All HTC Evo Battery Perfomance Talk
 

Battery performance depends on many factors, including network configuration, signal strength, the temperature of the environment in which you operate your phone, the features and/or settings you select and use, items attached to connecting ports, and your usage patterns for voice, data and other programs.



There are several differences between other phones and your new HTC EVO™ 4G that can impact your battery life:

HTC EVO has more radios to power (3G, 4G, Bluetooth, WiFi, GPS)
HTC EVO has a larger screen than most typical feature phones
HTC EVO has more capabilities than most typical feature phones
Management of multiple email accounts and syncing
WiFi access point
WiFi Router capability
4G data
GPS
Access to several 3rd party applications through the Market
Applications and Processes running in the background
Because of all these new wonderful capabilities and features, it is up to you to manage your battery life experience. Here's how!




Multiple radios

The multiple radios use battery life even when you are not using them. To improve battery life, turn off your Bluetooth, GPS, 4G, WiFi and WiFi hotspot if you are not using them.



Preloaded widgets are available for your Home screen to conveniently monitor use of radios:

Power Control Widget – allows you to see radios that are ON and OFF
Widget > Power Control
Individual Widgets – available for Airplane Mode, Bluetooth, GPS, Mobile Network, Wi-Fi, 4G, Hotspot
Widget > Settings and select what you want to monitor
Running Services Widget – can help you identify services that are running that you no longer need that could be ended to save battery life
Shortcut > Settings > Running Services Widget



Live Wallpaper and backlight settings

Live Wallpaper uses significantly more battery than standard wallpapers when your screen is ON

Ambient Light Sensor – controls backlight brightness based on your ambient lighting condition
Settings > Sound and Display > Brightness
Manual Control – You can use your Power Control Widget to easily adjust your backlight intensity with a simple touch.



Email Applications Settings

Bottom line, email synchronization settings can have significant impact to battery life and the ideal settings are going to vary by person. Try different configurations that achieve the best compromise between convenience and battery life.
Generally, less frequent email syncing equals better battery life
Shorter polling frequencies (5 minute, 10 minute, 15 minute) can actually be worse for your battery life than As Items Arrive, especially if you do not have high volumes of email.
Email settings allow you to set up peak and off-peak hours for email sync on each email account
Pop Account – Mail > Menu > More > Settings > Send & Receive > Set Download Frequency
Exchange Account – Mail > Menu > More > Settings > Send & Receive > Schedule
Manual Sync – allows you to receive emails only when you choose to; this can be optimal for battery life if you don't necessarily need emails as quickly as they arrive. Sync by selecting Menu > Refresh



Preloaded Applications

There are several preloaded applications which update based on frequency settings:

Stocks
Weather
News
Peep
Flickr
Facebook
These applications have a settings menu that typically can be accessed by using the Menu button while you are in the application. In the settings menu there is an item called Update Schedule

(Menu > Settings > Update Schedule; this may slightly vary from App to App).



In general, the less frequently you allow these applications to update, the better your battery life. If you find there are applications you don't use at all, for the best battery life experience, configure the application to either not sync at all or to sync at the lowest frequency. You can also end the application or service by going to the Running Services Widget mentioned above.




Google Talk

When you sign up for the Google Market or Gmail with your Gmail account information, you are also signed in to the Google Talk instant messaging application. The Talk application tracks the presence of your Google Talk contacts in order to let you know who is available to instant message. Each presence change uses power, even if you do not have the Talk application open.



If you do not use Talk on your device or do not mind if it is only operating when you actually have the application open, then you can eliminate this extra battery consumption:

Press Menu then tap All apps > Talk > Menu > More > Settings
Uncheck the automatically sign in box.
Make sure you exit the application by going to Menu > More > and selecting Sign Out
In order to again receive Instant Messages through the Talk application, all you'll need to do is open the Talk application again and it will automatically sign you in.
Note: Make sure you always exit the application by selecting Sign Out to reduce battery consumption. Exiting the application by use of the back or home keys will not sign you out and battery life will not be improved.




4G

The 4G radio should only be turned on when the improved network speed is required for an application, such as YouTube, Web Browsing or Sprint Mobile Hotspot. When not in use, it's important to use the built-in 4G widget to turn the 4G radio OFF.



If you have your 4G radio ON, but are no longer in 4G coverage, then your device will be scanning in an attempt to re-acquire the 4G network. Your battery can be significantly drained by scanning, so if you know you will be out of 4G coverage for an extended period of time or if you are not acquiring a 4G signal as indicated in the task bar, it is important to turn your 4G radio OFF.



Even when in 4G markets, particularly when mobile, you may be going in and out of 4G coverage. If you notice that you do not have a 4G signal at any point in time, turning off the 4G radio will save you significant battery life. Simply turn it back on to check for 4G coverage when you are back in 4G coverage.



To check for the latest 4G coverage in your area, click here.




3rd-Party Applications

Be especially cautious with all 3rd-party applications that you download from the Android Market. Often times these applications have not been designed with battery life in mind. Many of these applications significantly impact your battery life and quite often they remain running even when you exit the application. It's important for you to understand the behavior of all the applications you download and to:

Learn how to use the running services application or other 3rd-party task managers to identify applications that are still running even when not in use and to end applications that are still running but no longer needed
Know how to close the application so that it does not continue running
If the applications synchronize data, make sure you optimize the synchronization settings for improved battery life

This information was obtained from the link below.

http://support.sprint.com/support/ar...0100601-130442

Re: Improve Battery Perfomance on HTC EVO 4G from Sprint
 

If you do not use Talk on your device or do not mind if it is only operating when you actually have the application open, then you can eliminate this extra battery consumption:

Press Menu then tap All apps > Talk > Menu > More > Settings
Uncheck the automatically sign in box.
Make sure you exit the application by going to Menu > More > and selecting Sign Out
In order to again receive Instant Messages through the Talk application, all you'll need to do is open the Talk application again and it will automatically sign you in.
Note: Make sure you always exit the application by selecting Sign Out to reduce battery consumption. Exiting the application by use of the back or home keys will not sign you out and battery life will not be improved.



I did this the other day and thought I would check it again to be sure it was off and it was back on so you may want to check periodicaly...

Re: Improve Battery Perfomance on HTC EVO 4G from Sprint
 

i went to bed with 40% battery and got up with 2%. i'm getting ready to turn my evo into something useful like a Frisbee.

Re: Improve Battery Perfomance on HTC EVO 4G from Sprint
 

If these, or the many, many other tweaks out there do not help, you can always try a custom ROM. I remember that the old Touch Pro 1 had really awful battery life with the stock ROM. Once I loaded a custom, I had a much, much better experience.

This seems to be the case with the EVO as well. Many of the new customs that are coming out are focusing on battery life. I recently fully rooted my EVO and installed a custom (BuglessBeast v0.3) and have noticed an improvement with zero tweaks applied. I have the OC widget, but have not employed it thus far. It is still early on, but things are going well... =D>

Worth a shot if you are at your wits end on battery life. FastRX8 did a great job on write-up and consolidation, rooting is pretty straightforward.

I expect that the Froyo release will contain a number of these fixes, but until then I am loving the custom scene.

Re: Improve Battery Perfomance on HTC EVO 4G from Sprint
 

HTC's fault or Sprint's or Android??? Battery life SUCKS.


I hope someone mentioned above puts out a fix for this. I'm tired of recharging my battery every 4 - 6 hours off of standby. I don't want to hear about any tweaks and about closing widgets cause i run almost all of them. This should have been adressed before the phone was put out into the wild and fixed. This is just insane that i need to keep a house charger and have to own 2 car chargers to keep my phone on. What good is a phone that can do everything but dies in several hours after barely using it? I'm not even in a 4g area.


Yes some of you say you get good battery life, but there is alot that don't. Like mentioned above i use my widgets. I shouldn't have to turn them off to get a half day life. I should be able to get atleast a day out of the battery.


I do not want to spend extra money on a bigger, heavier, no protective case fitting battery. I def give it to the iphone on this one...and i hate giving them any type of credit.


Please FIX this asap.

Re: Improve Battery Perfomance on HTC EVO 4G from Sprint
 

I really didn't mind the 10 fee until i saw all the things that sprint is suggesting you do to save your battery. Their argument for the fee just went out the damn window. I understood the reasoning initially but now.....10 fee for all the great things your phone can do, but if you want your battery to last over 6 hours we recommend that you don't use all the features that we used to argue the $10 fee?

Re: Improve Battery Perfomance on HTC EVO 4G from Sprint
 

I got 14 hours of moderate to heavy (not constant) use today using this custom ROM. Not bad.

Re: Improve Battery Perfomance on HTC EVO 4G from Sprint
 

I have to say this made me laugh but is actually a very good point.

Re: Improve Battery Perfomance on HTC EVO 4G from Sprint
 

If you are opening Talk it will automatically sign you back on and look like it's been running. Turning off automatically sign on keeps it from signing you on until you open up the app again. Don't know if that made sense...

Re: Improve Battery Perfomance on HTC EVO 4G from Sprint
 

you're getting only a few hours with light use? or 4-6 hours when the device is just in standby? Your phone is either defective and you need to return it or your area is in a cdma deadzone so to speak. I get 25-30ish hours with light use. You said there are many out there with the drain you're experiencing... i don't think that's true. There are a few bad apples like yours in relation to the many out there with decent to good life. The one's experiencing it should exchange as this is beyond the poor battery life that people are experiencing. Even pro reviewers are saying they get 10 hours of intermediate use - and they say that's very poor battery life in their opinion. I haven't seen any reviewer say they only get a few hours with light use and 4g off.

Re: Improve Battery Perfomance on HTC EVO 4G from Sprint
 

I will use it lightly about an hour tops and have about 60% left then several hours later of no use and its beeping saying battery is low.

Yesterday my phone was dead...put it on a charger for 10 min to quickly get a web adress. I had to run into a store from my car and show a coupon code. I took it off the car xharger and it said 3% battery left. I walk a half of block into the store and it dies.

I dont think its defective at all. A friend just returned hers cause of similar battery issues. I switched to my tp2 battery and same thing happens.

Re: Improve Battery Perfomance on HTC EVO 4G from Sprint
 

Im in the same boat. My office is on a fringe coverage area so my battery drains fast and I understand that. But even when I'm home and have great coverage I can pull my phone off the charger at 100% battery and in 2 minutes it is at 95% without doing a thing. And this trend continues all day. I have done all the tweaks, turning off all background data services, Turning off 4g, gps, stopping gtalk, and everything else that was posted...

Re: Improve Battery Perfomance on HTC EVO 4G from Sprint
 

All this...or you can root and flash Damage Control v3.0. It is a quantum leap in battery life. I can get 12+ hours of moderate use when using my TP2 battery.

Re: Improve Battery Perfomance on HTC EVO 4G from Sprint
 

So....for several days I considered returning my EVO and reactivating my Touch Pro 2 because my battery life was horrible. Charge my phone up to a full charge before sleep and then wake up to half battery. Recharge and battery would be almost dead by the end of my work shift. Tried changing the settings on each and every application. Screen turned down..so on and so forth. On top of all that, I tried the app killer apps and liked none of them. They were too buggy for my taste. Finally, in the settings I found Accounts & sync, I found my savior lol. I uncheck Background data and the rest is history. My battery has last all day at work with occasionally putting my phone on airplane mode while in the office, mild texting, and web browsing. And of course that's with all of the unnecessary radios turned off. So now I am keeping it. I loved everything about it and battery life was the only complaint I had. I'm not really caught on background data. If I want to find out anything, the phone manually updates at the push of a button and that's sufficient enough for me. I just wonder if anyone else has had the same results, or if I'm blowing this out of proportion??? :)

Re: Improve Battery Perfomance on HTC EVO 4G from Sprint
 

Well with turning off all the preset stuff on my EVO im proud to state i've gone 41 hours and counting on a single charge with 28% battery life left.

Re: Improve Battery Perfomance on HTC EVO 4G from Sprint
 

So what you're saying is that you're paying for all these cool things, you should get to use them and magically expect to get fantastic battery life? OK, double the thickness and get one of those 3500mAh batteries when they come out from SEIDIO.

You seem to misunderstand how batteries work. Batteries are not cumulative. It's not 4 hours of talk + 4 hours of web + 4 hours of texting + blah blah blah with everything turned on. They work that you get x hours of "activity" based on some combination of things you want to do.

You can have your cake, you can eat it too, but I'm not saying it's the best tasting cake you'll ever eat. Sometimes if you want it all, you gotta give a little back.

I justify it by rooting the phone and wifi tethering to my heart's content. :)

Re: Improve Battery Perfomance on HTC EVO 4G from Sprint
 

im getting from 25 to 30 with normal use -some videos .texting Lots of it :-P some calls i have 4g off since its not that great @ the moment - its good wen u can actually get a signal :-D gps i have off .. really why do u want gps on unless u are using maps or what not i have sync on for facebook and weather but updates every 4 hrs but thats not a big deal since u can just click the refresh button on your own i have sync off for stock and news ..i was also getting upset on the life of the battery it would die out like you guys say in 4-6hrs while in standby but do some tweaking and itll be great ..dont be lazy guys it only takes a few seconds

by the way i am fully rooted and i am using atk :-D

Re: Improve Battery Perfomance on HTC EVO 4G from Sprint
 

i thought this was supposed to be a thread about improving performance not just a rambling about options.

just get atk and set it for mid range

Re: Improve Battery Perfomance on HTC EVO 4G from Sprint
 

uninstalling qik and fring made a nice difference to my battery. they both seemed to remain an active app in SystemPanel,

Re: Improve Battery Perfomance on HTC EVO 4G from Sprint
 

I found that at least on my phone the calendar process was taking up all the partial wake usage and the phone was never actually going to sleep.

To prevent this from happening I had to remove my flickr account from the phone. I found this via XDA out of this topic:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=666404

If your phone isn't going to sleep and you have a flickr account setup this is probably the fix to get some better battery life. Might want to put this up top. Thanks!

Re: Improve Battery Perfomance on HTC EVO 4G from Sprint
 

As an update to the original post. These a few things that need to be noticed on a reboot.


Fring - Automatically Starts on Reboot
Gmail Talk - Automatically Starts On Reboot
Opera and using google search Homepage - Starts GPS to set your location
Sprint Zone - Once started Leaves a Task Running in the Background

Re: Improve Battery Perfomance on HTC EVO 4G from Sprint
 

or you can download atk and set it to medium risk

Re: Improve Battery Perfomance on HTC EVO 4G from Sprint
 

I already knew all of this stuff and have done it since day one. I get between 12-14 hours on a single charge with moderate use.

[My definition of moderate is using a cell phone for things that you want to do and not just messing around. This includes me throughout the day texting, surfing the web, facebook, calls, taking pictures, and playing games]

People! Learn to treat your device right and it will return the favor. Do you expect a phone with this many radios and features to last three days? Get real please!

Re: Improve Battery Perfomance on HTC EVO 4G from Sprint
 

Overnight my battery life goes unchanged...so if its fully charged, its still fully charged in the morning. In the day I usually get around 10 hrs of use...mostly playing mRacing or using Friend Stream to read and update Facebook status... I may look at my pics or do some texting....and this is with 4g on (I live in a 4g area). I have a custom Rom. Today, however, I drained out after 5hrs. I turned off 4g. I run a task killer and I didn't run anything else more than usual. I try not to continuously place my phone on charger. I like to run it charged to near dead before charging. I had to put on car charger several times today and it didn't seem to charge up as quickly. I'm going to try the Bugless Rom and see if that makes it better. Any other suggestions outside the ones named will be greatly appreciate. The ones listed already are great too and thanks to all for them!

Re: Improve Battery Perfomance on HTC EVO 4G from Sprint
 

Hey GoodThings2Life, I used our Cleanup on my TP2 and it was amazing! Now that I've gotten an Evo, I was hesitant to Root my phone since I don't want to mess it up. Any chance you'll post a step by step like you did for the TP2? (I want to Root, but I also have to choose a ROM... decisions decisions)

battery life save - anyone do this? downsides?
 

Have you guys done the below? any downsides? does it really help with battery life?

suggestion:
press HOME, and bring up the dialer. Dial *#*#4636#*#* (Do not press "Call"). After a second, it should bring up the "Testing" menu.

Go into Phone Information, press MENU, and tap "select radio band." You should experience a Force Close, don't panic, this was supposed to happen. Scrolling down shows that the preferred network type is GSM auto (prl).

What this means is that even though you are connected to a CDMA network, your phone is trying to find a GSM network, preventing the radio from sleeping, and causing excessive battery drain.

Remedy this by tapping GSM auto (prl), and changing it to CDMA auto (prl).


Now your done, your TWS should drop dramatically, and you should experience much better battery life!"

Re: battery life save - anyone do this? downsides?
 

I posted this in the Inc forum. It GREATLY improved my battery as mine was set to GSM. Its worth a try folks. If it doesn't work, you can always switch back :thumbleft:

Also, you should give credit to whomever originally wrote that.

Re: battery life save - anyone do this? downsides?
 

it was Aehs01 in android forums. i did this and it was already set to CDMA auto (prl). did the PRL update that was just released maybe do this? because i hadn't changed it beforehand. i wonder if htc did the update to save the battery life.

Re: battery life save - anyone do this? downsides?
 

Check it and see mine was already set.. I guess it will help if its set to GSM. My battery is equal or greater than my TP2 I get about 12 - 14 hours with normal use. It will go even longer if I don't touch it.

Re: battery life save - anyone do this? downsides?
 

lol how ironic is it that as long as i've had my phone... it took me being bored at work to actually try this only to find out that my phone was actually set to gsm. WOW... interested to see if I notice any batter life changes...

Re: battery life save - anyone do this? downsides?
 

just to save everyone from waiting their time.. its a placebo effect.. the phone has no gsm radio so changing it to anything else makes 0 sense since it can only search for cdma towers anyway.

Re: battery life save - anyone do this? downsides?
 

Whats the fun in that?

Re: battery life save - anyone do this? downsides?
 

Is this true? I just checked mine & it was set to GSM, so I changed it. I guess Ill find out....

Re: battery life save - anyone do this? downsides?
 

Its kinda like being married, you can see it you just can't touch it. Its no fun, no fun at all. :/

Re: Improve Battery Perfomance on HTC EVO 4G from Sprint
 

Merged Improve Battery Perfomance on HTC EVO 4G from Sprint with battery life save - anyone do this? downsides?



CW

Re: Improve Battery Perfomance on HTC EVO 4G from Sprint
 

USB charging vs Wall/car charging.

When I allow the my Evo to slowly charge on the USB connection, the discharge rate is noticeably slower then when charging it with the wall charger.

I am not sure if its because of the slow "trickle" like charging vs the fast charge of a wallcharger. I noticed that while running the command to find out what type of display i had, one of the specs was "slowcharge" or something like that when the USB was plugged in. All I know is that slow charge = slow discharge, and fast charge = fast discharge.

If HTC/Sprint is putting out a software fix next week, I am willing to bet its something in the firmware/software to slow down the charging while on the 12V wall/car charging vs the 5V usb charging.

Re: Improve Battery Perfomance on HTC EVO 4G from Sprint
 

Can someone tell me what other phone uses the same battery as the EVO? I want to replace mine with a Rayovac LiPo. Last year I replaced my Mogul with a LiPo from Rayovac. It was night and day. My Sprint battery was going dead in 4 or 5 hours whereas the LiPo was good for three days!! I am hoping for the same improvement for the EVO.

Re: Improve Battery Perfomance on HTC EVO 4G from Sprint
 

touch pro 2 and the hero and the snap to I think?

Astonishing Battery life discovery!
 

First off, I love my Evo and it has been relatively problem free with one exception, that of a very poor battery life. With modest use I would get about five hours before it is completely dead. I have tried most of the battery life tricks and applied the latest software update (successfully the first time) all to no avail.

Every night, i plug in my phone at about 12 AM and take it off the charger at about 8 to go to work. I noticed that almost immediately or at most within a few minutes, the percentage drops about 10 points. I usually charge it back to 100 percent but the rapid decline to total discharge during moderate consistently persist.

However I was so tired last night that I was unable to charge my phone overnight. This wasn't a concern since I knew that I was at about a 90% charge and would probably be close in the morning. When I woke up, I figured I would put the phone on the charger while I got ready, it wouldn't be at 100% but close enough I guess. I got ready and took the phone of the charger showing 98% at exactly 7:30 AM.

I get to work and have sent about 7 texts, being playing with the phone awhile. At about 9:30 the phone is showing 97%. I am thinking hmmmm....but no biggie. At 11 AM it is showing 96%. I actually sent a few more texts and scrolled through some emails. While at lunch, I check the phone and at 1:15 PM, the phone is showing 92%. Normally with the way I had been using it, it would have been in the low 70s or even 60s. Then it hit me. However this baterry is calibrated or the phone is reading the battery, I dont think that WE ARE SUPPOSED TO CHARGE THE PHONE BEYOND A FULL CHARGE.

I remember similar posts but I dismissed them as hogwash until I have seen it for myself. Its weird but apparently true. In the month that I have owned this phone I have never seen my battery perform like this. Anyone else can confirm my theory or add further clarification? Just check my percentage at 1:37Pm and it is at 90% after 6 hours off of the charger. That's an 8% decline in 6 hours; interesting to say the least. I am truly excited!

Re: Astonishing Battery life discovery!
 

I am no battery expert but I do know that Lithium Ion batteries do not have a "memory effect" like older Nickel Cadmuim (Ni-Cad) batteries did. This would be seen if you only partially discharged a battery and then put it back on charge again. Since this does not happen with LIon batteries I don't think that charging it overnight would cause any issues. I would also tend to belive that the phones charging mechanism automatically shuts off when the battery is reporting a full charge. This is seen when the LED light turns green and the charging bolt icon over the battery disappears.