Many users complain that the DHDs battery life is quite poor, that it can quickly go from full charge to discharge in about 7-8 hours on average, whilst there are others out there that mention experiencing usage of average 16+
Some blame it on a faulty device or malfunctioning in the battery unit, well I will attempt to clarify my personal experience which may be applicable to many users having the short battery life.
Let me start by saying that my device from the very first day that the device was obtained gas been working for maximum 8 hours a day, checking the battery usage menu I could see that the rate of discharge was of average 10% per hour even with minimal use. I found this odd especially having tweaked just about all settings that are known to help save battery, such as screen brightness, GPS off, WiFi off, amongst other useful tweaks but with no luck. When paying good attention to the battery stats and usage it was notable that Android OS was using approximately 35-40% which is very odd for a service like that. After a bit of research online attempting to find out why that service would be drawing so much of the phones resources, a few good hints were given. A good application wad recommended by one member of the XDA community: “Juicedefender” which I quickly downloaded and had setup on the phone. The difference it made was tremendous! Providing me with 5 hours of battery life with a charge level of 33% and under a relatively normal use.
The application I had just downloaded and setup simply changes a few things like connectivity over 3G network, namely switching it off when the screen is switched off and back on if turned on and unlocked. It still turns data on every 15mins for 1 minute.
Although I found a so called “patch” for my problem I was still intrigued with what was affecting this, if sine users have good battery life whilst others don’t and the software running on all is basically the same. Some people on blogs did mention that 3G used up more battery but I was not so convinced since I was previously using the HTC Hero with 3G on all the time and managed to last the day.
The source of the problem was realized when a second device was obtained using a different provider. Then I concluded that the network greatly affects battery life. One device is on T-mobile UK and the other on Orange UK, the latter has not had a single problem with regards to battery consequently lasting the day with normal use. Of course this varies I suppose depending on network coverage on your area.
So for now “Juicedefender” is my solution o this small issue that at least to me not affect how I feel about this device. It is simply Brilliant!
A small log on the battery usage can be seen below(small part missing, to be updated).
A few pictures captured earlier during the day with slight heavy use.
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Battery usage log:
Android batt watch 29/10/10:
33% @ 11:25pm
31% @ 11.38pm after little use>
30% @ 12:26pm 3G off,wifi on>turned on
28% @ 1am 3G on ,wifi off->gmail syncd
18% @ 1:33am Playing w/all+tether
14% @ 2:08 am standby from before
10% @ 2:32am after playin & video stream
06% @ 3:05am after typing mail and playin with BT n stuff
day2:
100% @ 9:00am out of charge basic settings 3G
(…)
52% @ 1:24pm after normal use of apps and recording lectures.WiFi+3G connection
47% @ 1:36pm background data on apps EN bt autosync off. Use normal.
After recharge 1
42% @4:26pm normal to high use from now.
Monitoring log for 30.10.10
Unplugged from mains after approximately 6-8 hours charge.
100% @ 9:23am after full charge and tasker managing data.
84% @ 11:06am min use + 1hr standby. Now with juicedefender
79% @ 12:35pm mostly standby
now using navigation without gps
74% @ 12:50pm gps turned off settings restored.
70% @ 1pm going back to standby for a while, camera used since last update
69% @ 2pm mostly on standby and one odd picture
65% @ 2:26 lots of texting and average usage.
5:02hrs since last recharge
63% @ 3:30 mostly on standby. Now watching video
56% @ 3:50pm after video watch, now music for 10 and back on standby
47% @ 5:17 a small lag, rebooting.
Last batt report: screen on for 1hour and 50 mins TOT.
40% @ 6:05pm standard use from now. Heavy! GPS, apps,etc.
12% @ 9:20pm after typing this and a few camera shots.
6% @ 9:40pm excessive use now put to charge
Display on time approx 1 hour 20 minutes since last restart
All in all the screen was kept on for approx. 3 hours and 10 minutes
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This will updated as soon as something new is found.
UPDATE 31/10/10
To put the theory above to test I have today changed the SIM card on the handset from T-mobile UK to Orange UK, a brief report on how the device bahaves to come…
- 100% @ 8:30am taken out of charge
73% @ 12:19pm Low use apart from music for approx 30mins
Display time @38%; on for 53m 48
Android OS @36% CPU time: 1h2m33s*
Backing up and Factory Resetting - *The Android OS activity is what worries me most as it is usually supposed to be using about 3-5% of the bettery, but as soon as it shows that amount of battery usage I know the device will not last the day.
- I am now doing a factory reset, try not install any App for now and see how it behaves under normal conditions.
update 1/11/10
The battery managed to survive the remaining of the day even with the screen left on for approximately 2 and a bit hours mostly doing restoration of most data. The phone was connected to the net via WiFi throughout the day and auto-sync On. The phone managed to stay on, even with the low battery power up until around 10pm when I got home. (to note that by around 6pm it was left on flight mode) -
(1:04pm GMT – 31/10/10)
Final update:
it is now 17:00 (GMT) on the 2nd Nov, since I last unplugged the phone at 8:30am the battery life is at 57%, today no tweak on connection, been mostly connected via WiFi and 3G data was used whilst out which was for about 2hours. This result is without using juicedefender or any other app to help conserve battery, autosync turned on (frequency or update has been made), quite basic use with a few app downloads and a bit of gaming.
So I am sure the battery is just about calibrated and the constant update that was made during the first days of use is Jo longer applicable so the device operates better than expected with regards to battery performance.
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Technube 
November 4th, 2010 → 8:32 pm
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