I heard a lot about it yet I'm still blown away - General Questions and Answers

Ok, I realize this is beating a dead horse, but the battery life in my Droid Pro is beyond pathetic. I actually burn through a battery (with light to moderate usage) faster than I can charge one lol. I am on my third battery today and it's not even noon. I'm in the red on the third one and the first is still not done charging (using a separate external wall charger). This is stupid.

Androids going through battery really quickly has always been a complaint, actually I hear that complaint about almost every smart phone. In my android experience, If I pull my phone off the charger at 8am, it should be about dead by 8pm, if I have only used the phone minimally. If I'm listening to radio, or playing some games, or just keeping my phone awake for a while, my phone will be dead by 3-4pm.
Your case seems a little extreme, and all I can recommend is using a power widget to turn on and off all your basic stuff. turn the brightness all the way down if you don't need it, or try auto. Keep bluetooth, wireless, and GPS off until you need it. Also, personally, I only let my phone sync while wifi is on, otherwise leaving sync on all the time kills my battery. All I can say is do the basic things people recommend to extend your battery life. I know with my first android phone, I kept everything on, all the time, and the battery sucked horribly, but turning them on and off through settings was really annoying to do everytime, so with a widget on the desktop for that stuff I don't mind it at all anymore.
You also just may have an app or two that's destroying your battery. I can't recommend anything off the top of my head, but there are apps that give you a general idea of where all your battery is going.

Yeah, I keep GPS and bluetooth off. Also, I downloaded the app killer and hit that several times a day. What I don't get (total droid newbie here) is why, when I hit the app killer, it says that it killed 13 apps. 13 apps? Why in the world are 13 apps running? The phone is just sitting there. I'll hit the app killer again (20-30 minutes later) and another 12 or 13 apps get KO'd. It's crazy. But yes, I know I've got something stupid going on but I guess I'm just too dumb to figure it out. I've only had this for a couple of days and, as my ID suggests, I came from Blackberry.

Get rid of app killers, Android 2.2 and beyond do not need it, you're doing your battery worse.

frombb2droid said:
Ok, I realize this is beating a dead horse, but the battery life in my Droid Pro is beyond pathetic. I actually burn through a battery (with light to moderate usage) faster than I can charge one lol. I am on my third battery today and it's not even noon. I'm in the red on the third one and the first is still not done charging (using a separate external wall charger). This is stupid.
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This battery life issue is what's going to bring Android down. Google needs to get a handle on it because the more and more people who come to Android from iPhone or something else and experience this issue will inevitably have a less than content experience.

You are right, this could be a deal breaker for me. Yes, the blackberry browser sucks, but I'm seriously teetering on whether or not that is the lessor of two evils. I'm on day four with the droid. Granted, I haven't spent a ton of time dissecting this device, but I don't really have a ton of time to give...nor do I want to carry a half dozen batteries with me

I Am Marino said:
Get rid of app killers, Android 2.2 and beyond do not need it, you're doing your battery worse.
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Does the newer software kill the app when you leave it? I know with the Blackberry, you had to close the app or it would keep running in the background. I really have no clue how the droid works. Forgive me for being so droid retarded, but I've had no formal training lol.
And, BTW, this is the first electronic device I've bought that came with no manual. To me, that's super funny!

Android 2.2 only kills the application if the memory goes below a certain threshold to keep the system from clogging up.

yeah...android phones' battery is a bitterly troublesome issue!

Honestly, sounds like some faulty batteries here. I have a Desire HD and I listen to 2 hours of music and play close to an hour of games with another hour of web browsing a day on it. I tend to make perhaps 10 minutes of phone calls and I have autosync on for my gmail (but nothing else) and I dont have to charge it during the day at all. I am however in strong signal areas which makes a massive difference.

Related

Battery Life Claims vs. Reality

I stopped by an AT&T corporate store to get a hands on with the Captivate. The salesperson there tried to tell me that the standby time on the device was 15 days if you kept apps from running by downloading an app killer. I asked if he really meant 15 days if no radios were running. He said "nope, 15 days is pretty easy".
Really, folks... what is reality here? Is it similar to other smartphones, where a day with moderate use is reasonable?
There is no way the phone will last 15 days in standby even with a good task killer. How can the sales rep tell you this if he only had the phone in store for 2 days?
That's a very good point... but he was very sure of his claim. I pulled out the "I'm very skeptical" response and walked away. Oh well, looks like once again, truth is in the internets somewhere, not in someone who should know such things.
Another element to this is whether an upgrade to 2.2 will increase battery life. I work away from any ability to charge and really need a phone to hold up all day.
ekruse said:
That's a very good point... but he was very sure of his claim. I pulled out the "I'm very skeptical" response and walked away. Oh well, looks like once again, truth is in the internets somewhere, not in someone who should know such things.
Another element to this is whether an upgrade to 2.2 will increase battery life. I work away from any ability to charge and really need a phone to hold up all day.
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Well, my N1 holds charge for about 1 day with moderate use. As soon as I play with the GPS and google's built in nav system I get maybe 4 hours worth of usage. Another issue I have with my N1 is that my car charger cannot keep up with the drain, so even plugged into the charger the battery percentage is decreasing. Sure hope the Captivate is better in that respect.
Froyo did increase battery life a bit but it is not earth shattering. The advantage of this phone is the larger capacity battery and hopefully a less power hungry samsung processor than the qualcom snapdragon.
I am sure within the next few days we will have some folks with more concrete consumption estimates.
i don't know... while the 15 day claim is a bit much, mine was fine with heavy usage all day yesterday on the half charge that it came with from AT&T... given that, i think that it should last 2-4 days easily with only light-moderate usage.
My battery lasts me all day. It's just marginally worse than my 3GS I think... My 3GS always had extra at the end whereas my Captivate seems to run out when I'm going to bed.
So... It lasts all day. That's really all that matters to me.
My battery has not been able to make it through the day. Don't know why yet. I have my email accounts set to 30 minute sync schedule, have Wi-Fi and bluetooth off. Don't know what is going on. Still researching. Will see how it goes for a week. Might be a bad battery.
i find that dark backgrounds help. Also keep unecessary things off and dl an app killa. I had a new captivate today at 10am and with its half charge and heavy usage it lasted me till 6
by heavy usage i mean constant surfing and dling shiz. I didnt use gps wifi or play a movie. also played that free mario game for bout an hour.
After about 11.5 - 12 hours of very light browsing (maybe like 1/2 hour 3g surfing, no calls, all apps killed with task killer every once in awhile) with Bluetooth and Wifi off I am at 68% left. This is with auto brightness.
I'd say if you don't do anything you might be able to get 3-4 days out of it. According to my battery stats 78% of all my battery usage has been the screen. Keep that thing off / or low brightness and you are going in the right direction.
i bet by standby att means the phone being not used and turned off for like 4 days lol
systoxity said:
i find that dark backgrounds help. Also keep unecessary things off and dl an app killa. I had a new captivate today at 10am and with its half charge and heavy usage it lasted me till 6
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Thanks systoxity, I will try that
systoxity said:
i find that dark backgrounds help. Also keep unecessary things off and dl an app killa. I had a new captivate today at 10am and with its half charge and heavy usage it lasted me till 6
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By dark, he means a background that has a lot of black in it. This is really helpful because the Super AMOLED screen on this phone turns off power to pixels that are black, so basically that part of the screen isn't using any power. A black background is almost like turning the screen off.
magicman0 said:
By dark, he means a background that has a lot of black in it. This is really helpful because the Super AMOLED screen on this phone turns off power to pixels that are black, so basically that part of the screen isn't using any power. A black background is almost like turning the screen off.
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this, thanks for clarifying.
note: it further helps if you apply a static one.
I was able to listen to music for 6 hours at work, show off my phone (I only showed it directly to one co-worker - I had 5 other guys come to check it out after he told them about it lol!), did some light surfing, downloaded a few apps and generally fiddled around with the phone and ended up at 43% battery. Not great, but not terrible either. Screen was the big killer here. GPS and WiFi off except to test Layar.
We'll see if battery life improves, but it enough to make it through one day easily for me. Forget to charge it and it'll be flat early into the next day though. I'm a bit disappointed, considering benchmarks on the Galaxy S came up with nearly 8 hours of constant video playback. I think they had brightness at 50% and I kept setting mine to max to show off the screen and then forgetting to set it back, so that could be part of it. I was definitely expecting more though. I'm clearly not the most demanding user here, so I was hoping to potentially eek out two days of usage (just in case I forget to charge it).
One of the reasons I went with the Captivate instead of waiting for the Epic is that the form factor seems to be a bit more amenable to adding an extended battery. Hopefully we'll start to see some 2500mAh or even 3Ah batteries show up - even if it means getting a new backcover. THAT should just about do it
anosis said:
Well, my N1 holds charge for about 1 day with moderate use. As soon as I play with the GPS and google's built in nav system I get maybe 4 hours worth of usage. Another issue I have with my N1 is that my car charger cannot keep up with the drain, so even plugged into the charger the battery percentage is decreasing. Sure hope the Captivate is better in that respect.
Froyo did increase battery life a bit but it is not earth shattering. The advantage of this phone is the larger capacity battery and hopefully a less power hungry samsung processor than the qualcom snapdragon.
I am sure within the next few days we will have some folks with more concrete consumption estimates.
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Also the Super AMOLED Screen sucks alot less Juice as well...
My friend has the Vibrant and has had it for about 4 days. He is a power-user like me, and he said with his task killer, he can run the phone for 2 days on a full charge. This is outstanding for a smart phone... I ordered my Captivate today, should be here on Wednesday so I'll also put this to the test!
better battery life is coming once devs hop aboard. Also, your phone will need training over the next few days so it can only get better from here for you. I also recommend just leaving brightness on auto detect. You wont have to play with it as much and forget it on super bright.
Some more tips:
idk if you guys like haptic feedback but i think its annoying as all hell. Turn it off to save an iota of battery.
Also tone responses for menu clicks? ANNOYINNGG turn that shiz off for a squirt of juice.
Lastly, unless you live by your email, turn sync off and only sync manually when ur curious about it.
I wonder about some of the widgets. I have Weather And Toggle Widget (which I prefer over Beautiful Widget), and have it set to update the weather every 30 minutes. Wonder if that's too often. The weather in Iowa can be very unpredictable and change quickly, but I'm inside all day so it doesn't really matter. I guess it's just eye-candy mostly.
I also wonder how WATW compares to BW in terms of battery consumption.
I turned haptic off (I agree, it was annoying). I turned the tones off, though I doubt that will affect battery life. I wish I could keep the tones for dialer and kill it for the keyboard.
EDIT: I keep reading about this idea that you train your battery (or device) to your usage, but I'm not sure that I understand/buy it. I could see perhaps something to do with the memory effect if these batteries are susceptible to it, but this idea of "training" it strikes me as very odd. Does Android have some kind of battery optimization algorithm that adjusts services based on your usage or something?
from what i understand, calculating battery life is like a guessing game. calibrating your device by letting it drain out and then fully charging it and draining it out again completely gives your phone an idea of just how long it can last on a single charge. Until you do a few cycles like this it will incorrectly display batter life percentage giving the user a false sense of security or panic. There may be more to it that has to do with the actual battery itself but idk the rest of the details.
and 30 min updates is a bit much lol. u should update like once a day and manually refresh if you need to know b4 u go out.
I'm getting very good battery life on my phone. As good as any iphone I've had and better than any of my windows mobile phones before that. I don't have any widgets constantly pulling down data though and only have my google account syncing contacts and calendars and an exchange account running.

Samsung Captivate on the Quest for the Greatest Battery Life!

I'd love to hear how people are finding the battery life on the Captivate, and what their usage patterns are. I don't have many apps on the phone to begin with, but on the train to work I can easily knock out a third of the battery just listening to music. While using the phone for five or ten minutes, I'll sometimes see the battery dop 2-3 percent!
For tomorrow, I'm going to try using the stock launcher instead of LauncherPro, no widgets. I got rid of the Android Central app just in case it was fetching data in the background. But my hopes aren't terribly high, I'm afraid.
I have rooted the phone, but the battery life was bad before rooting. Once rooted, I tried some apps like JuiceDefender, and there seemed to be no change.
If I continue having these problems, I may unroot and bring the phone to an AT&T store to see what they say. I've heard it mentioned that Samsung is sending out new batteries that are better than some current ones, but I don't know if that's true.
I'd love to hear any suggestions. I want to use my new phone, not worry about it all day!
I too have been getting very poor results. I have talked on the phone for less than 3 minutes, went to maybe 15 different website pages, one 3:00 youtube video, 10 minutes of GBC emulation gaming, and regular texting, and I'm at 10% with 8 hours. I've probably only used the phone for 30 minutes total today.
Smartphones always drain battery, if you want a phone that can be heavily used for like 4 or more days on one charge cycle, get a feature phone....the samsung captivate has given me the best battery time overall, against all my past smartphones.
I don't think it makes sense, though, that it should run out halfway through the day like mine is. My former devices were a feature phone and an iPod Touch. The feature phone lasted a week or so, and the iPod Touch with heavy heavy use lasted three days at least. So even if I had both pulling from the same battery source, and with light usage, shouldn't it last at least a full day?
Weird, I had wireless on almost all day, with push mail and doing tons of market downloading and I was only down to about 50% by early afternoon.
Seems about the same as my two year old HTC Touch Pro to me.
My battery is running fine too, even after streaming music from my house with subsonic, testing out a couple videos, messing with the gps, push email a bunch of app downloading, and a live wallpaper and i was still at 33% by the time I got home, even seems to be getting better.
"On the train to work..."
There's a bit of your problem, methinks. The 3G radio is burning a lot of power trying to connect to towers inside a metal box that moves to a new tower on a regular basis. Unless you need to get calls on the train, put it in Airplane mode during your commute.
Have you actually let the battery die completely yet?
My first battery burn-down, (starting with the charge on the battery as it was unboxed) I was showing zero percent battery for almost two hours before it actually shut itself off, moderate usage with WiFi on.
The next charge-up burn-down, it was showing zero percent about fifteen minutes before the end.
And the charge-up burn-down after that, it showed 0% about twenty seconds before it died.
See where I'm going here? The software needs to be calibrated at zero and 100, and it can't do that if you don't let it reach zero a few times. Once you're sure the meter is accurate, then you can start making informed conclusions about battery life.
And like I've posted elsewhere, you've got 'Newshiny-itus', which is proven to suck extra life out of a smartphone battery. And it's hard forcing your new toy to die...for one thing, if it's dead, you can't play with it. Tough it out, kill it. At least twice.
Well if you want to find truly terrible battery life try the EVO.
I had one for a month and that thing really ate the battery fast. The capti is stellar in comparison.
smitty1 said:
Well if you want to find truly terrible battery life try the EVO.
I had one for a month and that thing really ate the battery fast. The capti is stellar in comparison.
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Yea I had one for two weeks and it was horrid. I would lose 6% just in standby time in between waking up and getting out the door to work in the morning!
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
I've had great results with the battery and I find it to be much better than my HD2. I watch quite a bit of youtube, text message a lot, and browse the web and the market on and off, not to mention all the time my wife plays solitaire, and I still have 30% battery at an uptime of 41:46. I don't use gps or live wallpapers, and I keep my display as low as possible, since it is still bright.
Bit better by the end of the day. 13 hours and 15 minutes
Croak said:
The software needs to be calibrated at zero and 100, and it can't do that if you don't let it reach zero a few times. Once you're sure the meter is accurate, then you can start making informed conclusions about battery life.
And like I've posted elsewhere, you've got 'Newshiny-itus', which is proven to suck extra life out of a smartphone battery. And it's hard forcing your new toy to die...for one thing, if it's dead, you can't play with it. Tough it out, kill it. At least twice.
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+1
Definitely agree with the last part. I've been doing my best to kill it, but I don't want it to be dead. Been noticing the inaccuracy of the meter quite a bit, especially when it's charging, but I'm sure it'll get better over time.
Thanks for the informative replies! It hadn't occurred to me that the battery meter might be uncalibrated - I've been charging once it reached 10% or so. I'll try letting it die fully today.
One thing that seems to have helped, too, is the brightness settings. Turning OFF the "power saving" auto adjust ing brightness option allows the brightness to stay low, and a brightness control widget lets me set it lower than stock controls allow. I've seen some definite improbement from this alone!
These are Li-ion batteries, DO NOT let them die completely before charging.
Ok, so...is there a safer way to make sure the battery gets calibrated? I'm reading in a lot of places that Android phones fairly often misreport battery info unless calibrated.
The lowest I can get on battery status is 60% after a full days use. Admittedly I'm not a power user but I had my phone unplugged for 16 hrs and still had 95% I'd like to know what you have to do to get such low battery levels , start your car
All I've done today is listen to music for an hour (used 25%) and texted/browsed the web for perhaps two hours (another 5/% down.)
I read that LIons can be occasiomally discharged, since they have undercurrent protection circuits. One guide for Android phones suggested leaving the phone on until it shuts itself down, turning it on again, and then letting it shut itself down again. Then, with the phone off, charge fully. The guide said once a month or do is safe and beneficial. How does it sound?
Battery is good today. Been sending a few texts, checked email, facebook, and surfed these forums a bit. I'm at 2 hours with 98% battery left.
i hope the battery doesnt suck, i plan on getting this phone soon and want good batt life!!!
tysj said:
These are Li-ion batteries, DO NOT let them die completely before charging.
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I agree with you, however, the phone's hardware will NOT let the battery completely die.
So I wouldn't worry about that all to much.
Basically though, Li-ion batteries are 'memory' free so they can be recharged on a whim partially.
They also prefer partial charges vs deep charges.
There are questions about this that I don't have answers for such as: When the phone displays 0% or shuts off due to low battery, how LOW is the battery?
Obviously the phone battery can't be dead dead, but it is low enough for the hardware to take precautions.
Anyway Li-ions will at max last 500 charges.. If you want it more than that, You're going to have to buy a new battery anyway. =)

Extreme measures for better battery life

I finally decided I would take some extreme measures to aide the BL of my Androids. I have an HTC Inspire and HTC HD2 with Nexus S Android. The HD2 isn't all that bad...much better BL than the Inspire, but I wanted to apply this measure to both phones. Will it help? Only time will tell.
I started by removing all screen widgets. Then I sorted the screen icons so that a minimum of homescreens were needed...got it down to 2 homescreens. Then I deleted all widgets without apps not able to be opened through an icon. Then I went into Applications manager and cleared and stopped all non-used apps and services. I also deleted all duplicate services such as OEM email accounts and their associated syncing....using add-in apps for them. (example: built-in apps and widgets like Facebook, Twitter are uninstalled or disabled and am using another combining app like Seesmic. Same goes for the email app)
What I currently have is an Android iPhone. I'm using only icons on the 2 homescreens. And this makes me understand why Apple refuses to use widgets and stick with icons...to preserve BL. I hope this will improve the BL of my Androids because it is purely horrendous. And it is horrendous with all Androids I've tried and used.
Until the recently announced battery tech breakthrough is made available, this might have to be how Android is used from now on. But I doubt these extreme measures will actually help.
What is the difference between a widget and an application?
An application is a single, whole program package that is loaded into the phone. Examples would be Tapatalk, the default Calculator, and Angry Birds.
An application can have one or more widgets in it -- a widget is an interactive thing you can place on the home screen. It can give you information, and you can tap on it to change what it says. A good example of that would be Beautiful Widgets, or the little Android guy that tells you about how to use your new phone.
Sent from my Wildfire S
@Marty, how long was your battery lasting prior to the "Extreme Makeover"? Mine currently will last me 2 days. Admittedly, I've not loaded a lot of stuff on the phone yet, and I have the power saver mode start at 70%...but I only need to recharge every other day.
My desire lasts around 2 days with moderate usage. But on a good day (read: many boring moments), it's completely depleted by the end of the day. My biggest battery drainer is whatsapp, if I uninstall the app my battery will last a LOT longer.
If i really need my phone to last for a long time (when Im on a big trip or on a festival) I always use JuiceDefender with a very strict setting. This is a big help, but not for everyday use
whats the point? Where ever you sleep you have access to a plug/usb w/e so whats the big deal ? how hard is it to charge the phone every night? even thought my galaxy s2 hold battery for 40hrs+ i never need that :|
Ive dont the same thing, I also found some build prop and init.d tweaks that improve battery life.
my brightness is always at minimum, i have only one widget,
My battery could last two days BUT i use my phone a lot. like its on for 7 hours with 4.5 hrs screen on.
grudas said:
whats the point? Where ever you sleep you have access to a plug/usb w/e so whats the big deal ? how hard is it to charge the phone every night? even thought my galaxy s2 hold battery for 40hrs+ i never need that :|
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Hilarious.
ther have been many apps and disucssions on BL. heres some common tips.
screen to lowest brightness possible setting. background data always off unless using market. disable -use wireless networks- options, no gps, no location. also turn off *back up my data*. wifi always off not in use. screeen timeout no more than 2 minutes. turn off animations and transitions. setcpu with moderate settings (if you can do a screen off profile it will be beneficial but beware Sleep of Death.) no live wallpapers. minimum widgets or none. minimum homescreens or 1. startup manger. adfree. location cache app. and battery calibration to get the most juice.
the issues seems to be alot with hardware the Htc inspire and HD2 have 1250 Mah Batteries , which are very small.
If some people are just like me... I can kill at 1800mah battery in 5 hours even at full charge...
I do everything on my smartphone. So anything to save the battery is a good way.
I have the Galaxsy S II and I've managed to drain the battery in 6hours of usage and since I'm not near a power source most of the time then yeah I need all the juice....
I don't sit in an office or am near a power source 80% of the time. I usually carry 2 spare batteries with me and a charger for them just in case.
Cheers! (Extreme power user).
grudas said:
whats the point? Where ever you sleep you have access to a plug/usb w/e so whats the big deal ? how hard is it to charge the phone every night? even thought my galaxy s2 hold battery for 40hrs+ i never need that :|
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grudas said:
whats the point? Where ever you sleep you have access to a plug/usb w/e so whats the big deal ? how hard is it to charge the phone every night? even thought my galaxy s2 hold battery for 40hrs+ i never need that :|
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Whats the point??
Here is my daily usage :
Alarm goes off at 6:30am (phone gets unplugged)
Blahblah (at work) reply to emails and messages throughout the day, on twitter A LOT (plume premium)
2 calls approx 30 mins each
Play some games at break and lunchtime (Drag racing KILLS my battery, a bit of plants vs zombies, grave defence HD and maybe some pinball deluxe)
more emails and twitter
another 20min call
a little more gaming while im waiting on customers (1hr or so??)
6pm go home for 6:30pm
BAM! battery is at 10-20% and i need to plug it in again.
this is a typical 12hr day for me and im sure others have longer days and i would appreciate not having to rush home (sometimes) if im expecting a call.
so as far as im concerned anything which will save some precious battery on my devices is appreciated.
btw i have reduced my homescreens to 3 and only have 2 widgets running and that has made a great difference to my battery life (esp. on the DHD)
Irvysan
Basically kill factory and carrier bloatware and you are getting better.
One thing I was amazed about was the eBook reader that comes with our Galaxy Tabs, and suppose others too.. it always working even if you dont have or use it.
And remember, the screen is what takes most out of your BL, always. Lower brightness? Get a better ROM with no bloatware and maybe undervolt the screen.
Homescreens dont change a bit. Widgets do, if they update a lot.. more than that notification stuff do. Like if you use a antivirus or antisomething, just check of notifications.. check of any unneeded notifications.
Vibration theorically is what consumes the most.. but since its not as used as the screen, you dont even compare them. But every little bit helps. Check off keyboard clicks and hepatic feedback - vibrations.
Wifi, bluetooth, data... don't actually consume much.. actually it's better if you leave a service stable on, than keep sleeping and switching it. So leave wifi always on, no sleep policy. But when you go out turn it of so it doesnt keep scanning all the time (unless you want to ).
Just like any PC, the more you install.... Just check what you got going on, learn how to check processes and services that keep on all the time, and there are some utils to help stop some crap from starting up. I use ROM Toolbox and Autostarts.. some stuff get activated just because you plug you device to charge!
DONT use task killers... dont let anything like that keep running... and no, GMail push notifications wont use any batt. Maybe pop/imap emails always pollling will use some.. but probably nothing compared to the examples above.
Cheers for my 2 cents.
EDIT: and after Xmas, remove those animated wallpapers!
Is Juice Defender a task killer? Not really sure what is it but I've been wondering about that.
Juice Defender Ultimate has been giving me about a 1/3 more time with screen on max. Why is my screen on max, because I was trying to drain the phone. It's on about 40% now which is still pretty bright. I wouldn't be mad to get more life but I think 20+ hrs with moderate use isn't bad. I think the most I did was search the net about 4 hours total. But I was also, customizing, so it the screen was lit for a while.
This is a TMO GSII I'm talking about.
There are a ton of things you can do, but the truth of it all is that our 3G/4G radios pull so hard they drain the battery, which is why you were on the right track when you disable active since, Facebook and Twitter.
The main two things I do, is
1. add a widget for turning off 3G or 4G (If its in your area).
2. Installed Startup Manager ( it disables startup programs in the unseen background, (my phone is rooted)).
by doing these two things I am able to get 17hrs+ on a standard HTC EVO 4G battery. Keep in mind the more you use the Internet the more it will drain your battery. So I only turn the internet connection on when I need it or the app needs it.
*I also only use one screen and remove unnecessary widgets but I find that doesn't help the battery life all that much, (my personal Preference)
*When I or my sons game on my phone I put it on Airplane more which turns off all Radios including the Phone (call/text)
*Drawback to turning 3G off, you have to wait a few second for the internet to come back on and MMS won't download through your messenger unless have it one.
I've been off the charge for 8hrs and my battery life is still at 65%
Sorry to be long winded but if I know anything its battery life
Completely agree. What's the point. Either you don't use your phone for ANYTHING, and watch the battery last for 2 weeks (literally), or you use it so heavily that it lasts only 2 hours....
I was sick recently, and as such couldn't use my phone (I couldn't open my eyes without getting dizzy, and even closed.... still was). Suddenly my HTC Inspire 4G used only 20% of the battery in 10 hours. The previous day, heavy mail, "friendstream" (HTC's facebook/twitter/etc app/widget), listening to music (well, audiobooks) for about 8 hours, and I had only 20% left. And i've found that overclocking the phone to 1.3GHz helps more than any other tweak.
Don't get me wrong, I'm obsessive about using my phone *and* getting awesome battery life out of it. But the ONLY way to true "maximize" your battery life is to *minimize* your usage. But then you might as well buy a feature phone.
And I know a few people with iPhones. a 3GS and a 4 and a 4S. They don't get any better battery life than I do. Heck, they get worse. Even under the same type of usage.
For me, the problem isn't the usage, isn't what's running, or what's loaded (but it does help/hurt). The problem is that battery technology has NOT kept up with consumer needs, or IT development. Your battery is dying as soon as it leaves the factory. Your battery is dying every time you change it. Especially when it gets hot. your battery dies faster when it's cold outside. We need better energy storage medium. Period.
Buy the biggest battery I can find on eBay....
Use the fsck out of my phone all day and have plenty of battery left.
Problem solved.
Drashna said:
We need better energy storage medium. Period.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
<<<< What he said
I don't think the use of WiFi could be overstated.
On my Skyrocket, leaving Wifi on (indoors), it'll sip about 1% every hour. I go out and have 4G LTE on, it drinks up about 3% every hour.
Minimizing widgets also helps. I saw noticeably better battery after removing my facebook and Latitude widgets.
The screen also sucks up the most battery. Turn it off on every occasion. Just turning it off instead of letting it shut off by itself has made a difference for me.
Drashna said:
For me, the problem isn't the usage, isn't what's running, or what's loaded (but it does help/hurt). The problem is that battery technology has NOT kept up with consumer needs, or IT development.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Battery technology has kept up with usage. However, battery size in relation to the power draw, has not.
Compare the size of the back cover on your phone, with the size of the battery. Why is the battery this tiny little 2" square, when the phone is 5" tall and 2.5" wide? Why aren't batteries the same height/width as the phone? Why isn't the battery the same size as the back cover? Why aren't phone manufacturers optimising the size of the battery (meaning, making it as big as possible)?
It would be so nice if phone manufacturers would stop with this stupid "race to the thinnest" crap, and started:
- releasing phones that are actually comfortable to hold like a phone
- releasing phones with batteries larger than a pack of matches
your battery dies faster when it's cold outside.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, keeping a battery cool makes it last longer, not drain faster.

TBH very disappointed

Hi
Have had this phone for just a day.
Been struggling to make up my mind whether I want to get it because of the limited memory.
But finally decided to go ahead because it has good reviews on its performance and battery life.
No complain about the performance, but the battery life?....
Played Tripple Town for just about one hour and 30 mins and the battery goes down from 66% to 35%, the majority of which is comsumed by the screen.
So here is where I am. 5 h 47 m on batter, 32% left, 69% of the power drain is because of the god damned screen.
Seriously HTC, how can you manage to get so screwed up with such a decent processor.
you get rid of the removable battery, ok, nowadays the battery lasts reasonably long.
you get rid of the Micro SD card and force us to use the rubbish dropbox. 50GB 1 Yr cost $99. Why don't spend that money to get us a decent bigger memory? But ok I want the performance, I am willing to give up a bit of space for that.
But Finally SUPER AMOLED. Seriously, what kind of dump decision is this to fit a more-than-a-year old technology to such a decent new processor?? when we know all the bad thing about this screen.
It alone kills all the power efficiency the 28nm processor can offer us.
So now this phone's battery cannot out perform (when you are actually using it) neither of my previous phones: Dell Streak and Atrix. Don't tell me I have to compare the battery life by switching off the screen and just let them sit there.
I am very disappointed. very disappointed.
This will be the last phone I buy from HTC.
It sounds like you don't know about how to manage phones.
You prob was running lots of applications at once and brightness all the way up it still won't go from 66% to 35% sounds like a bad unit you have.
no... the brightness is at it's lowest level.
I use anrdoid assistant to kill process once an hour.
There is very unlikely this is a bad unit. Nowadays these manufacturers control the production quality very good that the chance I get a bad unit is probably as low as winning some lotto.
For starters, your device is BRAND NEW so battery will take about a week or so to break it in, just be patient. Also, killing tasks will only end up using more resources since Android will most likely just start them back up once it gets the chance. Run your battery down the first couple of days and charge it overnight and you will start to notice it getting much better.
unclespoon said:
For starters, your device is BRAND NEW so battery will take about a week or so to break it in, just be patient. Also, killing tasks will only end up using more resources since Android will most likely just start them back up once it gets the chance. Run your battery down the first couple of days and charge it overnight and you will start to notice it getting much better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Kill Process runs only once an hour. So during the time I was playing, it probably just ran once. I doubt it will cost much power at all.
I understand it needs time for the battery to warm up. But even with that taken into account. it is not looking good. It reminds me the suffer that Desire caused my friend.
Hopefully this doesn't turn into a bigger issue; keep us posted!
yuan_1202 said:
Hi
Have had this phone for just a day.
[...]
I am very disappointed. very disappointed.
This will be the last phone I buy from HTC.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sorry mate but this is just stupid. first of all the battery meter is not calibrated in a new phone meaning the reported battery state is not accurate. you have at least to charge the phone once to 100% and discharge it fully to calibrate the 2 extrem states. before that everything displayed is just a rough approximation. at the first discharge i had ~20% left and the phone was down to 0 in just some minutes of heavy use. after 2 cycles i get ~-10% for an hour of heavy use. so stop crying and give the phone some day's to adjust
yuan_1202 said:
no... the brightness is at it's lowest level.
I use anrdoid assistant to kill process once an hour.
There is very unlikely this is a bad unit. Nowadays these manufacturers control the production quality very good that the chance I get a bad unit is probably as low as winning some lotto.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you have a bad unit.
Android Assistance/Android Task Killers only mess up your battery more.
jodue said:
sorry mate but this is just stupid. first of all the battery meter is not calibrated in a new phone meaning the reported battery state is not accurate. you have at least to charge the phone once to 100% and discharge it fully to calibrate the 2 extrem states. before that everything displayed is just a rough approximation. at the first discharge i had ~20% left and the phone was down to 0 in just some minutes of heavy use. after 2 cycles i get ~-10% for an hour of heavy use. so stop crying and give the phone some day's to adjust
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I sincerely hope you are right. Because I will be much happier. Let's see in a week time.
Adjust said:
I think you have a bad unit.
Android Assistance/Android Task Killers only mess up your battery more.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I hope jodue is right: the battery needs time to fix itself.
I will give it a week to see whether things will improve. If not I will go to store to get a new one.
I have been using Android Assistant for my Streak and Atrix. It turned out to be just alright.
Anyway I will remove it and see how it goes.
Ppl have wrong idea that AMOLED is more power efficient. I remember reading a review some time ago on battery life of smart phones. It tested a number of phones and the outcome is that actually on average the AMOLED (at that time there wasn't SUPER AMOLED yet) devices last less than others.
But anyway...
yuan_1202 said:
I use anrdoid assistant to kill process once an hour.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is the most stupid thing one can do. The processes will likely be restarted by the OS and you consume more power than you would have consumed by letting android do his things as designed.
Google itself suggests not to do it. Even the most honest task manager apps suggest not to do it. (e.g., http://android.nextapp.com/site/systempanel/doc/autokill ).
Anyway, before judging battery life wait few days. I own a One X, and battery life improved suddenly after few recharging cycles. ;-)
About the display. I readed somewhere in this or X forum, that:
1. LCD does consume less power, but for X version, since its bigger screen, it takes more
2. AMOLED screen power consume depends on what it have to display (colors). Black/dark colors need less power to be shown while white takes the most power...
You get 25GB free on dropbox with all one series phones plus a further 25 per referal
Mod or Die
Stiflerlv said:
2. AMOLED screen power consume depends on what it have to display (colors). Black/dark colors need less power to be shown while white takes the most power...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This. Many people don't know/forget about this. Using a dark theme on apps you use most on an AMOLED phone can save a lot of juice, much more than all those stupid Juice Defender/task killer/manager apps can ever hope to.
snowwhite007 said:
...plus a further 25 per referal
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
250MB per referral
Leviathan2k said:
This. Many people don't know/forget about this. Using a dark theme on apps you use most on an AMOLED phone can save a lot of juice, much more than all those stupid Juice Defender/task killer/manager apps can ever hope to.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You cannot ask all the website to go dark background can you?
Ppl use the phone to do different things. Games, Browing internet... thats the whole point, the phone should perform consistantly for all tasks, not just looking at dark home screen. HTC hasn't even figure this out yet??
yuan_1202 said:
You cannot ask all the website to go dark background can you?
Ppl use the phone to do different things. Games, Browing internet... thats the whole point, the phone should perform consistantly for all tasks, not just looking at dark home screen. HTC hasn't even figure this out yet??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
in browser-setting you can invert white background/black background
no battery issues here
No battery issues, with slightly higher than average use (downloading loads of apps, playing some games, using google maps and a half hour driving nav and some music lsitening) over the first few days I've averaged 24-36 hours which I'm pretty happy with.
There are a few software things I don't like though
First, I miss having settings in the notification tray, it's one less tap of the screen. Also, the tweaked recent apps list seems pointless, you have to flick from one to another... the Stock android 4 recent apps scroll is much better, it let's you see/do more with less interaction. I also noticed a bug where the wireless signal will appear as null in the notification bar but if you view the the details in settings it says that the wireless signal strength is excellent!
Don't let any of this put you off though it really is a great phone and feels great in the hand... CM9 may rescue all!
Have the One S now, arrived a short while ago. The most annoying thing is that a stock device only has 9GB of that 16GB free when you get it.
This is nuts, I will not be using dropbox, there are many nefarious reasons why HTC want people to use dropbox or any cloud storage, this does not work well while I am roaming folks. This is not good for a business phone, I maybe sticking with my DesireHD.
Its sad, that many ppl who consider themselves technophiles do not even understand the battery of their devices.
ANY device with a modern battery should be initially charged overnight or 7-8hrs at least even of the little green light tells you it is all OK after 4 hrs. Do that, and give it a week to break in and I assume there won't be anything to complain about anymore.
Somy link to a decent site discussing these battery care tips and characteristics should be auto-pinned to each new device subforum cause the first complaints are ALWAYS about the battery life it seems...

A honest review about Pixel 3 XL battery life.

Hi, everyone!
I've been using Google''s cellphones since Nexus 4. For me, Nexus and Pixels are what a "real" Android phone should be. Until I bought the Pixel 3 XL.
The camera is great, the notch does not bother me at all. The body of the thing is nice. But there's is something that simply drive me mad and makes me fell like I will smash it on the floor any of these days.
The battery. The FREAKING BATTERY!
After almost a year since I bought the phone, the battery is the thing that I HATE SINCE DAY ONE! It's literaly garbage. As a normal user (don't have any kind of social network, except Whatsapp), I use the phone just for check e-mails, make some calls, some videos at YouTube, etc., and the phone barely holds until the end of the day WITH 4 HOURS OF SCREEN TIME, and look, IT TAKES ALMOST 2 HOURS TO CHARGE!
Updates came and go, and always the same [email protected]#$%% I have no other word to describe it besides this one. CRA!#$%%!#$
I've tried EVERYTHING, every tip on XDA and every relevant video on YouTube and NOTHING! Google's adaptative battery is HUGE lie. Digital Wellbeing as well. Finally, I tried to turn off the data and let only the wi-fi on and a miracle occurs. The phone sudenlly stops to drain 3/4% per hour in indle and pass to 0.5/1% per hour. The phone holds 52 hours with +/-4 hours os screen time with few minutes with data on (I live in a small town and everyplace that I go have Wi-Fi, only use data when I don't have).
This miracle lasted for a short time (12 days +/-). The drain stars again WITH THE DATA TURNED OFF.
To conclude, theres no tip, no tweak, no kernel, no custom ROM, no witchcraft, NOTHING THAT MAKES THIS INFERNAL BATTERY HAVE A DECENT LIFE! It's a crap! Googles sell us a crap with a crappy tecnology named as "adaptive battery".
Save yourselfs for a head ache. Do not spend mental health looking for solutions where there are none.
Sorry for all of these caps, but I really need to vent with someone.
Thank you for your time and let the ban hammer smash's my face!
Rafsxd said:
Hi, everyone!
I've been using Google''s cellphones since Nexus 4. For me, Nexus and Pixels are what a "real" Android phone should be. Until I bought the Pixel 3 XL.
The camera is great, the notch does not bother me at all. The body of the thing is nice. But there's is something that simply drive me mad and makes me fell like I will smash it on the floor any of these days.
The battery. The FREAKING BATTERY!
After almost a year since I bought the phone, the battery is the thing that I HATE SINCE DAY ONE! It's literaly garbage. As a normal user (don't have any kind of social network, except Whatsapp), I use the phone just for check e-mails, make some calls, some videos at YouTube, etc., and the phone barely holds until the end of the day WITH 4 HOURS OF SCREEN TIME, and look, IT TAKES ALMOST 2 HOURS TO CHARGE!
Updates came and go, and always the same [email protected]#$%% I have no other word to describe it besides this one. CRA!#$%%!#$
I've tried EVERYTHING, every tip on XDA and every relevant video on YouTube and NOTHING! Google's adaptative battery is HUGE lie. Digital Wellbeing as well. Finally, I tried to turn off the data and let only the wi-fi on and a miracle occurs. The phone sudenlly stops to drain 3/4% per hour in indle and pass to 0.5/1% per hour. The phone holds 52 hours with +/-4 hours os screen time with few minutes with data on (I live in a small town and everyplace that I go have Wi-Fi, only use data when I don't have).
This miracle lasted for a short time (12 days +/-). The drain stars again WITH THE DATA TURNED OFF.
To conclude, theres no tip, no tweak, no kernel, no custom ROM, no witchcraft, NOTHING THAT MAKES THIS INFERNAL BATTERY HAVE A DECENT LIFE! It's a crap! Googles sell us a crap with a crappy tecnology named as "adaptive battery".
Save yourselfs for a head ache. Do not spend mental health looking for solutions where there are none.
Sorry for all of these caps, but I really need to vent with someone.
Thank you for your time and let the ban hammer smash's my face!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't get it. I am not specifically referring to you, but to the continued obsession with battery numbers. I get that back in the day the batteries would swell, the chargers sucked and you expected to get at least 3 years out of a phone. I obsessed over battery stats for years, never let it go under 20% or over 80% and did every power saving trick ever to massage the numbers. Now, I unplug it in the morning after a reboot and full charge and plug it in before I fall asleep typically with between 30 and 50 percent after a normal pretty hard day of use (while limiting the things that are wasting my time with alerts). Once on and once off every day. I don't remember the last time I had to charge mid day.
sliding_billy said:
I don't get it. I am not specifically referring to you, but to the continued obsession with battery numbers. I get that back in the day the batteries would swell, the chargers sucked and you expected to get at least 3 years out of a phone. I obsessed over battery stats for years, never let it go under 20% or over 80% and did every power saving trick ever to massage the numbers. Now, I unplug it in the morning after a reboot and full charge and plug it in before I fall asleep typically with between 30 and 50 percent after a normal pretty hard day of use (while limiting the things that are wasting my time with alerts). Once on and once off every day. I don't remember the last time I had to charge mid day.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not about the numbers. It does not get in my head the fact that a person who don't use social networks, don't use much data, don't play games at phone have a poor battery life like mine. I mean, the adaptative battery suppose to learn how I use my phone and spend life time according to my use. I'm not a heavy user, BY FAR! It's not ask too much for better life time. I mean, the phones suppose to evolve not to involute. This battery is the worst of the whole line. Since galaxy nexus until now. I'm very disappointed. Really. The point of my post is only to talk a a little with you guys, and, makes me fell better. I'm not searching for a solution, because it does not exists and I have to live with that.
Rafsxd said:
It's not about the numbers. It does not get in my head the fact that a person who don't use social networks, don't use much data, don't play games at phone have a poor battery life like mine. I mean, the adaptative battery suppose to learn how I use my phone and spend life time according to my use. I'm not a heavy user, BY FAR! It's not ask too much for better life time. I mean, the phones suppose to evolve not to involute. This battery is the worst of the whole line. Since galaxy nexus until now. I'm very disappointed. Really. The point of my post is only to talk a a little with you guys, and, makes me fell better. I'm not searching for a solution, because it does not exists and I have to live with that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just don't see it getting better. The phones are expected to look, sound and feel so much better than they used to. The apps are garbage childish code for the most part, and the core code isn't much better. I just make the best of it now.
I consistently get 4-5 hours SOT with 20-24 hours standby and use social media apps and lots of data. Sounds like you need to fine tune your settings and check wake locks, my device is just as old
b1337 said:
I consistently get 4-5 hours SOT with 20-24 hours standby and use social media apps and lots of data. Sounds like you need to fine tune your settings and check wake locks, my device is just as old
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Prints or never happened. Don't think bad of me, but I simply can't trust you without proofs. Pixel made me a skeptic.
Like I said, I don't use social medias, don't play games. And what wakelocks/settings I suppose to check?
I can get 3 and a halfs days standby if i just unplug and leave it, not touching it at all. With moderate use , downloading and updating apps, twitter constantly tweeting, facebook constantly facebooking, periscope instagram, windows phone app for notifications on my pc from phone, batterlife flips between 2days 5 hours and 2 days 9 hours. If i was to make phone calls for 30 mins it would drop to 1 day 23 hours but soon goes back up. Just to note, when i first got the phone, i would loose 1to2% every few mins, resulting in 18 hours standby, did some research and my own diagnosis, i stopped it from doing it.
I wake up at 8am. I plug my phone into Android auto on the way to work, and I'm at work at 9am with a full charge.
I play Spotify on the shop radio until about 12:30 religiously every morning via wired cord.
I go-to lunch and browse social, watch some videos, and play a game or two (asphalt or td5).
Get back to work and turn on YouTube music or pandora for the rest of the work day while occasionally using camera and social.
I get off work and usually hop on the bike with my BT on. I usually get home around 10-11 after getting food/socializing/stunting with 15ish percent
I average probably about 4.5 hours SOT.
Settings report "full charge last about 23 hours, 15 minutes.
I recently used my Nexus for a bit, and left my pixel on the counter with no sim, only wifi connection. Phone went on 3 days standby.
My battery is nothing to complain about. You may just be a victim of the old "silicon lottery".
Im 99% sure after alot of diagnosis, it down to device health services not doing its job, it literally freezes why phone in stanby and starts to make the phone produce heat, you can tell straight away if your device is affected, by the heat after leaving it in stand-by.
Rafsxd said:
Hi, everyone!
I've been using Google''s cellphones since Nexus 4. For me, Nexus and Pixels are what a "real" Android phone should be. Until I bought the Pixel 3 XL.
The camera is great, the notch does not bother me at all. The body of the thing is nice. But there's is something that simply drive me mad and makes me fell like I will smash it on the floor any of these days.
The battery. The FREAKING BATTERY!
After almost a year since I bought the phone, the battery is the thing that I HATE SINCE DAY ONE! It's literaly garbage. As a normal user (don't have any kind of social network, except Whatsapp), I use the phone just for check e-mails, make some calls, some videos at YouTube, etc., and the phone barely holds until the end of the day WITH 4 HOURS OF SCREEN TIME, and look, IT TAKES ALMOST 2 HOURS TO CHARGE!
Updates came and go, and always the same [email protected]#$%% I have no other word to describe it besides this one. CRA!#$%%!#$
I've tried EVERYTHING, every tip on XDA and every relevant video on YouTube and NOTHING! Google's adaptative battery is HUGE lie. Digital Wellbeing as well. Finally, I tried to turn off the data and let only the wi-fi on and a miracle occurs. The phone sudenlly stops to drain 3/4% per hour in indle and pass to 0.5/1% per hour. The phone holds 52 hours with +/-4 hours os screen time with few minutes with data on (I live in a small town and everyplace that I go have Wi-Fi, only use data when I don't have).
This miracle lasted for a short time (12 days +/-). The drain stars again WITH THE DATA TURNED OFF.
To conclude, theres no tip, no tweak, no kernel, no custom ROM, no witchcraft, NOTHING THAT MAKES THIS INFERNAL BATTERY HAVE A DECENT LIFE! It's a crap! Googles sell us a crap with a crappy tecnology named as "adaptive battery".
Save yourselfs for a head ache. Do not spend mental health looking for solutions where there are none.
Sorry for all of these caps, but I really need to vent with someone.
Thank you for your time and let the ban hammer smash's my face!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You should RMA with Google. I recently have because I was having an early shutdown issue with my battery, but if you can prove it is your battery that is worse than others then Google can be understanding and send you a new one. Just fyi, I went through chat in the settings on my p3xl and only texted them. They were very accommodating and the RMA process was simple. Also my phone never takes longer than an hour to fully charge even from a low % with the cord that was shipped with the phone. Battery issues are a problem with Google phones.
boe323 said:
Im 99% sure after alot of diagnosis, it down to device health services not doing its job, it literally freezes why phone in stanby and starts to make the phone produce heat, you can tell straight away if your device is affected, by the heat after leaving it in stand-by.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dude I read your thread about the device health. Besides I had never update it, sounds like nonsense to me at all. I'm sorry.
Bryanx86 said:
You should RMA with Google. I recently have because I was having an early shutdown issue with my battery, but if you can prove it is your battery that is worse than others then Google can be understanding and send you a new one. Just fyi, I went through chat in the settings on my p3xl and only texted them. They were very accommodating and the RMA process was simple. Also my phone never takes longer than an hour to fully charge even from a low % with the cord that was shipped with the phone. Battery issues are a problem with Google phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The problem is that I live in Brazil.
It's too expensive RMA it. The taxes here in my country is too high. Waiting for the Pixel 4.

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