What is using my battery questions ?

[homemadehitshow]

I'm sure this has been covered elsewhere but I can't find anything specific with a search.

I have been doing some battery tests. Basically fully charging my phone and not using it to see what is using the battery.

As an example I left the phone on a desk for 2 hours. It drained 10%

The battery monitor reports about 50% of that as Cell Standby, 40% as Phone Idle

So is there anything I can do to reduce those ?

Also I am constantly seeing about 5% for Google Earth even though I am not actively running that. What is happening with that.

Thanks in advance for any input.

 

[jsh1120]

I'm sure this has been covered elsewhere but I can't find anything specific with a search.

I have been doing some battery tests. Basically fully charging my phone and not using it to see what is using the battery.

As an example I left the phone on a desk for 2 hours. It drained 10%

The battery monitor reports about 50% of that as Cell Standby, 40% as Phone Idle

So is there anything I can do to reduce those ?

Also I am constantly seeing about 5% for Google Earth even though I am not actively running that. What is happening with that.

Thanks in advance for any input.

Not much you can do to reduce Cell Standby and Phone Idle unless you turn off your phone. As for Google Earth, I suspect that is GPS activity though I'm surprised that it shows up under Google Earth rather than GPS.

FYI, I'd be somewhat skeptical about basing too much on the percentages that are shown by your battery monitor. In my experience, the battery (supposedly) drains much more quickly between 100% and 90% than, say, between 50% and 40%.

But even taking your percentages at face value, it would suggest that your battery will last about 20 hours with no use. That's not unusual.

There are a variety of apps that claim to increase battery life. Juice Defender is among the most popular though imo the reports of its (and other app's) success are heavily anecdotal and too uncontrolled to take very seriously.

The bottom line is that without an extended battery such as that offered by Seidio one should probably expect to get between 12-15 hours of life from the Droid under moderate use. After that it's time for a charge. If that's a problem for you, Amazon routinely sells OEM Motorola batteries for less than $15. I always carry a spare when I'm going to be away from a charger for a 24 hour period. And a charger that can charge both your droid and an extra battery or a battery only charger is a good investment if you're going to take that route.

Keep your screen dimmed when you don't need a bright screen. Turn off GPS when you don't need it. Turn Wifi off if you're away from a "remembered" network. (The Y5 app is good for this.) Resist the temptation to stare endlessly at that beautiful display. And if you're not going to be able to take calls for an extended period, put the phone in Airplane mode. (Or use on of the profiling apps to do it for you.) Finally, depending on how you use your phone, Screebl enables you to set a very short timeout for your screen (15 seconds) and still have it stay on when you hold the phone. Since the display is the single most battery intensive app you are likely to have, the difference between a 2 minute and 15 second timeout is significant.

 

[homemadehitshow]

Thanks, that's a great answer. I follow most of it already.

I don't have GPS on
WI-FI is 50/50 on for me, could do better
Didn't get on with Screebl
Juice Defender is on trial right now but doesn't seem to do much

I'm getting around 16 hours with average use so it seems you are saying that's pretty reasonable really.

 

[aldaudio]

hate to bump an old topic, but i was wondering about the display.

i have mine set to 0%, yet it is still draining my battery nearly 50%. is it just bc the type of display it is?