Trasee Darkwatch

Ok, don't know if this is just me, or if other Droid users are experiencing steadily decreasing battery life. I left for lunch with 100% charge on my Droid. Just over 90 minutes later, I was in the red, and being told I had less than 5% charge. According to the battery meter, 85% was going to the browser, even though I wasn't using the browser. I'll be talking to Verizon after work to try to see if I'm overlooking a setting somewhere that could be causing my power drain.

Anyone else having issues with battery life on the Droid?

Beowulf Blackburn

did you check if something was running in the background? sounds something has been sucking on yoru battery... like Wireless or GPS... or maybe some app that sucked the life out of it?

Trasee Darkwatch

I'm thinking an app, but I'm at a loss to determine which app is running the browser behind the scenes. It is reporting 85% for the browser. Next to nothing for wireless and GPS.

Trasee Darkwatch

I need to amend my last statement. I just rechecked my phone. Didn't realize I could click on Browser to get the details. *doh*

It stated the GPS was using the resources. I disabled the GPS and WiFi. I'll see if that makes a difference.

Lourdes

Perhaps this thread from android forums will help you. Not sure what type of Droid phone you are using though.

Optimize your Droid Eris battery life (READ THIS) - Android Forums

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Trasee Darkwatch

The standard Droid with the fold-out keyboard. They didn't give it another name that I'm aware of. I'll check that page out and see if I can make some changes. I suspect that the information should be about the same, except that the Eris doesn't have the fold-out keyboard. Thanks.

Edav Nomad

I use the JuiceDefender app for my Android phone the MyTouch 3G Fender Edition. The JuicePlotter app gives a battery usage graph.

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Trasee Darkwatch

I'll look for that. Thanks.

daneH

I've had this happen to me more often than I'd like. If I power the phone off and on again, the battery life is restored... it's almost like it's a fake battery drain. It's very annoying.

Trasee Darkwatch

I noticed the same thing. Something screwy with that.

Midi Reifsnider

I use the free version of this Advanced Task Killer Android App Review by AndroidTapp.com | Android Tapp. Android App Reviews to keep an eye on what's going on in the background and kill stuff that I don't want to be running.

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Serendipity

If you rooted yoru phone you cna also look into Autokiller... pretty effective.. I have GPS on all the time it is on demand so only used when an app wants it BUt well if there is an evil app in the background sucking on it...

Toritoys Tigerpaw

That's kind of generic problem with the lithium polymer batteries. They don't discharge evenly like older wet batteries. It's not quite the memory effect that nicads used to have, more that the output can dip and surge a little, making life hell for the poor little circuits and programs that try to guess how much juice is left. Sometimes a complete drain and recharge will reset things for a while, but each of those cycles eats a little of the total battery life, so there's no winning.

Trasee Darkwatch

I'm not brave enough to root my phone, although I have wanted to root it to use it as a mobile hot-spot.

Makoto

i had problems with mine, i was in a bad signal area and a normal full charge lasting 3 days drained in 6 hours.... until i turned on airplane mode (HTC Hero)

Markubis

If you want to use your Droid as a modem for a laptop or desktop you can download the PDANet App and tether it.

I use it from time to time and it works great. I was on a snowboarding weekend and the hotel wifi sucked so I turned on my PDAnet and used my droid to surf the internet with my laptop.

I believe its initially free but you will need to pay a one time fee after that to purchase. In my eyes, its well worth it though.

Trasee Darkwatch

Thanks, when I searched for it, I also found EasyTether. Both are free initially. I'm going to compare and see which is better and then purchase full version.

Markubis

cool :-)
I hadn't heard of that other one...thanks.

I was actually shocked the first time I used pdanet at home in my basement. It was extremely fast (thanks Verizon) and I even unplugged my ethernet cable from the back of my computer to make sure I really was going through my phone. :-)

Ewan Took

My father has the HTC Desire, and his battery is hopeless, but that optimising advice works. I love playing with android, it's kind of geeky getting to play with an OS. But I'm surprised it's becoming popular with the masses what with the polish and reliance you get with an iphone!

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Markubis

BTW, the new Android 2.2 (Froyo) will have mobile hot spot ability.


Portable hotspot
Certain devices like the Nexus One can be turned into a portable Wi-Fi hotspot that can be shared with up to 8 devices.
You can use your Android-powered phone as a 3G connection for a Windows or Linux laptop by connecting their phone to the computer with a USB cable. The connection is then shared between the two devices.


Android 2.2 Platform Highlights | Android Developers

I bet Verizon will shut this down though.

Trasee Darkwatch

I've heard that it was going to happen in 2.2, but have heard unconfirmed rumors that Verizon either won't allow that or will change their data plan from unlimited and charge even more for that ability.