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Good morning all,
I know we all try to get the most out of our battery in our phones, and it seems to be an ongoing struggle and brought up alot. I'm just curious how everyone measures their battery life. Do you go by total running time? Screen on time? Awake time? Another method?
Personally I tend to go by how much screen on time I get. Obviously it should be able to make it through the day as well. But at the end of my day if i'm trying to see if my battery is holding up as i'd like, i usually check how much screen on time i had throughout the day. I find that generally if i'm at about %25/hour of screen on time I'm Satisfied. (usually get about 4-4.5 hrs in a 14-16 hr day).
Obviously there is no perfect method (ie you'll get less screen on time if you spend alot of time streaming with screen off, playing games, etc). But i'm just curious as to how most judge whether or not their battery is holding up to their expectations.
Thanks!
Really long ruler.
The moment you start using your phone, there are too many variables that are going to change. There are also few optimizations you can do - screen fundamentally uses a lot of battery for example.
The key is to reduce baseline idle drain as low as possible - saving your battery for when you use the phone.
So when I'm hunting power management regressions or running tests, I focus on baseline idle drain. The method I use is sort-of covered in my Known Battery Drainers thread - charge to full, reboot on charger, remove charger after boot complete, reset timers in CPUSpy, let the phone sit overnight.
My definitely for "my battery life" is the amount of time between charges, aka. using time.
"Using time" does not mean time that I physically use it but the total time when it unplugged and ON (ready to use).
I guess each individual person has their own usage, some use more than others. I posted the "Battery Usage" image so that gurus can verify it "ok, it's typical" or "that's ok, it's normal for that much of usage" or "nah, something wrong, it's a defective"
Sorry, I just couldn't resist...
Screen on time plus phone calls and music time. Also gotta factor in the radios that were on (GPS, wifi)
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I am currently using a Galaxy S3 SCH-I535, stock, unrooted, and have noticed decreased battery performance over-time. I have already viewed many similar threads to try and pinpoint particular issues (wakelocks, troublesome apps, etc.). I was hoping for some perspective whether my battery life is up to snuff.
I have seen many describe their phone life with ~3+ hours of screen time with moderate usage. I use my phone intermittently throughout the work day to chat (Text messages, Hangouts), check e-mail, and band rowse the internet. I do not use Wi-fi, aside from when I am home in the morning or at night, and make sure to turn it off if not connected to a network. I have sync turned on, but the only accounts I have syncing are Google Now and Gmail. I have location services/GPS/Bluetooth turned off, and run in Power Saving mode with brightness at ~50% and haptic feedback turned on. My reception is subpar, usually about 2 bars and spotty 4g connections at work. I do not stream music, play games, or watch videos during typical use. No facebook, weather apps, etc. that can be culprits some times. At best, with the usage habits described, it is typical that I get 2 hours screen time over a single day (~16 hrs) before I get in the single digit batter %.
I've attached some screen shots I took of battery stats at ~50% drained (I didn't get a screen grab for it but at that battery % I had probably 1:05 to 1:15 hours of screen time). I just started using Wakelock Detector to find any problem apps - after tweaking some apps last week this has been pretty typical behavior. I have even swapped batteries with my wife's S3 to see if it was a battery problem, but did not notice a difference.
Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Are my expectations for battery life too high? Is this typical, or am I running lower than I should be?
I just realized I selected the wrong forum and have opened the thread in the Verizon Galaxy S3 forum...can a mod please delete this thread? Sorry for the confusion.
I'm experimenting a bit to see if the Omate TS would be a usable replacement for a phone (ie if it would work well during the day to read notifications, use for sports tracking, recieve calls and such).
It started out well - when I took the watch off charging in the morning I activated the phone, WiFi, bluetooth and paired my bt headset, and turned off cell data. I played around with the phone a bit (installed an app, played with that for a few minutes, checked settings and tried some new things there for maybe 10 minutes or so, and so on). I recieved two calls that lasted about 5 minutes each, and checked mails, facebook and such a few times. After lunch the battery showed 78% remaining, which sounded very good.
I decided to take a walk, so I turned off WiFi, enabled cellular data, and turned on GPS. Listened to podcasts through BT headset for the entire walk. One hour walk with RunKeeper, where I checked mail and facebook a few times during the walk.
After returning, the battery was down a lot, to about 25%, ie 50% battery drained in one hour. I checked the battery stats, and it looked like this: (not a link as I can't post links yet due to forum restrictions): imgur.com/WPQJNd4
I'm not surprised about WiFi and BT consumption as I had those enabled and used them quite a lot during the day, but what surprised me is the cell standby adding up to almost 50% of the battery usage, most of which seemed to be drained when I enabled cell data. Is GPS drain included in cell standby as well? Is this to be expected, or what's causing the excessive drain when using cell data connection? Any tips on how to improve this?
My cell coverage during the walk was decent, as I was outdoors and had at least 3-4 bars of reception the entire time.
cell standby is also the highest drain on mine. was on 2g only as well
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Mine usually says that too. Although it still easily lasts me the day with the cell on.
speedyink said:
Mine usually says that too. Although it still easily lasts me the day with the cell on.
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I get about 2 days of battery with emails only, light apps use. 3g and wifi on, no bluetooth connected, zero calls.
8 calls, some messages, BT always on with headset, on 2G GSM, light app usage with brightness on min and i ended on 4th day still with 40%battery left.
sethxp said:
8 calls, some messages, BT always on with headset, on 2G GSM, light app usage with brightness on min and i ended on 4th day still with 40%battery left.
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That's quite impressive!
I tried again today, took watch of charger when leaving for work. 1 call, 10-15 minutes of "play" (installed an app, changed some settings, re-arranged some icons and such). BT with headset, WiFi and phone enabled all day, mobile data connection off. Recieved quite a few notifications during the day that I checked briefly, but other than that quite idle. When leaving the office at the end of the day I had 52% battery remaining.
Not too bad, but out of that the cell standby and phone idle together consumed half of my battery. Reception is ok, ranging from 2 bars to full (goes a bit up and down). I can't complain about the wifi / bt / screen battery drain, seems the phone standby is the only major battery hog for me.
Cell Standby is a battery hog for me too : about 10% an hour. Cell signal is good. Will try now to disable the mobile data to see if it helps.
P_
sethxp said:
8 calls, some messages, BT always on with headset, on 2G GSM, light app usage with brightness on min and i ended on 4th day still with 40%battery left.
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That's amazing, what is your setup (hw revision, firmware, settings, etc)?
Disabling cell, wifi, bt, gps, lowest brightness on modified stock (the 2014 testing as a base, ensec, xposed) and I can just make it barely back home on 2nd day with light usage (check the time mostly).
In comparison, my Pebble gets to 30-40% on the 4th day and will die out completely by the 6th day.
Even though the cell standby seems to drain a ton of battery, overall it's acceptable. For normal usage (WiFi on, BT on, paired with headset, phone on, a few widgets and apps that are pulling info from the web, receiving a couple of notifications per hour, checking time/notifications a few times, making a few calls and such) I seem to average about 6-8% per hour. Half of that is for the cell standby, so turning the phone off would probably double my battery life.
I know there are a number of "battery saving apps" out there that modify settings and behavior to save power. Mostly stuff like turn wifi off when screen is off, enabling it once every few minutes to check notifications, and similar. Anyone know if these apps can tune the phone power consumption in any way?
stingray454 said:
Even though the cell standby seems to drain a ton of battery, overall it's acceptable. For normal usage (WiFi on, BT on, paired with headset, phone on, a few widgets and apps that are pulling info from the web, receiving a couple of notifications per hour, checking time/notifications a few times, making a few calls and such) I seem to average about 6-8% per hour. Half of that is for the cell standby, so turning the phone off would probably double my battery life.
I know there are a number of "battery saving apps" out there that modify settings and behavior to save power. Mostly stuff like turn wifi off when screen is off, enabling it once every few minutes to check notifications, and similar. Anyone know if these apps can tune the phone power consumption in any way?
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I started running Deep Sleep Battery Saver as I had prior experience with it working well on an SII as a set it and forget application, where other similar programs require much more customisation. keep in mind my omate is not a daily driver, it spends half the week on the charger and the other half on my wrist, and I only use a sim card in their sparingly. as such, I don't have proper data, but I've definitely been able to make it through the day with light usage, occasionally forgetting to recharge until the next day
I think there may be something wrong with either the battery or the circuitry which monitors and reports on the status. I can watch an hour long video with negligable 4% battery loss one day, and another day a similar video draining over 20%.
Certainly with all the radios switched off and very light usage my TS was on 92% well into it's 2nd day...
However soon as you use it... it gets murdered.... lol....
From wednesday till now, few calls, bluetooth on, some texts, very light usage.
sethxp said:
From wednesday till now, few calls, bluetooth on, some texts, very light usage.
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Still amazing! Which model hardware do you have? what rom? are you running any additional apps or just what's default? I'd love to replicate your setup on my 1/8 1900
--fg
Truesmart, EU 512-4 2100 working sensors firmware with patch, removed some bloatware, all auto sync off (manual), switched to 2G gsm only, brightness to min, bluetooth always on because crappy mic. Additional apps:facebook, my budget book, hangouts, es file, airdroid, quikpic, teamviewer...
I have read the other battery problem posts and haven't seen that anyone has reported similar problem to mine...
Typically I have a full day of use with my Gear S (BT on; wifi, mobile and gps off) and come home with about 45-60% battery.
However, about once a week I have had it suddenly chime with the low battery alert after only 2-3 hours, same settings!
What is going on? Notifications from Google Now are kind-of excessive (once an hour), but don't have any special apps installed except Watch Styler and Zooper wearable widgets. Anyone else with random poor battery performance?
groovekids said:
I have read the other battery problem posts and haven't seen that anyone has reported similar problem to mine...
Typically I have a full day of use with my Gear S (BT on; wifi, mobile and gps off) and come home with about 45-60% battery.
However, about once a week I have had it suddenly chime with the low battery alert after only 2-3 hours, same settings!
What is going on? Notifications from Google Now are kind-of excessive (once an hour), but don't have any special apps installed except Watch Styler and Zooper wearable widgets. Anyone else with random poor battery performance?
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Mine has better battery life on some days than others. I haven't had it that long but all of my settings remain the same, but its definitely not as drastic of a difference.
Hmmm, wish it was that way for me. I'm sure one of apps is hanging in the background after being triggered or opened, though not sure which one or what else it could be. :-/
Same Problem
When I am work, my battery dies in less than 8 hours even with VERY little use. When I am away from work (weekends, etc.), my battery will go all day with phone calls and texts and even GPS usage. I'm wondering if it's related to the Wi-Fi or cell signal I get in my office. I have Wi-Fi turned off on the watch but it made no difference. Something must be "active" to cause it to drain that fast! Less than 8 hours with very minimal use.....WTF??????
toddkageals said:
When I am work, my battery dies in less than 8 hours even with VERY little use. When I am away from work (weekends, etc.), my battery will go all day with phone calls and texts and even GPS usage. I'm wondering if it's related to the Wi-Fi or cell signal I get in my office. I have Wi-Fi turned off on the watch but it made no difference. Something must be "active" to cause it to drain that fast! Less than 8 hours with very minimal use.....WTF??????
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Is your mobile network on the watch set to auto or always On? Maybe you can try turning it off and see if it helps save battery life..
I agree with the post about turning your cellular data off as the watch will constantly try to get information and if it is a weak signal it causes battery drain.
Well ever since i switched the cellular data to edge my battery consumption it reduced to almost blue tooth levels...about 3-4 % per hour [emoji2] i can can have it remotely connected all day with out any problems.
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groovekids said:
I have read the other battery problem posts and haven't seen that anyone has reported similar problem to mine...
Typically I have a full day of use with my Gear S (BT on; wifi, mobile and gps off) and come home with about 45-60% battery.
However, about once a week I have had it suddenly chime with the low battery alert after only 2-3 hours, same settings!
What is going on? Notifications from Google Now are kind-of excessive (once an hour), but don't have any special apps installed except Watch Styler and Zooper wearable widgets. Anyone else with random poor battery performance?
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Click to collapse
I've notice that some clock styles are huge battery drainers and mobile data on, eats up your battery like crazy, also motion. BATTERY IS THE ONLY BIG DISAPPOINTMENT THIS WATCH HAS
For me the trick was to never turn my watch off! I now put it in airplane mode overnight and deselect in the morning. I'm still not sure what causes my problem, but powering up the watch would result in about 20% battery loss per hour. I think it is a software loop running in the background after the watch engages in system update check. Now I get through the day with about 50% battery remaining and can use motions and even always-on.
I want to know how everyone else uses their phone because people that call and text all day with minimal display settings might get decent battery life out of the battery in the Note 8, but I am finding that the way I use the phone..... Multiple email accounts, some android games here and there, various IT Tools to make sure people at work aren't connecting un-authorized devices to the network, etc. Basically I am using my phone all day.
And I am not able to keep the phone plugged into a charger all day. Then I will get responses like use the wireless charger. Well wireless charging is wonderful if you don't need a charged phone with you at all times. Wireless charging is slow and the phone still needs to be on the wireless charging pad. Not on me or in my hand all day. All wireless charging does is keep people from damaging the USB port by yanking the charging cable.
So in my case this battery thing is becoming a serious problem.
How do you use your phone and is the battery fine for what you do?
I am on web sites, playing games, listening to Pandora, messaging, and a few phone calls, some email, and downloading apps. Usually get over 24 hours a charge and over 5 hrs of screen on time.
I dont play any games, mainly forums and websites and news apps, BBC, RT, Press etc I dont watch youtube on it either much. I get 7 hours screen on time, wifi, bluetooth, AOD off.Also some bloat disabled. USA TMO version. black wallpapers also.
Snowleopard1900 said:
I want to know how everyone else uses their phone because people that call and text all day with minimal display settings might get decent battery life out of the battery in the Note 8, but I am finding that the way I use the phone..... Multiple email accounts, some android games here and there, various IT Tools to make sure people at work aren't connecting un-authorized devices to the network, etc. Basically I am using my phone all day.
And I am not able to keep the phone plugged into a charger all day. Then I will get responses like use the wireless charger. Well wireless charging is wonderful if you don't need a charged phone with you at all times. Wireless charging is slow and the phone still needs to be on the wireless charging pad. Not on me or in my hand all day. All wireless charging does is keep people from damaging the USB port by yanking the charging cable.
So in my case this battery thing is becoming a serious problem.
How do you use your phone and is the battery fine for what you do?
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I'm constantly using my phone throughout the day for both work and personal. Have my exchange email setup to push notifications (I get a lot of emails) and gmail synced. All my social media accounts (FB, IG, Snap, Twitter) are synced as well. I can usually get through the whole day before charging the phone to 100% before bed around 11pm then taking off the charger. Depending on if you use the features you may want to turn off features that require a sensor. Since I'm not sure what exactly your setting are, here's how mines setup:
- At work, wifi-off and bluetooth on. At home bluetooth off, wifi-on
- location is high accuracy all the time
- AOD is on from 7am-11pm
- I have "block accidental touches" on which turns off AOD when in pocket, etc.
- I have edge panels on but edge lighting off
- turn off "nearby device scanning"
- In advanced features, I have the following settings off since I don't use (and could help batter since they require a sensor to activate): smart stay, direct call, smart alert, easy mute,
There's probably others I'm missing but I recommend going through each and every setting in the menu including sub-menus and looking over everything. You'd be surprised how many different settings there are and features that you may never use that could be using up some juice. Hope this helps!
djlee0314 said:
I'm constantly using my phone throughout the day for both work and personal. Have my exchange email setup to push notifications (I get a lot of emails) and gmail synced. All my social media accounts (FB, IG, Snap, Twitter) are synced as well. I can usually get through the whole day before charging the phone to 100% before bed around 11pm then taking off the charger. Depending on if you use the features you may want to turn off features that require a sensor. Since I'm not sure what exactly your setting are, here's how mines setup:
- At work, wifi-off and bluetooth on. At home bluetooth off, wifi-on
- location is high accuracy all the time
- AOD is on from 7am-11pm
- I have "block accidental touches" on which turns off AOD when in pocket, etc.
- I have edge panels on but edge lighting off
- turn off "nearby device scanning"
- In advanced features, I have the following settings off since I don't use (and could help batter since they require a sensor to activate): smart stay, direct call, smart alert, easy mute,
There's probably others I'm missing but I recommend going through each and every setting in the menu including sub-menus and looking over everything. You'd be surprised how many different settings there are and features that you may never use that could be using up some juice. Hope this helps!
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Interesting observation, aod ON in conjunction with accidental touch ON with my leather folio wallet case that I use ( edge clock ) works a treat as it shuts down the aod when I close the case.
I noticed this as I was telling my wife she should turn her AOD off as she has a wallet case also, she duly told me to bugger off.
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I've had no luck in improving my battery life until I enabled Data Saver (Settings > Connections > Data Usage). I went in and enabled a few apps I wanted to run in the background but overall didn't need much enabled. I went from 16hr on battery, 3.5hr SOT to about 28hr, 5hr SOT
Battery life has been pretty good but you have to control how some apps work when you're not near a charger.
The biggest battery drains are obviously the screen but often overlooked is data sync.
If you're using your phone to take pictures syncing with Dropbox, One Drive, Google Photos really can drain the battery quickly.
If I'm out and about without a charger I shut off automatic sync and might use the Mid power saving settings and haven't had problems 10+ hours.
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Thanks for the suggestions Some of them, I will try, but others, I am not willing to give up. Things like full resolution display; Yes I can lower the screen resolution to save power, but shutting features off like leave me with, well, something that is not a Note 8. I would have stuck with my Note 3 if the display wasn't important. I use bluetooth all the time, wifi, not so much and never use NFC so I can shut 2 of the 3 antenna's off. AOD is on, and accidental touches is on.
Go into the battery settings and see which apps are using the most battery. Most apps sync and depending on how often and how much data can affect battery life. Putting some apps to sleep can really help.
T-Mobile sometimes suffers from weak cell signals, when that happens it can really be a battery hog.
It's a learning process on finding the right balance for your usage and battery life.
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I started using Naptime and 2 days of battery on a single charge on the 1st day since then it has been pretty steady. As of now at midnight my battery is at 54 percent and I have been using the phone all day.
My battery life
I have always had 2-3 hours of SoT until I did 2 things. I deleted the FB app and started using the mobile site and I installed accubattery. This was my usage today....Keep in Mind, I have accubattery tell me my phone is fully charged when it hits 80% to save battery cycles. I did plug the phone into my laptop to transfer the pictures over to it hence the blip at the end but it was just long enough to copy the photos, upload them to tinypic and post, etc.
Definitely missing the battery life from my mate 9. Gonna take awhile to get used to that. Only had the phone for a few days, so hoping it settles in more.
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