanks,
Duong

duongnt said:
Hi all,
My 6 days old Sensation (Vodafone contract UK) discharge a huge amount during Standby (200-350mA). I got the number via Battery Widget Pro 1.65. For the first few days I did deplete the battery fully before charging it to full. Today I have factory reset it to the original condition at around 4pm with 58% battery full. Now at 9pm, it is only 18%. During this time, I spent about 1 hour with the phone, the rest is standby. I set the widget to monitor with 1 minute interval and when looking at the log file, it can be seen that the phone consumed from 200-400mA during the standby time. Coming from HD2 with Android modded 3-8mA standby consumption, this is a huge huge dissapoinment!
Is this because of my battery or is this my phone? Should I ask for a replacement? What about you, did you see similar pattern?
Thanks,
Duong
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Click to collapse
Ditto!! So annoyed since I too am coming from HD2 where HyperDroid's consumption had dropped to a flat 2mA in standby. This is insane for a native android device. Not to mention the heating while playing games and most importantly, the front facing camera producing upside down image during fring video chats.. grrr!
Dunno what the cause OR solution is (besides switching over to a custom rom if and when the BL gets unlocked and people like pongster develop for this device)...
Overall, sexy device but disappointed with such major holes left unattended..

A little offtopic but was a battery related questions and did not wanna start a new thread so posting here -
Does anybody know of if there's any app which can get the battery percent to show in the top bar instead of the default indicator?
Thanks
EDIT: neva mind... found it... everybody's allwoed 1 dumb post once in a while

something is keeping your phone awake, you need to figure out what it is.

xnifex said:
something is keeping your phone awake, you need to figure out what it is.
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Click to collapse
Any ideas on how I can do that? I tried using current widget but I guess because it's not rooted, current widget showed me a log of 0mA all throughout (yeah rite! hehe)

when I figure it out myself I'll let you know.
Current things I found that killed my battery over night: VTOK & Google Latitude

I went into Settings --> About Phone --> Battery --> Battery Use and checked, and it says display is eating most of my battery.
As far as mine, I get about 12 hours of battery life with standard usage, with the display eating most of the life, so if you're saying the screen is off, you might get different results...

over my 8h sleep battery dropped like 10%, nothing special (count in : wifi on, sync with gmail, weather) guys. new phone, fresh unoptimized kernel and radio. it'll get better. my prev phone (desire) was like sh*t at beginning in relating to its current spec rom ... and btw for checkin consuption : system panel (not lite), there is monitoring and u can see which apps running again if ya shoot them, check sync-s etc. many many thing to do, hard to tell in a single post

r3v0Lut10n said:
over my 8h sleep battery dropped like 10%, nothing special (count in : wifi on, sync with gmail, weather) guys. new phone, fresh unoptimized kernel and radio. it'll get better. my prev phone (desire) was like sh*t at beginning in relating to its current spec rom ... and btw for checkin consuption : system panel (not lite), there is monitoring and u can see which apps running again if ya shoot them, check sync-s etc. many many thing to do, hard to tell in a single post
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Click to collapse
well it certainly sounds like a part of it is specimen issue.. here's my latest experience... last few times i have let it completely discharge and then charge back while the phone was off so i dont mess with it... once 100% charged, i switched the phone on and received a call.. a 25 minute conversation ate away 15% of my battery... LOL...
then, (now it gets better)... in 2 hrs of standby, the phone was at 60% which means it lost another 15% battery in 2 hrs of "standby".. im not sure if i can even call that state a "standby" anymore...
anyways... im wondering if its worth pinning hopes on rom development on our forum or should i just return this and go with something like nexus S which, O well, I can live with... atleast it has a 3300mA batterypack available... what's the use of kickass speeds and features if i have to use a phone like a desktop..

Hey, I have pretty bad battery drain during stand by as well I recommend trying to adjust the sync accounts, esp HTC hub and how often it updates that should improve it...I have a bunch of HTC widgets set up so im suspecting that being the reason for battery drain during stand by also adjust your email update setting accordingly. Every little bit helps!

Battery gauge stuck at 100%
Another one slightly off topic - but why start another battery thread.
It is the second day with my Sensation, and since I took the phone off the charger this morning, the battery gauge has been stuck at 100%. All other apps reading the battery status (e.g. Battery Widget) show the same number. I rebooted the phone multiple times, replaced the battery - nothing - permanent 100%. Has anyone had a similar experience? Did I get a perpetuum mobile ?
BTW the readings were fine yesterday.

JohannFaust said:
Another one slightly off topic - but why start another battery thread.
It is the second day with my Sensation, and since I took the phone off the charger this morning, the battery gauge has been stuck at 100%. All other apps reading the battery status (e.g. Battery Widget) show the same number. I rebooted the phone multiple times, replaced the battery - nothing - permanent 100%. Has anyone had a similar experience? Did I get a perpetuum mobile ?
BTW the readings were fine yesterday.
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Click to collapse
Yes, the rating will go downhill pretty quick after that. Mine behaves in the same way.

jawang26 said:
Hey, I have pretty bad battery drain during stand by as well I recommend trying to adjust the sync accounts, esp HTC hub and how often it updates that should improve it...I have a bunch of HTC widgets set up so im suspecting that being the reason for battery drain during stand by also adjust your email update setting accordingly. Every little bit helps!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the pointer.. I will surely try that and see if it makes a difference..
That being said, call me crazy but it just occurs to me that HTC should be putting in some minimal efforts to check off basic quirks like battery consumption and QC. I mean all of us are spending a buttload of money on these devices year over year and then we rely on our devs here to give us basic functionality. Back in the days the reason people joined forums was to tweak devices.. Now it almost feels like we might as well expect only the hardware for the price we pay... disappointed!
Anywho...

I fully charged the phone before I went to bed last night. Eight hours later, the battery is at 10%. Is there something wrong with the battery?

Try using the Spare Parts app to see what's really using the battery in detail.

[Q] Cell Standby?

Hey, I was wondering if anyone that is on Verizon if their Cell Standby has been going crazy and draining all your battery over night?
I had no problems with the phone at all until 2 days ago where i left it off charge over night and the cell standby was beyond crazy high.
http://i.imgur.com/Oqy1L.png
I was wondering if there could be anything from an app that I downloaded (I seriously have maybe 5 apps downloaded) or that Verizon has been doing cell work over night which is trying to find data? I'm not sure and it's really bothering me.
Anyone else having the same issue?

Unless your battery is really draining faster, it is a display bug.

Randomacts said:
Unless your battery is really draining faster, it is a display bug.
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Click to collapse
Well it's been happening for a few days so I don't know what to do. I just factory re set the device and hoping the cell standby isn't high again. If it is I'm just going to go replace the phone.

New T-Mobile G5 - poor battery life/unlock

Hi guys, wondering if anyone can help
I bought a new unlocked T-Mobile LG G5 from ebay last week for my wife, after buying it I didn't realize that the unlock code is a software unlock, not a SIM unlock, and that I am not able to flash to the stock LG firmware if I want to keep the unlock on hand.
I was looking at flashing to stock because the battery life is quite poor for a new phone, much worse than my S7 Edge, even though she doesnt do anything crazy on it. Are there any tips or tricks to improve the battery life, its using H83020i_un software with what appears to be the regular/default T-Mobile stock apps...
Any help would be appreciated, either regarding the battery, the unlock, or both. Also, will I get any OTA updates, and if I do will it re-lock the phone? Im in Canada btw
Thanks

There is a thread covering all the ins and outs of the 20i_un custom SIM unlock ROM. Everything about locking and updates is thoroughly discussed 1 thread up from this one.
About battery life, that ROM shouldn't be impacting battery life. You should get 4 hours of screen on time (roughly) per charge. If that's not enough to get you through the day, then this isn't the phone for you.
If you aren't getting 4 hours of screen on time, something is wrong. It's not the ROM because the ROM is PROBABLY the stock ROM with 1 small modification for SIM unlock.
Things like Facebook are NOTORIOUS battery drainers so if you run a lot of apps like that, they could be hurting you. Have you looked at your battery stats? Do any apps jump out as taking up a lot of battery? Is it the Android system that's using the battery?
Android's battery stats chart will tell you a lot about what it using your battery. We'd need to know what it is before we could suggest fixes.
Also...be sure to leave the seller negative feedback on eBay. This phone was misrepresented on eBay, even after they were aware if was not factory sealed and had been modified. They lied about how many they had too, saying they were nearly out of stock at least a thousand units ago. That's deceptive advertising. They lied to multiple people about putting that second clear seal over the broken factory seal. And they contacted at least me outside of the eBay message system which is a blatant violation of the eBay terms of service. Even if you keep it, the seller deserves negative feedback.

Skipjacks said:
There is a thread covering all the ins and outs of the 20i_un custom SIM unlock ROM. Everything about locking and updates is thoroughly discussed 1 thread up from this one.
About battery life, that ROM shouldn't be impacting battery life. You should get 4 hours of screen on time (roughly) per charge. If that's not enough to get you through the day, then this isn't the phone for you.
If you aren't getting 4 hours of screen on time, something is wrong. It's not the ROM because the ROM is PROBABLY the stock ROM with 1 small modification for SIM unlock.
Things like Facebook are NOTORIOUS battery drainers so if you run a lot of apps like that, they could be hurting you. Have you looked at your battery stats? Do any apps jump out as taking up a lot of battery? Is it the Android system that's using the battery?
Android's battery stats chart will tell you a lot about what it using your battery. We'd need to know what it is before we could suggest fixes.
Also...be sure to leave the seller negative feedback on eBay. This phone was misrepresented on eBay, even after they were aware if was not factory sealed and had been modified. They lied about how many they had too, saying they were nearly out of stock at least a thousand units ago. That's deceptive advertising. They lied to multiple people about putting that second clear seal over the broken factory seal. And they contacted at least me outside of the eBay message system which is a blatant violation of the eBay terms of service. Even if you keep it, the seller deserves negative feedback.
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Yeah I did notice that about the seal when I opened mine.
I noticed the battery drains alot while idling, not sure what could cause that though...

Well...look at the battery stats charge in the settings. It will tell you what's using the battery.
Are you using the Always On Display? If so that's your answer. That chews up battery like crazy at around 0.8% per hour. Conversely I get 0.1% to 0.2% drain per hour on idle with the Always On Display turned off.
I'm also a fan of Greenify for putting the phone into Doze mode after minutes rather than an hour or two like Android does natively. I'm not a huge fan of Greenify as a task killer as that's counterproductive in most cases. Though I do let it kill an annoying persistent Major League Baseball app that I like but that doesn't know when to shut up.

Skipjacks said:
Well...look at the battery stats charge in the settings. It will tell you what's using the battery.
Are you using the Always On Display? If so that's your answer. That chews up battery like crazy at around 0.8% per hour. Conversely I get 0.1% to 0.2% drain per hour on idle with the Always On Display turned off.
I'm also a fan of Greenify for putting the phone into Doze mode after minutes rather than an hour or two like Android does natively. I'm not a huge fan of Greenify as a task killer as that's counterproductive in most cases. Though I do let it kill an annoying persistent Major League Baseball app that I like but that doesn't know when to shut up.
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Click to collapse
Always on display is off, using greenify, helped a bit, but I notice that most of the battery usage % is "Phone Idleing"

Agree, in the past month or so, my LG G5 battery life has become noticeably worse. The top two battery burners are Android OS and Phone Idle. I've tried multiple hard resets, clearing cache, etc, but nothing seems to help. I haven't shut off the always on display, but it wasn't shut down before. Something has changed recently, maybe in the last update, but the battery life is terrible now. Any help would be appreciated.

hawkintx said:
Agree, in the past month or so, my LG G5 battery life has become noticeably worse. The top two battery burners are Android OS and Phone Idle. I've tried multiple hard resets, clearing cache, etc, but nothing seems to help. I haven't shut off the always on display, but it wasn't shut down before. Something has changed recently, maybe in the last update, but the battery life is terrible now. Any help would be appreciated.
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Click to collapse
If youre on 20k update, then I agree. Battery life was fine until 20k update. Now I cant get through lunch. Battery stats is not helpful. Shows no issues.

coreygator said:
If youre on 20k update, then I agree. Battery life was fine until 20k update. Now I cant get through lunch. Battery stats is not helpful. Shows no issues.
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Click to collapse
I have had no change in battery life since updating to 20k

Skipjacks said:
I have had no change in battery life since updating to 20k
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Click to collapse
Thanks for the info. Will try a factory reset and see if that helps.

coreygator said:
If youre on 20k update, then I agree. Battery life was fine until 20k update. Now I cant get through lunch. Battery stats is not helpful. Shows no issues.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do u know how to downgrade?
Sent from my LG-H830 using Tapatalk

Were you ever able to solve the battery problem?

There are a couple of comments on the previous page that Phone Idle is a large consumer. That happens when you pick the wrong carrier, and the signal is weak most of the places you spend time. When that happens, it's assumed that the phone's signal will be weak at the tower, so the phone transmits at maximum power - and that kills a battery fast. Choose a carrier that has solid green in the battery stats (tap the graph to get to that page, then scroll down). That's the first thing you should do when choosing a carrier - not that they're the only ones carrying this great new phone so far, but that they give you a solid signal where you spend most of your time. And it's exactly what most people don't do (because they're not aware of it). (And the phone matters too - some just have more sensitive receivers than others.)