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Battery life with cupcake update?

I'm thinking of buying a G1, but I'm put off by all the complaints that it has horrible battery life. Does the cupcake update help this any? How long do people get?

The cupcake update hasn't been released, yet. At first, I had a HORRIBLE battery life, but after calibrating the battery, it's got a decent battery life. I haven't really taxed the phone much, though.

I know cupcake hasn't been released yet, but the code is open and people have already flashed their phone with it. So I mean, "Does cupcake (so far) help battery life?"

You can calibrate the battery all you like .... it's still really crap !
Just as well the phone is soo brilliant at everything else that it doesn't bother me!

jengu said:
I know cupcake hasn't been released yet, but the code is open and people have already flashed their phone with it. So I mean, "Does cupcake (so far) help battery life?"
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from experience, no not really. mind you, the version we have working atm is no where near the finished version. so maybe they'll implement a better power management or something, i dunno.
thats if they ever release the damn thing

The battery just doesn't last on the G1 no matter what you do. You can extend the battery life to a couple days if it sits idle and has the right settings, but that's boring.
This phone shines through use so expect to charge it daily. If you do things like tether, stream music, web browse, constant email/texting, and etc, then I would say keep a charger handy.

I bought an extended battery (2600mAh) off ebay for about $45 and i'm a pretty heavy user with irc,music,youtube,twitter all that jazz and my battery lasts 2 days. Sure it's a little bit thicker, but it stays in a jean pocket all by it self and everything is just great.

I think The battery life increases with cupcake as i flashed the latest cupcake build (sync-ed & build yesterday by me) it usually used to go down till morning when i sleep but today it was 70% left means very much...
Also as i changed the statusbar battery icon to show 1%, 2%, ... 100% i was able to keep track of my battery...
lets see i ll stay 1 more day on cupcake and let u know...

Version 1.1 helped a lot with battery life. Most of the initial complaints were with version 1.0. Most of those initial complaints were also very shortly after the initial introduction when a lot of new units suddenly hit the market -- as with any battery device, it needs time to break in and calibrate itself. Note: cupcake is to be called version 1.5 (there will likely be no 1.2-1.4). Expect 1.5 to have better power management than 1.1, it does have a newer kernel with better power management features, and no doubt many optimizations in userland tools.

how can you calibrate the battery?

lbcoder said:
Version 1.1 helped a lot with battery life. Most of the initial complaints were with version 1.0. Most of those initial complaints were also very shortly after the initial introduction when a lot of new units suddenly hit the market -- as with any battery device, it needs time to break in and calibrate itself. Note: cupcake is to be called version 1.5 (there will likely be no 1.2-1.4). Expect 1.5 to have better power management than 1.1, it does have a newer kernel with better power management features, and no doubt many optimizations in userland tools.
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Are there battery benchmarks somewhere for 1.1? I've been googling but it's hard to find real numbers and usually they don't mention the version. How much battery life do you get?

With normal use I wouldn't expect to get more than 24hours. I reckon by switching everything off I could double that. OTOH as the phone charges via USB I just leave it charging whilst I'm working - it'd be sat on the desk anyway so the extra cable is no hardship.

Nitro212 said:
how can you calibrate the battery?
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By using it.

You calibrate the battery by letting the phone completely die while it is on, as in let the phone shut off because it's out of battery. Then, give it a full charge from the house charger, preferably while not using the phone (while sleeping, for example). Should be done twice a month or so for this phone.

You should know that modern batteries dont have the "memory" that old batteries do.
There is no need to do the above.

They don't have 'memory' but modern batteries still have a break in period. You'd have to probably have a solid battery like thin films to avoid that.

sjbayer3 said:
You should know that modern batteries dont have the "memory" that old batteries do.
There is no need to do the above.
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I know that, for example, While it takes 5 minutes of watching video for the battery to move from 10% to 5% it can take 30 minutes to move from 5% to DEAD with a non calibrated battery.
I train my battery every so often. I can get a solid 3 to 5 hours of talking/texting/browsing/downloading/playing games/etc on a single charge.
I don't think its too much to ask for. It's in line with other phones of like capabilities. Upfront people were just pissed that they couldn't sit and play on their G1 for 10 hours a day with no charging in between.
You can't do that with an iphone, itouch, psp, ds, portable dvd, or laptop computer. People were expecting it to perform better than all the things listed, but the only thing technological about this phone is the software. It has the same tech restrictions as every other portable device.

i thought that the new batteries nowadays do not need to be conditioned anymore? that whole break in theory was based on the old nickel based batteries. but now they no longer needed since batteries are now lithium-ion batteries that do not have that "memory state". correct me if im wrong because i always hear both arguments.

Hmm if I remember correctly the actual battery (LiCoO2) doesn't need conditioning or has a memory effect, but its the electrical component/chip that tracks the capacity and over time though repeated charging they tend to "forget" the actual capacity of the battery so you need to drain it completely then charge it completely so it re-learns it again.

zacfield said:
You calibrate the battery by letting the phone completely die while it is on, as in let the phone shut off because it's out of battery. Then, give it a full charge from the house charger, preferably while not using the phone (while sleeping, for example). Should be done twice a month or so for this phone.
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calibrate the battery is a joke!
Li-on battery no need to do that!

Battery Problem ? Never goes 100%

My battery never goes to 100% whatever how long I charge it. is it a problem. My NS is just 3 weeks old. Any help guys

Exittx said:
My battery never goes to 100% whatever how long I charge it. is it a problem. My NS is just 3 weeks old. Any help guys
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Its not a problem. The phone charges that way by design; the idea is that it will extend the overall life of the battery by not letting it get fully or possibly over charged.

mlin said:
Its not a problem. The phone charges that way by design; the idea is that it will extend the overall life of the battery by not letting it get fully or possibly over charged.
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but it goes to 97% sometimes. is it possible to go 100% in the long term ? I feel 95% does not give me the same battery life as 100%.

the only way to really get it to 100% is let it charge to 95% then keep the phone awake but the 5% difference is nothing. Its nothing to worry about.

That behavior is not by design, it's a poorly implemented battery profile in the phone.
Not much you can do unless someone changes the preset voltage values for 100% "full" (and/or other battery settings).

xciton said:
That behavior is not by design, it's a poorly implemented battery profile in the phone.
Not much you can do unless someone changes the preset voltage values for 100% "full" (and/or other battery settings).
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No no, it's actually implemented this way, and it's a choice.
Some manufacturers have modified the way the battery stats are handled to show 100% even on "stock" rom experience, but that isn't the case for the Nexus S.
HTC is notable for this.
On the other hand, you can use a kernel with the 100% cosmetic fix implemented or if you're REALLY REALLY sure, you can bump charge your phone to 100%. Doing the later will however reduce the life of your battery, so if you expect to keep your phone for a long time I wouldn't suggest it.
Here's a nice written article, applying for the Droid but just about any Android smartphone too.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=871051

thank for the link. it's interesting to know that doing multiple short-time charge í better than a long-time one.

I was also wondering why it never goes to 100% when I charge my new nexus phone. Thanks for sharing
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

I have same problem but you can just think that it's fully charged since its same. Your mind is just fooling with you. Nothing to worry about.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

That's another thing I really miss about my old Evo - SBC charging and 30+ hrs from the stock 1500mAh battery. Many custom kernels implemented SBC to allow a full 100% charge, and I never witnessed any performance degradation over the course of a year.
The battery service life issue rumored to result from fully charging the lithium ion cells was largely dismissed as just that... a rumor. Hundreds, if not thousands of Evo users use SBC without any problems - in fact, I do not recall anyone writing about sbc-related problems at all.

Braneless said:
That's another thing I really miss about my old Evo - SBC charging and 30+ hrs from the stock 1500mAh battery. Many custom kernels implemented SBC to allow a full 100% charge, and I never witnessed any performance degradation over the course of a year.
The battery service life issue rumored to result from fully charging the lithium ion cells was largely dismissed as just that... a rumor. Hundreds, if not thousands of Evo users use SBC without any problems - in fact, I do not recall anyone writing about sbc-related problems at all.
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I used SBC kernels on my Nexus One and the battery life was insanely good. Never had problems. I stopped using them because I was scared of the horror stories.
Personally, I'm rarely somewhere (for extended periods of time) that I can't charge my phone. And if I am on a long drive or out and about it's not like I'm doing much with my phone.
~XDA Premium App~

Braneless said:
That's another thing I really miss about my old Evo - SBC charging and 30+ hrs from the stock 1500mAh battery. Many custom kernels implemented SBC to allow a full 100% charge, and I never witnessed any performance degradation over the course of a year.
The battery service life issue rumored to result from fully charging the lithium ion cells was largely dismissed as just that... a rumor. Hundreds, if not thousands of Evo users use SBC without any problems - in fact, I do not recall anyone writing about sbc-related problems at all.
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Click to collapse
Actually I remember people posting problems with SBC and I didn't even have an EVO. Remember the phones that went almost on fire?
Anyway I don't really need such a kernel, I use BLX to limit at 90% and get through a day just fine, sometimes through a day and a half.

My phone charged so that it read 100% when i first got it. Only after i installed glados kernel did it stop at 96% because he didn't implement the illusionary fix.

An extended battery not requiring a bigger back cover that actually works?

Hey guys,
Spent some time searching and reading the relevant threads on G2x, and the final consensus seems to me that there is no widespread agreement with respect to the question I've posed in the thread title. It seems to me that the only extended batteries that are guaranteed to give more than just a 30-60min boost are the 3000mah+ batteries that require using a much larger back cover that turns the G2x into a G2XL.
Hoping there's someone who can prove me wrong. I'm about to buy the G2x for its fantastic specs and low price for use on T-Mobile's prepaid monthly plan. Andida extended battery gets mixed reviews. Same for Prodicell batteries. The one battery for which I'd like to see some results is the "Seidio Innocell 1750mAh Slim Extended Battery for use with LG Thrill 4G, Optimus 3D, LG G2X and Optimus 2X" listed on Amazon.com. (Couldn't post link due to my low post number).
Any thoughts thus far? Will I need to turn my G2x smartphone into a giantphone to get noticeable increases in battery life?

zeth006 said:
Hey guys,
Spent some time searching and reading the relevant threads on G2x, and the final consensus seems to me that there is no widespread agreement with respect to the question I've posed in the thread title. It seems to me that the only extended batteries that are guaranteed to give more than just a 30-60min boost are the 3000mah+ batteries that require using a much larger back cover that turns the G2x into a G2XL.
Hoping there's someone who can prove me wrong. I'm about to buy the G2x for its fantastic specs and low price for use on T-Mobile's prepaid monthly plan. Andida extended battery gets mixed reviews. Same for Prodicell batteries. The one battery for which I'd like to see some results is the "Seidio Innocell 1750mAh Slim Extended Battery for use with LG Thrill 4G, Optimus 3D, LG G2X and Optimus 2X" listed on Amazon.com. (Couldn't post link due to my low post number).
Any thoughts thus far? Will I need to turn my G2x smartphone into a giantphone to get noticeable increases in battery life?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You were searching in the wrong forum. Try the G2x Accessories forum.
But here is a link for a 2430Mah the same size as the original.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1259122

GTWalling said:
You were searching in the wrong forum. Try the G2x Accessories forum.
But here is a link for a 2430Mah the same size as the original.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1259122
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Click to collapse
I read about the so-called "gold" batteries. I'm reserving final judgment but remaining skeptical until we can get some extensive tests showing they're worth replacing the stock.

zeth006 said:
Hey guys,
Any thoughts thus far? Will I need to turn my G2x smartphone into a giantphone to get noticeable increases in battery life?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As they say in the automotive world, "There's no replacement for displacement"..
Basically, yeah, if you want a noticeable increase in battery life, then you will need to accept a noticeable increase in battery size. No way around it.
I have seen people spend $50 or more on 'name brand' extended batteries that are the same size as stock, and they rarely give any more battery life than a brand new stock battery.
Think about it - with the phone market as competitive as it is, if there were a battery that offered significant increases in battery life without an increase in size, do you think the major manufacturers would ignore that and allow some Chinese knock-off company to capitalize on it? Not a chance.

lotherius said:
As they say in the automotive world, "There's no replacement for displacement"..
Basically, yeah, if you want a noticeable increase in battery life, then you will need to accept a noticeable increase in battery size. No way around it.
I have seen people spend $50 or more on 'name brand' extended batteries that are the same size as stock, and they rarely give any more battery life than a brand new stock battery.
Think about it - with the phone market as competitive as it is, if there were a battery that offered significant increases in battery life without an increase in size, do you think the major manufacturers would ignore that and allow some Chinese knock-off company to capitalize on it? Not a chance.
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Click to collapse
You're probably right.
Back in the day (remember when cellphones were, well, just cellphones?) it was just Sanyo and Panasonic and a few other Japanese companies dominating the lithium-ion battery market. Now even Samsung's caught up to them in terms of market share and they've been working overtime to get as much battery life as possible out of their phones. And they have to--check out the competition lately!
Bah. I guess I'm pretty much left to working on every single possible software fix to up my battery life. I'll be reading up on the ROM guides. I hear CM7 is a good rom.

I know you said you didn't want to buy a bigger battery, but assuming you cave in, I can tell you first hand that these batteries actually do last MUCH longer. I can go a full 12 - 16 hours HEAVY usage with "4G". The door itself feels kinda cheap but it's lasted me a good 10 months so far.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Battery...ccessories&hash=item4161e46d48#ht_2079wt_1270

Hammett11 said:
I know you said you didn't want to buy a bigger battery, but assuming you cave in, I can tell you first hand that these batteries actually do last MUCH longer. I can go a full 12 - 16 hours HEAVY usage with "4G". The door itself feels kinda cheap but it's lasted me a good 10 months so far.
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Yeah, I've been looking at those. There's also a 3900mah battery available. But the 4500mah pushes it way too far!

Hammett11 said:
I know you said you didn't want to buy a bigger battery, but assuming you cave in, I can tell you first hand that these batteries actually do last MUCH longer. I can go a full 12 - 16 hours HEAVY usage with "4G". The door itself feels kinda cheap but it's lasted me a good 10 months so far.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Battery...ccessories&hash=item4161e46d48#ht_2079wt_1270
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Click to collapse
i know that a case would make it even thicker... but do they have tpu cases or some type of cover that protects the corners?

I have been looking for something similar, a case for my extended 3500 mAh battery. The back IS larger, of course, the battery appears to be slightly more that double the depth of the stock battery. However, that being said, the design could be worse. I saw another extended battery that was the same size with a god awful protruding rectangle that made the phone look completely off balance. The battery I purchased here: http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-3500mAh...ccessories&hash=item2a18e3208c#ht_1358wt_1041 looks, eh, alright
But anyways, I figure the only hope is for me to make a mould of the phone, and perhaps build one.

For OP I use the Andida 1980mah and it works great. It tests at 1980mah and gives me significant life over stock.
1500 vs 1980
Same size as stock for around $10
Sent from my LG-P999

Razorblood said:
For OP I use the Andida 1980mah and it works great. It tests at 1980mah and gives me significant life over stock.
1500 vs 1980
Same size as stock for around $10
Sent from my LG-P999
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Click to collapse
I'm personally hesitant to commit to that battery. I went ahead and got a 3500mah battery. So far, the performance is quite good. It's allowed me to experiment with other rom/kernel packages that aren't as battery-friendly as tsugi, but offer tons of tweaks.

Hammett11 said:
I know you said you didn't want to buy a bigger battery, but assuming you cave in, I can tell you first hand that these batteries actually do last MUCH longer. I can go a full 12 - 16 hours HEAVY usage with "4G". The door itself feels kinda cheap but it's lasted me a good 10 months so far.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Battery...ccessories&hash=item4161e46d48#ht_2079wt_1270
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Click to collapse
With stock battery and medium-heavy usage I can get 18 hours on EB and Trinity.... I would think I could easily get into the range of 12-16 with Heavy, but you probably mean EXTREMELY heavy usage.
Also, many people said the Andida battery gave them a few hours extra, thought of trying it but when I look at the ebay page for it the packaging looks extremely cheap... Which leads me to believe the battery is probably also very cheaply made and could easily fry your phone.

Razorblood said:
For OP I use the Andida 1980mah and it works great. It tests at 1980mah and gives me significant life over stock.
1500 vs 1980
Same size as stock for around $10
Sent from my LG-P999
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Click to collapse
I've also had good luck with this battery, definitely better than stock. I haven't tested it scientifically, this is purely an anecdotal opinion based on using both for a long time.

i've been using the 3500 mah battery for around 6 months, no problem.
the original 1500 mah battery is bull****, it only supports your phone for like 12 hours max, you have to keep looking at the battery level if you dont want your phone endup dead.
with the extended battery i can go all day long, in heavy 3g mode. yes its bulky, but you will get what you're looking for. luckily i got it with a pair of desktop charger that i put in my office and home desk, so i never miss any recharge.
i dont think 1980 battery will improve a lot, on paper it suppose to add another 2-3 hours of battery time. but compare it with the 3500, and you will have 150% plus on your battery life.
i got it for $9 in spider-foot dot com

http://www.amazon.com/CHICHITEC-Bat...-cellphone/dp/B00520BC3M/ref=pd_sim_sbs_cps_6
1700 mAh -- not hugely better in terms of mAh.. but it makes a big difference for me. the stock battery will not last a whole day (12 hrs) - but I easily get 17-18 hrs from the chichitec.. just saying. .
I have easily gotten >24 hrs in low usage.. i think best was 22hrs to 40%.. but that was wifi and a couple phone calls only on Morfic's XLP-GB kernel.. a bit on the pokey side.. but okay for wifi calling ..

arvonn said:
http://www.amazon.com/CHICHITEC-Bat...-cellphone/dp/B00520BC3M/ref=pd_sim_sbs_cps_6
1700 mAh -- not hugely better in terms of mAh.. but it makes a big difference for me. the stock battery will not last a whole day (12 hrs) - but I easily get 17-18 hrs from the chichitec.. just saying. .
I have easily gotten >24 hrs in low usage.. i think best was 22hrs to 40%.. but that was wifi and a couple phone calls only on Morfic's XLP-GB kernel.. a bit on the pokey side.. but okay for wifi calling ..
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Click to collapse
thanks, I've been on the fence between ordering the 2x chichitecs or the 2x 1800 hyperions... think I might go with the chihitecs now. I've read in reviews that the included charger sucks though, doesn't always work... hows your experience with it?

diontoradan said:
i've been using the 3500 mah battery for around 6 months, no problem.
the original 1500 mah battery is bull****, it only supports your phone for like 12 hours max, you have to keep looking at the battery level if you dont want your phone endup dead.
with the extended battery i can go all day long, in heavy 3g mode. yes its bulky, but you will get what you're looking for. luckily i got it with a pair of desktop charger that i put in my office and home desk, so i never miss any recharge.
i dont think 1980 battery will improve a lot, on paper it suppose to add another 2-3 hours of battery time. but compare it with the 3500, and you will have 150% plus on your battery life.
i got it for $9 in spider-foot dot com
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
12 hours? Bull****. I can easily get over a day on the stock battery and 3 on a 3500.
Maybe on the stock ROM the battery is that bad, but no ROM here gives that bad battery
And not only does that 3500 mAh battery give you 150% more battery, it makes your phone look like a retarded bloated whale and a viable floatation device, What a steal!
Sent from Narnia

IRASadPanda said:
12 hours? Bull****. I can easily get over a day on the stock battery and 3 on a 3500.
Maybe on the stock ROM the battery is that bad, but no ROM here gives that bad battery
Sent from Narnia
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deffinitlynot that bad im at 81% on 8 hours running ics and OC with the stock battery

IRASadPanda said:
12 hours? Bull****. I can easily get over a day on the stock battery and 3 on a 3500.
Maybe on the stock ROM the battery is that bad, but no ROM here gives that bad battery
And not only does that 3500 mAh battery give you 150% more battery, it makes your phone look like a retarded bloated whale and a viable floatation device
Sent from Narnia
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I can confirm that on the stock, my phone lasts 12h on average. I'm using EB with ELP Trinity.
Keep in mind that how much a phone lasts you is a very subjective statistic. You can use a phone much less/more than someone else, and thus the battery life would be longer/shorter. The appearance of the extended 3500mAh batteries is also subjective.
If we're going to be objective here:
The stock battery lasts about 4-6h of active usage (having the screen on, with a data connection, and running applications that actually make use of the CPU). How many hours of light usage/stand-by someone might have in between those 4-6h of usage varies from person to person. (i.e. someone might use their phone heavily for an hour, then have 5h of really light usage/stand-by, then another hour of heavy usage, and so on until a cumulative 4-6h of active usage has been accumulated)
The extended 3500mAh battery, while doubling the thickness of your phone also increases your battery life 150%-200%.
The reviews for extended batteries that are the same size as stock aren't at all consistent. They vary from people saying they perform worse, to people saying they give a much longer battery life. The only battery that has mostly positive reviews is the Anker 1550mAh, which has been told to run cooler and last a bit longer. Of course having only a 50mAh advantage over the stock, the increase in life shouldn't be expected to be too substantial.

Bladedwings said:
I can confirm that on the stock, my phone lasts 12h on average. I'm using EB with ELP Trinity.
Keep in mind that how much a phone lasts you is a very subjective statistic. You can use a phone much less/more than someone else, and thus the battery life would be longer/shorter. The appearance of the extended 3500mAh batteries is also subjective.
If we're going to be objective here:
The stock battery lasts about 4-6h of active usage (having the screen on, with a data connection, and running applications that actually make use of the CPU). How many hours of light usage/stand-by someone might have in between those 4-6h of usage varies from person to person. (i.e. someone might use their phone heavily for an hour, then have 5h of really light usage/stand-by, then another hour of heavy usage, and so on until a cumulative 4-6h of active usage has been accumulated)
The extended 3500mAh battery, while doubling the thickness of your phone also increases your battery life 150%-200%.
The reviews for extended batteries that are the same size as stock aren't at all consistent. They vary from people saying they perform worse, to people saying they give a much longer battery life. The only battery that has mostly positive reviews is the Anker 1550mAh, which has been told to run cooler and last a bit longer. Of course having only a 50mAh advantage over the stock, the increase in life shouldn't be expected to be too substantial.
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Click to collapse
That's gotta be the ELP voltages being too low for you and thus causing higher battery drain, try the T15 and undervolt till you find your voltage sweet spot, you will get way better battery than that.
I use my phone pretty heavily through the day, Music, Games, text, web, calls, etc... and I'm getting much higher than 12 hours.
Sent from Narnia

battery life ?

I downloaded cm9.1 r11 i think and im getting 1 day 11hrs with no use , no data turned on , and thats just not acceptable. what is the rom with the best batt life for this device?

Try one of the stable kernels listed for the ROM instead of the Linaro one. I find them to be more stingy with battery life. The r7b one works best for me. JMO...

You ought to give Wildchild Ice a try. XMC wasn't satisfied with it but I LOVED it. My wife ran it for about 6 months simply because if she didn't use her phone it would go DAAAAAYS before needing charged. I liked it because everything just seemed to work!

Just get the mugen extended battery. I use my phone heavily for 36 hours (excluding 5-6 hours of sleeping time) before charging.

How much did you have to give for it though?

WeekendsR2Short said:
How much did you have to give for it though?
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Click to collapse
It was expensive: $90! It also adds a bit of bulk to the device and it doesn't fit nicely in my iPega game controller. But for me it was worth it since now I don't need to worry too much about battery life.

The thing about it now though is an extra working DoubleShot is about $100 on ebay and a good ole trusty Anker battery is just about $8. Just sayin'.....

WeekendsR2Short said:
The thing about it now though is an extra working DoubleShot is about $100 on ebay and a good ole trusty Anker battery is just about $8. Just sayin'.....
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Click to collapse
Good points, but neither of these (an extra device or the anker battery) would give me the functionality I am looking for (i.e. very long battery life). It has come in very handy on several occasions, like I needed to take a quick, can't-miss-it family photo after being out all day away from a charger. I am getting the Anker anyway. I can have the Mugen for when I know I will be away from a charger for 10+ hours and have the slim battery for other times.

drklaw said:
Good points, but neither of these (an extra device or the anker battery) would give me the functionality I am looking for (i.e. very long battery life). It has come in very handy on several occasions, like I needed to take a quick, can't-miss-it family photo after being out all day away from a charger. I am getting the Anker anyway. I can have the Mugen for when I know I will be away from a charger for 10+ hours and have the slim battery for other times.
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So, what you are actually saying is:
to compensate for OP's some ROM's bad coding that is wasting CPU cycles on whatever it is doing and draining battery - you suggest him to buy bigger battery? It's like installing additional gas tank for a car that has inefficient engine instead of fine-tuning the engine... IMO it's unacceptable.
"Find better kernel or ROM" is what should be suggested in reply to OP, not "buy bigger capacity battery". Just my opinion...

Extended Battery Photon Q

Hey guys,
I was looking into extended batteries for the Photon Q and noticed that the Droid 4 uses the same battery as our phone. Is it possible to use one of their aftermarket batteries?
I want a slim battery (not interested in making the phone bigger) and this one shows the best results from the D4 forums
Our original battery has some green tag on it as seen here:
http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTIwMFgxNjAw/z/ECQAAMXQUmFSjm2l/$_35.JPG
Is that just for NFC or something else? I don't mind losing NFC if that means I get more battery life

I got the mugen power battery to fit by removing some plastic and the back of the case, and of course NFC. Problem is it would get hot and slow down too often. Maybe that phone, maybe the battery, not sure, never tried it in another xt897.

I went ahead and ordered this gold slim battery
I'll be happy if it's even 10-15% better than a fresh stock battery
I will report back with my findings. In my current usage with one of the latest nightlies, I barely get 1-1.5 hours of screen on time when on mobile data and about 2 hours of screen on time when on wifi

While I've had decent luck with the gold batteries, they are actually just a factory Motorola battery with a shiny gold wrapper put on them. With that said though, at least from the ones I got they seem in every way to be genuine Motorola batteries, so still a good deal. I ended up getting a Mugen too and am working on making a case. I've got one molded up with some bondo but think I might end up trying to make one with super glue and baking soda like another poster did to make it more durable. I can still fit it in the vehicle dock by filing the USB port holder on the dock down a little bit.
If anyone uses the Mugen and happens to use Tasker, I wrote a tasker script to attempt to get an accurate battery percentage from the voltage readings and then update the OS if anyone wants. I also wrote one to keep the keyboard backlight more like the factory ROM instead of following the display backlight like it does in CM.

Just an update. Installed the battery today. I did partially peel off the gold sticker and it was all silver underneath. I know in other threads, the gold battery was reported to be a fake battery, or even stock battery with a new wrapper.
Initial results are good, but it's too early to tell. I will report back with updated usage. So far I'm not even sure battery stats are being reported correctly but it's a drastic increase in battery life.

So the gold battery has mixed results. The first few days I used it, the battery seemed pretty good. About 1.5 times longer than my shot original battery. However I noticed this battery does weird things in reporting numbers. Many times it will report 20% and then drop drastically fast to 0%.
Overall it's a decent battery but certainly not the capacity on the label. I would think a fresh stock battery would perform similarly without the weird drop off.
The biggest difference between my the gold and old stock battery is that it tends to sip power better. When the phone is not in use, the battery won't drain as fast. However when in use the battery drains just as fast. Maybe a little slower with gold, but not a huge difference.
My only concern is sourcing good batteries for this phone now. Even if I found a new stock battery, the unit itself has to be at least 3 years old. I'm sure motorola doesn't make new batteries for this phone anymore...
Wish we could frakenstein a battery for this phone
Something like this user did
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=63940045&postcount=19
I would even pay someone if they can make me a custom extended battery like that. Anyone that can help?

gtmaster303 said:
So the gold battery has mixed results. The first few days I used it, the battery seemed pretty good. About 1.5 times longer than my shot original battery. However I noticed this battery does weird things in reporting numbers. Many times it will report 20% and then drop drastically fast to 0%.
Overall it's a decent battery but certainly not the capacity on the label. I would think a fresh stock battery would perform similarly without the weird drop off.
The biggest difference between my the gold and old stock battery is that it tends to sip power better. When the phone is not in use, the battery won't drain as fast. However when in use the battery drains just as fast. Maybe a little slower with gold, but not a huge difference.
My only concern is sourcing good batteries for this phone now. Even if I found a new stock battery, the unit itself has to be at least 3 years old. I'm sure motorola doesn't make new batteries for this phone anymore...
Wish we could frakenstein a battery for this phone
Something like this user did
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=63940045&postcount=19
I would even pay someone if they can make me a custom extended battery like that. Anyone that can help?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I could do that. With that LG battery or a different one that fits better? I don't love that it is thicker by up to 1mm.
I also saw some other eb41 batteries on the market (read my thread here for the 4 I've found ( http://forum.xda-developers.com/droid-4/accessories/best-battery-t3341507). Not sure how good they are, only had the same mixed experience with the gold.

gtmaster303 said:
My only concern is sourcing good batteries for this phone now. Even if I found a new stock battery, the unit itself has to be at least 3 years old. I'm sure motorola doesn't make new batteries for this phone anymore...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lenmar still makes batteries for this phone (EB41, fits Droid 4 and Photon Q). I ordered 3 about 6 months ago and there was a 2 month lead time, so they obviously were newly manufactured batteries. I keep a spare in the fridge, the ones in my Droid 4 and Photon Q perform like new as expected.
Note: it won't come with the NFC antenna, but with great care this can be removed from the old battery and reattached.
I would like an extended battery too, but only if it came with a nicely fitting cover. Mugen makes one for the Droid 4 which could be used with the Photon Q, but they don't make a corresponding cover for the Photon Q.
Hope this helps.
P.S. which ROM do you guys use on this phone? I'm running CM 12.1 and it is fine, but when I have a few apps running like Google Music and Navigation, the phone gets super slow due to lack of memory. Under 'Apps -> Running' it shows 450 MB used just for System! I guess 1 GB phones are just passe at this point--or is there a better way to get more life out of this phone?
Cheers,
Mario