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Battery Life?
- Thread starter n8sco
- Start date
Just throwing this out there cause I havn't seen any post it yet, but If you plug your D3 into the wall outlet while its on and then power off it will shutdown completely and then only display a charging icon, and not fully power on the device, not sure how many of you have noticed this yet, but I like that I can shut it down and charge unlike the D1. So I would say once your battery fully dies charge it like that overnight, it will give the phone a break from doing everything and it can focus on the charge! 
Sorry, I know this may be a long post (and only my second) but here has been my experience so far...
I'm at the same spot as Immolate. I charged it last night before bed, unplugged it when it was at full charge, went to sleep and woke to it being down to 90%. Right now it is at 80%. My OD would still be at 100% and prolly wouldn't drop to 90% till about 12h on a Sunday.
9h 57m (9h of not use)
Cell standby 41%
Phone idle 39%
Wi-Fi 9%
Android System 5%
Android OS 4%
Voice calls 3% (3m)
Display 2% (19m 19s)
When I got the phone I fully charged it (from 5%), unplugged it and fully discharged it (about 11hours) before charging it again. Cell standby was the highest usage of battery. I realize that with this being a "new toy" I was playing with it more than normal but this phone also has a larger battery than my OD, does it not?
I did have problems programming the phone when I got it which included not being prompted during setup to do activate and had to open the dialer to do it manually. The first time it failed, the second time it worked. Same with updating the PRL (even though VZW support says it's not required after an update).
The next day having made a few changes and still not seeing a significant difference it power usage I thought I would update the PRL again just to make sure it was good. It failed telling me I had to activate my phone, then the activation failed telling me to call VZW. While this is nothing uncommon, since I was having battery issues and this is a brand new device I went ahead and called support in hopes they would have some magic fix.
They indicated that wi-fi should always be turned off when activating/updating PRL cause it can interfere with the cell radio (really? that seems odd...) and that I should always keep it off unless I really need it (not going to happen) so they had me power off, pull the battery, turn off wifi and reactivate which worked (no surprise, usually works the second time). Still, I've not seen a noticeable change in usage after my tweeking.
I few things that I did notice was that Wi-Fi was set to never sleep. I don't know if this is how it ships from Moto or if it was an app that I installed (same apps as my OD), but turning this back to what I'd call Android default of sleeping when the display is off helped a bit (for overall battery life, not the Cell standby).
The other was what has been mentioned in this thread before that the device is defaulted to global service mode. I've read a few post that indicate this was an issue so changed that even though "time without signal" was 0% instead of 50% (50% for GSM the other 50% for CDMA?). This didn't seem to change the usage but now there is no message about time without signal.
Personally I believe that this is a radio/baseband software issue that Moto will (I hope) correct with a future update. From what I've seen it isn't uncommon for there to be a software update for a new device after the first few weeks of its release.
What concerns me is that this is VERY similar to an issue I had with my OD when we received 2.2 which came with a new baseband. After the upgrade my battery performance was AWFUL with the same symptoms of Cell Standby using the most battery. No change in software applications or usage patterns. Factory wipes with no installed software made no difference and VZW replaced the phone with a refurb which had the same baseband as my original and I've had no issues with it since.
I know from using Pete's original FroYo ROMs that I had this issue with the new baseband before it was release from VZW, but reverting back to the previous resolved my issue (and in retrospect I should have kept my Droid rooted with custom but wanted stock from some reason. I've learned my lesson >_<) This is what makes me believe this is a baseband/radio software issue.
With my usage patterns and the larger battery I think I'll be OK with the battery life of the phone as it sits today but in no way am I happy about it. One of the reasons I went with the DROID3 vs. an LTE phone (Bionic anyone?) was my choice to prefer battery life over data speeds. This is making me second guess that choice.
I decided to experiment with my og droid since it still has service (and much better battery life.)
I left both phones with no apps running and the screen off on a table for an hour, then hit them both with an IR thermometer. Og droid registered @ 88 degrees on the back panel compared with 92 for the d3. The new phone is w/out question using more power @ idle (presumably for the radio) than the og droid. This is not (only) a matter of battery not calibrated yet.
Anyone have any ideas on how we can bring this to moto's attention?
I left both phones with no apps running and the screen off on a table for an hour, then hit them both with an IR thermometer. Og droid registered @ 88 degrees on the back panel compared with 92 for the d3. The new phone is w/out question using more power @ idle (presumably for the radio) than the og droid. This is not (only) a matter of battery not calibrated yet.
Anyone have any ideas on how we can bring this to moto's attention?
Maverick0984
Member
Honestly, if it is really a widespread issue, and I'd agree, I'm seeing similar things, I'm sure they are already aware.
I hope that's true. I know that the VZW rep "made a note in my account" about my issue but I'm not overly confident that this will make it to the people who need to know.
Nice effort, but this really doesn't tell you anything of value. You haven't, and can't, take into account the differences in the phones: locations of heat generating parts, material thickness/heat capacity, different SOC, and a whole slew of other factors that can contribute to that difference. You would need to actually measure the current draw/time by placing a multimeter inline between the battery and phone.
My D3 has been off charge for just under 24 hours now and the remaining battery is 60%. Usage has been light today with just a few texts and phone calls and not a lot of goofing around with it. It's probably a valid low-use test case. I do have global radio turned off and on CDMA only.
This strikes me as very good for a stock battery on a big-screen device.
This strikes me as very good for a stock battery on a big-screen device.
Was your Cell Standby high? Mine finally died at about 20h with Cell Standby at around 32%
WOW! that's a helluva lot better life than what I'm getting.
Do you mind sharing your versions? Perhaps you're on a more recent radio or something.
Mine:
Android 2.3.4
Baseband N_03.18.16P
Kernel 2.6.35.7-g42f0276w30471@il93lnxdroid42 #1
Build 5.5.1_84_d3G-20_TA-9
ERI 5
PRL 52341
Last edited:
darkmatter
Member
I wonder if that is the source of people's issues. We all know searching for signal is a big drain on the battery, and by default, it seems to be searching for networks that aren't there?
I disabled "global" and selected "CDMA" the day I got the phone, my batt life is still really bad.
Well yesterday after I'd drained it and let it charge, it got down to about 15% over the course of 8 hours. I did play a few games on it and generally use it more and most of that time the galaxy live wallpaper was on. I then charged it again before work and it's 11 hours and 10 minutes later and the battery is still at 80%. It was basically in my pocket all night except for a couple of very very brief phone calls and a few visits to the task manager and battery screens.
Cell Standby 50%
Phone Idle 45%
Display 3%
Android OS 2%
Granted I haven't done anything really with the phone but this to me is a significant improvement over the first day. I'm confident that after a few more cycles for the battery to continue calibrating it will be good with moderate (for me personally) use.
Cell Standby 50%
Phone Idle 45%
Display 3%
Android OS 2%
Granted I haven't done anything really with the phone but this to me is a significant improvement over the first day. I'm confident that after a few more cycles for the battery to continue calibrating it will be good with moderate (for me personally) use.
Yesterday my D3 lasted for 17 hours and 15 minutes with mild to light medium use. I have an extended battery in mine.
I let it fully drain and charged it with the phone off all night. Today I plan on using it more med to heavy and see how she goes. I have my display on Auto brightness btw.
Sent from my DROID3 using DroidForums
I let it fully drain and charged it with the phone off all night. Today I plan on using it more med to heavy and see how she goes. I have my display on Auto brightness btw.
Sent from my DROID3 using DroidForums