[Q] ASUS Transformer Prime - how to maximize battery life - Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime

Hello,
my name is Udi and I have a new Transformer Prime. I wanted to ask how do you maximize the battery life? from all aspects - is overcharging right? is full discharging right? etc.
thanks!

The single biggest improvement will come from going into the advanced WiFi settings and setting WiFi to turn off when the screen is off.
Also you should run using balanced or power saver performance modes unless you plan on running an intensive app like a game.
Aside from that normal things like turning down screen brightness, disabling GPS and setting your accounts to sync every hour (or more) rather than every 15 minutes can do wonders for extending battery life.

Related

How to improve battery life on Folio 100?

Greetings,
I guess this question is not new, and is covered in several other topics, but nevertheless I will like to ask by what means Folio battery can be saved and how battery life could be improved?
Regards,
Bastospn
I'm not sure if what I suggest is good, but my tips are:
1. Don't use unnecessary widget
2. Don't always turn on Wifi and bluetooth when you're not using them
3. Don't always charge the battery when it's not about to drained (I only charge when the battery level is below 10% or even more extreme as 5%...)
And I think best way to maintain a good battery life is to use DC adapter (with battery taken out) when you're near to a power socket (at home for example). Only use battery when you have to move around. That way you can reduce the recharge cycle and don't need to worry much about battery life
By the way, just a quick check, how long can your Folio battery last in a full charge? (with all settings to highest, like brightness, wifi + surfing net?) Mine can last for about 5-6 hours.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is about to release its 2nd-gen tablet with battery rating about 3 times higher than our Toshiba Folio tablet...
I read that putting tablet into flight mode(and thus deactivating some phone features) can help.... If wifi is needed -one can just re-enable it in settings...
Can anyone comment this ?
sader0 said:
I read that putting tablet into flight mode(and thus deactivating some phone features) can help.... If wifi is needed -one can just re-enable it in settings...
Can anyone comment this ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It helps A LOT. Wi-fi seems to drain this device a lot even tho there's not much data transfer. Battery use reports insane percentages for wi-fi on my device at least.
And no need to go to settings, just create a widget for wi-fi activation
Also :
- use a non-animated background
- kill the apps you don't need

Post your battery life reports - how long did it run?

After some searching, I can't find a thread dedicated to *just* battery life reports.
Lots of discussion and long rants/stories/theories/anecdotes/etc/etc.
Please answer just the facts:
Just TF201 Tablet or TF201 Tablet & Dock
From what to what including Dock values if applicable
Example: 100% (tablet/dock combined) to 15%tablet/30% dock, etc. etc.
How long: number of hours ran
Usage notes: what you're doing, idle, tasks, screen brightness, tricks etc.
Please just the facts
------------------------
HOW? use this free app to measure tablet/dock battery life:
https://market.android.com/details?id=org.flexlabs.widgets.dualbattery&hl=en
robomo said:
After some searching, I can't find a thread dedicated to *just* battery life reports.
Lots of discussion and long rants/stories/theories/anecdotes/etc/etc.
Please answer just the facts:
Just TF201 Tablet or TF201 Tablet & Dock
From what to what including Dock values if applicable
Example: 100% (tablet/dock combined) to 15%tablet/30% dock, etc. etc.
How long: number of hours ran
Usage notes: what you're doing, idle, tasks, screen brightness, tricks etc.
Please just the facts
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have been using my TP docked all day. woke up this morning at like 9 with 100 on both dock + tablet and have been watching anime since . It's 8 now and my dock is 0 and my tablet is about to die as well. I'm at about 40% brightness, I was expecting better battery life though.
Sent for my Transformed Transformer Prime :>
I get about 4-5 hours use from it doing simple tasks in low power mode.... 12 hours is a lie, if i use it on and off i can make it almost al day but that is with very minimal usage.
So i say u get about 5 hours low power mode and like 3-4 hours in normal mode ( nonstop usage).
jzen: I suggest you rma for that battery life, I have a lot of issues with the prime but battery is not one of them.
robomo:
tf201no dock, 100% charge, 80% superips brightness. gps off bt off, wifi on.
playing shadowgun thd, and watching netflix lasts me about 7 to 8 hours (full usage as passenger, no breaks except 5 min bio stops etc) on my ride from reno to las vegas using my droidx hotspot for wifi net while playing shadowing thd in dead spots.
rooted ics, stock cpu frequency no special tricks.
Here's my most recent battery report. Been using it for a little bit of everything, videos, music streaming, some games, other miscellaneous apps.
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using xda premium
Tablet only
100% to 74%
2.5 hours
Wi-fi on, gps/sync/bluetooth off... eco-mode with backlight way down and streaming Internet radio (screen forced on whole time)
I ran mine pretty hard yesterday.
12.5 hours from 100% to 7%.
No dock, all tablet.
Watched some Dexter on Netflix, Recorded Video, used max brightness, power save, full power etc.
Surfed, Streamed, GTAIII, you name it. Used Bluetooth while streaming / gaming.
That is far more than i would ever do in a normal day.
Gotta say I am happy. My Tab 10.1 only lasted about 5-6 hours under similar load.
I guess if I averaged out each day with normal use I'm getting between 9 and 10hours in normal mode with the screen at 50 to 75% brightness. I do a lot of gaming and surfing. Since my Prime is new I'm still am doing a lot of customization. That will tail off a bit and I suspect my battery life should go up a bit. I have not rooted yet though. When I do charge it takes about 2 hours to go from under 10% to 100% on the wall charger and it turned off. I'm real happy with that.
Try this one on for size!!!
Here is my battery usage...though I will say that I am testing it for a battery spike usage so I did not use my prime at all during this time period...and you can see the issue I am having with the spike...but this is after a full charge with minimal use of just the browser from time to time....I am curious if anyone else is seeing this kind of battery spikes:
100%-29%
6 hours - at this rate I'd get roughly 8.5-9 hours out of a total charge
Tablet only, power save mode, screen forced on, low brightness, wifi on, bluetooth/gps off, streaming internet radio...
Tablet + Dock
100% tablet/100% dock to 7% tablet/0% dock
12 hours
listening to music, running TuneIn radio app in the background over wifi, screen forced on, lowest brightness.
bluetooth/sync/gps off.
Playing games, music playback, stream videos from desktop, youtube. prime only. About 7-8 hours on power saving/screen brightness 2 notch up from lowest.
Cheers!
Moderate usage juat tablet
23hr 67% left
sent from my AL60R!THM Atrix
I don't mean to go off topic (I will update this post with my battery info with dock after I go through another charge)
does anyone have bad idle with the dock after ICS? I lose 1% every 2 hours when its just sitting there screen off in sleep mode wifi off
slayer69 said:
Here is my battery usage...though I will say that I am testing it for a battery spike usage so I did not use my prime at all during this time period...and you can see the issue I am having with the spike...but this is after a full charge with minimal use of just the browser from time to time....I am curious if anyone else is seeing this kind of battery spikes:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Frequently, battery "spikes" are just where there's no data for a moment--in otherwords, if you reboot your Prime, during the reboot there's a gap in the battery recording data that then looks like a spike on the graph. It could be that.
Sure the prime can idle for 2 days or more but if your interested in actual batter life during use it is realistically about 6 hours of battery life on just the prime. The dock will help you to get another 4-6 hours.
Again, non-stop usage you will get around 6 hours battery life (gaming and netflix).
jzen said:
Sure the prime can idle for 2 days or more but if your interested in actual batter life during use it is realistically about 6 hours of battery life on just the prime. The dock will help you to get another 4-6 hours.
Again, non-stop usage you will get around 6 hours battery life (gaming and netflix).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can constantly get 8 hours non stop usage out of mine with about 7-10% remaining.....just because something happens to you that doesn't mean we are all wrong or lying..at some point you need to realize the common denominator is you
Sent from my PG86100 using xda premium
THERE is no denying the battery life on this device is Great. WAY better than my Ipad with same type of usage. PRIME was rated at the top of tablets in battery life. Only a lil bit behind ipad2 but more than ipad1. IT clearly has the best battery life of any android tablet out there. AMAZING considering its also the most powerful tablet out now also.
demandarin said:
THERE is no denying the battery life on this device is Great. WAY better than my Ipad with same type of usage. PRIME was rated at the top of tablets in battery life. Only a lil bit behind ipad2 but more than ipad1. IT clearly has the best battery life of any android tablet out there. AMAZING considering its also the most powerful tablet out now also.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It kicks Chuck Norris' ass, straight up
12 hours of 100% screen on+wifi is a *tremendous* amount of battery life in a netbook-type form factor with the dock. There's only a few that could possibly come close, but not without sacrificing weight, size or horsepower or cost - $650 is simply amazing for this kind of device....especially now that Ubuntu has been formally chrooted onto it.
But usage styles, manufacturing defects, you name it, will influence battery life.
One guy reported only getting 4-5 hours of solid tablet-only battery life, which sounds like a manufacturing defect.
I'm also extremely interested in getting a baseline "real" number - sounds like 8-9hours is 'bout right for wifi/screen on 100%
Can't wait to start tweaking the hell out of it's software wise, underclocking, smart radio on-off.
I really believed ASUS' 18 hour battery life claim, however I'm curious what it's going to take in real life.
A lot of guys will overclock the Tegra3 for more performance - they're already doing that.
I'm the opposite - give me as little clock as possible and max out the battery life - I *really* geek out when I can eek out another hour
robomo said:
It kicks Chuck Norris' ass, straight up
12 hours of 100% screen on+wifi is a *tremendous* amount of battery life in a netbook-type form factor with the dock. There's only a few that could possibly come close, but not without sacrificing weight, size or horsepower or cost - $650 is simply amazing for this kind of device....especially now that Ubuntu has been formally chrooted onto it.
But usage styles, manufacturing defects, you name it, will influence battery life.
One guy reported only getting 4-5 hours of solid tablet-only battery life, which sounds like a manufacturing defect.
I'm also extremely interested in getting a baseline "real" number - sounds like 8-9hours is 'bout right for wifi/screen on 100%
Can't wait to start tweaking the hell out of it's software wise, underclocking, smart radio on-off.
I really believed ASUS' 18 hour battery life claim, however I'm curious what it's going to take in real life.
A lot of guys will overclock the Tegra3 for more performance - they're already doing that.
I'm the opposite - give me as little clock as possible and max out the battery life - I *really* geek out when I can eek out another hour
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well you know since we rooted already, you can use system tuner pro to manually lower the Max speed to increase battery life even more. It also has some presets n there which I think it has its own power savings mode also. It might even be better than Asus
Power savings mode. Haven't tried it out yet.

Battery Usage Patterns

I thought I'd start a thread to track battery usage patterns, to see if we can identify some consistent... well... patterns across Primes. This is NOT meant to be a complaint thread, but rather to simply indicate how much battery is used per hour for given use cases. I realize there are bound to be many variations (e.g., how often email syncs, how many accounts are syncing, how much Flash is running, etc.), so I'm looking to just see if people are having the same range of experiences in terms of battery life.
Note: I believe that there's still quite a bit of tweaking to be done on how the Tegra 3 manages processor states. I think it spends too much time at higher states for some things, particularly browsing.
This is what I've found to be fairly consistent. All results are on lowest screen brightness except where noted, Balanced mode, undocked, in good wifi range, and running .15.
1. Standby (with wifi connected and background sync running): .3%-.5%/hour.
2. Light use (ebook reading, email, calendar, task managers, etc.): 7.5%-10%/hour.
3. Video (e.g., HBO Go in the browser, YouTube, Netflix): 10%-15%/hour, with brightness at about 30%.
4. Browsing (with Flash on-demand and moderately used, stock browser): 15%/hour consistently. Includes apps that use the browser, such as Google Reader.
5. Gaming (pretty much any game, from Angry Birds to Shadowgun): 30%/hour consistently.
6. IPS+ Mode and full brightness, light use: 30%/hour. IPS+ mode is a killer, but worth it to me for sunlight visibility when I need it.
For me, battery use is quite acceptable across all use cases except browsing. It makes little sense to me that viewing video (with higher brightness to boot, and including video running in the browser) would use less battery life than browsing--perhaps they've charged up processor speeds when the browser runs to overcome some inherent performance issues with it?
If you've made note of any consistent battery usage patterns like this, please report them in this thread.
These results are consistent with my experience, probably closer to 20% on the browser %. I'm also surprised at how quickly the browser uses up my battery. I've tried using different browsers and have noticed no appreciable difference. I've also set everything to manual sync, except for Gmail. I use the balanced mode with screen brightness set to approx. 30%. I almost never use Flash when browsing.
Nobody else wants to weigh in?
wynand32 said:
I thought I'd start a thread to track battery usage patterns, to see if we can identify some consistent... well... patterns across Primes. This is NOT meant to be a complaint thread, but rather to simply indicate how much battery is used per hour for given use cases. I realize there are bound to be many variations (e.g., how often email syncs, how many accounts are syncing, how much Flash is running, etc.), so I'm looking to just see if people are having the same range of experiences in terms of battery life.
Note: I believe that there's still quite a bit of tweaking to be done on how the Tegra 3 manages processor states. I think it spends too much time at higher states for some things, particularly browsing.
This is what I've found to be fairly consistent. All results are on lowest screen brightness except where noted, Balanced mode, undocked, in good wifi range, and running .15.
1. Standby (with wifi connected and background sync running): .3%-.5%/hour.
2. Light use (ebook reading, email, calendar, task managers, etc.): 7.5%-10%/hour.
3. Video (e.g., HBO Go in the browser, YouTube, Netflix): 10%-15%/hour, with brightness at about 30%.
4. Browsing (with Flash on-demand and moderately used, stock browser): 15%/hour consistently. Includes apps that use the browser, such as Google Reader.
5. Gaming (pretty much any game, from Angry Birds to Shadowgun): 30%/hour consistently.
6. IPS+ Mode and full brightness, light use: 30%/hour. IPS+ mode is a killer, but worth it to me for sunlight visibility when I need it.
For me, battery use is quite acceptable across all use cases except browsing. It makes little sense to me that viewing video (with higher brightness to boot, and including video running in the browser) would use less battery life than browsing--perhaps they've charged up processor speeds when the browser runs to overcome some inherent performance issues with it?
If you've made note of any consistent battery usage patterns like this, please report them in this thread.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Naturally I don't particularly want to screenshot my usage over an entire week or anything, but here are my general figures so far on update .15 with all my apps as I see it.
Again, I don't have anything backing it up and haven't done detailed analysis on battery drain since .13, but I generally get 3 days with varying use including hard gaming for short stints.
1. Standby (with wifi connected and background sync running): .3% (pretty consistent, but some times the Prime won't enter Deep Sleep which unmercifully consumes)
2. Light use (ebook reading, email, calendar, etc.): 5%/hour
3. Video (Netflix): 8%/hour, with brightness at about 10%
4. Browsing (with Flash always-on and moderately used, Opera Mobile): 15%/hour
5. Gaming (set to Performance, OC'd to 1.6 gHZ): 35%/hour
6. IPS+ Mode and full brightness, light use: 40%/hour
My tab wont deep sleep only when docked. Sometimes I lose 4% an hour sleeping while docked.. pathetic. When not docked I can see with battery monitor widget that I lose 1% every 8 hours
d1ez3 said:
My tab wont deep sleep only when docked. Sometimes I lose 4% an hour sleeping while docked.. pathetic. When not docked I can see with battery monitor widget that I lose 1% every 8 hours
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine goes into deep sleep when docked no problem, and standby usage remains about the same.
But, I don't want to derail this thread. It's about usage patterns when undocked, specifically to avoid throwing the dock into the mix as another variable.
Just wanted to resurrect this thread, and ask if anyone is having a problem where reported battery life drops by 2% periodically instead of 1%. Seems like there's a glitch either in how the system is reporting battery life.
See the attached pic... Notice 70% to 68% and 59% to 57%.
wynand32 said:
Just wanted to resurrect this thread, and ask if anyone is having a problem where reported battery life drops by 2% periodically instead of 1%. Seems like there's a glitch either in how the system is reporting battery life.
See the attached pic... Notice 70% to 68% and 59% to 57%.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not updating or syncing or something? Do you use a real-time monitoring widget, or multiple diagnostics apps? These things will tax the system here and there for their information won't they?
buxtahuda said:
It's not updating or syncing or something? Do you use a real-time monitoring widget, or multiple diagnostics apps? These things will tax the system here and there for their information won't they?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just use the Battery Drain app, and all it does is poll every minute to see what battery life is at. I suppose the app could be skipping a minute, but then I'd hope it would adjust and not report twice the usage/hour. And, I'm pretty sure I've caught the battery life dropping like that outside of the app.
Thing is that it's not just using more power per hour according to the app, but that it's dropping the 2%. Just a minor mystery...

Best Battery Analysis app?

I am really starting to loose my patience with the prime, I have had it for a week now and its just been a very a difficult ride so far. Coming from the original iPad, I never had any problem with it. For some reason, I lost 20% of my battery just surfing the web last night, now I did not view any videos, I was just reading several online newpapers. 20% in an hour !!! what the hell is going on here.
Can sombody recommend me a decent battery monitoring app pleaase? otherwise, this thing is going back and then I will have to beg Apple to take me back.
How many things do you have syncing? Cutting down on that saved me a lot of drain. Also the app you use depends on what you're looking for.
Where's my Droid power seems quite useless on the prime
Better battery stats is good for finding apps with wakelocks
Current widget is good for tracking the current your tablet was using but I'm not sure if it works on he prime
Good luck!
Sent from my Inspire 4G using xda premium
lucky6877 said:
I am really starting to loose my patience with the prime, I have had it for a week now and its just been a very a difficult ride so far. Coming from the original iPad, I never had any problem with it. For some reason, I lost 20% of my battery just surfing the web last night, now I did not view any videos, I was just reading several online newpapers. 20% in an hour !!! what the hell is going on here.
Can sombody recommend me a decent battery monitoring app pleaase? otherwise, this thing is going back and then I will have to beg Apple to take me back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What brightness was your screen set to? Did you have SuperIPS turned on? 20% seems excessive but having the brightness cranked up can noticeably impact battery life, and using SuperIPS nearly triples the drain.
FWIW I keep my screen brightness to about 30% most of the time and I surf the web for about an hour or two a day and I have been getting 3-4 days of battery life or more. I leave the tablet turned on all the time as well, and last night after 3 days I plugged it in because the battery had finally reached 50%.
lucky6877 said:
I am really starting to loose my patience with the prime, I have had it for a week now and its just been a very a difficult ride so far. Coming from the original iPad, I never had any problem with it. For some reason, I lost 20% of my battery just surfing the web last night, now I did not view any videos, I was just reading several online newpapers. 20% in an hour !!! what the hell is going on here.
Can sombody recommend me a decent battery monitoring app pleaase? otherwise, this thing is going back and then I will have to beg Apple to take me back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My Battery Drain Analyzer is good if you want to see an ongoing indication of how much battery is being drained per hour. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.WazaBe.android.BatteryDrain&feature=search_result
However, in order to characterize your battery use as good or bad, we'd need to know the brightness you were at (as others have mentioned), whether you're running Flash on the sites you were visiting, what performance mode you have the Prime running in, etc. Too many variables.
I'll add that it's difficult to compare an iOS device and an Android device in terms of battery use, because the Android device is likely doing much more in the background. There's a tradeoff between functionality and battery life (and between functionality and simplicity, etc.), and of course in such an equation Apple ALWAYS opts for reduced functionality. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it's definitely Apple's approach and has to be factored into any comparison.
I do burn about 15%/hour when browsing, on 30% brightness or so and in Balanced performance mode. I've found the Prime to be excellent in battery use everywhere BUT browsing--video about 10%/hour, email/ebook reading/etc. bout 7.5%/hour, etc.
Thank you all for your comments. My brightness level is set to 20% and gps, bluetooth all set to off. I am now using auto airplane mode app and it has significantly improved the battery life. I am also now using a fantastic app called android assistant and i spotted services that were running like google+ and google voice search which were consuming a significant portion from my battery.
Links for apps i mentioned:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.advancedprocessmanager&hl=en
https://play.google.com/store/apps/...vbS5ibG9nc3BvdC5kb25rdW4zLmF1dG9haXJwbGFuZSJd
I clicked the thanks button for every response.
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using Tapatalk
The best battery monitoring tool I've found is Battery Monitor Widgit.
And I would highly recommend Tasker over any app that is dedicated to turning a single function on or off. If, that is, you are willing to learn to set it up. You can do things like have it set screen brightness to max when you start YouTube and set it back down to your preferred setting when you exit YouTube, turn WiFi or GPS on or off based on certain criteria, etc, etc, etc.
A simple free alternative to Tasker that I use is AutomateIt. The most rules are set on my phone to turn antennas on/off and manipulate volumes while I'm at work, driving, or at the gym. If you're looking to do more complex thing, Tasker is probably the better alternative.
Col.Kernel said:
The best battery monitoring tool I've found is Battery Monitor Widgit.
And I would highly recommend Tasker over any app that is dedicated to turning a single function on or off. If, that is, you are willing to learn to set it up. You can do things like have it set screen brightness to max when you start YouTube and set it back down to your preferred setting when you exit YouTube, turn WiFi or GPS on or off based on certain criteria, etc, etc, etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 for tasker, make life very easy once you set it up....
Col.Kernel said:
The best battery monitoring tool I've found is Battery Monitor Widgit.
And I would highly recommend Tasker over any app that is dedicated to turning a single function on or off. If, that is, you are willing to learn to set it up. You can do things like have it set screen brightness to max when you start YouTube and set it back down to your preferred setting when you exit YouTube, turn WiFi or GPS on or off based on certain criteria, etc, etc, etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the tip about Android Assistant. It seems very useful!
However I would get rid of Auto Airplane mode, you don't need it.
Instead go into "Settings > Wifi > Advanced (top right menu)" and change the "Keep WiFi on when asleep" setting to "only when plugged-in (recommended)" or "never."
What this does is that any time the screen is off, but you are not currently downloading a file or app, the WiFi will be suspended until you turn the screen back on.
You can turn GPS off from the settings if you never plan on using it, and it doesn't make sense having an extra app running in the background that just duplicates functionality already found in the OS.

Want to avoid rooting...

So I just got a Nexus 4 in the mail yesterday and I love it except for one thing. The battery life is awful. I am only getting around 3 hr screen on time and I want more. What is the best way to extend my battery life without rooting?
My signature sucks...
Sam Nunn said:
So I just got a Nexus 4 in the mail yesterday and I love it except for one thing. The battery life is awful. I am only getting around 3 hr screen on time and I want more. What is the best way to extend my battery life without rooting?
My signature sucks...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The best ways to extend battery life without rooting is to turn off GPS when it's not in use, turn off Wifi when not in use, and you can even turn off mobile data when not in use if you really want to save battery life (You can easily turn all three of these things off and on in the quick settings panel pull down menu). Also be careful what refresh intervals you have set on data heavy apps like Facebook, Twitter, etc. usually the refresh interval for data can be set in each applications settings section. If you have these apps running constantly and are using them constantly your battery life will diminish quickly.

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