Battery Tips

[firedancer1189]

Alright,

So up until today my phone wasn't activated but AT&T finally transitioned from Alltel and my Focus went from a WIFI only device to a fully functional phone.

Over the last few months I have read that one of the few drawbacks of the Focus is the battery life isn't the greatest, especially coming from a Blackberry like myself. Being on WIFI only I thought the battery was pretty solid and there wasn't a huge difference between the Focus and Blackberry as far as battery life goes.

Well......since it was activated as a fully functional phone I take that back. It's certainly not a deal breaker for me and I absolutely love the phone but I can tell a huge difference. It must be the constant 3G data transfer and email syncing etc. I don't do a ton of talking on my phones and to be honest, text and email much more then I use the phone for voice calls. I sold phones for awhile and know that voice calls eat your battery up faster than anything else.

I vaguely recall a few other threads with battery saving tips but I can't remember them all and frankly am just too lazy to go searching through all the threads looking for them again.
I know you can change the email sync settings to manual etc but if anyone else wants to contribute a few tips I would appreciate it.

 

[Goodeye]

Have you updated to nodo, and the pre-nodo updates? I recall the constant data connection issues were supposed to be resolved in these updates.

 

[cdook]

You can disable 3G, turn off automatic syncing for OneNote and the People, Games, Zune hubs. You can turn down the brightness, turn off 3G, GP, etc. I personally just keep a charger handy, I like having all the features available.

 

[jimski]

You can do all the things GaMMa suggests, but what fun would that be. I am more interested in knowing your setup before/after you phone went online. Like how many mail accounts, what frequency of sync, any "push" live tiles or other auto update features.

Ran some tests a few months back and think we concluded that WiFi does turn off after about 30-45 seconds when the screen is off, even with data disabled, unless you are plugged into a power source, so WiFi probably equaled 0 updates in the background.

I keep WiFi running 24/7 as it actually seems to be more battery efficient than my not too stellar data connection, but I still average 4MB/day data for all the background activities. Data is also on 24/7. Wondered how much battery data is consuming. Based on your comments, guess its quite a bit.

Sent from my HTC Surround using Board Express

 

[enahs555]

When your phone locks, it turns Wifi off to save battery I believe. So during that time period, it is using 3G to do all the background stuff then.

For me, and I do a lot on my phone all day, except talking, the battery rarely goes below 50%.

Truthfully, the thing that effects the battery the most is how good of a network signal you have, regardless of if you are using the network or not. It is designed to keep a good signal, so you know, you can get phone calls and texts. If you are in a place where you get good reception, it does not require to do so, but if you are in a low reception area, it requires much more power to maintain a good reception. And if you are in an area where you go in and out of reception, man, it goes into full power search mode when you lose that reception looking for that signal, and will eat through the battery like crazy.


I did some tests.
At work, my reception is so bad, that when I am not using the phone I have to put it on the window seal when I am not using it so it maintains a good connection and does not waste battery. If I leave it on my desk, I lose signal, it goes to high power mode, finds it, then slowly lowers the power to conserve power until it eventually loses signal, and goes back. Leaving on my desk, even with data turned off, my battery will be past 50% in ~6 hours. Leaving it on window seal, does not even drop past ~90% by end of work day.

 

[firedancer1189]

Thanks for all the replies guys.

I appreciate the tips. I guess it's kinda the old cliche of "you can't have your cake and eat it too" meaning yeah I can turn everything off but than it basically goes from a WP7 device to your average every day phone.

I do have the NoDo update installed and I have wifi turned off. I have actually found 3G to be as fast or faster then wifi and also have a unlimited data plan so waiting for wifi to connect etc is more or less pointless.

As far as reception goes, where I live is blanketed extremely well. I am in a market where AT&T acquired all of Alltel's towers and I have to say I have much better coverage then any of my buddies on Verizon in the area. In fact, I literally can step out my front door and see an AT&T tower about 40 yards away. It's extremely rare I ever fall below half signal unless I am in the basement of a place and even then it's rare.

Like I said before, it's not a deal breaker for me. I love the phone and all of my Verizon buddies are actually quite jealous. I have even had my friends with iPhones admit envy towards mine....something I thought I would never ever hear. It's rare I am not near a place I can charge my phone so I will continue to use this battery hog!!

Thanks again for all the replies!

 

[danielm298]

today my focus went BLANK>>>>> was on 3g and wifi and google voice texting: played some videos and was sending pics on mms.... then all of a sudden, the phone goes blank when i was talking to a buddy of mine...it scared me cuz it didnt want to boot back up: so i reached for my charger and plug her right in....about 10 mins later i had the battery signal on my front screen, boy was i glad to see that.Tried to charge it with the car charger, but that only gives out a trickle. got home and plug up the wall charger...about 2 hrs later she was charged 1/2 way...moral of the story and also something i learned...turn off 3g if u have wifi available: watch ur battery indicator....

dm
atlanta ga

ssf ( samsung focus) with nodo update

 

[jimski]

Sure wish I could turn off 3G on my Surround. Would save me a bunch of battery when using WiFi. Can't think of one reason to not include this option on every phone.

Sent from my HTC Surround using Board Express

 

[Adiliyo]

When your phone locks, it turns Wifi off to save battery I believe. So during that time period, it is using 3G to do all the background stuff then.

For me, and I do a lot on my phone all day, except talking, the battery rarely goes below 50%.

Truthfully, the thing that effects the battery the most is how good of a network signal you have, regardless of if you are using the network or not. It is designed to keep a good signal, so you know, you can get phone calls and texts. If you are in a place where you get good reception, it does not require to do so, but if you are in a low reception area, it requires much more power to maintain a good reception. And if you are in an area where you go in and out of reception, man, it goes into full power search mode when you lose that reception looking for that signal, and will eat through the battery like crazy.


I did some tests.
At work, my reception is so bad, that when I am not using the phone I have to put it on the window seal when I am not using it so it maintains a good connection and does not waste battery. If I leave it on my desk, I lose signal, it goes to high power mode, finds it, then slowly lowers the power to conserve power until it eventually loses signal, and goes back. Leaving on my desk, even with data turned off, my battery will be past 50% in ~6 hours. Leaving it on window seal, does not even drop past ~90% by end of work day.

took me a little while to figure out you were talking about a windowsill, i was like, what window seal? like on your computer or something?

but like others have said, being in an area with weak reception will kill your battery super fast, that and on this screen bright images will also kill battery faster than dark ones, so if you are for example using the light theme, your battery will drain faster than if you were using the dark theme.

 

[synjun]

Im not sure how much each manufacture changes the setting options but on my Focus turning off Data connection and dont roam seems to help battery and reduces 3G use. Settings, cellular off data when home, and same page dont roam

 

[jimski]

Im not sure how much each manufacture changes the setting options but on my Focus turning off Data connection and dont roam seems to help battery and reduces 3G use. Settings, cellular off data when home, and same page dont roam

But turning off "data" stops all background tasks like email and live tile updates. I just want to turn off my 0-2 bar 3G connection during the day and rely on Edge for simple text downloads and WiFi for the heavy loads when my phone is awake. When I actualy needed 3G I would turn it on. Would save me a bunch of battery during the day.


Sent from my HTC Surround using Board Express

 

[danielm298]

change the brightness to low. turn off the phone locater in the settings, turn on or off the wifi and data connection: im learning that if u have the data on all the time, it sucks ur battery dry: so if u have wifi, use it: just remember to turn it on(data connection) if you are going to send a mms. in maps turn off the locator,in games turn off ebox live, TURN OFF bluetooth if you are not using it. I seen a lot of co-workers not knowing that the BT is on allll the time.Turn off location. turn off FIND MY PHONE..turn off turn off turn off...dang just dont turn your phone on PERIOD JK.... i did all the things i listed and end up with 40% left for battery at the end of my day. I use my phone alot for work..so i needed some battery advise also. So i hope this helps

dm
atlanta ga
5-23-2011
945pm

 

[jimski]

Well damn, that sounds like a pretty crappy experience. How about getting another charger. I will not turn my screen to low (can't see anything), and will not turn off location, data or anything else, to compromise my user experience. That's just silly. Pick up a 3000 mAh USB charger and you will always have two full battery charges within a few inches of your phone.

Turning off 3G while using WiFi is just saving energy, not compromising my experience. In fact, my WiFi connection is 3X better than 3G.

Sent from my HTC Surround using Board Express

 

[Adiliyo]

batteries are so cheap on ebay, so if you don't want a gimped experience, just leave it on and buy some extra batteries and a battery charger.

problem solved

 

[jimski]

batteries are so cheap on ebay, so if you don't want a gimped experience, just leave it on and buy some extra batteries and a battery charger.

problem solved

True, although those knockoff batteries usually suck (I have tried a couple). But changing the battery in my Surround is a PITA; pull off hard shell, carefully pry off back cover, pull battery, reverse. I have a spare but only switch it out every 3 months just to balance. The USB chargers are portable enough to walk around with. What I really want is a 2000-2200mAh battery with a new back cover. If I dumped the hard shell, thickness would probably be about the same but I would have 60-75% more juice. Only thing available today is the 3900mAh Mugen and that's a beast.

Don't understand why OEMs don't release extended batteries/back covers the same time they release a phone. Would definitely sell enoug to justify the cost. Putting something out 9-12 months after launch (maybe) is usually too late to justify the expense.

Sent from my HTC Surround using Board Express

 

[Adiliyo]

i agree that a charger is generally more convenient and simple. i had bought some batteries for my droid incredible from ebay, and while they didn't last as long as the OEM battery, they did come in handy in a pinch when i wasn't near a power source.

for the ~$10 they seem to run on ebay (with a charger) it doesn't seem like too bad of an investment if you can swap one out that one time you really needed to use your phone and it was dead...

i did see a few samsung branded ones (whether they were real or not is another question) that were going for not too much as well...

 

[danielm298]

To respond to my previous post: i am at 87% from 100% this morning.. i had 3g on all day from 730 to about 7pm, then turn wifi on at 730 till now ( 1030pm) used my phone normally. actually just had a 30min phone call with a friend of mine. At work i text, Facebook, browse the web and streamed some videos, sent about 5 or 6 mms... battery running great

 

[jimski]

To respond to my previous post: i am at 87% from 100% this morning.. i had 3g on all day from 730 to about 7pm, then turn wifi on at 730 till now ( 1030pm) used my phone normally. actually just had a 30min phone call with a friend of mine. At work i text, Facebook, browse the web and streamed some videos, sent about 5 or 6 mms... battery running great

Ok, so let me get this straight. You used 13% of your battery with 3G on for 11.5 hours, WiFi on for 3 hours, 30min phone call, texts, streamed video, email & browsing. And you never plugged your phone into a USB or other power source all day. Most WP phones have 4-5 hours of talk (talk or screen on) time, so assuming 5 hours (giving you the benefit) you talked or had the screen in for 39 minutes. Minus your 30 minute call, that's 9 minute of uptime for the day. What phone and what battery, cause I don't believe it. Sorry. Even a Mugen 3900mAh would have consumed more than 13%, probably closer to 25%

Sent from my HTC Surround using Board Express

 

[danielm298]

believe it or not, the story is true...