I got a new Droid X yesterday - my first smart phone.
I went to bed at about 10:30. Battery was at about 30%. I was woken up by the phone buzzing at 2:40. Phone wouldn’t turn on. I plugged in the charger, and it was at ZERO percent battery life.
Does it use this much battery life when just sitting there, over night?
Joe
Sounds about right for an Android phone. To save the battery, turn off the GPS, Wi Fi, and bluetooth connections. Or better yet, just plug it in at night.
I also have a Droid X, and the one time that happened to me was because I left an app running that prevented the phone from going into a lower power mode. It may have been Aldiko book reader, since I read in bed before I go to sleep.
Android phones do drain quickly, but with use, not just sitting idle. I never had to deactivate that stuff on my G1 or my Droid X to not use 30 percent of it’s battery over night.
I’ve noticed a faster drain when my GPS et al are on than when they’re off, so I’d definitely make a habit of turning them off when they’re not in use. But yeah, a running app would also be a likely culprit.
One thing to also keep in mind is that battery meters aren’t perfectly accurate, nor are the percentages perfectly linear – the time to go from 100% to 70% may not at all match the time to go from 30% to zero.
Further, if it’s brand new, you may have to run a few full charge to fully drained cycles to let the Power Control Unit get a good feel for what battery life you’ve got.
Another Droid X owner chiming in. I had it happen to me once after I’d played a round of golf and then forgotten to shut down the golf GPS app (so that the app was checking the phone’s GPS unit every couple of seconds all night).
I usually leave the phone’s GPS, WIFI, and Bluetooth units turned off unless I need them and with that I get one to two day’s worth out of a battery charge.
But I can also hew up about 60% of a battery charge during a four-hour round of golf with the GPS unit on and my golf GPS app constantly accessing it.
How do I turn off the GPS? Wifi and bluetooth were off, but I can’t find an option for GPS. I know it’s on, because I shot a video, and it gave me the latitude and longitude automatically.
Joe
It’s under the “Settings” app (whose icon looks like a gear). Fire up the “Settings” app, then select “Location & Security Settings”, then deselect “Use GPS Satellites”.
I have put the “Settings” app on one of my home pages, but you can also get there by selecting the white-triangle-in-a-circle icon found at the bottom center of any of the home pages and then scrolling to the “Settings” app.
Well, those are already deselected, but it still gives me my coordinates when I take a photo. Maybe it’s unrelated.
Joe
In the same settings submenu, is “Use Wireless Networks (location determined by Wi-Fi and/or mobile networks)” enabled?
If that’s enabled, your apps can still get their approximate location from your nearby cell towers. It’s not as accurate as your GPS unit, but just fine for things like your weather apps and photos.
Yes, it is. That would explain that.
Joe
I have a Droid (not a Droid X) and I have to charge it every night for sure.
Yeah, if it’s your first smartphone, it’s good to get in the habit of always plugging it in at night. Good battery life is the only thing I miss about having a “dumbphone.” I could go almost a week off of one charge on my first cell phone in 2003-2007 (yeah, I kept the same phone for almost four years.) But then again, I got maybe two texts a day and like three phone calls (all under thirty minutes) a week on average.
But I lurves my Android phone (Sprint Epic 4G.) There are a few threads here about good Android apps if you want to search for them.
Not a Droid user, but in almost every single post here, I could substitute “I-Phone 3G” for Driod and it would be the same thread.
I’ve just gotten used to plugging it in wherever I go. In the car, it’s seatbelt; phone; mirrors; ignition…
One thing that I noticed made a huge difference in battery life for my Incredible: turn off “Enable always-on mobile data”. It’s in Settings > Wireless & Networks > Mobile networks. When this is turned on, your phone is constantly checking for data even while it’s sleeping, which sucks up a lot of juice.
It does allow you to receive things like emails and instant messages if you use an IM app as they come in, rather than waiting until you wake up the phone and it can check for data then. But depending on how immediate you need your emails and how often you check the phone anyway, it could be a great battery saver.
Or you could just plug the damned thing in.
Well yes, that too. But depending on usage, it’s entirely possible to drain the phone in less than a day, so I take the savings where I can get them.
On the other hand, I finally got a car charger, so I can probably afford to be a bit looser with the power draw.
Regardless of what programs and settings you cut back on, you’re pretty much not going to make it through two days without charging unless you put in a giant aftermarket battery.
Actually I found his post to be helpful. Just ignore the thread if it doesn’t interest you, other people may want the tips.