When I first got my Galaxy S3 (Verizon) the OEM battery lasted at least a good 9 or 10 hours, usually plenty to last the day. But I wanted more than that so I got a pack of 2x QCell 2300mAh batteries for cheap on amazon, with one of the wall chargers that you pop the battery into. That was July of last year and I promptly lost one of the batts at school, so in May of this year I got another pack of 2 batts, this time EZOPower, 2100mAh.
Both brands worked pretty well while I had them and I would generally just start the day taking my GS3 off the charger and putting the extra battery in my pocket, and at ~8pm or so I'd switch them out and have more than enough for the rest of the day, and some for the next day if I didn't make it home for some reason that night.
But recently that time to switch has been creeping down earlier and earlier, and lately I've noticed I wake up to the battery icon showing the circle but no percentage (just switched from AOSP to Pacrom, dunno if that makes a difference) and when I take it off it's about 95%. When I switch batts, which is now at about 2 or 3pm if I wake up at 10, the second one (coming off the cheap battery-only wall charger) is at 75% or thereabouts and each lasts less than 5 hours.
Attached are my stats from the other day. I keep all my radios on all day usually but lately I've been having to selectively put it on airplane mode whenever I can afford to, if I want to have enough juice to last through the evening. This sucks. I know batteries die over time but I've literally had these ones for a few months and they're terrible already. Is it because of my hot swapping habits? Does that drive down the battery life over time, or is it something to do with how android pegs the amount of juice left on each battery? Is there a way to wipe the battery stats, or would that even help? There used to be an option for it in CWM but I looked today and I suppose it's gone. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong but I've never had battery life this bad on any phone.
tl;dr bought a pair of non-OEM batteries with a wall charger, been hot-swapping them for more power throughout the day, but in just a few months their life is approaching nil. What am I doing wrong?
Bump. Anyone knowledgeable on this? I'm pretty sure it could apply to just about any phone and I know plenty of other people do the same thing I do with these battery pairs on Amazon so this would be useful for progeny.
Do you leave them in the charger until you need them? Usually, the longer a battery charges while it's fully charged, the more the total charge will diminish. So, the longer you keep it charging more than it needs to, the faster the battery dies out. Also, when you get a new rechargeable battery, or even a new phone or tablet with a rechargeable battery in it, the first thing you should do is use it till it's drained. Don't immediately plug it in to the charger. Keep in mind, though, that no matter what you do your batteries will diminish. Cheaply made batteries will diminish faster than higher quality ones, so that may attribute to how fast your batteries are dieing.
I could be wrong, though.
I actually do keep it on the charger long after it's charged. And I have heard that before - but don't most chargers have a built in feature that cuts off the current once the battery is fully charged?
Anyway I'm not sure that's the sole reason for the batteries being so ****ty. Although idk, I also could be wrong, lol.
Related
wondered if people have an opinion on the best way to charge the XDA.
With my current mobile (samsung N500) I always used the policy of charge until full, then run until flat, then charge until full again etc.
ie, never recharging until it was flat. This is a bit of a throwback to when I used to use nicads a lot about 15 years ago.
the methodology being that if you did it this way the batteries remembered how much charge they were supposed to hold.
however, these new lithium polymer batteries in PDA's aren't supposed to have this issue are they?
On my samsung it's been fine, it's held charge well and never really gotten less, even after a years worth of charging and discharging.
A chap at work does the complete opposite, he puts his on charge whenever he can, whether it's flat or not, and usually before it falls below 80%, his reasoning being that he read somewhere that if you trickle charge it a lot it lasts longer.
as you can see, two conflicting methods of working.
what should I be doing to make my battery last as long and as well as possible
The "memory effect" issue is known for the N.MH battaries only ... and it's true that u have to drain it each time ... the XDA has L.Polymer type which doesn't have this issue ... u can charge it each night.
so I can charge it each night whether it's flat or not? sorry if this sounds dumb but I just want to make sure I understand this right,
don't fell like sending it off to have the battery replaced every few months because I abuse it.
yes ... u can actually leave it powered in the cradle the whole time
I knew the Nicads had the memory problem, but the NiMh aren't supposed to be as bad. Most new types of batteries don't have the memory problem, just increased capacities and less harmful to the environment.
discharge almost fully then recharge
I used to own a iPAQ 3630 and now I own an O2 XDA. Both the iPAQ and the XDA have a Li-Po battery, and with both devices I have the same charge/discharge experience. The battery lasts longer if you discharge it almost fully, till say 20-30% and then charge, not sooner. Constantly recharging decreases battery life considerably, as if the battery gets "lazy". My XDA's battery now lasts 5-6 hours usage with backlight on plus some 48hrs on standby. My 2 cents.
well after one days use I'm impressed by the battery life
fully charged and went off charge at 5pm
10 mins talk time
3 hours farting around with it in the evening
went to bed at 11pm
backlight off
no switch off set
phone switched off
by 7.30 am this morning, still had 30% battery left
nice.
Saving battery while listening to music
I have never had a problem keeping a battery charge until recently. I normally have my sx56 on standby and talk for about an hour a day and maybe spend half an hour checking appointments. I just recently got a 512 card and when I'm walking somewhere I listen to music. Maybe another hour out of my day. For whatever reason I used to end a 12 hour day with 40-50% battery and now I'm down to 10-20. I currently use wm player and keep the screen off when music is on. Do other softwares use less battery and is this drain in 12 hours normal. It sounds excessive to me.
doesn't sound out of the ordinary.
playing of MP3's really drains the batteries. quite a few reviews use draining the batteries by playing MP3's as some sort of yardstick.
I've seen reviews that quote the XDa as running down flat after 3 .5 hours from playing MP3's.
I want to buy a powerbank but my friend said that after few months of usage it will badly affect my battery life. I want to know if it is true or false.
Thanks for all replies
Can anybody help me?
It really depends on your charging habits. Batteries die more and more every full charge cycle. Its usually a better idea to invest in an extended battery which often times is cheaper without the hassle. If you recharge twice a day and charge normally once. Theoretically, your battery will degrade 66% faster then one charge a day. But rarely will you be charging 3 times a day. Expect a number closer to 25%-35%. So if the average battery's optimal life takes a year to degrade, expect yours optimal life to be roughly 9 months. Of course at 9 months, your battery doesnt just stop working. Over each charge and month, your losing more and more charge capacity to the point where its inconveninet because your recharging so much. My battery is almost a year old and ive already ordered a new one due to the crap battery life. To tell if you need a new battery, try to spin it on a flat surface. A battery that can hold a charge wont spin since its flat. A battery with lumps and round points will because it cant hold a charge. So i would recommend a SLIM extended battery, they dont require an extended case backing(makes your phone a boulder.) Hope i was helpful!
I have a Lenovo laptop and its got a great software that helps to maintain the battery lifespan. Is it the same for phones where you should once in a while drain the battery to empty, also should you only do a full charge rather than topping up?
Im into emulation but that tends to be a battery killer so advice would be really helpful.
Nope just keep charging it. Don't drain it completely
You sure, in the two weeks Ive had Ive already started to notice a difference.
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2011/02/ask-ars-what-is-the-best-way-to-use-an-li-ion-battery/
Interesting. What about when doing battery intensive stuff like playing games or using emulators, would you suggest playing with the charger plugged-in or to instead recharge when the battery goes low (obviously not too low).
I don't think ot really matters, just don't be afraid to put the thing on charge whenever you want realistically
Thanks again. Last question, after a whole day usually my battery is quite low (below 30, usually below 20). Is it better in those cases to do a half charge and then do another half charge later, or is that the same as doing a full charge in one go?
So, I own this phone for a few weeks now and I got pretty frustrated about the battery life on this phone as I was getting 3 hrs of SOT a best.
Then I decided not to stress the battery so much by charging it with the included turbopower 25 charger all the time, and use my old (5V 2.1A) charger overnight instead. Then I was surprised to see my SOT going up to about 4.5-5hrs.
I did some research about fast charging techonlogy and found out that when you fast charge you typically don't get as much charge into a battery as with a slow charge.
I still use the turbo charger when I am short on time, but using my regular one definetely does add more juice to the battery, thus, helping it last throughout the day.
sleepdownloader said:
So, I own this phone for a few weeks now and I got pretty frustrated about the battery life on this phone as I was getting 3 hrs of SOT a best.
Then I decided not to stress the battery so much by charging it with the included turbopower 25 charger all the time, and use my old (5V 2.1A) charger overnight instead. Then I was surprised to see my SOT going up to about 4.5-5hrs.
I did some research about fast charging techonlogy and found out that when you fast charge you typically don't get as much charge into a battery as with a slow charge.
I still use the turbo charger when I am short on time, but using my regular one definetely does add more juice to the battery, thus, helping it last throughout the day.
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Will definitely try that out. Cuz my usage gets me around 4 -4.5 or even 6 if I read a little. So if this happens for me too I'm gonna get some nice battery life.
Curlyfry2121 said:
Will definitely try that out. Cuz my usage gets me around 4 -4.5 or even 6 if I read a little. So if this happens for me too I'm gonna get some nice battery life.
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Please do report
It doesn't really matter, at least not that significantly... something else is the cause.
Using a turbo charger could change the longevity of the battery, over time, due to heat buildup and breakdown of the internal components due to more stress, but it wouldn't just "get better" switching to standard charger... I charge my phone half the week on a standard charger when at home, and when traveling I use a quick charger. If I am on either at home or on the road for a few weeks at a time and my battery life doesn't change. Well, not because of the charger, but at home I am within 30' of a very high quality WiFi router all the time and essentially never on mobile data, on the road it's the complete opposite.
If you did your researching into Qualcomm's Quick Charge 2.0 (and higher) standards you would see that the issue of batteries not getting a full charge from the original QuickCharge/Fast Charge standard has been remedied with high voltage charging automatically downgraded to "standard" voltage charging during about the last 10% of the charge cycle to allow the battery to cool and take a full charge.
Not doubting your getting better SOT, just your analysis of the reason why are...
acejavelin said:
It doesn't really matter, at least not that significantly... something else is the cause.
Using a turbo charger could change the longevity of the battery, over time, due to heat buildup and breakdown of the internal components due to more stress, but it wouldn't just "get better" switching to standard charger... I charge my phone half the week on a standard charger when at home, and when traveling I use a quick charger. If I am on either at home or on the road for a few weeks at a time and my battery life doesn't change. Well, not because of the charger, but at home I am within 30' of a very high quality WiFi router all the time and essentially never on mobile data, on the road it's the complete opposite.
If you did your researching into Qualcomm's Quick Charge 2.0 (and higher) standards you would see that the issue of batteries not getting a full charge from the original QuickCharge/Fast Charge standard has been remedied with high voltage charging automatically downgraded to "standard" voltage charging during about the last 10% of the charge cycle to allow the battery to cool and take a full charge.
Not doubting your getting better SOT, just your analysis of the reason why are...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe you're right, I'm still monitoring my battery life on both chargers, and with the same usage, my battery does last longer when charging with the regular 5V one. I'm mostly on 3G network data and rarely use wifi, as I'm mostly only sleeping or eating at home. Maybe there are other factors making this difference, though i'm pretty sure the charger is the only difference for me. Will report if I notice anything else.
I don't see any big difference, I'm also using standard charger over night and quick when I'm in the hurry. Despite charging methods my sot time is very inconsistant from 2,5h to 4h at best.
Do you use the 85% charge limit?
i personally think that 85% is BS i have had god knows how many phone all charged to 100% every single night and ZERO! issue. and limiting this phone specially to 85 is a big cut in the hours you will get.
Not a chance. I'd hate this phone if it only charged to 85%.
I Use it all the time. 85% is enough Juice for one workday and i simple want the battery to last as long as possible. I have had bad experience with batteries dying after ~3 years.
The 85% Rule is no BS. You also have to keep an eye on minimal SOC and never go under 10% to avoid unnecessary battery degradation. With that your battery will perform according to the specs (~700 cycles until 80% SOH, modern smartphone batteries). Otherwise it will suffer and that reduces cycle life. This is simply the state of current lithium battery tech.
From my pov, a full day usage requires 100% of charge because some of them cannot charge the phone while they are outside the whole day.
I have wireless chargers almost everywhere, so when my phone is not being used it's normally sitting on a charger. That means that it very rarely uses much charge, so charging to 85% is fine by me. If I knew that I was going to be away from a charger for a protracted period, then I'd probably charge to 100% beforehand.
I can't get too excited about battery management. If I need to buy a new battery for my phone at some point in the future (it has never happened yet...) then that's what I'll do.
i use 85% because i have quick carger in my car and it charge all the time.
at home I have wireless charger and when i need i put it.
I tried it for a few weeks and instead of having 80% leaving work I was at 50%, not really worth it since I'll probably have a new phone in six months. It was too much of a headache stressing about battery life without the phone fully charging.
No, I charged to 100%.