Battery Life?

[militant]

I just purchased this: Amazon.com: New Trent ifuel IMP500 5000mAh External Battery pack and Charger for Apple iPhone 4 4G 3Gs 3G (AT&T and verizon), iPod Touch (1G 2G 3G 4G), Motorola Droid, HTC Android EVO, Blackberry, Kindle DX, Samsung EPIC, Samsung Galaxy Tablet, Samsu.

$41 Shipped. Cheaper than the extended battery, and its 5000mAh, which means it should proved at least 2+ full charges from empty on the D3. If I'm going to be pocketing an extra battery, I'd rather carry this and be good for an entire weekend or whatever, than just have a few extra hours of time. Doesn't hurt that it's cheaper than the extended battery through Verizon. Also been stock piling rubberized snap cases I can find below 8 dollars. Most sites are charging 12-22 bucks for them, I got a black one for 6 off amazon, and its wonderful. Looking to get a few more colors/extras for when this one wears out or I want a change. There are some real expensive cases (30+) made by premium brands, wondering if anyone has any experience with these?

 

[Fr33dom]

And we could use a sticky post on the topic.

I'd just like to mention, a brand new Lithium battery typically takes a few cycles before it reaches max capacity. So that is probably the reason that people are seeing improved battery life now.

Apparently that is not true. Lithium-ion batteries do not require "priming". Source: How to Charge - When to Charge Table - Battery University

That being said, about once every 30 charging cycles run it all the way down and charge it all the way up. Also do this for new phone, new battery, OS update, and factory reset. The battery doesn't require this, but the phone needs it to understand the battery's range.

Every ROM I've tried had an option to delete batterystats.bin. I've tried to search for what exactly is stored in batterystats.bin and how it impacts the system and I've come up with conflicting data (big surprise?). Some have suggested that running your phone through total discharge-recharge cycles would reset the data in this file. Note that fully discharging the battery repeatedly may damage it. Others have indicated that this doesn't work. There are some applications out there that profess to delete this file so system can recreate it, but some suggest to discharge fully first and others say to charge fully first.

Either way, I contend this file is responsible for the percentages given. There are apps out there that profess to delete this file for you--it gets regenerated so you're pretty safe to do so if root isn't required.

Taking into account what Battery University says, I would think the first thing to try is at least one full discharge-recharge cycle, though recharging with the phone powered off may be best. I'd also disable anything that needs to refresh its data over the network regularly--weather widgets and news widgets for example. In fact it might be a good idea to remove all apps for 5 days and add them back slowly, over the course of a few days. What you're doing is trying to find an app that might be sucking the battery dry so pick the apps carefully and add the unlikely suckers first, watching for a day to see if your battery starts drying up faster.

I'm on my 5th day with this phone and I'm surprised by the positive difference between yesterday and today. Because I had read this forum and knew folks were having battery issues, I ran the phone three days before adding anything new. I still haven't added everything in fact. I will over the course of the next week. I'm also not a heavy data user so YMMV.

 

[mysticalmalissa]

What was the screen time on for that screen shot?

Sent from my DROID3

4:20... nice....

One of the nicest times of day

 

[geobernd]

I am getting much better battery life today (60% left after 13 1/2 hours) then before... What I see now works for me (what I saw at first, dead after 14 hours - didn't)..... Happy camper with an amazing phone...

 

[xxspark89xx]

I've just hit 20% battery life remaining, with a total of 36 hours on battery.

Not bad.

 

[Frow]

I remove the sim card so it stays in cmda, otherwise when you lose signal the phone trys to go to global on its own, i had the droid pro and had to use this method or it would drain the battery on the pop up box for going to global mode.

 

[darkmatter]

maybe there's some kinda of learning algorith or something that this phone does. It seems by many accounts that battery is kinda dismal the first day or two, and then really improves. I've seen the same thing. first couple of days I wasn't seeing much of a difference in battery life from my d1, but now it takes all I can do to run the battery out by the end of the day.

which brings me to a second point, with this learning thing. Is there any way to tell if the d3 is running a cpu governer? Anyone who's run set cpu or cpu tuner knows about the whole, lowest setting with screen off and on demand governer thingy. I wonder if moto has put this functionality into the new blur, and it takes a few days for the governer to learn the user's habits.

 

[xxspark89xx]

Just before I plug it in, here is an update.

20% Battery Life remaining. Lasted me practically two days with light use.

NOTE: Screen battery usage is <1% so it doesn't even show up on there. I have made some phone calls, sent text messages and received, updated apps, and other stuff.

 

[BenLand150]

My battery lasted 10hrs 43m 16s on battery

Cell standby 36%
Phone Idle 31%
Display 17%
Android System 7%
Android OS 6%
Droid Forums 3%

Rather moderate use in the morning for about an hour or two, then light use throughout the day. It's at 5% now.

Should my display be on lower or..? Global is off, no task killers, called *228/2 last night, let it die all the way last night before charging..

 

[xxspark89xx]

My battery lasted 10hrs 43m 16s on battery

Cell standby 36%
Phone Idle 31%
Display 17%
Android System 7%
Android OS 6%
Droid Forums 3%

Rather moderate use in the morning for about an hour or two, then light use throughout the day. It's at 5% now.

Should my display be on lower or..? Global is off, no task killers, called *228/2 last night, let it die all the way last night before charging..

Extended Battery?

 

[BenLand150]

My battery lasted 10hrs 43m 16s on battery

Cell standby 36%
Phone Idle 31%
Display 17%
Android System 7%
Android OS 6%
Droid Forums 3%

Rather moderate use in the morning for about an hour or two, then light use throughout the day. It's at 5% now.

Should my display be on lower or..? Global is off, no task killers, called *228/2 last night, let it die all the way last night before charging..

Extended Battery?

Nope, just regular.

 

[xxspark89xx]

My battery lasted 10hrs 43m 16s on battery

Cell standby 36%
Phone Idle 31%
Display 17%
Android System 7%
Android OS 6%
Droid Forums 3%

Rather moderate use in the morning for about an hour or two, then light use throughout the day. It's at 5% now.

Should my display be on lower or..? Global is off, no task killers, called *228/2 last night, let it die all the way last night before charging..

Extended Battery?

Nope, just regular.

10 hours is pretty good then on moderate usage. I've stuck with auto for brightness level. I guess only adjust it as needed.

 

[BenLand150]

Extended Battery?

Nope, just regular.

10 hours is pretty good then on moderate usage. I've stuck with auto for brightness level. I guess only adjust it as needed.

Hm, so I take it yours is extended battery? I'll definitely try and go out and get one tomorrow.

 

[xxspark89xx]

Nope, just regular.

10 hours is pretty good then on moderate usage. I've stuck with auto for brightness level. I guess only adjust it as needed.

Hm, so I take it yours is extended battery? I'll definitely try and go out and get one tomorrow.

Yeah, I just had to get it - especially since it doesn't make a huge difference size-wise on the phone. The new battery door is probably 1-2mm thicker, and works great because it rises slightly above the camera lens - which will keep it from scratches on the table.

Battery wise, after things balance down, you'll get a good solid day out of a single charge. Once we get rooted, then we can remove the bloatware and maybe/eventually make it last longer.

OR, since this is new and all, more than likely an OTA will make some finer adjustments based off of feedback and such from the community to make it even better.

 

[BenLand150]

10 hours is pretty good then on moderate usage. I've stuck with auto for brightness level. I guess only adjust it as needed.

Hm, so I take it yours is extended battery? I'll definitely try and go out and get one tomorrow.

Yeah, I just had to get it - especially since it doesn't make a huge difference size-wise on the phone. The new battery door is probably 1-2mm thicker, and works great because it rises slightly above the camera lens - which will keep it from scratches on the table.

Battery wise, after things balance down, you'll get a good solid day out of a single charge. Once we get rooted, then we can remove the bloatware and maybe/eventually make it last longer.

OR, since this is new and all, more than likely an OTA will make some finer adjustments based off of feedback and such from the community to make it even better.

Man, that sounds great! I'll definitely be getting this. So glad to hear that the battery doesn't add much bulk at all. That's awesome.