Is this normal with the battery? Should I pay my Sprint repair center a visit?

jringo718 · #1 (**permalink**) 02-03-2009, 06:25 PM

Ok I had a TP from December with an 10/29/08 build and it would only last me no more than 8/9 hours on the battery, but since I was so excited, I used it like crazy too.

So I got it exchanged at BB in early January for a TP with a 11/14/08 build which seemed much better. At first, it seemed like the battery was nice and strong, but never went beyond 8/9 hours since I still did a lot with it.

Ok so recently I started using it less, and I would just have the phone in my pocket or desk for 6 or 7 hours and my battery would be 20 percent. I am unsure if this is normal, like today I unplugged the phone at 11:30AM and only tried out OperaMini for 2 minutes and just left it there with nothing running. At 5PM I have 10-20 percent battery left. Basically my phone was on standby, I only got one text since I don't use Sprint text anymore because of the delay issues.

Is this normal? Its like now its stuck at 8 hours max battery life, I could use the phone with maximum brightness, BeeJive constantly running and surfing the web on and off, and I would get 7/8 hours. Cut all that out and i still get 8 hours even with minumum brightness. I have tried all the battery tweaks, I tried the Telus radio and New Sprint Radio, and no difference at all. I usually have 3+ bars, whether I am home in Long Island NY or in NYC where the reception is always full bars.

I am not sure if I should go to the Corporate store which is about 20 miles from me and its snowing. What do I do? just walk up and tell them my battery doesn't hold a charge? Last time I did that at the other stores they tried to make me buy a battery/exchange the phone at best buy. I have TEP btw.

Matt · #2 (**permalink**) 02-03-2009, 07:35 PM

It certainly wouldn't hurt anything to have both the battery and the device tested. With optimum settings and a fair amount of usage, I am getting a few hours more than you are and would say most of the guys around here would agree.

Your area is very much a concern to your battery life. How is your roaming setting (In Settings->Phone->services tab). If its Automatic and you live in an area with good coverage, try changing it to Sprint Only. I got a lot better life out of my battery when I did that.

Also, make sure bluetooth is off. With bluetooth on for me, I bet I couldn't even make 8 hours, even w/standby!

At least the corp Sprint Service & Repair store can test your battery and test your antenna on your phone (It is common for a device getting very poor batt life to have a bad internal antenna - IE the phone isn't getting a good signal which causes the batt to work much harder. Very easy 3 minute isolation box test to rule this out that can be done at your sprint store)

**WarChild** · #3 (**permalink**) 02-03-2009, 08:20 PM

damni would get another battery. what do you mean delay with text mine go and come almost instantly. there are ways to adjust how quick your phone polls the tower but if your unhappy with your bat now you would rrally hate it then.

kilmarac · #4 (**permalink**) 02-03-2009, 08:35 PM

Another consideration is that when you are putting it in your desk, you COULD be creating just enough barrier to it that it drops to 1x mode in order to keep a signal. 1x uses the battery faster than EVDO as far as I know. Of course this would be like trying to catch the refridgerator light off... soon as you open the door the signal strength jumps up and it switches to evdo.

jringo718 · #5 (**permalink**) 02-04-2009, 03:53 AM

About the desk, it was outside on top of the desk or sometimes by the window.

I went to a Sprint store today and the guy tells me the repair guy left 15 minutes ago. What a waste driving in the snow, I even checked online, all stores said the repair center closed at 6 but there was one which said 8 so I went to that, but I was still too late.

Anyway, I took it off the charger at at 10PM, I havent even touched the phone and looking at it at 3AM, I have 3 battery bars left. This is really horrible if its not a battery issue, I came from a Q9C with a large battery that lasted 2 days sometimes with heavy voice, OperaMini and Palringo use, and my TP is lasting no more than 7/8 hours. I am usually away from a charger for atleast 10-12 hours each day.

BenC · #6 (**permalink**) 02-04-2009, 04:15 AM

I use my device heavily for email and spread sheet functions and have never ever had it last 2 days. Normally 6 hours before feeding time.

Anonymatt · #7 (**permalink**) 02-04-2009, 11:18 AM

Are you sure you don't have any programs "auto updating" and connecting to the internet? I know that at least the Pocket Express, Instant Messenger, and weather update apps would do that (even when I thought I had them off, and even after a soft-reset, they'd still connect to the internet. I had to manually disable auto updates, and made sure I hit "sign out & exit" instead of just "exit" on the IM). Once I had all that turned off I went from getting only ~10 hours max battery to getting about twice that.

Since then I've hard reset, and I'm slowly installing programs and changing settings/etc and monitoring battery draw, and I've been able to get:
2-3 days with minimal use
~2-3 hours talk time (going from 100% to 0% while on the phone, or of data use)
~ 10 hours of "usage" (playing around with non-phone, non-data parts of the phone, with the screen on)

Unfortunately the phone/data uses a LOT of battery power, and just 1 hour of phone usage will cut the standby time (just being in my pocket) down by a full day. That's why I say to make sure that NOTHING is connecting to the internet that you don't want to.