Desire battery

[Guest wnp_79]

With the screen set to the dimmest level, bluetooth and WiFi off, sync turned off, GPS off and absolutely no browsing or music or anything like that I can admit I didn't go through a whole battery.

I went through two full batteries.

No word of a lie, on Sunday I had two fully charged batteries. The phone came off charge at 11:40am and by midnight the second battery was empty. My usage for the entire day accounts to a 2 minute phone call, two photos, two refreshes of my Gmail accoount and around 93 text messages.

Entirely unacceptable performance.

I would agree with the other post that suggests you have either a faulty handset, or a faulty battery. I would try changing the battery first. Failing that, make a list of your apps, backup your contacts (if not done automatically) and do a factory reset. Steadily put back on your favourite apps, and see if one particular app starts the power drain. Badly written programs can suck battery power. I put on a couple of ropey "free" apps when I first got mine, and had to do a factory reset. I found that after this, my phone behaved better and lasted a lots longer. You may also find that a lot of the apps you put on in eagerness after getting your new toy, you don't actually use so you don't need to put them back on.

I have had my Desire for three weeks now. At first I was also a little disturbed by the battery performance. But after half a dozen charges and complete discharges, the performance has improved. New batteries never perform at their best until they have been charged and discharged a few times.

Also as my appreciation of the features of this OS has evolved, I’ve gotten even more time out of a charge (as other members here have already suggested), by being careful switching connectivity functions on and off as necessary. Task killers however are not as necessary as you would think. The way Android works, if an app is not in the 'foreground' it is not using any processing power. If you open up an app and there is not enough memory spare, android will automatically close one or as many background apps as necessary to carry out the command you have given it. There is a reaon very few apps have a 'exit' feature that completely shuts them down. Only apps that use constant connection (google talk, footprint etc.) should be killed unless being used. (Anyone actually use Footprints? Yet to meet someone who does!) In some cases, having a Task Killer running will actually slow your Desire down and shorten battery life as it is sticking it’s nose into everything you are doing, using up processing power and hence battery. If you must use a Task Killer, make sure it kills itself as well as your other selected tasks. I only kill tasks before going to bed. (Careful not to kill the clock, else your alarm will not go off and you'll be late for work, just like I did once!)

I last an entire day (from 7am to midnight) with one full charge, and that includes the eight to nine hours at work where I have the wi-fi on, but 3G off. I’m browsing regularly, have e-mail synched to push through, play the odd game in my lunch break and I’m sending e-mails and texts regularly throughout the course of the day. I even have the radio1 pod cast playing through my car stereo on the way to and from work, and yesterday I spent 3 hours streaming Last.fm and it still lasted to 9pm before asking for a charge.

The only problem I think us Desire owners are going to have, are on the occasions that we are away from a charger for more than 12hours. Long weekends, holidays etc. For this I am about to invest in a recharging battery pack. Look up ‘USB Turbocharger’ by Proporta. I believe Mobile Fun have the best price, and are far and away the fastest delivery times. It is a 3400mAh pack, so you should be able to recharge your Desire nearly 3 times. Seems small and light enough (from peoples reviews) to carry it about with you with minimal hassle.

Something else I have already done is purchase the desktop charging cradle that accommodates my spare battery at the back as well as the phone. I leave this in my lounge, and if I need to come home from work and then go out without time for a recharge, the spare battery is there charged and ready for me.

I think we just need to appreciate that mobile phone technology is pushing ahead a little faster than battery technology is. It will not be long until those in the battery industry realise the short-fall and catch up. Would you rather have a under-powered processor in your phone and a tiny screen?

Hope this helps someone.

[Guest faquick]

Hi all, I am new here (well... been lurking for some time, back in time for WinMo, and now again with my new HTC Desire, my first Android handset

I read around, and it looks like that on xda-developers someone may have found the solution: it looks like it may be a bug in one of HTC apps in FriendCenter: if you completely disable the Flickr sync, then the Calendar task goes back to normal behaviour and will stop blocking the HTC from going to full standby. This way we should have a normal battery life.

Probably who already has no problem is just not using Flickr integration and sync.

[Guest atconc]

Hi all, I am new here (well... been lurking for some time, back in time for WinMo, and now again with my new HTC Desire, my first Android handset

I read around, and it looks like that on xda-developers someone may have found the solution: it looks like it may be a bug in one of HTC apps in FriendCenter: if you completely disable the Flickr sync, then the Calendar task goes back to normal behaviour and will stop blocking the HTC from going to full standby. This way we should have a normal battery life.

Probably who already has no problem is just not using Flickr integration and sync.

This worked for me - before my battery life was in freefall even when not actively using the phone - today since deleting the flickr account his morning I have got through 5:10 min since last unplugged with battery level still at 86%. I have been deliberately leaving the phone alone to see what the difference in sleep life is like and so far I'm really pleased.

Excitedly waiting for root now :huh:

[Guest wnp_79]

Hi all, I am new here (well... been lurking for some time, back in time for WinMo, and now again with my new HTC Desire, my first Android handset

I read around, and it looks like that on xda-developers someone may have found the solution: it looks like it may be a bug in one of HTC apps in FriendCenter: if you completely disable the Flickr sync, then the Calendar task goes back to normal behaviour and will stop blocking the HTC from going to full standby. This way we should have a normal battery life.

Probably who already has no problem is just not using Flickr integration and sync.

Yep, confirm I'm not using Flickr. Battery life is generally good.

[Guest roscoe141]

I just climbed two mountains. Total hours of climbing was roughly 7 hours. I had Sportypal running with GPS on, nothing else. My desire ran out of battery with a full charge at 4 hours and 55 minutes.

Gutted I haven't been able to record the full climb. :P

[Guest Rdy2Go]

Yep, confirm I'm not using Flickr. Battery life is generally good.

I am not a Flickr user, battery life is worse than ever. I have to charge it twice a day!!!

[Guest tiger33]

I am not a Flickr user, battery life is worse than ever. I have to charge it twice a day!!!

My battery is now improving - made it 2 days with normal usage ...

could do with an 'real' extended battery though..

[Guest timking]

JuiceDefender has sorted my original issue out of fairly poor battery life. Gone from charging every night to it lasting at least 2 days, and that's with random usage of calls, wifi, Youtube and email sync etc