Understanding Battery Life...

[SSHGuru]

GPS takes that much? This phone is nearly worthless without having it on - tons of applications use the gps. I think voice and then screen are the biggest drains.

Here are some approximate battery usage we may get for DROID phone for a full charge of the battery. All are assumed to be continuous usage.

The battery should last about 9 hours when screen brightness turns to high in standby mode (Use screen only).

Battery may last 7 hours for phone call or internet data only (continue access without turning screen on).

Battery may last 3hours GPS navigation (Use Screen + GPS satellite + Data + CPU).

Battery may last 40+ hours for playing MP3 from SD card.

Battery may last 4 hours for playing Youtube movie (Use Screen + Data + CPU).

Battery may last 4 -7.5 hours for browsing Internet (Use Screen + Data + CPU).

The order of the amount of battery consumption is: GPS > DATA > Screen > WiFi > CPU.

The above is just my estimation without too much strictly test.

 

[tty]

I mean you can use GPS for continuous driving for 3 hours. If you just turn it on without continuous using it, it does not consume lots battery.

The screen used too much power because it is aways on and in use. Data and GPS is not always in use, though they consume more battery.

If you check this video, you can find GPS consume more battery power.

[video=youtube;5MiCazSsEWg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MiCazSsEWg[/video]

 

[640k]

just put the phone on the cradle/charger after a near 14 hrs of use (no game play) and 50% left on the battery. at first it seemed like the update made the battery life worse, now i'm not so sure.

overall, i'm pleased.

 

[Jvandyke13]

For screen brightness, is it better to use auto adjustment or should I be manually dimming and brightening the screen? In order to save my daily battery.

 

[tty]

Manually dimming tends to save more battery, because it uses less CPU and sensor, and overall brighten is lower.

 

[Jvandyke13]

Hm.. took it off charger 5 hours ago and its now at 50% with normal usage, no wifi or Bluetooth. Should probably see if Verizon will give new battery ?

 

[Jvandyke13]

I think i have came up with a new idea on the battery draining so fast in my situation.. It seems to be draining in the 4-6 hours when i am at work which only has 1-2 bars in the building and hardly never any 3G coverage. Versus if i am at my house and driving around in the metro area, i have alot better coverage.

 

[SSHGuru]

Reception

Bad reception is the #1 drain on the battery of any phone. That's why I've got mine on permanent wi-fi in the house since I get no good signal. Since I switched my battery has been lasting much longer.

I think i have came up with a new idea on the battery draining so fast in my situation.. It seems to be draining in the 4-6 hours when i am at work which only has 1-2 bars in the building and hardly never any 3G coverage. Versus if i am at my house and driving around in the metro area, i have alot better coverage.

 

[captclueless]

I'm on day 4 and my battery still has 40% left.

 

[SSHGuru]

Battery

So you make no calls, keep the screen at min darkness and barely use it.

I'm on day 4 and my battery still has 40% left.

 

[Jvandyke13]

I'm on day 4 and my battery still has 40% left.

I agree, how in the world can you last that long, you must not even use the phone at all..

 

[sixxwheels]

I didn't read all the posts here and maybe someone has said this, but....WHile I was out and about one day on the east side of Indy, I noticed my battery was almost dead and had just taken it off of the charger (car) about an hour prior. I would think draining a battery that fast would generate some heat and the battery (through the cover) would be warm, but mine was not. I plugged it in the car charger and after about 20 minutes it was fully charged again. Again, this rapid charging should generate some heat and it didn't. SO I am leaning towards the problem being in the battery monitoring rather than an actual battery problem. This has only happened to me once though.

 

[captclueless]

So you make no calls, keep the screen at min darkness and barely use it.

I'm on day 4 and my battery still has 40% left.

I'm on day 4 and my battery still has 40% left.

I agree, how in the world can you last that long, you must not even use the phone at all..

I've made a few phone calls (talked to my mom for half an hour plus some other ones) done some stuff in the facebook app, and sent some text messages. One thing I have noticed is that I almost always have 4 bars of 3g. the screen is set to auto brightness and I always kill my apps with advanced task killer and put the phone in standby when not using it. I have wifi, gps and blu tooth turned off and don't have any "chatty apps" Coworker used it to surf the web for a little bit this morning. This is day 5 and my battery says 30%. Before this update I was getting a day and a half max out of the battery.

I'm just giving my experience. Not saying anyone is wrong or right for the way they use their phone. I don't stream pandora on my phone cause I can do that on my work pc. I don't use the wifi on my phone cause I have a laptop at home that I can look stuff up on. I don't use the gps in the car, cause I already have a gps unit. That's just be though. Your experience will undoubtedly vary. I have used the phone to look things up on the web and whatnot in the past.

 

[tty]

So you make no calls, keep the screen at min darkness and barely use it.

I'm on day 4 and my battery still has 40% left.

This is day 5 and my battery says 30%. Before this update I was getting a day and a half max out of the battery.

This seems very good! My droid drain is about 10% battery every 8 hours unless I turn off background data.

Did you turn off background data?

 

[SSHGuru]

There is no way to get ANY battery to last that long unless you use a cell phone as a paper weight.