Desire Battery Sucks !!

[Guest 1Geeky]

Hi,

I have HTC Desire and from beginning I was displeased from its battery performance ...

Early I didn't have Power adapter plug so I had to charge it by my laptop USB port. On those days I thought the reason of hurried battery emptying was charge by laptop and low electricity for charging.

But When I got Power adapter plug and could to charge my phone by direct current electricity; I thought my problem has been solved but battery emptying still sucks my battery performance.

My most usage of Desire and Android are social networking and internet. Unfortunately I just may use it for 7-8 hours continuously. My phone discharges on midday and actually I can't use it :)

Even I'm going to sell HTC Desire if it's inherent problem.

Could you please give me statics of HTC Desire battery life in different conditions ?

Is my phone normal? Is the battery wasted?

Any guidance will be so appreciated and Thanks in advance

Edited October 30, 2010 by 1Geeky

[Guest irishandrew]

Hi,

I have HTC Desire and from beginning I was displeased from its battery performance ...

Early I didn't have Power adapter plug so I had to charge it by my laptop USB port. On those days I thought the reason of hurried battery emptying was charge by laptop and low electricity for charging.

But When I got Power adapter plug and could to charge my phone by direct current electricity; I thought my problem has been solved but battery emptying still sucks my battery performance.

My most usage of Desire and Android are social networking and internet. Unfortunately I just may use it for 7-8 hours continuously. My phone discharges on midday and actually I can't use it :)

Even I'm going to sell HTC Desire if it's inherent problem.

Could you please give me statics of HTC Desire battery life in different conditions ?

Is my phone normal? Is the battery wasted?

Any guidance will be so appreciated and Thanks in advance

I have found varied performance with the Desire battery - sometimes making it through a work day (I start at 7.30 and usually finish at 19.30) and sometimes not. To this end I now keep my USB cable with me and charge it whenever I can, not ideal.

I have found it is very dependant on which radio software I am using, with 32.37.00.32u_4.06.00.16_2 offering me the best performance, where on R8 with this radio I never failed to make it through the work day. I should note that I am connected to the net all day, and use it both for random browsing, tweetdeck and push email as well as using the phone mostly for texting and roughtly 10 short calls a day. When not at home I have bluetooth and WiFi off, and only use bluetooth for my car kit, in which case it is usually plugged in anyhow.

I am currently using the latest radio on the R9 WIP, and whilst I like the ROM this combination is not superb for battery life. A bit of playing around with settings and radio flashes may help you - though be careful flashing the radio! I have used smartphones for quite a few years now and am used to having to charge them each day. The last one I remember that lasted a decent length was the Palm Treo 750v, but then it didn't offer WiFi and HSDPA/mobile web was less prolific.

Cheers,

Andrew.

[Guest bpivk]

My phone lasts for two days (plus some change :) ) and that includes wifi always on when connected to router, some internet browsing and gaming and some messaging. I don't get a lot of calls (20 minutes per day at most).

The major battery consumption is because of browsing and gaming because I have to use the screen (a known battery hog on all phones).

It lasts a little longer now that I'm using Tasker and that I've configured my phone to connect to my router when I'm at home and auto disable wifi when I leave my house.

But to answer your question. Yes, the battery will only last you for a day with the use that you've described at least my phone does.

Edited October 30, 2010 by bpivk

[Guest irishandrew]

My phone lasts for two days (plus some change :) ) and that includes wifi always on when connected to router, some internet browsing and gaming and some messaging. I don't get a lot of calls (20 minutes per day at most).

The major battery consumption is because of browsing and gaming because I have to use the screen (a known battery hog on all phones).

It lasts a little longer now that I'm using Tasker and that I've configured my phone to connect to my router when I'm at home and auto disable wifi when I leave my house.

But to answer your question. Yes, the battery will only last you for a day with the use that you've described at least my phone does.

Oh, should also mention that WiFi uses less battery than 3G - not least because the phone doesn't need to continuously poll for a signal. So if you're at home it's best to use WiFi rather than leaving it on HSDPA etc.

If you are really unhappy there is a Seidio extended battery (1600mAh): http://www.mobilefun.co.uk/seidio-innocell...sire-p24215.htm it's the same physical size of the standard HTC battery so you wouldn't need a new cover. I am considering this myself.

Cheers,

Andrew.

[Guest crisdo98]

Oh, should also mention that WiFi uses less battery than 3G - not least because the phone doesn't need to continuously poll for a signal. So if you're at home it's best to use WiFi rather than leaving it on HSDPA etc.

If you are really unhappy there is a Seidio extended battery (1600mAh): http://www.mobilefun.co.uk/seidio-innocell...sire-p24215.htm it's the same physical size of the standard HTC battery so you wouldn't need a new cover. I am considering this myself.

Cheers,

Andrew.

Reviews are not great on that replacement battery :S

[Guest irishandrew]

Reviews are not great on that replacement battery :S

Fair enough, hadn't looked into it yet - just remember a bit of fuss around it when the desire first came out. Which reviews were you looking at? Saw some malcontent over on AVforums.

Cheers,

Andrew

[Guest crisdo98]

Fair enough, hadn't looked into it yet - just remember a bit of fuss around it when the desire first came out. Which reviews were you looking at? Saw some malcontent over on AVforums.

Cheers,

Andrew

I was just looking at reviews on the product page you linked to. The first 2 that are shown are 5* but if you 'expand' reviews they are really quite terrible from people saying that it is worse to others saying it's slightly noticable. For the money the reviews suggest this is a bad buy.

[Guest 1Geeky]

I have found varied performance with the Desire battery - sometimes making it through a work day (I start at 7.30 and usually finish at 19.30) and sometimes not. To this end I now keep my USB cable with me and charge it whenever I can, not ideal.

I have found it is very dependant on which radio software I am using, with 32.37.00.32u_4.06.00.16_2 offering me the best performance, where on R8 with this radio I never failed to make it through the work day. I should note that I am connected to the net all day, and use it both for random browsing, tweetdeck and push email as well as using the phone mostly for texting and roughtly 10 short calls a day. When not at home I have bluetooth and WiFi off, and only use bluetooth for my car kit, in which case it is usually plugged in anyhow.

I am currently using the latest radio on the R9 WIP, and whilst I like the ROM this combination is not superb for battery life. A bit of playing around with settings and radio flashes may help you - though be careful flashing the radio! I have used smartphones for quite a few years now and am used to having to charge them each day. The last one I remember that lasted a decent length was the Palm Treo 750v, but then it didn't offer WiFi and HSDPA/mobile web was less prolific.

Cheers,

Andrew.

Thanks for comprehensive answer dear Andrew :) therefore it's normal and my battery is intact.

I'm not familiar with radio software, just heard about it. could you please conduce me (by links or other explanations)? Does every Rom has its own and unique radio?

My phone lasts for two days (plus some change :) ) and that includes wifi always on when connected to router, some internet browsing and gaming and some messaging. I don't get a lot of calls (20 minutes per day at most).

The major battery consumption is because of browsing and gaming because I have to use the screen (a known battery hog on all phones).

It lasts a little longer now that I'm using Tasker and that I've configured my phone to connect to my router when I'm at home and auto disable wifi when I leave my house.

But to answer your question. Yes, the battery will only last you for a day with the use that you've described at least my phone does.

Thanks dear bpivk. Once My phone lasted 2 days too but without Web browsing.

How could I determine in settings that wifi just be on when connected to router and otherwise it turns off automatically?

I was just looking at reviews on the product page you linked to. The first 2 that are shown are 5* but if you 'expand' reviews they are really quite terrible from people saying that it is worse to others saying it's slightly noticable. For the money the reviews suggest this is a bad buy.

Thanks for your valuable help :(

And Finally:

What about other smart phones' battery life like Iphone4 and Samsung I9008 Galaxy S or even Desire HD ? Are they better than Desire? if yes, why is desire thus Low Quality?

Thanks again

Edited October 31, 2010 by 1Geeky

[Guest bpivk]

You can't set the phone to turn wifi of automatically. You'll have to use and setup a program like locale or tasker.

AFAIK all phones but the battery quickly just because the screen is such a battery hog. But I don't know about other brands of phones.

Desire HD is supposed to have a worse battery at least that's what early reviews said. You'll have to ask the users of those phones about the battery.

[Guest Asselberghs]

When I´m not cautious about power consumption of my phone it´ll last a day, when I am power cautious about it it´ll last for approx 3 days.

I know it defeats the purpose of the smart phone aspect of the phone, but it helps turning internet off unless you actually use it.

Install power control plus, and disable as much as possible, for instance wi-fi unless you absolutely need it, but just turn off as much as you can, and set phone brightness to the lowest possible option. If you don´t do stuff like this, expect 1 day usage out of it on a charge. And with regards to radio and rom mixing I can´t help you I´ve only updated my Radio, to what you can see in my "Signature" once, for Froyo and then installed Pauls MCR rom. So I haven´t gotten any neat tricks there. But I hope this helps.

[Guest afiorillo]

Install JuicePlotter and SystemPanel from Market (both are free apps), and you'll have a crystal clear view into your battery's performance.

[Guest Lamhir]

Oh, should also mention that WiFi uses less battery than 3G - not least because the phone doesn't need to continuously poll for a signal. So if you're at home it's best to use WiFi rather than leaving it on HSDPA etc.

That's bullshit. WiFi is one of the biggest battery hogs on every Smartphone. Even while the phone is inactive.

I usually have WiFi & Bluetooth disabled, automaticall brightness settings too (set at ~35%). The phone is charged until 1:00 (AM) (when I go sleep and shut down my PC). Start working at 9:00 till 18:00. At the evening it's usually at 90% with moderate/low usage. With WiFi enabled (battery at 98% at 9:00), I would only have ~60% at 17:00. So basically 30% battery drain in 8 hours of work, and that even if the Desire is not used most of the time (sleeping state). On the other Side, I have always Mobile Network enabled and it's 3G most of the time and there is almost NO battery drain at all

[Guest bpivk]

That's bullshit. WiFi is one of the biggest battery hogs on every Smartphone. Even while the phone is inactive.

That's not true. 3G really uses more data then wifi. But it depends on the signal strength and if you have the Always on mobile data option turned on or off. If you have it disabled your phone shuts down 3g in about 30minutes of inactivity and reestablishes connection after you unlock your phone again.

[Guest achrich]

That's not true. 3G really uses more data then wifi. But it depends on the signal strength and if you have the Always on mobile data option turned on or off. If you have it disabled your phone shuts down 3g in about 30minutes of inactivity and reestablishes connection after you unlock your phone again.

Yep I have to agree Wireless hammers the battery less..at least in my experience anyway, SetCPU has added some more like as well as installing Switchpro.

[Guest bigdan35]

I honestly find it the complete opposite to what people are generally saying here. I can honestly keep WiFi on all day, and it generally won't drain my battery at all, unless I'm playing games, browsing, facebooking, you know... The normal things to do with a phone.

The moment I switch data on, bang, 3G, rinses the battery.. And I mean rinses.

I am lucky to go 8 hours a day (as I'm at university a lot of the day, data comes in to my life but I don't use the phone during lectures etc) from 100% to about 15%.. That is a general day for me. And the worst thing that actually gets on my nerves is that this phone is bloody amazing, I love the Desire, love Android, and it works well and it's so customisable.. But when, unfortunately you've got to go home, charge your phone for a good hour and a half to get the battery back up to 100% just so you can go out and have a couple of drinks after your day to get home and have your phone back on 60-70% again? I think that just takes the proverbial, don't you?

I have also tried all these apps which claim to work, everything from SetCPU, to SuperPower (over at XDA.. Available on the market) and none of them seem to work at all, flashed countless, and I mean countless radios to see which one is the best, and to be fair sometimes one radio seems to be working good, then after about a week and a half my phone becomes a battery hog yet again, drains within hours and unable to do anything relatively functional with my phone.

I could rant on and on about this for ages. Oh I forgot to say it doesn't even matter what ROM I'm using, it could be the R8 or R9 from here, AuraxTSense, DeFrost, DjDroid.. All the same, my battery dies fast. Perhaps there is a problem with my battery, but it's not just my phone, it seems to be that HTC have seriously created an amazing MOBILE phone which needs to be plugged in to the wall socket constantly in order for it to work, rendering mobile useless. Congratulations.

Only if there could be a decent sized battery, which wouldn't care too much about the lovely hogging power of the screen + 3G.

My two pence, sorry for the rant, just had enough of the poor battery.

Dan

[Guest Diggedy]

That's bullshit. WiFi is one of the biggest battery hogs on every Smartphone. Even while the phone is inactive.

I usually have WiFi & Bluetooth disabled, automaticall brightness settings too (set at ~35%). The phone is charged until 1:00 (AM) (when I go sleep and shut down my PC). Start working at 9:00 till 18:00. At the evening it's usually at 90% with moderate/low usage. With WiFi enabled (battery at 98% at 9:00), I would only have ~60% at 17:00. So basically 30% battery drain in 8 hours of work, and that even if the Desire is not used most of the time (sleeping state). On the other Side, I have always Mobile Network enabled and it's 3G most of the time and there is almost NO battery drain at all

its pretty common knowledge that wifi uses a lot less battery than 3g on all phones. The only time this might vary is if your using wifi N but even then id say its less than 3g.its strange how your getting different results

as for the question asked earlier, supposedly the samsung galaxy S and the iphone 4 have far superior battery life to the desire

Edited November 1, 2010 by Diggedy

[Guest Lamhir]

That's not true. 3G really uses more data then wifi. But it depends on the signal strength and if you have the Always on mobile data option turned on or off. If you have it disabled your phone shuts down 3g in about 30minutes of inactivity and reestablishes connection after you unlock your phone again.

And how do you explain, that I have 60% battery when I come home after work with WiFi enabled vs. 90% w/o WiFi? WiFi will even suck up your battery even if you don't use it, because it usually have to search for new WiFi Hotspots either a) ALL the time or :) will have to communicate with the WiFi even if it doesn't send/receive any data.

After 8 hours of WiFi, the battery statistics tells you everything. When the normal usage is 8-10% in 8 hours, and with WiFi on 40, then WiFi uses 30% of it. And the Battery statistic then says, that WiFi inactive and active used same amount of power. Hence 15% in 8h in active and 15% in inactive mode.

this is just from a quick run of 20 minutes.

After 8 hours it usually sets at around

Running: 15-20%

Screen On: 8-10%

WiF On: 30%

WiFi running: 30%

Maybe 3G uses more data, but WiFi definity uses more power even when the connection is on idle.

Edit: Will try to remember to enabled it tomorrow at work. Have no WiFi at home, and post the results again. But WiFi is definitely a no-go for me

Edit2: Just as a side-note: What I found out to work fine for me, to safe battery power is to setup your Network mode (Mobile Settings) to "WCDMA only". This of course only works if you live in an area, with good 3G coverage/connectivity. This will prevent your phone from going go down (or even check the status) to 1G. With this I was also able to reduce the powerdrain to less than 5% in 8-12 hours (of course when the phone was in standby all the time). So the only way your 3G could use more power than WiFi would be if your connection/coverage of 3G is very very bad and the phone is searching for new cells/1G status all the time and switching back and forth)

Edited November 1, 2010 by Lamhir

[Guest con500]

Ye i agree that 3G is my primary battery rinse. Although from reading on other threads for some' its not a major problem if you have a stable (strong) 3G connection

My problem is at home my 3g connection produces major instability and is continually switching between 3G & GPRS but always seems to be in a permanent state of searching for a stronger radio signal..ie: 3g which can not be healthy for any battery.

Mostly i keep it on a 2g setting at home and use Opera for browsing and switch to 3G when out n about

That said, my battery life on the desire is probably the poorest iv'e seen on any smartphone that i have used IMHO...Even when 3g and all other drains are off.

Unfortuneatly the gorgeous screen itself will rinse the life out of battery pretty rapidly

[Guest bpivk]

And how do you explain, that I have 60% battery when I come home after work with WiFi enabled vs. 90% w/o WiFi? WiFi will even suck up your battery even if you don't use it, because it usually have to search for new WiFi Hotspots either ALL the time or will have to communicate with the WiFi even if it doesn't send/receive any data.

Your data is wrong or you have some odd settings there because that's not normal behavior.

And phone does drain a lot of power if it searches for AP or if you're in an area with low signal. That's why it should be disabled if it's not connected.

Edit: Added pictures

Edited November 1, 2010 by bpivk

[Guest Lamhir]

Your data is wrong or you have some odd settings there because that's not normal behavior.

And phone does drain a lot of power if it searches for AP or if you're in an area with low signal. That's why it should be disabled if it's not connected.

As promised, here my results from having WiFi turned on from 9:00 till 17:00

I've basically just used it to check some mails for a few minutes, so basically it was in standby/sleeping mode all the time

WiFi 90.7%! 9/10 of that power usage, came from WiFi only. As you can see on the second screen, the battery life at the end of the day was 55%. A net loss of 45%. 9/10 of that is 40.5%. So 5%/hour if you break it down for WiFi in sleeping mode.

The third screen ist just as comparision to yours and more to prove that the Default Built in battery display is plain bullshit, because it's wrong as hell.

Obviously it doesn't do the counting correctly, because it splits the WiFi power usage over to Phone Idle & Cell standby. Which can't be right, because the number of the total power drain proves that it can't be right. If I have a power drain of ~10%/8 hours of standby with WiFi off and 45 with WiFi on, it's proof enough, that the power drain comes from WiFi only that the built in battery usage must be wrong. Otherwise I'd have 30% power drain with WiFi of during an 8h working day, which is definitely not the case.

I'd suggest you to use the "Spare Parts" App which can be found on either the emulator, some Custom ROMs (even in Modacos) or get it from the market to measure the battery drain on a per application base, as the official tool seems to count the powerdran cause by WiFi during sleeping/standby to "standby" instead of WiFi.

And taking a close look at the last three screenshots should also reveal the error in the battery calculations of the standard Android Battery stats app:

As you can see, that's the detailed screens. As you can see, all run for around the same time. WiFi almost exactly 8 hours, while standby/PhoneIdle have a bit less, cause I haven't had WiFi enabled while I was driving to work to not to taint the results with WiFi wasting battery power for searching for WiFi Networks.

What obviously happens is:

When WiFi comsumes power and is in StandBy mode, the Android Battery status will count that time and power consumption towards BOTH WiFi AND Phone Idle AND Cell Standby. This is plain wrong, because it totally taints the results, because the total sum of the default Android Battery Status is always 100%. But you don't see there how much each component exactly used, because Phone Idle and Call Standby are tainted with the values from WiFi. There is absolutely no way to determinate the exact usage with this tool. Spare Parts on the other side exactly shows how much each single component used, without tainting the results.

Edited November 2, 2010 by Lamhir

[Guest Natbike]

As promised, here my results from having WiFi turned on from 9:00 till 17:00

I've basically just used it to check some mails for a few minutes, so basically it was in standby/sleeping mode all the time

This is where you are different from the other posters. Wifi can be better AND worse. If you use a lot of data, in a continuous fashion, then wifi will use less battery than a less than perfect 3g signal.

I use Y5 battery saver. This app simply turns wifi on and off depending on which cell tower you are connected to. Since I travel a lot for work, this suits me and means that my phone is not searching for wifi when out of the office. When I am in the office, my battery lasts longer because the wifi is on, meaning I am not using 3g for data.

If you do not use very much data (no push email, frequent social network updates etc), then wifi will use more power than 3g alone.

Battery life is difficult because it will always come down to your particular usage pattern.

Extended Batteries

I have purchased a Mugen 3200MAh extended battery, the type which sticks out at the back of the phone and requires a different back cover. I have no link to them and provide this information as an aide to others. I give it at face value and have no idea if I am the lucky one or a fair representative of their other customers.

My usage has always been high, I like push email, google maps and everything updating automatically. I spend a lot of my time in basements (server rooms) and therefore find that just trying to keep a signal often takes a lot of battery (poor reception). I was finding that I need to charge my phone 2-3 times per day. That's once over night (6am) and then sometimes around lunch time and when I get home (8pm).

The extended battery gives a much better battery life (it is twice the size and weight!). I would not say double, but certainly better than half again. I now do not need to charge at all during the day, unless I use if for SatNav which seems to hammer a battery in 4-5 hours.

An example: yesterday.

Taken off charge at 6am.

Push email on from 6am-9pm,

Facebook updates on,

Google latitude on,

Google maps with GPS (30mins),

20 odd emails,

1.5hrs of calls,

and 1 hr of web surfing.

I did not put the phone on charge last night as it was @ 51% @ 10pm. It is now at 41% (0915). I will probably charge it this afternoon or evening. Wifi is always on at home and work (office).

I purchased the battery in March and the first battery was hopelesss, I followed all instructions to the letter and it turned itself off at 43%. I recharged and it worked for about 2hrs and then turned itself off again. It then would not charge properly or do anything useful. I swapped back to my original battery and contacted the manufacturer. They agreed to replace, but I had to wait for new stock and delivery. It took nearly 2 months. When that one turned up, I did as before, but it just worked. It has now been a few months and I am happy with the battery. I had to replace my car holder with one that is not so nice (generic) but on the whole it was worth it as I can now do what I like and expect 24hrs of use. Of course if I play Angry Birds for several hours or use the copilot satnav for hours, it will still run dead, but for my needs its fine.

That said, I think most people could just modify their use and keep the standard battery. A car charger is essential with smart phones. As is a work charger.

For comparison, on the standard battery with wifi and 3g disabled, the phone lasted me for 3 days. So I don't think batteries are bad on smart phones, we are just making much greater use of them.

Please don't try to argue with me over the above, they are my observations and nothing more. Someone else may have a different experience. I use a custom ROM found on this site (2.1).

I hope this helps someone.

All the best,

Nat.