[Q] AT&T and T-Mobile battery life differences? - Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I've been using both AT&T and T-Mobile (StraightTalk and T-Mobile) contract free for several months now and regardless of what my signal is on the two, I always seem to get worse battery life with StraightTalk/AT&T. Has anyone else played around with using both in the same places for an extended period of time and had the same results?
I'm trying to decide which I'm going to go with and so far even though I get LTE service in less areas with T-Mobile, I'm almost tempted to stick with them just because 1) when I do have LTE service, it's a ton faster then AT&T and 2) I get much less battery drain on T-Mobile then I do with AT&T.
Even in places where I had worse reception with T-Mobile (which less face it, is very often), I still get less battery drain then when I switch to AT&T and have a much better signal. Not sure if I'm hallucinating or if anyone else has experienced the same.
For example, at the hotel I'm currently at, while on T-Mobile my signal isn't quite as good as it is with AT&T but it takes several HOURS before my battery % drops below 90%. On AT&T I have a much better signal but yet I'll be within the low 80s after 3 or so hours.
Has anyone else tried this and if so have you noticed the same thing?

battery life is dependent on how you personally use the phone, how you set it up, and, most importantly, the quality of your phone/data connection. the quality of your phone/data connection could make or brake your battery life, by 1 or 2 screen on hours. thats a huge difference.

simms22 said:
battery life is dependent on how you personally use the phone, how you set it up, and, most importantly, the quality of your phone/data connection. the quality of your phone/data connection could make or brake your battery life, by 1 or 2 screen on hours. thats a huge difference.
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Oh I realize all of that. When home and not on travel I pretty much utilize my phone at two locations. Home and Work. In both locations I used each network for about 2 weeks checking cell signals etc and using the phone the same way the entire time. During this time I've noticed one constant, my phone with AT&T always drains the battery much faster. To be honest I thought I was crazy but I double checked and ran for another couple of weeks..this time basically logging battery life with usage and connection quality. AT&T on average had a better signal but also drained the battery faster...usage was about the same through the test. So I did the same thing while basically sitting in a hotel for a few days and just letting the phone sit as I was mainly using a separate phone on Sprint. Same thing..the time I had the phone sitting there with AT&T it had almost a perfect signal but the phone drained quite a bit faster then T-Mobile with practically no utilization. Obviously I rebooted prior to each.
I realize this doesn't make any sense at all but it's something I'm noticing.

I just found your post, and I'm experiencing the exact same issue. To quote a post I just made on reddit:
I've been a T-mobile prepaid customer (the $30 5gb plan) since I've had the N5, and recently I decided to switch to Straight Talk for the better coverage (I got the AT&T compatible SIM). I've been using the Straight Talk SIM for the past week, and I've notice two very odd things:
1. Battery life is significantly worse on Straight Talk. Unfortunately I don't have any before and after screen shots, but to provide context, a typical day of usage on T-mobile would leave me with ~50% battery life at the end of the day. Now, with Straight Talk and that same usage, I'm down to 10-20%.
2. With Straight Talk, I consistently have 4-5 bars of LTE, but oftentimes when I try and load a web page, there can be about a 5 second delay before the page starts loading. Even when running the Speed Test app, when it's testing the download speed, it will sometimes completely stop mid-download for a few seconds.
Have you found any solution to the battery issue you cited in your post?

I knew I wasn't nuts!
http://bgr.com/2014/08/06/best-smartphone-battery-life-t-mobile/

ParadingLunatic said:
I knew I wasn't nuts!
http://bgr.com/2014/08/06/best-smartphone-battery-life-t-mobile/
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again, it still fits right in, its the data/phone signal quality that decides the battery life, as i wrote earlier. lowered quality = lowered battery life, period.

Related

Is it just me or is the Thunderbolt battery life... kinda good?

So, I was well informed from many different sources that the biggest drawback to the Thunderbolt was the horrendous battery life (people complaining in the 4 hour range). I came from a Samsung Fascinate, which would most of the time get me through the day, but just barely, and the Battery Use was almost always 70-80% screen (even at the lowest brightness). I primarily got the Thunderbolt for the possibility of 4G tethering, so the first thing I did was buy an external battery charger pack (extended battery was sold out).
Well, I've had it for a few days now and despite geeking out on the phone, tethering whenever I can, using it probably more than my Fascinate, I haven't had any issues with battery. I pulled it off charge about 8am this morning, it's currently 9:45pm, I've been using it pretty heavily all day, tethering on the train to work, using it at work, and using it the whole train ride home, and it's currently at 33% battery. 6:18:00 Awake time. Where is this horrendous battery life I heard about?
I'm not using any battery saving utilities (Juice defender etc), have it set to Auto Brightness, just letting it be on WiFi when WiFi is available. I'm using the bone stock HTC Android 2.2 that came with it, not root etc.
So far this phone has much better battery life than my Fascinate and I'm pretty impressed, especially since I believe it has a slightly smaller battery. If I check battery use today, it's 59% Display, with the next highest being 9% Cell Standby.
I haven't used it as a 4G hotspot for more than maybe 30 minutes at a time, but even then it doesn't seem to die too quickly. Am I just missing something that other people are doing that drains their batteries like crazy or is it just that I'm careful about not using stuff the indiscriminately uses 4G for no reason? (I removed all the auto updating widgets like the Friend Feed etc).
Anyone else had a similar experience?
Ummm, yah, well, it's just you...
JK... the battery is ok for me I haven't had it die on me yet but when ever I drive it goes in the charger so I'm sure that adds up.
Darthus said:
So, I was well informed from many different sources that the biggest drawback to the Thunderbolt was the horrendous battery life (people complaining in the 4 hour range). I came from a Samsung Fascinate, which would most of the time get me through the day, but just barely, and the Battery Use was almost always 70-80% screen (even at the lowest brightness). I primarily got the Thunderbolt for the possibility of 4G tethering, so the first thing I did was buy an external battery charger pack (extended battery was sold out).
Well, I've had it for a few days now and despite geeking out on the phone, tethering whenever I can, using it probably more than my Fascinate, I haven't had any issues with battery. I pulled it off charge about 8am this morning, it's currently 9:45pm, I've been using it pretty heavily all day, tethering on the train to work, using it at work, and using it the whole train ride home, and it's currently at 33% battery. 6:18:00 Awake time. Where is this horrendous battery life I heard about?
I'm not using any battery saving utilities (Juice defender etc), have it set to Auto Brightness, just letting it be on WiFi when WiFi is available. I'm using the bone stock HTC Android 2.2 that came with it, not root etc.
So far this phone has much better battery life than my Fascinate and I'm pretty impressed, especially since I believe it has a slightly smaller battery. If I check battery use today, it's 59% Display, with the next highest being 9% Cell Standby.
I haven't used it as a 4G hotspot for more than maybe 30 minutes at a time, but even then it doesn't seem to die too quickly. Am I just missing something that other people are doing that drains their batteries like crazy or is it just that I'm careful about not using stuff the indiscriminately uses 4G for no reason? (I removed all the auto updating widgets like the Friend Feed etc).
Anyone else had a similar experience?
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It's you.
Seriously though. Go to any one of the Thunderbolt forums or read any Thunderbolt review and you'll see the battery being discussed prominently. There is definitely an issue with it. Who knows what it is though..
The thing that really bothers me is the battery isnt consistently bad. Like the last two days Ive gotten 24 hours of use out of my phone. Normally that's unheard of.. but next week something will happen and it will be back to being dead within 6-8 hours with barely any use.
You are correct that this issue is oft-cited in regards to the TB. However, I think the 4 hour data points may be slightly exaggerated. I wound up buying the oem extended battery because I wasn't make it past 6.5 hours with regular use. I travel pretty far to get to work every day, switching between many towers over the course of my commute, constantly going from 4g to 3g to 1x and back. Besides the screen (which will be the biggest battery drain on any phone with a modern touchscreen) data should be your next highest drain, and the biggest variable you are capable of tweaking to change your battery performance. My 6.5 hour experience was with a pretty abusive data usage scenario, and I don't see many people inflicting much more upon the battery in actual, real-world use. That said, with the extended battery, the TB has the best battery life of any phone I have owned in the last five years, and I couldn't be happier.
I'm getting about 12 hours with pretty heavy use. Running BAMF 1.6.2 with kernel overclocked. I'm pretty happy with battery life...it's just as good as it was on my droid incredible.
I have learned thru experience that all HTC phones with 4.3 inches screens are bad at battery life. When I say bad, that's comparing it to a smaller less powerful device. But take in account all it does and to me battery is ok. I mean the HD2, and EVO when I owned them were battery hogs. But I always had a charge. Ppl want bigger and faster phones,Well there's a trade off until battery technology catches up, the bigger phones will consume more battery. Its like saying I want a better car more sporty and trendy but I don't want to pay that much. Not goin to happen.
With just 3G available to me and using everything stock...I get slightly better battery life than I did with my incredible that was on CM7. Compared to a stock incredible, much better. I'm a bit scared for when I do get 4G seeing all the posts though =)
Rooting gave me an extra 2% per hour usage. I can go 15 hours and still have 40% left on my battery. I'm happy with this battery.
Thunderbolt has better battery life than my Samsung Epic had. Stock, my battery wasnt all that great. However, changing some settings and finding a suitable kernel has helped with my battery life.
I have had the same experience. Coming from a Fascinate, the Thunderbolt is so much better on battery life. Mind you, I do not live in an LTE area. This is what I do:
- Juice Defender (Balanced settings)
- Brightness - half way
- GPS only on when I need it
- Wifi on almost 100% of the time (at home and work I use only wifi)
- Non-Rooted
I even have 100+ apps installed including leaving Google Talk and Yahoo Messenger on almost 24/7. I have about 8 or 9 widgets as well. Most that pull info.
The terrible battery life comes when the phone tries to hold a bad 4g signal drains the battery at an insane amount. If you're in strong signal expect much better battery life but because 4g is so new I expect a lot of people to be in areas with low 4g signal as Verizon has not even turned up 85-90% of the towers past 45% power.
I've had the TB for 3 days now and am coming from a rooted Eris (running xtr rom). I have noticed that with the same amount of usage I am also getting better battery life on the stock TB than I did on my Eris. I am in an area that does not have 4G so I have that turned off.
afallucco said:
The terrible battery life comes when the phone tries to hold a bad 4g signal drains the battery at an insane amount. If you're in strong signal expect much better battery life but because 4g is so new I expect a lot of people to be in areas with low 4g signal as Verizon has not even turned up 85-90% of the towers past 45% power.
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where did you get this info about the power of the towers? btw what power do they normally work at? 100W?
afallucco said:
The terrible battery life comes when the phone tries to hold a bad 4g signal drains the battery at an insane amount. If you're in strong signal expect much better battery life but because 4g is so new I expect a lot of people to be in areas with low 4g signal as Verizon has not even turned up 85-90% of the towers past 45% power.
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I'd love to see some sources backing this info up.
When I bought my TB I left the store with the extended battery in. The battery easily lasts me all day. After reading all the complaints about how bad the stock battery is I decided to try using it and I'm actually surprised by how long it lasts. I was expecting much worse. It's easily lasted me 8-12 hours with my normal everyday use. I'm going to stick to the stock battery from now on. I was getting annoyed by the heft and bulkiness of the extended battery. My phone feels so sleek with the stock one.
Yeah, I'm with the "it's just you" crowd.
Pretty bad battery life for me here in NYC (plenty of good 4G around).
Not a heavy data user (less than 20min browsing per day).
Not a lot of long calls.
Accounts update once every hour (FB, 2 email accounts).
Brightness at min.
No video playing, no music playing.
No speakerphone used.
Rooted, BAMF 1.3.2
GPS and WiFi rarely on at all.
I'm lucky, --LUCKY--, if I get like 6 hours out of a fully charged battery.
daniel178 said:
Yeah, I'm with the "it's just you" crowd.
Pretty bad battery life for me here in NYC (plenty of good 4G around).
Not a heavy data user (less than 20min browsing per day).
Not a lot of long calls.
Accounts update once every hour (FB, 2 email accounts).
Brightness at min.
No video playing, no music playing.
No speakerphone used.
Rooted, BAMF 1.3.2
GPS and WiFi rarely on at all.
I'm lucky, --LUCKY--, if I get like 6 hours out of a fully charged battery.
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Just curious, why are you still using BAMF 1.3.2?
running Bamf 1.6.1 and Imoseyon Lean Kernal set at 1.4Ghz with SetCPU on Smartass, along with ATK set to kill every 30 mins(oh I know they are the devil, yet my battery life is always better with one, so no comments about how they are bad.) I also always have 4G on, and usually fluctuate between -82 to -94dB in signal strength, and wifi is never on, as my home network is strained enough as it is. GPS is always off unless I need it.
I also use WPClock Live Wallpaper at the same time.
Yesterday I was at 18% with 2 days since last plugged in.
Of course I also calibrated my battery, after flashing Bamf 1.6.1.
I use my phone alot for facebook, angry birds, browsing the web and a crap ton of texting, I probably hit near 1000 text a month, I know that isn't what the high school brats are pulling, but still, for me, that is insane.
On my Evo 4G, with 4G off, I could hit 3 days running CM7 underclocked to 750Mhz max. That was with a bigger battery as well.
I am very exited for CM7 to go into a beta, or nightly stage, and the kinks worked out, as I am sure with 4G on I can hit near 3 days with the Thunderbolt as well.
nosympathy said:
running Bamf 1.6.1 and Imoysen Lean Kernal set at 1.4Ghz with SetCPU on Smartass, along with ATK set to kill every 30 mins(oh I know they are the devil, yet my battery life is always better with one, so no comments about how they are bad.) I also always have 4G on, and usually fluctuate between -82 to -94dB in signal strength, and wifi is never on, as my home network is strained enough as it is.
Yesterday I was at 18% with 2 days since last plugged in.
Of course I also calibrated my battery, after flashing Bamf 1.6.1.
I use my phone alot for facebook, angry birds, browsing the web and a crap ton of texting, I probably hit near 1000 text a month, I know that isn't what the high school brats are pulling, but still, for me, that is insane.
On my Evo 4G, with 4G off, I could hit 3 days running CM7 underclocked to 750Mhz max. That was with a bigger battery as well.
I am very exited for CM7 to go into a beta, or nightly stage, and the kinks worked out, as I am sure with 4G on I can hit near 3 days with the Thunderbolt as well.
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Update your sig, brah. Still says your running Tesla Coil.
Overall battery life is a lot better than my cm7 Incredible, and on mostly standby it lasted quite awhile before I had to charge it (I couldn't use it for a few days because vzw wonked up on activating my TB somehow), so it lasted almost 3 days with only occasional data use/seeing if the phone was working (I couldn't send texts or make/receive calls, but my data was working)
dbisch said:
Update your sig, brah. Still says your running Tesla Coil.
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I know, I am a lazy ass, haha.

[Q] Anyone notice crazy battery drain when signal is spotty?

I'm currently out at a client site, but it's super bad reception here in the conference room they stuck us in. First of all, no 4G in colorado springs, so i disabled LTE, and hit CDMA in the network settings.
3G is near impossible inside, so i usually get 1X, and voice connection is next to impossible also.
So i noticed that from unplugging in the morning at 7:30am. at around 2pm, my battery was already down to 10%!
And i didn't even use it.
I did see from my battery usage, that Android system was ABOVE screen in power usage.
Anyone have the same issue?
I've had the same problem with EVERY phone ever, even non-smartphones have this problem. The lower the signal, the more the phone will scan for a good signal. If it has no service, it scans very frequently. If you're on a smartphone, it's even worse because then when the phone does get service, all the data apps attempt to use what little bandwidth you do have all at once. If you're in an area with poor coverage, put your phone into download mode or disable the data connection. Nothing short of putting a network extender or new tower will solve this.
Yes, but this is typical of most phones really. Searching for a signal, acquiring it, losing it, etc, uses a lot of battery. You just have to disable data. If there is wifi available, then use that, if not, just have to wait until you go outside. I have no reception in my building at work, if I leave data on, my battery is dead in a couple hours, on wifi I can go all day
Yes and my phone got very hot in my pocket at the time as well.
got_rice64 said:
I'm currently out at a client site, but it's super bad reception here in the conference room they stuck us in. First of all, no 4G in colorado springs, so i disabled LTE, and hit CDMA in the network settings.
3G is near impossible inside, so i usually get 1X, and voice connection is next to impossible also.
So i noticed that from unplugging in the morning at 7:30am. at around 2pm, my battery was already down to 10%!
And i didn't even use it.
I did see from my battery usage, that Android system was ABOVE screen in power usage.
Anyone have the same issue?
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I have this issue at work. I get anwhere from 10-15% battery drain an hour. I have determined that it is NOT because of the data signal though becuase I can turn that off and still get about the same excessive drain. It appears to be because of the voice signal. It varies anywhere from -85dm to -115dbm and is constantly changing. When I get outside of work environment, everthing is fine again and battery usage returns to normal. My Droid X did not have this issue.
-115db? How do you have signal at that rating? lol. Phone gets to about 1 bar when it reaches 101 for me.
I have the same issue in my office. I just barely get voice/text service. My solution is to turn off mobile data and plug my phone in to balance out the battery drain from the weak signal. I know it is bad to have my phone plugged in all of the time but it is better to be able to have sms and not have a dead phone when I am done at work.
Sent from my SCH-I510 using XDA Premium App
Samsuck said:
-115db? How do you have signal at that rating? lol. Phone gets to about 1 bar when it reaches 101 for me.
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Yeah. Tell me about it. I am using Mobile Signal Widget to measure this. When It gets that bad, a little android face appears in the widget and it is crying.
YES! easily drains 10-15% an hour at a local pub that has 1 bar of signal.
It makes perfect sense... Your phone is fighting hard for that signal.
Sent from my Droid Charge running GummyFroyo 1.9.1
I drive 50+ miles to get to work and I always notice it drains a lot during my commute even when not used. I figured it was because of all the cell site swaps and searches bc I'm sure there's some spotty areas.
Sent from my SCH-I510 using XDA Premium App
Same experience. Dropped to 5% in 9 hours yesterday when I forgot to turn off data while at work. Today, I'm still at 75% after 9 hours with data off.
Juice defender solved this on my fascinate. It turned data on only once every 30 minutes. But, I can't get it to turn my data back on with this phone.
I really wish data signal aggressiveness was managed better by the operating system. It could be a real boon to the average battery life. Perhaps a smart developer could come up with some sort of "conservative" governor for 3g/4g connections. Rather than increasing power draw, it could just "sleep" until a stronger signal is detected... Imnuts? Is this even possible or just a pipedream?
Sent from my SCH-I510 using XDA App
I can't reach my dad on his cell phone while at the pentagon for obvious reasons. He has to turn his phone off during the day or it'll die in a few short hours, as a previous poster mentioned searching for a signal is a huge battery drain.
Strange. I did not have this problem with my OG Doid or Droid X in the same environment. Maybe the Moto phones simply have a better radio than the Charge.
Yeah for some reason, the samsung radio are junk. I have my Droid Charge (personal) and an Lg phone (business) and the lg blows the sammy out of the water. Now i am in 3g fringe (forget about 4g), and the sammy loses data all together while my lg still has the signal. I hate when i am trying to search for something on the charge and it says connection failed or network unavailable retry. Even when i call verizon, they all have me do a reset and stuff, and nothing works. The best answer i get is that iam in a 3g fringe area. When i tell them that my lg works and still has signal, all i get is silence or hmmmmmm. Gota love it. Yes they exchanged the phone with a new one and it still does the same thing. Forget about battery life. I actually carry 3 batteries with me and on a good day i only use 2 but usually it is 3. Before anyone says use wifi, unfortunatly we do not have free wifi where i work. anyway that should not be the answer to this problem. We are paying for a service that i can barely use.
end rant.
91point6 said:
Strange. I did not have this problem with my OG Doid or Droid X in the same environment. Maybe the Moto phones simply have a better radio than the Charge.
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galaxyuser88 said:
Yeah for some reason, the samsung radio are junk. I have my Droid Charge (personal) and an Lg phone (business) and the lg blows the sammy out of the water. Now i am in 3g fringe (forget about 4g), and the sammy loses data all together while my lg still has the signal. I hate when i am trying to search for something on the charge and it says connection failed or network unavailable retry. Even when i call verizon, they all have me do a reset and stuff, and nothing works. The best answer i get is that iam in a 3g fringe area. When i tell them that my lg works and still has signal, all i get is silence or hmmmmmm. Gota love it. Yes they exchanged the phone with a new one and it still does the same thing. Forget about battery life. I actually carry 3 batteries with me and on a good day i only use 2 but usually it is 3. Before anyone says use wifi, unfortunatly we do not have free wifi where i work. anyway that should not be the answer to this problem. We are paying for a service that i can barely use.
end rant.
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I went through the whole VZW customer service thing both on the phone and in person. They weren't much help but they gave me a brand new phone and it does the same thing. Then there were a lot of suggstions on different forums suggesting apps killers, turning data off, turing on 3g only data, rooting, trying different ROMs, battery clalibration, etc. None of this helps. The kind of drain I am seeing goes way beyond any benefits I would see out of any of these things. For example, I am at work now. When I left the house, it takes about 15 minutes for me to get to work. The rest of the time I have been inside my work building. I have been on battery for 2 hours & 24 minutes and I am at 76% already. Thats >10% drain per hour. When I am outside the building it is more like 3-5%. VZW customer service never suggested this as a problem. They DID suggest that 4g uses more battery but that is not the problem. I have proved that time and again by simply turning data off.
Hmm..sounds like a bad phone..I am in a fringe area at work and it definitely kills by battery faster but..it's only like 8% and hour so I still get 10 hrs a day or so...in a bad area. In a good 4 G area..I will get 24 hrs or so out of the phone.
galaxyuser88 said:
Yeah for some reason, the samsung radio are junk. I have my Droid Charge (personal) and an Lg phone (business) and the lg blows the sammy out of the water. Now i am in 3g fringe (forget about 4g), and the sammy loses data all together while my lg still has the signal. I hate when i am trying to search for something on the charge and it says connection failed or network unavailable retry. Even when i call verizon, they all have me do a reset and stuff, and nothing works. The best answer i get is that iam in a 3g fringe area. When i tell them that my lg works and still has signal, all i get is silence or hmmmmmm. Gota love it. Yes they exchanged the phone with a new one and it still does the same thing. Forget about battery life. I actually carry 3 batteries with me and on a good day i only use 2 but usually it is 3. Before anyone says use wifi, unfortunatly we do not have free wifi where i work. anyway that should not be the answer to this problem. We are paying for a service that i can barely use.
end rant.
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Wow, that is the complete opposite of my experience. I've never had good signal with any LG phone - from flip phones to smartphones. Samsungs in my experience are middle of the road - not great, but not bad either. Motorolas usually do well, but there are certainly exceptions. HTC seems to be fairly good, but again, there are exceptions. Oh, and I did have one Audiovox phone on VZW, and it was garbage.
Haha you can whine about it in my rage thread
Sent from my Droid Charge running GummyFroyo 1.9.1

[Q] Battery life?

How is the battery life on the MT? If it's poor (stock), have you found a good utility app to help it last longer?
I usually get about 24 hours of battery life on mine. I have gps turned off most of the time and I'm on wifi a lot with light to moderate usage. I did notice that if I have the GPS on, that the battery does go down much quicker. I assume that's because it keeps trying to get a location even when I'm indoors and it's having a hard time.
Although, I've read a lot of people complain about poor battery life so YMMV.
It depends greatly on whether data is working or not. Usually, I'll have around 90% battery 2 hours into the day. But if data isn't working, like today, I'll go down to 80% in as little as 20 minutes.
Usually, I'll have around 20% after 12 hours. Been giving it a charge in the afternoon, and it hasn't been an issue.
I use Juice defender, and it does wonders for my battery life.
I've found battery life to be comparable to other Android devices; with effective battery management, mine gets me through the work day. My wife has the Optimus V and I have coworkers, one with a Droid X, the other with an Evo; my battery life is no better and no worse than any of those devices. With any smartphone you're going to have to turn off unused radios and turn down screen brightness if you're going to be away from a charger for a long period of time.
Sent from my MOTWX435KT using Tapatalk
Heavy use is the real killer on the Triumph. With just the screen on (minimal brightness) and network on (bad coverage), I can drain the battery by about 1% every minute. And that's no exaggeration -- Battery Indicator Pro keeps track for me. I'm working on a spreadsheet to help chart battery drain during different scenarios.
Thanks for all the replies. Basically what I was expecting, but like to have confirmation
Now to find a good place to buy one. Will probably hit Bestbuy due to return convenience and policies.
Edit: Purchased at Bestbuy, and actually ran into Sprint rep who had one I could look at. We exchanged a few geek tips.
One thing I noticed: I have an LG brand microUSB charger, and the phone would not charge from it when turned on, tho it would charge when turned off. I had an older Motorola microUSB charger and it works fine either phone on or off.
I am getting a whole day of battery life with heavy use. I turned off the background data and turned off all sync. Using the email client with one hour pull with imap instead of the gmail client... Couldn't be happier with the phone...
Sent from my MOTWX435KT using Tapatalk
Yeah, I have also found that turning off sync can get you through the day with less battery used.
Depending on how much I use the Triumph, I can run the battery down in about 2-3 hours (with constant use) or have it run all day long and in to the next day (if I only use it for 1 or 2 short calls during the day.)
My motorola Triumph's Battery Life
I have waited months to post my reviews. I had a Virgin Mobile Intercept and upgraded to this the day after it came out.
Battery life is HORRENDOUS. Not sure how anyone can possibly say its "OK". Sure if you are sitting at home or in the office all day, You can continually have it plugged in and charged. My lighter socket doesn't work in my car ATM so thank GOD I don't drive a lot, and for long periods, I would be SCREWED.
Essentially yes if you turn off GPS, Wi-Fi, Syncing your emails and such, etc etc, then your battery will last longer. But what good is the phone then? I have owned many other androids and they worked for almost a full day with moderate usage with ALL of those things turned on and sync'ing (including Latitude and automatic check-ins). I have lost all of that. I have google talk catching up for hours-old conversations whenever I hit a wifi spot that's saved in my phone.
Juice Defender was my "solution" But it has rendered my phone practically useless for anything besides just having a phone handy when needed. No apps, no moe use of all the bells and whistles that I loved about android in the first place!
I am dealing with it. It just sucks. Sure there are other smartphones with similar issues, and poor battery life, but this has to be possibly the worst or one of the worst. It just is highly unfortunate that this is the case.
Also: Bluetooth syncing works 50% of the time. Constantly have to turn it off and on to get my jawbone(s) to sync. God forbid you answer a call and want to switch over to bluetooth. In those cases it works about 20% of the time.
This is not a good phone for people who are out and about all day or drivers of any sort, unless you have it plugged in the entire day. Forget about using it as a GPS unless its plugged in either, that will drain you battery to 0% in less than an hour.
People say this is due to poor design and rushed to market with crappy signal reception and GPS reception, same with bluetooth antennae. This might be the case, I ALSO have mine suddenly have NO BARS for no reason and I have to power off and on the phone to get a signal back.
ALSO half the time I am out and about and need data connection over 3G, even with bars I get NOTHING. It's very frustrating not to be able to use the phone for what I want to use it for.
I will be getting rid of this puppy as soon as possible and I would do it sooner if I didn't want to avoid a 2year contract.
The good part about the phone is it is MUCH faster and responsive than the Intercept and Optimus. Much better camera (has a flash - FINALLY!) and HD video. Front facing camera is nice to have but of course weaksauce in the resolution dept. Overall A+ for effort, D- in execution.
kneel said:
I have waited months to post my reviews. I had a Virgin Mobile Intercept and upgraded to this the day after it came out.
Battery life is HORRENDOUS. Not sure how anyone can possibly say its "OK". Sure if you are sitting at home or in the office all day, You can continually have it plugged in and charged. My lighter socket doesn't work in my car ATM so thank GOD I don't drive a lot, and for long periods, I would be SCREWED.
Essentially yes if you turn off GPS, Wi-Fi, Syncing your emails and such, etc etc, then your battery will last longer. But what good is the phone then? I have owned many other androids and they worked for almost a full day with moderate usage with ALL of those things turned on and sync'ing (including Latitude and automatic check-ins). I have lost all of that. I have google talk catching up for hours-old conversations whenever I hit a wifi spot that's saved in my phone.
Juice Defender was my "solution" But it has rendered my phone practically useless for anything besides just having a phone handy when needed. No apps, no moe use of all the bells and whistles that I loved about android in the first place!
I am dealing with it. It just sucks. Sure there are other smartphones with similar issues, and poor battery life, but this has to be possibly the worst or one of the worst. It just is highly unfortunate that this is the case.
Also: Bluetooth syncing works 50% of the time. Constantly have to turn it off and on to get my jawbone(s) to sync. God forbid you answer a call and want to switch over to bluetooth. In those cases it works about 20% of the time.
This is not a good phone for people who are out and about all day or drivers of any sort, unless you have it plugged in the entire day. Forget about using it as a GPS unless its plugged in either, that will drain you battery to 0% in less than an hour.
People say this is due to poor design and rushed to market with crappy signal reception and GPS reception, same with bluetooth antennae. This might be the case, I ALSO have mine suddenly have NO BARS for no reason and I have to power off and on the phone to get a signal back.
ALSO half the time I am out and about and need data connection over 3G, even with bars I get NOTHING. It's very frustrating not to be able to use the phone for what I want to use it for.
I will be getting rid of this puppy as soon as possible and I would do it sooner if I didn't want to avoid a 2year contract.
The good part about the phone is it is MUCH faster and responsive than the Intercept and Optimus. Much better camera (has a flash - FINALLY!) and HD video. Front facing camera is nice to have but of course weaksauce in the resolution dept. Overall A+ for effort, D- in execution.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This post is harsh. But I agree with most of it. Overall, the Triumph fits with a prepaid phone reputation: niggly bugs, poor battery life, poor service quality when compared to a higher end device.
The main problem here is that you'll be totally dependent on the community for real bug fixes. Every phone has bugs. But the bugs on the Triumph affect core usability and are on a totally different level. I would not count on Motorola to fix these bugs. If you're the tinkering type and a patient person, this may be worth it. But anyone who thinks that they are getting "something for free" is sadly mistaken. You are paying $25 a month for cell phone service, which is great . But all these bugs will make you pay with your time. How? Time looking for new roms, apps to fix bad battery life, time wondering why the touchscreen response is poor, time working around the bugs in every day life. If that is fun to you (and it may be for most people on this forum), fine. But you are paying with your time. Lesson learned is not to be so quick to fall for the specs. The company offering the phone and their track record of pushing out updates should play a large part in my decision next time.
I usually have WiFi turned on all day, and sync. I use the phone on my breaks and at lunch. When I get home I troll forums heavily and watch netflix occasionally. Not to mention Pandora for at least an hour per day. The battery will last if I dont plug it in until the next morning. Bottom line is that a lot of these issues can be fixed with quality software, and a battery cycle of 18-24 hours is something I can definitly live with. Compared to my Ascend, the Triumph is soooo much better in battery dept.
Sent from my rooted Moto Triumph
Battery issues
I am not sure why a lot of people have issues with battery, I unplugged my phone over 7 hrs ago and right now have 57% battery left, now before you hang your head at this look at my usage:
-Over 1 hour of talktime out of 7 hours.
-50+ texts back and forth
-10+ emails back and forth
-5-10 youtube videos
-5-10 pages of web browsing
-dl and install apps
-facebook at least 2-3 times every hour
And some more fiddling around so basically I have been on the phone non stop for 7 hours and its lost only 43%
That said, most of that usage came from the first 4 hours where it lost 36%(1+ hour of talktime, youtube videos im not really shocked there)
6th hour i texted and browsed etc only 5% battery used.
7th hour I just sent back and forth a couple of texts and only 2% battery used.
All this when i dont use any applications like task killers etc..i just let them run the way they want. Also no wifi, everything over 3g.
so imo if it gives that kind of battery its good enough for me. I was really scared when i bought cuz people were complaining so much about its battery but im fairly surprised. One factor that could be though is that I am not running the GPS, no need for it yet, when I do ill update what kind of usage i got.
I get 23 hours battery life with HEAVY usage and 30 if mostly idle. Many may disagree but if you live or work in a Wifi zone, keeping wifi on and setting it to never sleep greatly INCREASES battery life. 3G radio uses more juice especially if low signal or always searching. If you click on Battery Use and see your "time without a signal" is anything over 20% then you will most certainly see increase on battery life if you leave wifi locked on while in a wifi zone.
Also, side note: I have a 1500mah Anker battery that also increases juice time I recommend it!
Sent from my Rooted MOTWX435KT using XDA App
23 hrs with heavy usage? Unless yours came with a 2300ma battery and not the paltry 1380ma battery, there's NO WAY you're getting 23 hours under heave usage.
I'm using a 1500mah calibrated battery and yep, its true I leave wifi on and set to never sleep when I'm at home or work. If not, 3G absolutely murders my battery. My phone drops between 3% and 5% per hour.
Sent from my MOTWX435KT using XDA App
Well today I am having less luck with battery life. I watched two movies on Netflix and constant Facebook. I unplugged at 10:30am and it is now 4:48pm and I am at 52%.. still using 1500mah battery.
Sent from my MOTWX435KT using XDA App
troll somewhere else
I just came from a Samsung Epic 4G. I have to say battery life it at least the same but probably better on the Triumph. The battery is also quicker to swap out on the Triumph. Between the already better battery life and ability to quickly swap, I'm more than happy.
garrmack said:
I just came from a Samsung Epic 4G. I have to say battery life it at least the same but probably better on the Triumph. The battery is also quicker to swap out on the Triumph. Between the already better battery life and ability to quickly swap, I'm more than happy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As horrible as the Triumph batt life is then I'd hate to think how bad the Epic 4g's life was...wow!

Location, Location, Location

Or maybe it should be Reception, Reception, Reception.
Just wanted to post a tip regarding location/reception.
I normally get about 10-12 hours on my battery (stock, unrooted Skyrocket) when local (i.e. work, home, maybe stop out for lunch, etc). Medium to light usage.
This past weekend (Fri, Sat, Sun), went out of town to somewhere where I had pretty crappy reception. Result: ~6 hours of battery life. With light usage.
Nothing changed on my phone, only my location and cell reception.
So for those of you getting really low battery usage, it could be your location/reception quality.
Hope this helps someone.
I think a lot of the battery problems people are having are just from unrealistic expectations. Smart phones aren't going to get the same battery life that the old flip phones were. Sure, through kernel modifications and CPU undervolting we can make a difference; but short of an extended battery, there's not much that can be done.
Excellent point. I get great reception outside my building, but only 3 or 4 bars tops inside usually (and as I'm looking at it right now the 4G symbol has the )) showing that it's looking for a better signal (and eating the battery).
totally correct.
I was out of the country for a week and only used my phone on wifi... loved the battery life when you dont need to worry about towers.

Poor battery life

I have been reading alot about others complaining of poor battery life, others trying new kernals and such but still having issues, I also have been experiencing my battery life is not as good as it used to be, has anyone considered the fact that most of our M7's are getting older and the batteries are simply getting weak? even if sprint gave you a replacement, it is a refurb....batteries have a life cycle and will deteriorate over time.
mcerk02 said:
I have been reading alot about others complaining of poor battery life, others trying new kernals and such but still having issues, I also have been experiencing my battery life is not as good as it used to be, has anyone considered the fact that most of our M7's are getting older and the batteries are simply getting weak? even if sprint gave you a replacement, it is a refurb....batteries have a life cycle and will deteriorate over time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've had decreased battery life in my M7 over the last couple of weeks. It's bone stock, no mods at all. I can tell you though, the refurb process, I believe, includes a replacement battery. More than likely, if you receive a refurbished unit, it's got a new battery in it. They can't refurb batteries because they do deteriorate over time.
Something I've speculated is that due to Sprint's signal generally being very poor (everywhere) the phone uses way more battery than typical to try to maintain a cell tower connection. If you have s-off enabled, it reports that it is in (essentially) a diagnostic mode where more functionality/usability data is sent regularly to HTC. If more data is being sent to HTC it's keeping the data active for longer, which combined with Sprint's moderately awful signal makes for a lot of battery being chewed up.
Regularly going s-on/s-off regularly is a real pita to try to determine this, but one test I've done is disable all cell connections and stick solely to around the house wifi (no sprint signal, no phone/sms/mms, not 3g/4g, etc). I hit just a smidge over 5 hours of active screen on time (doing actual internet stuff). If I use wifi as the default connection when available, but leave normal cell signals on, I'll get maybe 2 hours of screen time before a full discharge. If I disable wifi (off, but also all wifi scanning off) and stick with Sprint I'll probably hit 75-80 minutes of screen time (3g). We all know leaving sync on eats up the battery life because data is being kept alive, so this is really just an extension of that.
[completely stock no roms, s-on and s-off at various times, minimal background apps]
I've seen reports of gsm and verizon HTC One users getting 3-4+ hours of screen on time and wondering wtf they are doing to pull it off. Pretty sure Sprint suckage is a large part of it.
While being s-off probably makes it worse, s-on wouldn't matter much because excessive battery is still being used for the radios.
Battery degradation is definitely a factor too, but if my hypothesis is right, poor battery life caused by a bad signal will hasten the demise much more quickly simply because the battery is depleted much more regularly.
It's hard to really test all that, but my anecdotal experiences with different phones and carriers and geography make me consider.
I'd be curious to hear battery life from somebody with an unlocked sprint device who is now using gsm with their m7wls
http://blog.laptopmag.com/tmobile-phones-longer-battery-life
Sent from my kangaroo powered Inverted ViperONE using Tapatalk 2
pbassjunk said:
Something I've speculated is that due to Sprint's signal generally being very poor (everywhere) the phone uses way more battery than typical to try to maintain a cell tower connection. If you have s-off enabled, it reports that it is in (essentially) a diagnostic mode where more functionality/usability data is sent regularly to HTC. If more data is being sent to HTC it's keeping the data active for longer, which combined with Sprint's moderately awful signal makes for a lot of battery being chewed up.
Regularly going s-on/s-off regularly is a real pita to try to determine this, but one test I've done is disable all cell connections and stick solely to around the house wifi (no sprint signal, no phone/sms/mms, not 3g/4g, etc). I hit just a smidge over 5 hours of active screen on time (doing actual internet stuff). If I use wifi as the default connection when available, but leave normal cell signals on, I'll get maybe 2 hours of screen time before a full discharge. If I disable wifi (off, but also all wifi scanning off) and stick with Sprint I'll probably hit 75-80 minutes of screen time (3g). We all know leaving sync on eats up the battery life because data is being kept alive, so this is really just an extension of that.
[completely stock no roms, s-on and s-off at various times, minimal background apps]
I've seen reports of gsm and verizon HTC One users getting 3-4+ hours of screen on time and wondering wtf they are doing to pull it off. Pretty sure Sprint suckage is a large part of it.
While being s-off probably makes it worse, s-on wouldn't matter much because excessive battery is still being used for the radios.
Battery degradation is definitely a factor too, but if my hypothesis is right, poor battery life caused by a bad signal will hasten the demise much more quickly simply because the battery is depleted much more regularly.
It's hard to really test all that, but my anecdotal experiences with different phones and carriers and geography make me consider.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you are dead on with battery life and sprint service. I think along with sprints weak signal, the metal body further degrades connection! One thing im confused about, what feature are you referring to when using s-on & s-off? don't see a connection between those terms and batt life?? (s=security) thx.

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