Very interesting Battery Life observations

[Guest RossJ84]

Hi all,

I'm so chuffed with my SF, an absolute bargain of a smartphone, even with the noted issues re: Wifi dropouts and poor battery life. However, I've noticed something strange:

I was starting to get worried about my battery as when I charged it from <10% to full 100% charge using the mains plug and USB lead, it was barely lasting 8 hours before being empty again. This was with absolute minimal background apps and Wifi turned off.

I then charged it using the USB lead into a USB port on my PC, again from <10% to a full 100%. It's now been on for 3 full days and is still at 50%!!

Thinking back, my battery issues only really started when I began using the mains plug. Charging from USB seems to last much much longer. It also charges very quickly from the mains, goes up to 100% after 2 hours charging, whereas USB takes much longer, maybe 5-6 hours to get a full charge.

Anyone else found this to be the case?

Ross

[Guest mELIANTE]

Yeah. I also found that the slower the charge, the more it lasts, although my results were not as blatant as yours. I also found that charging the phone while off helps battery run time. Also, when I charge my phone over night, it lasts longer than disconnecting from charger shortly after it reporting being fully charged.

[Guest admanirv]

Haven't really tried it, but interesting nevertheless.

USB charging takes bloody ages.

;)

[Guest veehexx]

i got around 5 days on my phone. thats going into scheduled aircraft mode at 10:30pm and awake at 7:30am daily, and also synced with gmail & exchange via GPRS (3g disabled)

would of been more, but at home i have very weak intermittent signal so that would of pulled more juice.

very impressed with it compared to the 'hype' over weak battery life on android.

[Guest juniperz]

So overnight, switched off, connected to a PC is best. But you need to have a PC switched on all night (or enable USB power while off, possibly in BIOS).

I wonder whether using a 500mA charger rather than the supplied 1000mA would help? USB should be 500mA.

[Guest RossJ84]

Yeah. I also found that the slower the charge, the more it lasts, although my results were not as blatant as yours.

Exactly that. I am surprised that there is such a difference in charging time between mains/USB charging though, is that due to the different power output of the mains adapter?

[Guest JolyonS]

i got around 5 days on my phone. thats going into scheduled aircraft mode at 10:30pm and awake at 7:30am daily

Airplane mode is the thing for battery preservation - my SF is still reporting as fully charged six hours after I took it off the charger - I've had a brief 3G session to get email updates but otherwise it's had all wireless servcies disabled.

The screen hasn't been on a great deal either so obviously this sort of battery longevity is hardly astonishing but it does show there's no fundamental problem with the base build (in this case Stackbaldroid 0.1)

[Guest m_w_clarke]

So overnight, switched off, connected to a PC is best. But you need to have a PC switched on all night (or enable USB power while off, possibly in BIOS).

I wonder whether using a 500mA charger rather than the supplied 1000mA would help? USB should be 500mA.

My charger is only 750mA....

ButI to have noticed that if I do a trickle charge that I get nearly another day out of my phone.

By trickle chanrge, I mean charging it with it on until it says 100% Then turning the phone off. Letting it fully charge again (the light turns green).

The pulling out the lead, turning the phone on, and then plugging th lead in again - and having it charge up again (again, the light goes off)

[Guest Shadey1]

My charger is only 750mA....

ButI to have noticed that if I do a trickle charge that I get nearly another day out of my phone.

By trickle chanrge, I mean charging it with it on until it says 100% Then turning the phone off. Letting it fully charge again (the light turns green).

The pulling out the lead, turning the phone on, and then plugging th lead in again - and having it charge up again (again, the light goes off)

I was wondering about this today at work, ofc I stupidly left the synch mode on so it was pulling emails etc all the time but I got 8 1/2hours...with barely any major usage out of it. Charging it via USB at the minute and will comare tomorrow. Will be a pain in the ass if that's the best way to charge it as I prefer to use my phone as an alarm, and the desktop is downstairs.

[Guest Shadey1]

Welltoday after charging on USB and remembering to turn push updates off I got a 30 min Tv episode, maybe an hour of internet browsing and a lot of texting out of my phone only to get in 10 hours later from work with approximately 10% left of the battery, still not exactly amazing but alot better than the day before!

[Guest m_w_clarke]

I have further observations to the "trick" of charging this phone.

I did a charge (not from empty, but from around 50%) using the wall charger with the phone off and left overnight.

In the morning (the light was green), I disconnected, travelled to work and turned my phone on once there. It reported 100% charge. After a full day at work, with normal usage (a bit of surfing, around 5-10 texts) it was reporting 79% charge, back at home.

I got it down to around 50% again at home and this time plugged it in to charge with the phone on. Got it to full charge. Then turned the phone off. Got it fully charged again (the light goes green, from red). Unplugged the cable. Turned the phone on. Plugged the cable back in, and let it charge till the light goes out. I then left the cable in and turned the phone off and went to bed.

In the morning (the light was green), I followed the same routine and went to work then turned the phone on and followed pretty much the same usage. After a full day at work, the phone was now reporting 87% charge.

I am now seriously thinking that just plugging the phone into the wall charger alone does not do a full charge - and probably only does around 95% charge in real terms.

I have repeated the "good" charging method again since and can confirm that a better battery life is given at the end of my day - by around 6-8%.

Its a pain, plugging, un-plugging, turning the phone off etc, but with this extra 6-8% I can get around 5-6 hours out of my phone, which isnt insignificant.

Now, is this due to the higher rated wall charger (750mA in my case) supplied rather than the standard 500mA USB or is it something else?

I would be interested in other users trying this experiment and seeing their battery life usage.

Cheers

[Guest dimerrr]

Mine lasts about 6 days with 3g turned off and a little wifi use...i also notice that when the phone is charged 100% the power drops easily but when it is about 15% the power does not drop so easily,dont know why ;) .Also i leave it till it drains the battery power completely(shuts off by itself) and then i charge it, i think thats better for the battery life and also for the calibration of the battery.

Edited December 9, 2010 by dimerrr

[Guest geegeethatsme]

The SF uses a Lithium Ion battery so there is no 'memory'effect to worry about. The chemistry is designed to be rechargeable from any discharge status with no degradation to battery life - except that allowing a complete discharge would kill it. So, charge as often as you like, via a USB or other low rate charger (to minimise heat - something Li-Ion hates). That's my approach, with the mains charger used only when there's a need for an 'accelerated' charge. I typically get 3 to 4 days - calls, texts, occasional syncing to pick up e-mail and update apps, a bit of mind-mapping (Thinking Space - recommended!), Wi-Fi and data connection off other than to sync, black screen, no widgets. A bit austere perhaps but works for me.

[Guest dimerrr]

The SF uses a Lithium Ion battery so there is no 'memory'effect to worry about.

In the clockwork recovery advanced options there is an option to wipe battery calibration data or something

[Guest geegeethatsme]

I think that's more about ensuring accuracy in how remaining battery life is reported through the icon in the notification bar, or in a widget, rather than the charging process itself or in enhancing battery efficiency to any degree.

[Guest duncw]

Here is some good information on lithium-ion batteries for those who like to spend as much time as possible without charging it instead of just plugging it into a charger when one is available!!

http://batteryuniversity.com/index.php/lea...m_ion_batteries

[Guest nonamer123]

In the clockwork recovery advanced options there is an option to wipe battery calibration data or something

When your phone is on, charge it up to green ... Turn the phone off and charge it again up to green... Then go to clockwork recovery and wipe your batery stats :P

This was the way i have to do on other android phone ;)

[Guest m_w_clarke]

Yep - i had done that. Is was actually the WAY we charge the phone I was debating and discussing wether that makes a difference to its life and/or REPORTED use

[Guest Elky69]

I have mine plugged in to the USB of my PC all day while at work, and never turn it off.

It never really drops below 75% overnight, but I'm not a really heavy user.

The charge over weekend sometimes get down to around 20% by Monday morning, but I've never had it die.

I've just moved to 2.2 though, so will see this weekend.

[Guest super san francisco]

i have a question about charging and discharging in particular:

i can't use the shipped charger cuz it's UK but i'm in germany, so i went to a market and bought an usbcharger for our plugs.

it was advertised as an iphone usb charger. i didn't care, looked on the specs and it said 1 A, 3.9 Volts and some other stuff.

as the original charger said 700 mA i think that mine has more power to charge the battery. but i think it goes quite slow anyways, takes about 4-5 hours to charge from around 15% to 100%.

another question i have is, whether it makes any difference that i have enabled GSM/HSDPA in the menu when disabling internet connectivity with APNdroid. Does it use any 3G service then, for example when making calls? normal calls are made via GSM i guess, right? just wanted to clarify things here, as i often read, that people switch off their 3G to 2G to lengthen battery life.