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Getting frustrated with unreliable battery life

Ok. Android phones are not blackberries, and I'm well aware of that. This Thunderbolt is not my first android device, so I am very familiar with setting it up and using it in such a way to make the battery last.
I'm not posting this to complain of the battery life sucking. I'm complaining that the battery is fine one day, and horrible the next.
So here's what happens. Yesterday, i unplugged my phone at 730am like i do every day. By 3pm with light usage, i was down to 40% or so. Charged it up before I left work, no big deal, lasted the rest of the night.
Today, unplug the phone at 730am, phone is completely dead, as in, won't even boot by 11am. Same apps, same usage, same location, same strong 4G signal, same everything. It has happened multiple times on consecutive days when i was rooted on the stock rom, and still on VirusRom. I just dont get why this happens. I am doing nothing different and my phone either lasts all day, or a few hours. It's getting to the point where I am finding it very hard to rely on this phone when i'm out and about. It makes no sense. Especially if i'm not really using my phone, just checking for texts once in a while, there is no reason why it should die. What if i need it? I couldn't even call or text my gf tonight while I was working because my phone battery was ZERO only a few hours after leaving the house with a 100% charge.
Is anyone else experiencing this?

yesterday I had abnormal drain on my battery. I get 18 - 24 hours on a charge normally, but yesterday I went from 100% to dead in 5 hours. Called VZW and they said it was a documented problem and they were working on it.
IDK, they are pretty good about pushing updates. Also, yesterday I kept dropping out of data. bizzare....

I burned through the extended battery in 9 hours yesterday, really hope they figure out some better power management soon,

Switch it to 3G cdma rev.a and see if that helps. The 4G radio is always being searched for. I love the tb so I can deal with no 4G til they get the bugs out.
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA Premium App

You have to use current widget and see how much power draw your phone is pulling. Then use system panel monitoring to track apps using the highest CPU.

Definitely an issue and I'm glad that Verizon is aware of it. I've had this unusual drain happen four times now, all on 4G. Last time I noticed it (seeing the battery percentage drop like 2% every five minutes or so), went to the Market and snagged System Panel.
The offending process is "system." Had my CPU spiked at 100% for over an hour before I rebooted, which does fix it, at the cost of another 10% of your battery, of course.
Hope they get this ironed out soon. Love my Thunderbolt, but this is a major issue and seems to be happening to a lot of people.

The best thing to do is dial *#*#4636#*#* and turn the radio to CDMA auto (PRL) mode.
I am already seeing much better battery life, as I am in a non 4g area.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll have to give that a try. I got into the radio settings, and after flashing VirusRom, my phone defaulted to LTE mode only. I put it to cdma/lte auto, to see if that helps. If not, i'll just disable LTE unless i really need it.

No need to dial all of that crap. TeamAndIRC has a toggle app called "LTE OnOFF TeamAndIRC" that allows you to toggle between CDMA and CDMA + LTE/EvDo auto.
I found out two things dealing with my massive nighttime battery drain. One, wifi doesn't seem to work correctly. I've never had the problem before but for some reason it doesn't sleep correctly. What I've done is changed the sleep policy to "15 minutes" which allows it to switch back to 3G fifteen minutes after I turn off the screen. That allows me to have wifi while I'm using it but 3G while it's idle. This has seemed to fix my problem along with... Second, I am on the fringe of 4G/3G here on the outskirts of Cincinnati. At work I am solid 4G but at home it can't make up it's mind. Well, that has certainly played into the battery issue as it is constantly searching. So, what I do is as I walk in the door from work I use the app listed above to switch to "CDMA auto (PRL)" and it sticks to 3G. When I get to work I switch to "CDMA + LTE/EvDo auto".
So, to summarize:
I have eliminated my nightime drain by doing two things:
1) I use the Y5 app to automatically start wifi as I walk in the door but have changed the sleep policy to "after 15 minutes".
2) I use the app above to switch from 4G/3G auto to 3G only.

ridobe said:
No need to dial all of that crap. TeamAndIRC has a toggle app called "LTE OnOFF TeamAndIRC" that allows you to toggle between CDMA and CDMA + LTE/EvDo auto.
I found out two things dealing with my massive nighttime battery drain. One, wifi doesn't seem to work correctly. I've never had the problem before but for some reason it doesn't sleep correctly. What I've done is changed the sleep policy to "15 minutes" which allows it to switch back to 3G fifteen minutes after I turn off the screen. That allows me to have wifi while I'm using it but 3G while it's idle. This has seemed to fix my problem along with... Second, I am on the fringe of 4G/3G here on the outskirts of Cincinnati. At work I am solid 4G but at home it can't make up it's mind. Well, that has certainly played into the battery issue as it is constantly searching. So, what I do is as I walk in the door from work I use the app listed above to switch to "CDMA auto (PRL)" and it sticks to 3G. When I get to work I switch to "CDMA + LTE/EvDo auto".
So, to summarize:
I have eliminated my nightime drain by doing two things:
1) I use the Y5 app to automatically start wifi as I walk in the door but have changed the sleep policy to "after 15 minutes".
2) I use the app above to switch from 4G/3G auto to 3G only.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LTEonoff is just a shortcut to the menu. In essence, it saves no time because you have to download it. If you're flipping it on and off all the time, then yeah, it might behoove you to just dl the app. But, as a one time thing, it's unnecessary.

^You are correct. I switch daily but I didn't see earlier that you were not in a 4G area.
I would highly suggest this to anyone who sees their data connection switch back and forth as I was in my house.

Battery life has been strong the past couple days now. I haven't had any unusual drains since i switched from LTE only mode to EVDO/LTE auto mode. I dont know if this was for sure the issue, but it seems to have made a huge difference. I haven't been plugged in for 2 hours and i still have 92% battery left.

Here's my interpretation of the issue:
There seems to be some kind of problem or bug with the radio which makes it drain an enormous amount of power from some towers (700mA+ is shown on current widget). Even with good signal, I'll repeatably drain a lot of power in certain areas. The "fix" is to disable mobile data or switch to wifi. This lowers the power usage back down to (slightly lower than) normal levels.
For some reason, the radio will not admit to drawing practically 90% of your battery in the battery use menu (nothing does, in fact ... it just looks like normal battery use).
I'm glad to hear that they are aware of an issue that maybe causing this.

I can't stand the battery life either other than that I love the phone
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA Premium App

Yeah i'm still at 83% battery after being unplugged for 4 hours, light usage.
Another thing i noticed is that when my battery was draining stupid fast, the phone would be warm to the touch even when it was just sitting on my belt clip. All seems well for now.

Mine is good
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA Premium App

My battery life has recently become terribly inconsistent. Last week I was actually getting through a 16 hour day with light usage, but this weekened I must have installed something because now the phone is lasting 3-4 hours with hardly any usage at all.
The battery information is pretty worthless because it's not showing anything except display using the battery and the display has only been on maybe 8 minutes.
Checked the partial wake info and nothing seems to be running in the background. The battery is just discharging like crazy all of a sudden. Guess Ill start uninstalling stuff to see what might be causing it

I am also having a weird battery experience today. I am rooted running Adrynalyne 1.9. Last few days I was doing great, moderate usage and was staying charged for 16-18 hrs. Today my phone has died twice during my 8hr shift at work. I KNOW something is wrong there. Hopefully a fix is found soon.

On all my Androids (4 of them currently in daily use), I've found that Words With Friends is often a HUGE battery killer...and I don't mean because you play it a lot, I mean leave it running and put your phone down, walk away a while, come back to the phone and it is HOT to the touch! Obviously killing the battery. Something to look at for sure.
I've got the extended battery and just went over 48 hours, with moderate to heavy use by my standards on a single charge. Pretty amazing and I guess I'm not in a bad radio area.
hammer4203 said:
Switch it to 3G cdma rev.a and see if that helps. The 4G radio is always being searched for. I love the tb so I can deal with no 4G til they get the bugs out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The only thing I love about the TB is the 4G...everything else on it, been there, done that. I wouldn't keep the TB if 4G had to be turned off to make it usable in terms of battery life. Hopefully it will be fixed quickly!
Zshazz said:
Here's my interpretation of the issue:
There seems to be some kind of problem or bug with the radio which makes it drain an enormous amount of power from some towers (700mA+ is shown on current widget). Even with good signal, I'll repeatably drain a lot of power in certain areas. The "fix" is to disable mobile data or switch to wifi. This lowers the power usage back down to (slightly lower than) normal levels.
For some reason, the radio will not admit to drawing practically 90% of your battery in the battery use menu (nothing does, in fact ... it just looks like normal battery use).
I'm glad to hear that they are aware of an issue that maybe causing this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for that analysis. With that in mind, if it's accurate, could a Tasker app profile be set up that does your fix if the drain works that high? Would be a nice safety feature for those who aren't willing to have to look at their phone frequently to check battery life.

You have to use the current widget to record your idle power readings, its the only way to know what's going on. Then use system panel monitoring to see which app CPU is highest.

What do you do to extend battery life?

I've had the HOX for about a week now and I love it but I wish battery life was a bit better. I've gotten to about 50% with only a little over an hour of on screen time.
Here's what my settings are:
Auto-sync off, wifi off, gps off, brightness about 15%, and I'm running CleanROM SE. I do live in a LTE however, possibly that's what's killing my battery? I also have a CPU editor running on battery saver mode.
Any help?

Winters37 said:
I've had the HOX for about a week now and I love it but I wish battery life was a bit better. I've gotten to about 50% with only a little over an hour of on screen time.
Here's what my settings are:
Auto-sync off, wifi off, gps off, brightness about 15%, and I'm running CleanROM SE. I do live in a LTE however, possibly that's what's killing my battery? I also have a CPU editor running on battery saver mode.
Any help?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try keeping WiFi on when your in range. It seems to be better than the cell data for battery life.
Sent from my HTC One X using XDA

In my own experience LTE will chew you battery like nothing. Running apps like battery savers etc... actually doesn't save your battery it kills them faster... as they require process to run in the background... just my own tick on the subject.
Switch LTE off and I'm running on 4G I get around 1mb rate up and down for transfer so that's just as good as high speed internet. I'm not going to complain.
Screen brightness is at 35%
Screen timeout 1min
Wifi on
Data on
All others off
I'll average about 19hrs of battery life. Less if I'm going nuts on it like during weekdays at work.
On the weekend I can get 1day 7hours... ishh.
Winters37 said:
I've had the HOX for about a week now and I love it but I wish battery life was a bit better. I've gotten to about 50% with only a little over an hour of on screen time.
Here's what my settings are:
Auto-sync off, wifi off, gps off, brightness about 15%, and I'm running CleanROM SE. I do live in a LTE however, possibly that's what's killing my battery? I also have a CPU editor running on battery saver mode.
Any help?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Winters37 said:
I've had the HOX for about a week now and I love it but I wish battery life was a bit better. I've gotten to about 50% with only a little over an hour of on screen time.
Here's what my settings are:
Auto-sync off, wifi off, gps off, brightness about 15%, and I'm running CleanROM SE. I do live in a LTE however, possibly that's what's killing my battery? I also have a CPU editor running on battery saver mode.
Any help?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Remove sense
Auto sync on
Wifi on (if within range)
Force 2g network
Auto brightness
LTE/3G only when absoultey necessary
Bluetooth off unless using
Leave GPS enabled
Download timelines free from the play store and periodically look at it to see if apps are continuously using CPU. Some do and need to be closed constantly. Facebook is an example of that.

I would force 2G also unfortunately that's not an option here in town. It's now either 3G, 4G or LTE 2G networks aren't available anymore... sigh.
seh6183 said:
Remove sense
Auto sync on
Wifi on (if within range)
Force 2g network
Auto brightness
LTE/3G only when absoultey necessary
Bluetooth off unless using
Leave GPS enabled
Download timelines free from the play store and periodically look at it to see if apps are continuously using CPU. Some do and need to be closed constantly. Facebook is an example of that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

fluxgfx said:
I would force 2G also unfortunately that's not an option here in town. It's now either 3G, 4G or LTE 2G networks aren't available anymore... sigh.
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Click to collapse
Thats too bad because calls and texts sent over 3g consume almost twice as much battery. Time to start using google voice!

Your telling. I tried to get 2G on using the GSM only. I can make calls but there's no more data stream on 2G anymore. GSM band once it seems your attempting to make a data connection switches automaticly to WCDMA Preferred.
I wouldn't expect anything less in a Metro area lol... I guess if I was at the cottage I could bounce off the GSM towers to get my service a 2G lol.
seh6183 said:
Thats too bad because calls and texts sent over 3g consume almost twice as much battery. Time to start using google voice!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

fluxgfx said:
Your telling. I tried to get 2G on using the GSM only. I can make calls but there's no more data stream on 2G anymore. GSM band once it seems your attempting to make a data connection switches automaticly to WCDMA Preferred.
I wouldn't expect anything less in a Metro area lol... I guess if I was at the cottage I could bounce off the GSM towers to get my service a 2G lol.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey well you know what thats not that bad. Use the 2G to make calls and text and just enable the better radios when you need them for data. This would be the best for battery. Just put the toggles all on switches so you have quick access.

Yes, LTE really destroys the battery. If you are using the phone (i.e. the screen is on), and you are using LTE (e-mail/web/etc.), you won't get more than 2-3 hrs of screentime. Without LTE - or in standby mode (i.e. screen not on) - the phone lasts for a long time, unless you are experience battery drain issues, which some of the LTE users are reporting when signal is lost and regained again.

Easy Answer:
D: None of the above! Enjoy your phone with everything on and buy one of these nice little babies and take it with ya for only $13.00.
http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10833&cs_id=1083311&p_id=7664&seq=1&format=2

thcue said:
Easy Answer:
D: None of the above! Enjoy your phone with everything on and buy one of these nice little babies and take it with ya for only $13.00.
http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10833&cs_id=1083311&p_id=7664&seq=1&format=2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hes right! Leave every radio enabled cause you never know when you may need to use them. Also turn brightness up to 100% because the screen looks awesome like that. Then all you have to do is have a giant battery hanging off the phone almost constantly. Perfect trade off if you ask me.

LTE is the biggest killer. With LTE on all the time, I get about 3 hours screen on time (which still blows all other phones that I've had out of the water). If I'm on wifi, I can get around 5 with the same type of use.
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium

How do you turn LTE off? I always have 3 or more bars around my area, so bad reception isn't a problem. I just think the big killer is LTE.

Try the CPU Editor, the link is in my sig. It will definetly help on your battery with the right settings eg., battery saver profile. Read the thread and try it out, let me know what you think.

smokin1337 said:
Try the CPU Editor, the link is in my sig. It will definetly help on your battery with the right settings eg., battery saver profile. Read the thread and try it out, let me know what you think.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea, I saw it on the news page and decided to try it out. It definitely helps, but it still doesn't last as long as I want/need it to.

Winters37 said:
How do you turn LTE off? I always have 3 or more bars around my area, so bad reception isn't a problem. I just think the big killer is LTE.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Check here, in the middle of the page - there is a way to disable LTE, worked for me:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1719227&page=6

LTE might be the culprit. I get GREAT battery life on CleanROM, but I'm in an only-HSPA+ area.
Some other basic things you might want to try:
1. Confirm that you aren't in a poor reception area. Your standby times will drop dramatically if your reception is poor for an extended period. If you DO have poor reception, consider flashing a new radio.
2. Look for any wakelocks (times your phone is awake while your screen is off). A few every now and then are good, but if there are a lot, or they are lasting for a long time, it'll also kill your standby time.
3. If you notice unusual wakelocks, use something like BetteryBatteryStats to track down what processe(s) in particular are causing them.

neocryte said:
Check here, in the middle of the page - there is a way to disable LTE, worked for me:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1719227&page=6
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just disabled LTE. Let's see if my battery can improve now. I'm mostly on Wi-Fi when I'm home anyway.

Keep us posted Winters - I have heard some people have issues with this method - that the 3G connectivity drops a lot. I haven't seen this yet, but haven't tested too much...

_MetalHead_ said:
LTE is the biggest killer. With LTE on all the time, I get about 3 hours screen on time (which still blows all other phones that I've had out of the water). If I'm on wifi, I can get around 5 with the same type of use.
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I take it your new One X is doing well lol?
Sent from my HTC One X using XDA

My Mom's GS3 is dying fast. I think it's LTE but I may be wrong.

OK, so my wife and I both have GS3's through T-Mobile and our batteries last very long. I'm a heavy user and get a fully day while my wife is a light user and easily get's two days. My Mom on the other hand has her GS3 through Verizon and her battery is dying in roughly half a day. She is not a heavy user at all. In fact, her old Droid 2 would last longer than her GS3 which really has her frustrated.
I think it may be due to the fact she doesn't get a good 4G signal at work and at home. In fact, she gets 1 bar at work if she's lucky. She also said the phone is constantly bouncing back and forth between 3G and 4G while at work. She took it to Verizon today and they swapped SIM cards to be sure that wasn't the problem. Obviously that didn't work because I'm posting here. I will see her on Thursday and she want's me to look at her phone.
Do you guy's think this is most likely the reason as to why her battery is draining so fast? Also, if it is. Would there be a way I can show her how to disable 4G so her battery lasts longer?

It's most likely 3G and 4G switching back and forth or a rogue app. For to turn off the 4G it can't be done without rooting I'm pretty sure.

No, it's because you have task running. I had the same thing happen to me. If you exit an application by pressing home, the program will continue to run in the background. I had gallery take up 38% of my battery life. If you press the back button, it will FC the application.
Good bye HTC Rezound, hello Galaxy S3!

jrwingate6 said:
OK, so my wife and I both have GS3's through T-Mobile and our batteries last very long. I'm a heavy user and get a fully day while my wife is a light user and easily get's two days. My Mom on the other hand has her GS3 through Verizon and her battery is dying in roughly half a day. She is not a heavy user at all. In fact, her old Droid 2 would last longer than her GS3 which really has her frustrated.
I think it may be due to the fact she doesn't get a good 4G signal at work and at home. In fact, she gets 1 bar at work if she's lucky. She also said the phone is constantly bouncing back and forth between 3G and 4G while at work. She took it to Verizon today and they swapped SIM cards to be sure that wasn't the problem. Obviously that didn't work because I'm posting here. I will see her on Thursday and she want's me to look at her phone.
Do you guy's think this is most likely the reason as to why her battery is draining so fast? Also, if it is. Would there be a way I can show her how to disable 4G so her battery lasts longer?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm on verizon as well and I find that my battery dies extremely fast. Full charge in the morning and by bedtime its just about dead, that's with moderate use. Some things that I have found to help is I generally keep bluetooth, and gps off unless I need either. I keep power saving mode on, and really minimized what Sync's through my accounts.
It's not exactly the answer you were looking for but it should help you until a more long term solution can be figured out.

Does anyone know how to turn 4G off?
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda premium

Low tower signal will kill the battery very fast. Frustratingly fast. I have Verizon GS3, have very low signal at work, and I burn 8% battery per hour when phone is idle. With almost no use, my battery is down to 30% by time I go home.
At home I have good tower signal and my battery drops very slow in idle, maybe 1% per hour. At both work and home I have WiFi connected and set to keep WiFi on during sleep always. Therefore I don't think it's data traffic / sync causing the issue. Instead its hyperactive radio hardware or firmware killing itself as it constantly finds/loses tower connection. The only thing I've been able to find to reduce the drain is going into airplane mode... which is obviously a terrible option.
Hope Samsung can improve this self devouring nature in the future!

jrwingate6 said:
Does anyone know how to turn 4G off?
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
go to the playstore and download "phone info" open it and go to device information
Swith the " lte/cdma/evdo" into cdma auto (PRL)
I also turn off 4g at work due to weak signal
VERIZON GALAXY S 3

I believe its a signal search at where she spends most of her time. At my work the signal is very bad and the phone goes from 100% to 20% in 10 hours without even touching the phone. Now I turn on airplane mode and it never drops the battery.
She can disable the data and find out how much that would save her

First make sure it's not a rogue app by going into Settings -> Battery, your top 2 battery usages should be Screen and Cell Standby. As long as you don't have some random app eating away at your battery then it's definitely signal strength related. Does she have Wi-Fi available at work? If so make sure she connects to it. I have a Verizon S3 and the battery life on this phone is better than any Android phone I've ever owned (and I've had a lot). I leave GPS and Bluetooth on all day and can easily get a full day with mid to heavy usage. The biggest thing would be to get her on Wi-Fi if available. This will stop the phone from constantly trying to poll data off a poor signal and significantly increase battery life. If no Wi-Fi available, then the above post would come into play, Phone Info app and switch into cdma to keep it locked into 3g will help, but only if there's a decent 3g signal. If the 3g signal is weak also, then you're not going to help anything, and she will just need to remember to turn data sync off while she's at work.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

Try switching batteries to see if she has a defective battery. If thats not the case, then make Verizon give her a replacement S3.

Add me to the list of people who think its the signal search in low service areas.. I disabled 4G with the Phone Info app and my phone lasted way longer than before..
Since you pointed out she has a low signal, I wouldn't be surprised if that's the culprit..
Sent from my Commodore 64..
READY.
load"*",8,1

Pagaldesi4life said:
Try switching batteries to see if she has a defective battery. If thats not the case, then make Verizon give her a replacement S3.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is what I did, kept the old battery too...then they swapped me for a w S3. My battery is doing much better now.

The5Venomz said:
This is what I did, kept the old battery too...then they swapped me for a w S3. My battery is doing much better now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ahhh so it wasn't the battery itself?
When you got a replacement S3, did you go back to the same store where you had originally purchased them from or tried a different store?

I disabled 4G today at work with my stinky cell signal and my battery nose dived like usual. Therefore, if you have no signal, 3G/4G doesn't seem to matter. The radio hardware will still destroy itself happily.

Anyone know of a widget my Mom could use to disable data completely while she is at work?

jrwingate6 said:
Anyone know of a widget my Mom could use to disable data completely while she is at work?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Pull the task drawer down and uncheck mobile data. Why do you need a widget?

You might have a system process called "gsiff_daemon" draining the battery. I have that problem and others have reported that process has been draining their battery as well. Or it could be other have mentioned already, signal switching, rogue programs, etc.

Today at work I ran with mobile data off. I still had a really bad battery drain. Therefore the voice 3 g radio must be responsible. Not much we can do about that unless a new firmware comes out.

Another battery tip...
Scrappy1 said:
Today at work I ran with mobile data off. I still had a really bad battery drain. Therefore the voice 3 g radio must be responsible. Not much we can do about that unless a new firmware comes out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's also an option in the settings>developer options to restrict how many processes are running in the background, and to kill an app after leaving it. The only problem I've noticed with the second option is that the fb app won't allow you to post a status, I think because it causes it to start a new activity, which kills the main fb activity when you leave it. But limiting the background stuff seems to have saved some more juice on top of only using 3g.

getheart mcliar said:
There's also an option in the settings>developer options to restrict how many processes are running in the background, and to kill an app after leaving it. The only problem I've noticed with the second option is that the fb app won't allow you to post a status, I think because it causes it to start a new activity, which kills the main fb activity when you leave it. But limiting the background stuff seems to have saved some more juice on top of only using 3g.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Naw man, at home I have good cell signal and have almost no idle drain. At work I have terrible signal and it drains like nuts. It's not an issue with apps, processes, services, etc.

Does gsm really make that much of a difference in battery life?

I have been looking at this thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1725921 and see all these people with att gs3's getting all this awesome screen time of over 5hours. Some go into the 7s!!! I can barely get 4 my record is 4:52 and I have never been able to duplicate it. I have sync turned off, power save, debloated, you name it. I know CDMA eats more battery but to give them a 25% better battery is normal?
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app

I get 5-7 hours all the time so no I don't think it makes that much of a difference. Then again I am connected to WiFi quite often.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app

I think lte is the major battery killer if you have it in your area.
I got what was probably my best battery life so far yesterday I had 30% left with 4:15 screen time including time spent watching streaming videos, listening to a couple podcasts, and playing like fifteen minutes worth of games. This was using Wi-Fi with Bluetooth and GPS turned off.
Also I think the auto brightness kills battery life too. I have the brightness slider in the notification bar and tweak it to match current lighting conditions. In dark rooms the auto setting seems too bright.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app

Last charge cycle I went 26hrs w/4hrs 52min screen on...LTE was on the entire time. I agree leaving the device on wifi might gain another hour of sot, especially those in fringe coverage areas.

cell128 said:
I have been looking at this thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1725921 and see all these people with att gs3's getting all this awesome screen time of over 5hours. Some go into the 7s!!! I can barely get 4 my record is 4:52 and I have never been able to duplicate it. I have sync turned off, power save, debloated, you name it. I know CDMA eats more battery but to give them a 25% better battery is normal?
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I don't know. There might be something to it. I have the Galaxy S3 on T-Mobile and I am amazed at the battery life. In fact that ability was one of the things I told my sister who got the Galaxy S3 on Verizon and her battery life sucks compared to mine. I checked her power settings and they are the same as mine. I am by far the more "POWER USER" type. Mine is stock - got the Jelly Bean update two weeks ago and have noticed no difference in the battery life with the OS update.
The only difference is when I am home, it live off of WiFi. I have good WiFi in my house. She doesnt have WiFi but VZ's cell network as we all know is much bigger. She has more bars then me.
She thinks it might be a bad battery and is planning on taking it to the VZW store and getting it swapped out. I doubt that is the issue. I was with VXZ before had the Original Droid and HTC and Samsung phones. Last was the EVO 4G and with that puppy it was....
Wake up (phone plugged into AC adapter) go to the car and right away plug it into the car charger for the drive to work once in the office plug the USB into the office PC. And do the reverse going home. If I was in a situation like in a Doc's office or at the Mall or restarunt.....I would be @ or below 50% within an hour.
My Galaxy S3 lasts all day with ease even on days where I am out and about and not @ my home's WiFi

droidstyle said:
Last charge cycle I went 26hrs w/4hrs 52min screen on...LTE was on the entire time. I agree leaving the device on wifi might gain another hour of sot, especially those in fringe coverage areas.
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I usually get 5-6screen time
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I usually get an average of 4/5 hours of screen time.
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[Q] Poor cell signal draining battery? How to get those 8+ hour OST?

Hi
I tried searching Google, but get a lot of different answers.
I live in an area with a very bad cellular coverage. I always have 1 out of 5 bars and when I turn mobile data on, it is mainly LTE, but jumps a bit between LTE and Edge and rarely H and H+.
Can that cause a lot of battery drain? As I just factory reset my phone to get rid of every change I did. I enabled Stamina Mode, surfed the web for 15 minutes and my phone was at 95%. Is that normal? Because if my math is right, that shouldn't give me more than 5 hours of screen time, while I heard people getting 8+ without Stamina Mode.
Am I missing something or is their some very needed settings to be changed? Sync off, GPS off, bluetooth, Brightness is as low as possible, NFC off, black background (less power consumption), Wifi off and Wifi constant searching off.

U can easly check urself how cell signal draining battery ,first Check how it is with normal H+/LTE then charg it again for 100% and use ur smartphone with plane mode acivated ,now subtract result from 2 "experiment"

Also of note is that black backgrounds mean diddly on our displays. We aren't on OLEDs.
Also, if you ARE in wifi area it's better to be connected to wifi. Wifi is closer than the cell tower and data disconnects when wifi is connected.

On AMOLED/OLED black background helps because each pixel is individually lit (Black means those pixels are off). In LCDs there is a backlight providing illumination for the entire LCD so as long as your screen is on it won't make a differrence what colors are on your screen.

I'm having a similar issue. I have very low cell reception at work, and I can get maybe 4-5 hours SoT throughout the day and am at 10% when I get home. I've tried uninstalling/disabling apps that use a lot of battery, so hopefully it helps. I'll update if by the end of today I'm able to get 7+ hours SoT (which it seems it's on track to doing).
Edit: For clarification, the apps I've uninstalled that I believed to be using a lot of processing power/ram/battery were Facebook, [Facebook] Messenger, and Words with Friends.

festizzio said:
I'm having a similar issue. I have very low cell reception at work, and I can get maybe 4-5 hours SoT throughout the day and am at 10% when I get home. I've tried uninstalling/disabling apps that use a lot of battery, so hopefully it helps. I'll update if by the end of today I'm able to get 7+ hours SoT (which it seems it's on track to doing).
Edit: For clarification, the apps I've uninstalled that I believed to be using a lot of processing power/ram/battery were Facebook, [Facebook] Messenger, and Words with Friends.
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Just use an app like Greenify to block apps running in the background when not in use so you dont havr to uninstall them.

Brightness can have a lot to play on this one. I tend to go with manual brightness so there's no ambient sensors working all the while the display is on, and if you are doing anything where you can cope with lower brightness then drop it.
Keep an eye in battery stats for "google play services" as this can go nuts. When this happens sometimes clearing data can help.
I also found that using google+ to backup my photos caused a lot of battery drain.
I have not found facebook or whatsapp etc to affect my battery much personally. I use stamina mode when i'm out and about to keep the phone at sleep while the screen is off.

ssj_jaypee said:
Just use an app like Greenify to block apps running in the background when not in use so you dont havr to uninstall them.
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No root. WIthout Greenify is just annoying.

Jonathan-H said:
Brightness can have a lot to play on this one. I tend to go with manual brightness so there's no ambient sensors working all the while the display is on, and if you are doing anything where you can cope with lower brightness then drop it.
Keep an eye in battery stats for "google play services" as this can go nuts. When this happens sometimes clearing data can help.
I also found that using google+ to backup my photos caused a lot of battery drain.
I have not found facebook or whatsapp etc to affect my battery much personally. I use stamina mode when i'm out and about to keep the phone at sleep while the screen is off.
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Deleted Messenger and Facebook just for the sake of it. I don't have the need to be online all the time and the people that want to contact me, have my number.

Faspaiso said:
it is mainly LTE, but jumps a bit between LTE and Edge and rarely H and H+.
Can that cause a lot of battery drain?
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At my house I get just enough LTE to cause our S3 to constantly switch to LTE then loose it and switch back to H+. Battery life couldn't make it thru one day. ATT removes the screen that let's you control network mode but I found a backdoor method to lock the phone out of LTE. The phone now stays on H+ and battery life easily jumped 40%. That's the primary reason I held out this time for an unlocked non-ATT-crippled phone--so I can easily turn LTE off.

Well, tried have my phone on over night (for a change to test it).
Everything off (mobile data, gps etc).
Used 7% of my power and every app was closed. When I looked at battery drain, 55% was from cell standby and 40-45% was from Phone Idle.
Tonight I will try charge it to 100% again and then let it be in Flight Mode to see.

I struggled to flatten the battery on my phone the first day 70% of the day with the screen on, no wifi enabled or stamina.
Another test would be to change mobile settings to 3G or 2G to see what difference that makes. Under settings, wireless & networks, select more, mobile networks, then network mode.
I would try the above first before making your phone completely unavailable, especially the 2G.

danw_oz said:
I struggled to flatten the battery on my phone the first day 70% of the day with the screen on, no wifi enabled or stamina.
Another test would be to change mobile settings to 3G or 2G to see what difference that makes. Under settings, wireless & networks, select more, mobile networks, then network mode.
I would try the above first before making your phone completely unavailable, especially the 2G.
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Just did the tests.
Flightmode - 100% after 8 hours (sleep)
Edge - 99% after 8 hours (sleep)
4g - 93% after 8 hours (sleep)

Faspaiso said:
Just did the tests.
Flightmode - 100% after 8 hours (sleep)
Edge - 99% after 8 hours (sleep)
4g - 93% after 8 hours (sleep)
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Nice, thank you! Care to check hspa too?

Fruktsallad said:
Nice, thank you! Care to check hspa too?
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What is that? H/H+?
GSM - Edge
WCDMA - H/H+
LTE - 4g
But I think 4g uses less power than edge, but it is more than in my area there is 1/5 in 4g coverage, 3-4/5 in H/H+ and 5/5 (always) if using edge.
As I see an better connection gives better batterylife, but 4g uses way less than 3g/edge if same cell signal.
But is going to try it next time I get down to my dad. He got 5/5 in LTE signal. So gonna see if it can stay at 100% over night.

Faspaiso said:
What is that? H/H+?
GSM - Edge
WCDMA - H/H+
LTE - 4g
But I think 4g uses less power than edge, but it is more than in my area there is 1/5 in 4g coverage, 3-4/5 in H/H+ and 5/5 (always) if using edge.
As I see an better connection gives better batterylife, but 4g uses way less than 3g/edge if same cell signal.
But is going to try it next time I get down to my dad. He got 5/5 in LTE signal. So gonna see if it can stay at 100% over night.
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Hehe, ok I understand. But HSPA = 3G. [emoji4] I haven't done any rigorous testing, but I think my stand by times are much better using edge (2G) compared to 3G.

Fruktsallad said:
Hehe, ok I understand. But HSPA = 3G. [emoji4] I haven't done any rigorous testing, but I think my stand by times are much better using edge (2G) compared to 3G.
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I see. But if you change between those, you probs have an better cell signal with 2g (in your area), right?

Faspaiso said:
I see. But if you change between those, you probs have an better cell signal with 2g (in your area), right?
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Nope, coverage is about the same. Generally speaking though, 2G > 3G > 4G when it comes to battery life. That's been the rule for years, but as of late, newer radios have become more efficient with 3G and 4G, thus making the difference less noticeable. YMMV. Would be interesting to see your drainage on 3G as well. ☺

Fruktsallad said:
Nope, coverage is about the same. Generally speaking though, 2G > 3G > 4G when it comes to battery life. That's been the rule for years, but as of late, newer radios have become more efficient with 3G and 4G, thus making the difference less noticeable. YMMV. Would be interesting to see your drainage on 3G as well. ☺
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Well could try it tonight.