Google's Larry Page says there's 'something wrong' if your Android phone's battery doesn't last all day
By Donald Melanson 
posted May 19th 2010 2:49PM
posted May 19th 2010 2:49PM
posted May 19th 2010 2:49PM
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Should I uninstall the Engadget widget then?
@djt Lol, don't let Engadget take the fall. Battery life be damned! =P
@djt No seriously, I installed the Engadget app 1.0.4 and it stopped the FC issue but with the widget up my battery lasted for about 5 hours. Once I removed it my battery consumption jumped back up to last about 8 to 10.
Display is always >50% of my consumption. Price you pay for such a large, high res display.
@djt
Wait until Android gets that Flash love. You think your battery life is terrible now.
@Peter Church Not sure. I mean Flash won't be running all of the time. It will only be running when you utilize it in your browser. So if I was running a widget streaming video all of the time then yes, that would be a problem.
@Peter Church Are you sure your not Steve Jobs or at least trying to sound like one?
@djt
I don't think the engadget widget is the best for battery. The widget cycles through news items even when the screen is off or on a different homescreen and there's no option for update scheduling.
@Evan Yes, especially if you choose to use a Live Wallpaper.
@Peter Church I've got a Desire right now, and it does flash just fine. It's not a mayor battery hog (as I expected it to be), actually it's pretty much the same compared to playing "real" video files. It did take me a few days to get the battery life to 1,5 days though. Turning of the continuous sync in the accounts setting (except for push gmail) solves all the 4 hour batterylife problems ;) Also, the battery needs to reach full capacity the first few charges (the whole drain it completely and recharge ritual)
@ilh every widget is not battery friendly, as you pointed out, even with the screen out, they run update cycles, consuming 3G data, which decreases you battery life, as for me on my Nexus one, I have all synchronization stopped, not even Gmail syncs without my approval, this and the screen at 50% brightness makes my phone to last 2 days without using data transmission features.
Updates can be stopped on the Accounts and Sync optioons.
@Peter Church
Yeah, that's really going to drain my battery what with flash running 24/7.
@Peter Church
Haha, wait for it. I guarantee you will eat your words. The whole flash killing battery, especially on Apple's side (since they toss native app and web flash into one) is BS. Native flash apps don't run the battery down any more than other apps. I expect native apps made in flash to be allowed on Android as well and the Flash in the browser is only going to matter if you sit there with it running all day. I love how supposedly NOBODY has seen flash on a mobile device (except the demos) but people like you will still respout BS which you have no clue about and are just resaying someone elses' thoughts
@djt If they didn't use the "If it uses x, they blew it" meme, the blew it.
@Dumad
That's not always the case. I made a point of noting the engadget widget cycling the news items because the HTC News widget does not cycle through news items unless the screen is on AND the homescreen is actually showing the widget so using the absolute minimum battery, same for the clock widget. The engadget widget (all widgets?) should do the same.
@TWiz
Well put. You can't blame these Apple zombies for believing everything Jobs says for which he has no idea what he's talking about. *sigh*........fanboys
@benthe1
Yeah, no I thought the demos where they tried to load flash in a phone browser and then it crashed was a good example of how stable flash is, and how well it runs.
You know by the same token you idiots haven't used flash on a mobile device either, and are therefore no more qualified to say that it WON'T suck than we are to say it WILL. Why do you think this is a one sided debate? It's not. You saying it doesn't drain battery and won't crash is just as fact-free as people who say it does drain battery and crash, except that we've all seen how completely terribly flash performs on mobile devices.
It's choppy, it's slow, it drains resources and it crashes. We have SEEN these things, even in demos where they were trying to show how well flash runs. That is proof that it sucks. You don't have any proof that it doesn't suck.
@Jack
+1
@djt Install Advanced Task Killer instead
flash on Android will be awesome once Froyo and Firefox Mobile come out. with Firefox Mobile, you can use the FlashBlock addon so that you can click to enable only the Flash items you want to run. sounds like the best of every world to me.
@djt: Don't bother.
Google. Redefining epic fail everyday. Buzz. Nexus One. Privacy pirates. Now Android battery life.
Choke.
@djt
If the battery doesn't last all day, they blew it!
My Touch Pro2 battery can hold up all day as long as I'm not using the browser or playing FPSeCE for more then an hour, maybe I should use my android dual boot for a day and see how it compares.
@Ariel Bender I love Android more and more every day I use it. It has some quirks but I'd take it over an iPhone any day. There is no fail that I see and that is a really silly sycophantic fanboy argument. Take it somewhere else please.
@djt If i set my WinMo phone to download weather data and email every 15 minutes, and have a constantly active 3G connection, my phone will be dead in about 8 hours...
set those to 2 hours each, and i get all day no problem.
@Ariel Bender, don't show everybody how afraid are you of Google and Android success, with your stupid comments.
@sshating, what you're saying is just laughable and shows how little you know about Android, how little is your experience.
@gpmoo7
I am sorry, but I think that you are misunderstanding the difference between battery consumption by the screen and battery consumption used by a process. Well designed live wallpapers do not use a significant amount of battery life. Also, the screen being on does not waste more wallpaper because a rendered image is being played on it.
@gpmoo7 Yep, that's one of the tweaks you need to change for your N1. Other disadvantages. http://j.mp/google-phone-disadvantages
@Dafrety On a multitasking machine, Flash may indeed be running more than you think. An advert looping on a web page in the background that isn't suspended. The same applies to HTML 5 of course but browser devs have more control over it.
Mine doesnt last all day. I Usually have too much running at once. Atleast they let me replace my battery when im running out!
@shhaight So..you seriously carry around an extra battery?
@shhaight On my Mytouch 3G I had to switch over to Edge to get the battery to chill out.
I shouldn't have to do that
@Dusse
I always have one at home on charge. This way I can use it as much as I want during the day. I have a little docking station with a battery port. It actually works out great.
@shhaight One of the issue here are the morons who have are coming over from simple flip phones that last a week, and expect the same performance. They have to be trained, trained like the salivating dogs that they are.
@shhaight Mine (on my G1) doesn't last anywhere near a whole day, and that's with the screen brightness all the way down, no wifi, no widgets (unless you count the built-in clock and calendar), very few calls (
@shhaight
I keep 2 batteries on me. While one charges I use the other, add to the fact that I'm a blackberry user and the damn antenna turns off but, the phone stays on is a gripe all it's own...
@Bean (apparently it cut my last post off)
...less than 1 hour of calls, and email set to check only once every 30 minutes.
Something *is* wrong.
Does anyone know if they offer free replacement of these faulty batteries?
@shhaight When I was on holiday with 0 data usage I didn't get round to charging my n1 till after 4 days, and it was still out of red. Just goes to show haha.
@Dusse
If you're a girl, why not? Not harm in carrying one in your purse, right?
@Bean ebay is your friend.
You should be able to get a new battery for somewhere between $4 and $10.
@Spongecake I actually ditched my iPhone for a flip phone. I got the Sharp WX-T930. 8MP CCD camera and 3" screen.
Lasts me 4 or 5 days with texting, emails and calls.
@shhaight Advanced Task Killer. i basically use it after i close any apps. its unfortunate that the added step is needed, but holy damn it saves battery like it's its job...oh wait. it is its job.
@Dusse Why, yes I do. Don't you? My laptop suitcase has enough pockets that I can make use of.
@Dusse I have an N900 and carrying an extra battery has gotten me out of trouble at least once, plus it's thin enough to keep in my wallet, it's a no brainer.
@Dusse i ditched the incredible because verizon's only fix for me was an extra or extended battery. i'm sticking with my original position, a $200 phone under normal use should last you all day. i used task killer and turned off what i could and still have a usable smartphone but that thing died early more days than it lasted till nightfall in the 2 weeks i owned it.
a day? seriously, is that all?
@noodles2k
With low usage, mine will stay alive for 2 days. But its a smart phone. No true smart phone will last longer. (I'm not talking BlackBerry) But if you are using Wifi, huge displays, games, and large resolutions, there is no way to keep it alive for THAT long. IPhones and Pres have the same issue.
@noodles2k I can't keep my phone running all day but I did notice that the removal of some widgets greatly improved my batteries performance.
But I am also a heavy user so my phone gets run pretty heavily all day long. For the most part my screen takes up the majority of my battery.
@djt
Yeah, I admit if I use heavily, my battery wont last all day.
But if you put a Cyanogen ROM on your phone and keep Advanced Task Manager on your phone, you can use it pretty heavy and still get all day ++ out of it.
@noodles2k Welcome to smartphones. The iPhone is the same, and the Pre can't even make it through 2/3rds of a day without tons of disabling and monitoring and work on the users end.