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XDA orbit 2 battery life for GPS with backlight off

HI
short question:
how many hours can this device work with gps logging when backlight is off.
I just want to log my location during my holiday trips (8~10 hours per day).
I dont use voice notification or any function else, just purely record gps location every 1/5/10 min.
10 hour? possible?

I use a bit of software called mysporttraining with the gps addon when I go running. I use it in conjunction with audio manager (to listen to tunes) with the screen turned off and go for about an hour at a time, although sometimes up to two.
I've not really taken much notice, but it doesn't seem to particularly eat into battering life, and two hour runs don't seem to eat more than 25% of battery life, although like I say, I don't really pay much attention to the battery level.

I've tested it running OZIexplore with GPS enabled, backlight on minimum (not completely off) and the battery charged to 100%, hoping to use it for logging my position in a day hikes. Well, forget about it. It runs for approx. 4 hours that way. You will get 5 hours top with no backlight at all, or something like that.
Maybe someone here can code some kind of program that would wake the device up every 5..15 minutes, wait up to 1 minute for the GPS to get a stable fix (should be much quicker that a minute with the ephemeris data from just 10 minutes ago, right ?), store the coordinates in some kind of log readable by popular applications and go back to standby. Obviously, there is no need to turn the screen on. This should easily give it a run time of a whole day from a single charge.

InfX said:
I've tested it running OZIexplore with GPS enabled, backlight on minimum (not completely off) and the battery charged to 100%, hoping to use it for logging my position in a day hikes. Well, forget about it. It runs for approx. 4 hours that way. You will get 5 hours top with no backlight at all, or something like that.
Maybe someone here can code some kind of program that would wake the device up every 5..15 minutes, wait up to 1 minute for the GPS to get a stable fix (should be much quicker that a minute with the ephemeris data from just 10 minutes ago, right ?), store the coordinates in some kind of log readable by popular applications and go back to standby. Obviously, there is no need to turn the screen on. This should easily give it a run time of a whole day from a single charge.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what a shame.
gps log for 8 hours would be a real all-around device for hiking.
Maybe I should get another battery and boost up life time to 4*2 hours?

I've not got round to putting mysporttraining back on my pda since I got it back (and I tend to get it back quite a lot), but I will in the next couple of days and will try running it from a full battery to see how long it lasts

fishes234 said:
I've not got round to putting mysporttraining back on my pda since I got it back (and I tend to get it back quite a lot), but I will in the next couple of days and will try running it from a full battery to see how long it lasts
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://www.gps-sport.net/forums/thread/487-0/Battery-life-with-Run.GPS-Mp3-player
Hi folks!
people from another forum said there run.gps (gps tracking for jogging app) works 8 hours . Maybe this is the trick:
"
The perfomance of both my batteries was initially poor (3-5 hours), but they improved by 20-40% after I ran them down a few times to near Zero. "
"Just running Run.gps (and the mobile on standby), with the screen and device locked via Windows (I keep it in my pocket when cycling/motorcycling) a battery will last 7-8 hours"
Not too bad!

I should really get my hands on some IDE + SDK for WM6 and/or Polaris, so i could try coding things like those myself. This really shouldn't be very complicated. Adding yourself to the notification queue should be as easy as calling some API or simply writing to registry. There should be plenty of examples on how get the coordinates out of the GPS data stream. The OZI track formats should be easy enough as well. Would EVC4 be good enough, or do i have to load the VS2005/2008 bloatware to be able to code for WM6 ?

acolytelee said:
http://www.gps-sport.net/forums/thread/487-0/Battery-life-with-Run.GPS-Mp3-player
Hi folks!
people from another forum said there run.gps (gps tracking for jogging app) works 8 hours . Maybe this is the trick:
"
The perfomance of both my batteries was initially poor (3-5 hours), but they improved by 20-40% after I ran them down a few times to near Zero. "
"Just running Run.gps (and the mobile on standby), with the screen and device locked via Windows (I keep it in my pocket when cycling/motorcycling) a battery will last 7-8 hours"
Not too bad!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just had a play with this and it looks to have a lot of features. It's a shame it won't continue to work when you press the standby button.
With Mysport training you can fire it up, set audio manager going and switch the phone onto standby and it still tracks your movement. With run.gps it just stops the application.

Just been out for a run.
55 minutes in total, with audio manager playing an mp3 and my sport training running at the same time, with phone in standby.
90% battery at the start and 78% battery at the end.

fishes234 said:
Just been out for a run.
55 minutes in total, with audio manager playing an mp3 and my sport training running at the same time, with phone in standby.
90% battery at the start and 78% battery at the end.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
great, that's 8 hous with gps+mp3. i am so gonna get one of this!!!

This is the main application you need
http://www.vidaone.com/mst_ppc.htm
Plus you need the GPS module
http://www.vidaone.com/mstgps_ppc.htm
I've been using it for the past 18 months or so. It won't do routefinding, but as a simple tool for logging your activity, speed, calories etc as well as weight and BMI etc it does the job fine.
If you have the desktop bit:
http://www.vidaone.com/vodf_win.htm
You can sync to that and see your route overlaid on google maps or mapmyride.
I've never really fully trusted battery meters on phones etc, I'll stick it on this morning and see how long it lasts until the battery runs flat

fishes234 said:
This is the main application you need
http://www.vidaone.com/mst_ppc.htm
Plus you need the GPS module
http://www.vidaone.com/mstgps_ppc.htm
I've been using it for the past 18 months or so. It won't do routefinding, but as a simple tool for logging your activity, speed, calories etc as well as weight and BMI etc it does the job fine.
If you have the desktop bit:
http://www.vidaone.com/vodf_win.htm
You can sync to that and see your route overlaid on google maps or mapmyride.
I've never really fully trusted battery meters on phones etc, I'll stick it on this morning and see how long it lasts until the battery runs flat
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
there is no routefinding? that's a pity.
I suggest run.gps www.rungps.net.
it's really a nice app.
they make new features based on users' request. e.g. they have made a heart rate logger for this app. shame is, so far there is no bluetootch heart rate monitor yet. as soon as it goes on the market, they will make a online-heart-rate monitoring function.
go and try.

Nope, no routefinding, as it's an app that's designed for logging and reviewing your activities rather than the former. It does me as I never get lost and just need it as an easy way of keeping tabs on whether I'm doing enough exercise.
Sounds like Run.gps is more the thing you are looking for.

Right, time for a retraction, it seems that run.gps will work with the phone in standby. Went out for a run today and it worked just fine with the phone switched into standby and mp3s playing. Battery drain looks comparable to mysport training too.
This kind of begs the question of why it wouldn't work on standby before - I had tested it in the car with the phone on the windscreen mount and when I switched it to standby it lost gps signal. The only other difference other than it being in a car is that the headphones weren't plugged in. I don't get it.
Run gps looks like a great program though

Stranger and stranger.
It *seems* that the GPS module continues to work with the orbit in standby when in the car only if the headphones are plugged in. How odd.

When an mp3 is playing, the phone is NOT on standby. Audio player should be the one that prevents the unit from entering standby in this case, that pretty much explains the GPS working as well while listening to audio, but shutting down without it.

Well... I tried it again this lunchtime as things didn't seem to be making sense. This time round it seemed to work with the headphones unplugged, nothing running apart from run.gps and the phone on standby (that is to say, the button at the top of the phone pressed until the display goes off).
Worked fine all afternoon and accurately tracked a bit of driving and sat in the office connected all afternoon and all the way home and into the evening.
With run.gps running all day, three or four phone calls, half a dozen texts and a few emails, plus a bit of browsing t'interweb I got a total of 8 hours and 5 mins before the first low battery warning.

fishes234 said:
Well... I tried it again this lunchtime as things didn't seem to be making sense. This time round it seemed to work with the headphones unplugged, nothing running apart from run.gps and the phone on standby (that is to say, the button at the top of the phone pressed until the display goes off).
Worked fine all afternoon and accurately tracked a bit of driving and sat in the office connected all afternoon and all the way home and into the evening.
With run.gps running all day, three or four phone calls, half a dozen texts and a few emails, plus a bit of browsing t'interweb I got a total of 8 hours and 5 mins before the first low battery warning.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks for such an experiment.
I will drop diamond and get a orbit 2 soon. (my handler offered me a good deal, but I have to wait till the end of this month.)
8Hr gps recording is impressive. diamond is small but I am perfectly confortable with my xda mini, so orbit 2 with similar size and weight must be ok.

Battery life is a lot better without Touchflo 3D

Hello evereybody !
I got my Raphael 2 weeks ago in France ... was very impressed by the device but very disapointed by the battery life.
The machine was able to run for about 1,5 day on one full charge, not more (it's true that i use it quite intensively).
Then, i had the idea to disable completely the touchfo 3D in today screen parameters, and use the original plugins for messages, calendar, task ...
And then i noticed that my battery was draining very slowly ... in fact, now, i can run the Raphael for about 3 days on one full charge, without any additional charge (no sync at all for these 3 days).
It means that without touchflo 3D ... we can have twice the battery life !
I like touchflo 3D, especially the music player ... but i will not use it anymore !

lol 1,5 day for me would be perfect
my batt only lasts 12h with heavy use (10am to 10pm for exemple)
Ill try disable TF3D
edit: how to change the 2 bottom softkeys without touchflo?
I got Calendar and Contacts, I would like Phone and Contacts
is it possible?

i have not used TF3D since day 1 and max I get for the TP is 12 hours - normal use. 6 hrs - power use
Cant imagine if I had TF on ....

Huh ? 12 h ?
How can it be possible ?
Maybe your devices are faulty ?
mine is set up to be conservative on power :
- no wifi
- no bluetooth
- "push" mail every 30 mn
- auto disconnect from data after 1 minute
- auto ajust screen brightness ... ON but it should be event better OFF
And so : 1,5 days with touchflo or 3 days without touchflo

yes some TP have problems with battery, and this is pretty often... there are some threads about this around there...
I disabled the tf3d and seems like its the same.. in just this few hours I got plenty % drained, just like tf3d on.

guys, have you all tried completely draining (until it shuts off) and recharging the phone while turned off for the first several charges? sounds like that's critical for ensuring adequate battery life in the future
I've always done this with everything that runs on batteries, so I never found out how bad the batteries can get, but i guess it's worth a try for you. good luck!

I have the same problems with my TP!

I will have a crack at it without tf3d tomorrow. I have SPB Mobile Shell and I will let you all know how it fares.
As of now my TP has about 24 hours with tf3d:
-3g off
-brightness on 3rd lowest setting
-data connections set to turn off after 10 seconds of inactivity
-email checks every 30 mins
-RSSHub downloads about 50 items or so every 6 hours
-avg 20-30 mins of talk time per day
-1-2 hr browsing time per day
-1-2 hr gaming time per day
-1-2 hr "messing around" per day

totololo said:
Huh ? 12 h ?
How can it be possible ?
Maybe your devices are faulty ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you use pushmail (set to "real push" respectively "as item arrives") in combination with a 3g network. And lets say about 1-2 hours of usage (phone calls, email replys etc) 12 hours is the maximum you can expect. It's my experience too. Unfortunate truth and was the same on TyTN2. I think that's also what respider meant by "heavy usage".
When you disable 3g you can double this time. And when you disable "as item arrives" and set it to about 30min sync interval you can double the time again.

One of the main reasons for me to buy a HTC phone is TF3D, so personally disabling it would make no sense at all. If I had short battery life I would rather buy a couple extra batteries on EBay than use that ridiculously ugly Windows interface.

DeepThought said:
When you use pushmail (set to "real push" respectively "as item arrives") in combination with a 3g network. And lets say about 1-2 hours of usage (phone calls, email replys etc) 12 hours is the maximum you can expect. It's my experience too. Unfortunate truth and was the same on TyTN2. I think that's also what respider meant by "heavy usage".
When you disable 3g you can double this time. And when you disable "as item arrives" and set it to about 30min sync interval you can double the time again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
not actually, I mean using the phone many hours a day: playing games, browsing, installing things, uninstalling others, resetting, etc.
And browsing most time @ hsdpa/edge connection, not wifi.
Omg I dont even want to imagine if I set the phone to get mails as it arrives. I dont even know how to do that

Ah, yes, I see, i forgot to tell you that i use only 3G ... to keep enough battery life ...
I had an iPhone 3G before this device. With 3G and pushmail set to 15 mn, the battery life was a lot better ... let's say about 1,5 to 2 days on the apple phone. But without 3G and pushmail set on 30mn, and without touchflo ... the Rapahael is a lot better than an iPhone in the same conditions ...

euphoria47 said:
I will have a crack at it without tf3d tomorrow. I have SPB Mobile Shell and I will let you all know how it fares.
As of now my TP has about 24 hours with tf3d:
-3g off
-brightness on 3rd lowest setting
-data connections set to turn off after 10 seconds of inactivity
-email checks every 30 mins
-RSSHub downloads about 50 items or so every 6 hours
-avg 20-30 mins of talk time per day
-1-2 hr browsing time per day
-1-2 hr gaming time per day
-1-2 hr "messing around" per day
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With SPB Mobile Shell, I found my battery lasts a lot longer (over 30 hours). I used the phone to surf the web for several hours last night then purposely killed the battery by turning up the brightness to max, etc, even then, I probably managed 6 or 7 hours of active use in total since I charged the phone.
Perhaps tomorrow I could try without SPBMS, just the default windows interface, though even if it saves a ton of battery, the sacrifice in interface probably wouldn't be worth it to me!

i have problems while tethering because it drains even conected and this never happend with my 6700 or 6800, battery also gets hot like crazy

Touch Pro w/o TF3D?
Smaniac said:
One of the main reasons for me to buy a HTC phone is TF3D, so personally disabling it would make no sense at all. If I had short battery life I would rather buy a couple extra batteries on EBay than use that ridiculously ugly Windows interface.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with Smaniac. One major selling point for this generation of HTC (Diamond, Raphael, Blackstone) is the TF3D, disabling seems like backward step in usability. Every handset maker is trying to get into gesture/touch screen as interface, so losing the gesture recognition in TF3D would defeat the purpose of having Raphael imo.

Do you mind posting how you charged your battery when it arrived, and how your charging behaviors are? Although it may be just because in france they have different voltage than in the usa
totololo said:
Hello evereybody !
I got my Raphael 2 weeks ago in France ... was very impressed by the device but very disapointed by the battery life.
The machine was able to run for about 1,5 day on one full charge, not more (it's true that i use it quite intensively).
Then, i had the idea to disable completely the touchfo 3D in today screen parameters, and use the original plugins for messages, calendar, task ...
And then i noticed that my battery was draining very slowly ... in fact, now, i can run the Raphael for about 3 days on one full charge, without any additional charge (no sync at all for these 3 days).
It means that without touchflo 3D ... we can have twice the battery life !
I like touchflo 3D, especially the music player ... but i will not use it anymore !
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

As usual with any battery powered device, i calibrated the battery : charged it fully in one step before to unplug it, then discharged it fully (until the device refused to wake up) in one other step, without plugging it on AC or even USB.
then, began to use it freely ...

totololo said:
Hello evereybody !
I got my Raphael 2 weeks ago in France ... was very impressed by the device but very disapointed by the battery life.
The machine was able to run for about 1,5 day on one full charge, not more (it's true that i use it quite intensively).
Then, i had the idea to disable completely the touchfo 3D in today screen parameters, and use the original plugins for messages, calendar, task ...
And then i noticed that my battery was draining very slowly ... in fact, now, i can run the Raphael for about 3 days on one full charge, without any additional charge (no sync at all for these 3 days).
It means that without touchflo 3D ... we can have twice the battery life !
I like touchflo 3D, especially the music player ... but i will not use it anymore !
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haha if your battery lasts for 1 ½ thats not heavy use.
When I have have day with heavy use I talk around +2 hrs a day + normal email etc. that kind on day Im lucky if my battery lasts to evening.

I have TF3D enabled on mine and my battery seems fine. I listened to a whole basketball game last night using mine streaming it from the web (including 2 overtimes and it lasted), the web site states it's supposed to get 4 hours talk time, I'd say I'm getting about that between phone calls, web usage, push mail enabled, etc

I have TF3D enabled, push mail enbaled, Microsoft Communicator Mobile enabled, 3G enabled, lots of phone calls, no bluetooth, no Wifi, no web browsing, no music, no camera and the battery lasts for roughly 5-6 hours if I am lucky.

3 day battery life on my D2G???

My Droid 2 Global is currently at 2 day 16 hours of uptime since unplugged, standard battery, moderate usage (some gaming, some phone calls, some syncing, some data connection, regular music listening)... and it still shows 40% of battery life left...
So, how did it all start?
I have followed some of the suggestions from the Battery Life Writeup thread
1. froze most of the bloatware in Titanium Backup (except for the Global apps)
2. set screen birghtness to Auto
3. set the battery profile to Custom
4. wifi and data disabled unless i need it, background data on
5. animation - all off
...
6. finally, i flashed the phone to a local CDMA provider, CDMA mode is set to Home Only, and 3G is off unless I need it.
7. i additionally killed and cleared data of the motorola services via built in android app manager
... but that helped only marginally, as I was getting 1.5 days max under minimal use
Until one day... I charge the phone in the morning, use it heavily throughout the day - music + data + phone calls... and it's dead in 12 hours. (( I actually shut off on me in the evening the same day during the phone call... I kinda got frustrated with this phone, since it wouldn't even last through the day when i needed it ....
... so I plugged it in while it was turned off, it charged fully, i unplugged the phone and turned it off before going to bed, now let the WTF begin :
WTF#1: So, I pick the phone up in the morning and it's still @ 100% after like 10 hours of standby (needless to say it usually loses 30% of battery overnight). I am like ok.... must be a batter meter lag.
WTF#2: I use the phone normally for the entire day - phone calls, music player + scrobbling via data connection, some syncing.. and by the end of the day the battery is @ 90%
WTF#3: I pick up the phone next morning after 1.5 day of use and it shows 80% of battery left At this point i start thinking the battery meter is screwed up on me and it will just shut off while @ 70% or something... but that wasn't meant to be.. I seriously start trying to get it discharged - playing games + wifi + syncing + putting in a sim card + checking mail + browsing... and by the end of the day it's only @60%
WTF#3 So, again next morning i pick it up and it's @ 40% of battery. and I have no clue how the hell this happened. right now its approaching 3 full days (2 days, 18 hours) of heavy - moderate use and the battery still shows 40% left.
Any ideas how this could happen? I will try to reproduce it once it finally discharges by letting the battery die completely and charging it while it's turned off. Anyway... your thoughts?

i got similar usage when i wasnt connected to a network i.e. data and wifi was off. i got a full 3 and a half days with minimal usage, turning wifi on when i needed it. with wifi and data on at all times i get about a day and a half of usage.

Plz let us know the outcome
I'm also struggling with batt. life
Sometimes I have to use three batteries per day
(I have many spare batteries just in case I have heavy usage)
It would be great to have three days of battery life!
Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using XDA App

Not sure how you managed the couple days of battery life, but that 100% after 10+ hrs without using the phone is pretty doable. Once you remove the bloatware that is. I can consistently let the phone sit for 10-12hrs and it will at most lose 10% battery life.

If you use your SMARTphone as it was designed, there is no way to get that batt life. If you use it like an old dinosaur nokia(phone calls and texts only no data) then sure, that is possible.
sent from a blackANGEL

Hi guys, just stopping by to update that since my original post I went through a couple of charge-discharge cycles, always getting 2-3 days of battery life, depending on my usage.
So, as you see, it's possible to get this kind of battery life if using the phone as smartphone cause well.. that's what's happening to mine
I will add the additional details I omitted in my original post:
------------------------------------------------------------------
1. set your default launcher to LauncherPro
2. follow the steps in the Battery Life Writeup thread if you haven't yet
3. turn off wifi and data unless you are using it
4. clear your battery stats using Calibrate Battery app
5. discharge your phone completely until it dies (if you have a wall charger)
6. charge it back up while turned off, turn it on once done.
7. force stop & clear data for the following services - (proceed at your own risk lol it didn't break my phone but it might break yours )
- Task Manager (freeze it)
- Bluetooth Share / Bluetooth Dun (if you don't use bluetooth)
- com.motorola.photowidget
- Email Engine (if you don't use email app)
- Home (if you use launcherpro)
- Motorola Services
- Social Messaging Service
- TTS Service (if you don't use tts)
- Voice commands (if you don't use voice commands)
Then, theoretically you should have the same battery life as I do.

Obsessed with getting maximum battery usage for sensation

I would like to create a a definitive guide (best Practices) to get the maximum amount of battery out of the Sensation. Coming from a LG G2x I'm finding this battery is actually equal or worse and since rooting and removing bloatware currenty seems impossible, then customizing this phone has to be within the realm of stock apps and settings..
My Experience
Using Battery monitor widget, I'm typically getting -200 ~ -300 mAh usage whenever the phone is being used, it will drop down to -30 mAh at its lowest in idle, but no where like the G2x of 5-10 mAh or -2mAh for Vibrant (in idle)..
My goal is to have this phone last 24-36 hours regularly (if possible) ... Right now I'm getting 12-18 hours, with moderate use.. 20 ~30 minutes calls..
Here are the steps I've tried to improve life, in order or decreasing effect.
General Tips/Steps to imporve
Turn off All Syncing (use power widget to toggle as needed)
Check Settings >> Accounts & Sync >> [disable auto sync]
Set Screen timeout to 15sec
Set brightness to < 15%
Check Settings >> Power >> Turn on most or all the power saving features in this menu.
Remove (or reduce) number of widgets that need to poll data (includes clock/weather, stocks, social feeds, etc)
Turn off Bluetooth, GPS (when not needed, again use Power widget to toggle)
Enable Wifi calling (yes wifi calling saves battery especially in low 3/4G signal areas)
Use camera sparingly (by far biggest battery hog)
Useful apps or widgets
General apps / widgets and tips to have
Add Power widget to home page (for quick toggling)
Install Battery monitor widget for charting battery usage.
Juicedefender or Green Power from appstore and let them help manage power
Things to share
Please add your suggestions, and tell us your
max. battery time, between re-charges.
What are your battery usage stats , what is the biggest battery drain my in screen 60%
your best practices
Lets all share our best practices..

The best things I've found to improve battery life.. Use Juice Defender pro, and set schedules, let it turn off all the battery hogs...
Dam I wish I could remove the bloatware especially that Navigation package.

wow you are severely gimping your phone to get the most battery life. I'm happy with 12-14 hours with heavy usage

tbrandao said:
I would like to create a a definitive guide (best Practices) to get the maximum amount of battery out of the Sensation. Coming from a LG G2x I'm finding this battery is actually equal or worse and since rooting and removing bloatware currenty seems impossible, then customizing this phone has to be within the realm of stock apps and settings..
My Experience
Using Battery monitor widget, I'm typically getting -200 ~ -300 mAh usage whenever the phone is being used, it will drop down to -30 mAh at its lowest in idle, but no where like the G2x of 5-10 mAh or -2mAh for Vibrant (in idle)..
My goal is to have this phone last 24-36 hours regularly (if possible) ... Right now I'm getting 12-18 hours, with moderate use.. 20 ~30 minutes calls..
Here are the steps I've tried to improve life, in order or decreasing effect.
General Tips/Steps to imporve
Turn off All Syncing (use power widget to toggle as needed)
Check Settings >> Accounts & Sync >> [disable auto sync]
Set Screen timeout to 15sec
Set brightness to < 15%
Check Settings >> Power >> Turn on most or all the power saving features in this menu.
Remove (or reduce) number of widgets that need to poll data (includes clock/weather, stocks, social feeds, etc)
Turn off Bluetooth, GPS (when not needed, again use Power widget to toggle)
Enable Wifi calling (yes wifi calling saves battery especially in low 3/4G signal areas)
Use camera sparingly (by far biggest battery hog)
Useful apps or widgets
General apps / widgets and tips to have
Add Power widget to home page (for quick toggling)
Install Battery monitor widget for charting battery usage.
Juicedefender or Green Power from appstore and let them help manage power
Things to share
Please add your suggestions, and tell us your
max. battery time, between re-charges.
What are your battery usage stats , what is the biggest battery drain my in screen 60%
your best practices
Lets all share our best practices..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Umm... Why exactly do you have a smartphone if you are disabling every single thing that makes it a smartphone? If you want great battery life return the Sensation and buy a phone that does nothing but call and text.
Without disabling anything I am able to get through a 13 hour shift at work with texting all through and internet, youtube, etc during my breaks (~1-1.5 hours) with around 60-70% battery left. Then last week I used GPS with Navigation and screen brightness at 100 for the hour and a half drive home and I still had around 30% battery when I got home. (I was trying to kill the battery on the drive btw). I think all that is pretty damn good for a phone as powerful and with a screen as big as the Sensation.

tbrandao said:
I would like to create a a definitive guide (best Practices) to get the maximum amount of battery out of the Sensation. Coming from a LG G2x I'm finding this battery is actually equal or worse and since rooting and removing bloatware currenty seems impossible, then customizing this phone has to be within the realm of stock apps and settings..
My Experience
Using Battery monitor widget, I'm typically getting -200 ~ -300 mAh usage whenever the phone is being used, it will drop down to -30 mAh at its lowest in idle, but no where like the G2x of 5-10 mAh or -2mAh for Vibrant (in idle)..
My goal is to have this phone last 24-36 hours regularly (if possible) ... Right now I'm getting 12-18 hours, with moderate use.. 20 ~30 minutes calls..
Here are the steps I've tried to improve life, in order or decreasing effect.
General Tips/Steps to imporve
Turn off All Syncing (use power widget to toggle as needed)
Check Settings >> Accounts & Sync >> [disable auto sync]
Set Screen timeout to 15sec
Set brightness to < 15%
Check Settings >> Power >> Turn on most or all the power saving features in this menu.
Remove (or reduce) number of widgets that need to poll data (includes clock/weather, stocks, social feeds, etc)
Turn off Bluetooth, GPS (when not needed, again use Power widget to toggle)
Enable Wifi calling (yes wifi calling saves battery especially in low 3/4G signal areas)
Use camera sparingly (by far biggest battery hog)
Useful apps or widgets
General apps / widgets and tips to have
Add Power widget to home page (for quick toggling)
Install Battery monitor widget for charting battery usage.
Juicedefender or Green Power from appstore and let them help manage power
Things to share
Please add your suggestions, and tell us your
max. battery time, between re-charges.
What are your battery usage stats , what is the biggest battery drain my in screen 60%
your best practices
Lets all share our best practices..
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Sorry but in all due respect this is the dumbest thing I've ever seen. Go buy a feature phone and it'll last as long as you need and do the same thing as your crippled Sensation.

I couldn't agree more. Why buy a smartphone if you are going to shut every single "smart" feature off. It isn't just the OP though. The manufacturers themselves recommend these kind of optimizations in their support pages.
Time to go shopping for a higher capacity battery...

Want the best battery life? Do all that you do... then turn it off for an hour, then on for an hour, then off for an hour, then on for an hour... just keep doing this and you'll DOUBLE your battery life

graffixnyc said:
Want the best battery life? Do all that you do... then turn it off for an hour, then on for an hour, then off for an hour, then on for an hour... just keep doing this and you'll DOUBLE your battery life
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Click to collapse
GENIUS!!!! Or even 2 hours off and 1 hour on! Or 3 off! INFINITE POWER!!!
edit: wow those faces look funny with no spaces between them. I think I'll fix that

I'm just going to enjoy my device features and let the battery drain...

xnifex said:
wow you are severely gimping your phone to get the most battery life. I'm happy with 12-14 hours with heavy usage
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+1
Why have this phone if your gonna cut off its balls. Plug it in when you go to bed....enjoy your Sensation the way it was meant to be enjoyed.....
I get 12-16 hours with fairly heavy use... Fantastic for a device like this.

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BOOM, just increased your battery life to 200%.
Keep one in your wallet, backpack, or wherever convenient.
http://www.amazon.com/HTC-Sensation-T-mobile-Capacity-REPLACEMENT/dp/B0055QKZBS
Seriously, why not just actually use your phone and get a spare battery?

Turning brightness to the lowest setting works wonders. That's about all I've done, and I get 14 hours on average ...sometimes north of 17 hours. In general, if I get more than 12 hours out of my smartphone without disabling anything, I'm satisfied with that. 14, and I'm quite happy.
I tried Green Power free and while it seemed to help a bit, the difference for me was just too negligible to bother.

Just enjoy your for for now til you get sick of messing with it. After your sick of it, then start messing with the battery life. That will give something to do.
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA Premium App

He's just wants to know all the tricks jeez is like a list as well
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA App

When I bought Sensation I was simply conciliated with that I will charge battery every single day. That´s it. Don´t buy a smartphone if you want it to last more than 1,5 day. Let´s stop with this battery obsession and start enjoying this great phone.

I tend to use the smartphone on the go, you know like a cell phone, so I'm not always near a charger, and a cell phone (after all that's one of the things a smartphone should do) typically should last a day or two, and I think its possible... but like anything else this battery hungry device can be guided to being a little more miserly in its power consumption... ..
Just looking for advice.. but I'll take the snarky comments...

tbrandao said:
I tend to use the smartphone on the go, you know like a cell phone, so I'm not always near a charger, and a cell phone (after all that's one of the things a smartphone should do) typically should last a day or two, and I think its possible... but like anything else this battery hungry device can be guided to being a little more miserly in its power consumption... ..
Just looking for advice.. but I'll take the snarky comments...
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Honestly if you want a smartphone and good battery life get a BB. That's the only thing I miss about my BB is the 2 day battery life. Honestly these phones are getting more and more powerful by the day and battery technology needs to catch up. IMO I think they should stop cranking out new phones every month and focus on researching better battery technology then crank them out every month It just seems like phone hardware keeps getting more and more power hungry and batteries are staying the same. I carry a little tiny blade folding charger with me or an extra battery. I tried to find the smallest folding charger I could so I could just throw it in my jeans pocket and not even notice it.

to the OP
to the OP, I like you, have not had the initial good fortune of our Sensation-al brethren. 14-17 hours is a pipe dream cuz my phone, after 4 days, BARELY got me 5 hours of light use. Since you actually asked a question, and were trying to be helpful to others who were/are in your same boat, I will give you what I did. I went from 5 - 9 hours without cutting the mythical "balls" off the phone. lol. Use if you like. (taken from another post).
"unless i am misreading, there are a lot of people with great battery life, but there does not appear to be any serious use of the phone. checking fb twice, a few texts, in standby for several hours and two calls will not put any real stress on it IMO and from my experience. So I really don't know if I can use a lot of examples that I am readings as a true gauge.
I waited to get this phone to use it in its entirety. I got frustrated the other day with my first post in this thread because I got hammered on battery life this weekend and I did NOT do anything and I barely got five hours. So I made a few adjustments (detailed below) and i can say that I am on 9 hours/ 20 mins on one charge. I have 18% battery left. My stats:
display 80% (3 hours / 12 minutes time on)
cell standby 9%
calls 4%
phone idle 3%
maps 2%
I text, sent picture mail, used maps (with gps on), had pulse, fb, twitter, gmail and friendcaster sync'd in the background, took several pics and uploaded them, used tap-a-talk to read xda posts, and facebooked. From 5 hours to 9 - I'll take it. I am still not where i want to be, but this is the first day that i felt good about having this phone as my primary device. I hope to get to upwards of 14 hours like i see here in this thread. to get here today i had to do several things to improve my odds.
1. i did not want the signal jumping around so WCDMA only
2. installed advance task killer and set it to "when screen off" and "crazy."
3. installed ultimate juice defender.
4. dropped screen brightness to 80%
I will continue to drain the battery to almost nothing and let it fully charge. I will report back any positive or negative results."

[Tutorial] How to get 14hours of Screen On Time!

I'm in HAVOC 2.0 OFFICIAL (Pie), but it will work with ANY custom rom. If you don't have the 1st option Smart Pixels in "Havoc Settings" ('cause you're using another Custom Rom) you can use the app: "Pixoff: Battery Saver" or similar...
Tutorial>>>>>
1 - Havoc Settings > Screen > Turn on Smart Pixels (62% of pixels disabled), and increase the brightness just a little to compensate.
2 - Use Greenify along with Greenify4Magisk module to freeze all GCM apps.. But you can just disable GCM and other stuff in "MyAndroidTools Pro" by yourself decreasing the need of freezing unnecessary apps... but you have to understand how android works or you will break your system (USE WITH CAUTION). (A 1 million dollar tip here: Disable things like "analytics", "gms", "GCM" (if you're not finding those words tick this icon "<-->" to expand the service names..
P.S.: Only play with Third Party apps... Don't mess with system apps!
3 - Use Naptime to make Doze mode work properly...
4 - Use AfWall+ to block all apps that don't use internet to leak data and hog your battery unnecessarily.
Extra Magisk modules I'm using:
- AdGuardDNS Adblocker (unofficial)
- Sysconfig Patcher (sp) helps to doze Google Play Services and system apps that hogs battery...
- Swap Torpedo -> to SPEED memory.. my old devices 1gb ram runs blazing fast with this and it works so f**cking good in Note 5 aswell..
* You can turn all animations off systemwide and your experience will be better IMHO
You can tell me if it worked or not.. But I'm getting 14hours of SCREEN ON TIME. :victory::laugh:
In the screenshot below I was in 7h39mins of Screen On Time with 50%... I'm just sharing all these stuff 'cause I finally manage to have a GREAT battery life. I used to mess with Amplify app once and didn't have so good experiences (Phone app missing calls and whatsapp doesn't showing notifications), but maybe someone else manage to get a better SOT than mine, using it properly..
https://imgur.com/oT0FXAy

Nice share
But usually the SOT is not the similar that you would get from 100 to 50 % battery and from 50 to 0 % battery. So it's not fair to say the SOT would double by sharing a screenshot of 100 to 50 % of usage.

Kirankj1724 said:
Nice share
But usually the SOT is not the similar that you would get from 100 to 50 % battery and from 50 to 0 % battery. So it's not fair to say the SOT would double by sharing a screenshot of 100 to 50 % of usage.
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If my usage will keep the same (4G always on: Whatsapp + Opera (facebook site mainly) + Instagram + editing photos on Snapseed + gallery), my estimated SOT is 12-14 hours.. I will post a new 100% test screenshot to prove you.
I mean, if the mAh consumption will keep the same over the same kind of usage, it's easy to trace a statistic number over it. Ok ok.. You want proof, just test it and tell me.. I had to plug the phone in PC to install some last apks.. But tonight was my final installs and tomorrow I will test it from 100% to almost 0%

Getting 11 hours of SOT on Revolution OS & Insigniux kernel and no tweaks at all. My usage consists of a lot of YouTube, reading books on the Kindle app, playing some games, and the usual social media (whatsapp, twitter, instagram). I also listen to a lot of music via bluetooth headset (about 5 hours per day). The phone lasts almost 2 days with such a usage. So yeah, I think this is more than enough for the average user such as myself, no need for all the hassle you posted above. It's really unnecessary.At this point, this is just turning to a "who has the best SOT" battle. Even 7/8 hours of SOT is something great for this device, while 800/1000$ flagships are struggling to push over 5 hours of SOT.

Thanks a lot for the time spent writing this. Would you have more information about the firmware and kernel you're using ?

First, to everyone that read OP, realize there are some inaccuracies. Sorry man.
Smart pixel settings and apps like PixOff only save battery for OLED displays. HAVOK OS is available for multiple devices and this feature is beneficial for devices with OLED displays, but does not make a difference to LCDs.
Our phone has an LCD display which cannot actually "turn off" a pixel . It consumes the same amount of battery no matter what color it displays. Display brightness makes the biggest difference in display battery consumption.
So by turning on "smart pixel" and increasing the brightness you are actually HURTING your battery life overall.
Secondly, you only tested from 100-50%. You will ALWAYS get vastly more battery life from the top 50% than the bottom, because batteries voltage does not drop linearly, it is chemical reaction that is actually quite hard to measure accurately.
There have been many times where I was "getting 14-15 hours SOT" in the top half, but then watch as your battery drops from 40-20 from only 1 hour of light use. I can almost promise you this guy won't actually get more than 11 hours by the time he hits 0.
Use it from 100-0 at least 10 times , showing 13-14 hours of SOT and I will actually believe you are on to something.

On MiUI 9.5.17.0 I already can achieve close to 14 hours SOT, but that is within 1 day 10 hours usage. Usually I get 11-13 hours only within 1+ day usage. On AOSP, specificly RR 6.2.0, I easily reach 4-5 hours SOT by 70% (which I usually charge it already), 15 hours if interpolated to 2 days usage. 10 hours SOT is almost guaranteed. Last test is 13 hours SOT within 2 days 2 hours. If you want to see what is the configuration and usage, just check the link. I prefer to state my configuration and usage during the test, to show any possible different variable.
1. SmartPixel AFAIK is useless in IPS LCD. I would prefer the full maximum resolution as not to downgrade my user experience
2. I don't use any greenify, simply use the battery optimization from android. I whitelist several apps : Automagic, GMD gesture, Whatsapp, MiXplorer. I never clean my recent/RAM. I remove the "nuke button" from the configuration.
4. I don't know starting from which version, but since Nougat 7.0+, we have the setting to restrict data usage for each app in the app info. I simply create a flow to automagically open the app info everytime I install new app and decide whether to restrict the internet usage or not.
For ads, I just use hosts based - adaway. I don't limit play services, just let it run normally. I don't tweak much on the RAM side, but I adjust the minfree on every reboot (using automagic) to the lower value than default by RR. This is to let more apps stay on RAM as long as possible.
I don't want to limit the phone's perfomance to ridiculous level. Smartphone are meant to be used. The battery used is the proof we enjoy technology. Of course if the drain is unusual and wasted, we have to troubleshoot and find the culprit, as I have done in the wifi deep sleep drain bug. But other than those exception, I want the full user experience I can get from my phone.
SOT Variation
SOT is kinda non standard way to measure the usage. It varies depends on the user habit and usage behaviour. I am using dual SIM with good signal in most of the time, no microsd. Common usage :
- idle with no internet : 0,3-0,4%/hour
- idle with wifi : 0,5%/hour
- idle with LTE : 0,6-0,7%/hour
- Screen on dim (brightness < 10%) : 5%/hour (outside of idle drain)
- screen on bright (brighntess > 80%) : 10%/hour (outside of idle drain)
- Play game : Depends on game, it can consume 8-20%/hour
Using basic math, If 25% are used for the idle with wifi, I can get 25% / 0,5%/hour = 50 hours usage. 75% for screen dimmed, I can get 75% / 5%/hour = 15 hours. So 15 hours SOT is possible within 2 days usage. This interpolate nicely with my 70% 4-5 hours SOT.
But If I use the phone outdoor and the brightness increase, I can only get half of that, 7,5 hours SOT only within the same 2 days. Or maybe 9 hours SOT within 20 hours usage. If I have bad signal, it will reduce even further, 5-6 hours SOT only. Playing heavy game (PUBG) usually reduce the SOT by half too. So playing PUBG in dimmed brightness will consume 10%/hour and in brighter, 20%/hour. Increasing/decreasing the graphic also modify the drain per hour. Usually playing heavy game result in max 5-7 hours SOT only. But sometimes I can still get projected SOT around 10 hours, depends on what game I play and how many hours I played it.
Taking it to the extreme, we can spare 10% for the wifi idle, giving 20 hours usage and 90% for screen, giving 18 hours SOT. Which mean we can achieve 18 hours SOT within 20 hours usage. I am quite addicted to the phone. I use it for browsing, learning language, reading ebook, watching video, designing flow in automagic, usually without any gaming. But even then, it is very difficult to use the phone straight for 18 hours within those 20 hours (without gaming).
It is very difficult for me in usual daily activity to test the battery life till 1%. I usually have to plugged the phone for screen mirroring or transfer data. It will skew the battery usage then. I also usually just charge the phone at around 60-70, sometimes higher, sometimes lower.
At this kind of battery life and perfomance (SD636), I am very happy with current usage without the need to tweak so much again. Just use your phone as usual and only troubleshoot the battery life if something drain too much without doing anything useful. Enjoy your smartphone.