Poor battery life Samsung Captivate

[gTen]

Originally Posted by JunkionMarnot

I'm so glad i came back to PPCG Forums, this one in particular. I'm up for an upgrade in January, and was considering a Captivate or other Android (most likely the X10 if not the Captivate) instead of the iPhone 4. Now that I'm seeing issues some of you are having with your Captivates, I'm reconsidering. But overall, do you guys love your Androids? Would you switch or keep the Captivate? I'm thinking about getting a Captivate as a test phone/standby. I've never HAD a Android before so I'd like to experience one on my own (i.e. not in a store). Like to hear your thoughts.

There will always be a few issues here and there with every phone...I don't have a captivate but have an Epic which is similar..and its pretty much the best phone I've ever used...I'm personally coming from a WM background so was a bit sketchy on the switch as well..but once I saw the awesome hardware in these phones I couldn't resist :P

Doesn't AT&T give you a 14 day period to return? if so I would use it to play around with the phone and see how it fits your taste..

IF you want to get into specifics, tell me your primary concerns and I'll try to answer them the best I can.

[blackberryandy]

Having TERRIBLE time with battery on my Captivate.
I followed the instructions on how to "calibrate" the battery (draining, charging, charging again, etc.) but it seems to be WORSE than before.

For example, last night prior to going to sleep, the battery was charged to 100%. I turned the power completely off (shut down the phone), and 8 hours later when I woke up this morning, the phone was COMPLETELY DEAD.

Obviously something is wrong. Is it a bad battery, phone or both, any thoughts? Rogers, my carrier here in Toronto, isn't all that knowledgeable on this phone since it's relatively new and since I've had it more than the 30 day tryout period, they won't give me a new one.

Also, when using the phone, as I send or read an email, for example, I watch the battery meter go down with every touch of the screen. I have turned automatic brightness down as far as I can and still be able to see the screen. I have tried disabling WiFi and GPS (but doesn't that sort of defeat the purpose of having a powerful phone like this?), have made sure no unnecessary apps or processes are running in the background, etc.


Thank you.

[gTen]

Well first of all did you disable DRM running at startup?

[blackberryandy]

Originally Posted by gTen

Well first of all did you disable DRM running at startup?

Hi gTen, thanks for replying (I presume you're replying to me?). I am not familiar with what you are referring to, can you provide more info?

Thanks.

[gTen]

Originally Posted by blackberryandy

Hi gTen, thanks for replying (I presume you're replying to me?). I am not familiar with what you are referring to, can you provide more info?

Thanks.

There is a DRM service that starts up which is known to drain a lot of battery...if you have/get an app that blocks the DRM services it helps improve battery life..some people got improvements up to 5x fold lol

[blackberryandy]

Originally Posted by gTen

There is a DRM service that starts up which is known to drain a lot of battery...if you have/get an app that blocks the DRM services it helps improve battery life..some people got improvements up to 5x fold lol

Still doesn't answer the burning question: if the battery was at 100% before going to sleep and the phone turned completely off all night, why was it completely dead when I woke up this morning?

Anyway, so next (dumb) question: how do I do that?

[gTen]

Originally Posted by blackberryandy

Still doesn't answer the burning question: if the battery was at 100% before going to sleep and the phone turned completely off all night, why was it completely dead when I woke up this morning?

Anyway, so next (dumb) question: how do I do that?

Simple, the DRM service keeps the phone awake and prevents it from idling..thus would drain a lot of battery...

There are a few apps on the market such as startup auditor, startup cleaner and etc that can do it.

[blackberryandy]

That's crazy. I have a BlackBerry that I leave ON for 4-5 DAYS, with heavy email and phone usage and I still have approximately 30-40% batterly left at that point, and that's with a bright screen, WiFi, GPS, 3G all turned on.

[gTen]

Originally Posted by blackberryandy

That's crazy. I have a BlackBerry that I leave ON for 4-5 DAYS, with heavy email and phone usage and I still have approximately 30-40% batterly left at that point, and that's with a bright screen, WiFi, GPS, 3G all turned on.

I dont think you can get 4 days while using wifi none stop, even on a blackberry....but overall backberry is much lighter, less services running, more locked down, weaker processors and none touch screen(unless its a storm or a torch)..hence less battery usage

Thing about emails and blackberry is it uses GPRS or 1x push which works similar to text messages..if you use an email that utilizes 3g for push or pull it will sue up a lot more energy.


I have heard people getting 84 hours or so battery life with Galaxy S phones though...