Touch Pro Battery life!!! Post your reviews!!

[cornelious2]

your sort of right. the problem is the phone needs to be able to read the battery properly to use it properly. so while not the best for the battery, you do still need to discharge fully every 30 or so charge cycles. not doing that will keep the battery in better shape, but the phone will utilize that battery much worse.

[Baffles]

Yeah, a full discharge (as far as calibrating the battery goes) would be running it until it shuts off. Turning the phone on while it is plugged in/charging after that will be fine, just leave it plugged in for several hours after it says 100% to let it finish topping off and recalibrate.

The phone will shut off far before the battery is low enough to cause major damage. A 'full discharge' isn't going to do much harm to your battery at all, hell, I ran deep cycles on my Mogul to no ill effect, and I usually run my battery until it is under 20% battery.

[CountryDevil]

Originally Posted by cornelious2

your sort of right. the problem is the phone needs to be able to read the battery properly to use it properly. so while not the best for the battery, you do still need to discharge fully every 30 or so charge cycles. not doing that will keep the battery in better shape, but the phone will utilize that battery much worse.

I agree. But I was not debating that. All I was saying was that you can't really fully discharge the battery. These batteries do not hold a memory like NiCad batteries do. So the discharge and recharge is not really necessary. BUT you still need to do this at lease once every 30 or so charge like you said or once every two months to three months to exersice it.

There is a max charge and min charge with these batteries, so doing one or two full discharge/charge cycles will ensure that you are charging and calibrating it to the full capacity.

[cornelious2]

check our post times, I was refering to the statement above yours.

[Baffles]

The battery itself doesn't have a memory, however it is still affected by electronic memory, hence the need for recalibrating it. The controller in the battery which stores the full/empty charge levels and controls charging/discharging has to be trained to the actual levels of the battery, so when you run it until it shuts off, it relearns the empty value, and when you charge it full it relearns the full value, making your battery gauge accurate for a while.

[CountryDevil]

Originally Posted by cornelious2

check our post times, I was refering to the statement above yours.

DOH!! Sorry about that. No foul intended....

[gobmonster]

Okay, i was on the edge but now i KNOW FOR SURE there is something wrong with the battery reading on this phone.

Today, with light usage, i was at 50% left, and its been on since 8:00am and now its 3:10... all was well.

I restarted my phone and the battery jumped down to 20%. This doesnt even make the slightest bit of sense, atleast without numerous post saying that the 20% mark offers more life than should be proportioned. Im going to see how long it takes this thing to get to zero

[pyroz]

100% at 8AM, now after light usage, a few texts, it is at 20% at 3:45PM.

[saqer]

Here is a guide in a nutshell on how to increase battery performance. This is from personal experience and from other tips I've seen scattered here and there.

1. Lower your expectations. These devices are small powerhouses and more power = higher battery drain. Mobile technology always seems to be out-winning battery technology. So we see many upgrades to chips, processors, rams, etc but still using the same li-ion batteries. Not much improvement in battery technology.
2. Greater power drain in lower signal areas. This includes inside buildings with thick reinforced concrete walling. It's also true when your phone goes in and out of roaming.
3. Higher brightness settings = more power drain. This is especially true for light sensing capabilities which is always polling the environment for changes in light. This is also sure to draw more power. Field workers and those in brighter lighting conditions are also sure to experience an automatic higher brightness.
4. More power drain with higher speed evdo vs 1xrtt only. So, if you don't need it, force 1xrtt only. Manually or automatically switching between the two will also drain the batter. So, it's a catch 22.
5. Along the same lines is using exchange.
5. Constant soft resetting I have found is also to increase battery usage. Only do this when necessary. (based only on anecdotal evidence).
6. Even if wifi and bluetooth radios are on in standby they still drain power. There are supposed registry changes one can make to reduce frequency of polling mechanisms and these have shown to show SOME improvement.
7. Anecdotal experience but - simultaneous use of bluetooth, radio and wifi is sure to have a net increase in power draw than using each of those separately.
8. Radio versions. Hopefully sprint will come out with future updates to enhance efficiency of the Radio with software upgrades. These sometimes improve battery.
9. Anecdotal experience - with more processes, programs or whatever loaded into the memory comes greater ram usage. More ram usage = more battery drain. Close programs you don't necessarily need running in the background. I don't know if this applies to apps running in memory while phone is in standby.

Here are some other tips to save battery:

1. Turn of gps location under phone settings. Users have reported better battery life.
2. Don't keep hitting button on and off. Try to do whatever it is you want when you hit that power button.
3. If you don't need push email on the instant change settings to manual or decrease frequency time.
4. Turn off phone radio during times that you know you won't need it.
5. Treat your battery better. Don't charge unless you're going to charge up to 100%. Carry spares around to increase overall life of both stock and backup battery. Don't store phone in heated conditions. Store unused batteries in cool environment with a little less than 50% of the charge left. Invest in an extended battery when it comes out.
6. Underclock processor. This is yet to be determined. Don't try anything now until software developers add TP to compatibility list. I remember that with my 6700 underclocking would actually increase battery drain!
7. Remain vigilant of apps that update frequently (e.g. weather). Also remain vigilant of apps that use active data connection and keep it active for no apparent reason. This could possibly be due to glitches in app itself. I have noticed this phenomena sometimes where the data arrows will just stay on white for a long time though no data transfer appears to be occurring.

I've got the issue where it stops charging too, however I've noticed it only does it when I've got the phone sitting on the couch next to me or something for an extended period and when it's on the wall charger.

Using nuepower, the max charge rate for USB is a mere ~430-480mA... when I use the wall charger I see 800+ mA constantly... often higher (above 900). Clearly, this charges the device much faster, and generates LOTS more heat. It stays pretty cool while charging with USB, and the whole thing gets almost too hot to touch the back if it's sitting back-down on the wall charger.

My battery life really varies per day. In the same setting, doing the exact same things, on one day, it will go 14 hours and still be at 40-45% battery... The next day it will be dead in about 10 hours.

Maybe a slow, usb-driven charge will give you a bit more life out of it the next day? or would just rapidly charging it with the wall charger be the best bet? Lithium batteries aren't as sensitive to not being charged fully past the first charge (though, keep in mind, it's good to do whenever possible), so I can't see this being a totally huge issue, unless one actually manages to top off the charge (I predict the slower usb charging would be best here).

I've got an Oct 13th manufacture date touch pro, which I'm going to exchange tomorrow because the earpiece quality is HORRIBLE, and people have started complaining about me sounding the same way to them. I've heard the oct 16 and newer phones don't have the same issue. I keep all background programs closed, wifi and bluetooth radios are kept off at all times. My "average use" for these tests consists of about 10 minutes of talk time, and 20-30 outgonig texts.