SMARTPHONE: Poor battery and even poorer SPRINT customer service

[LD1]

thanks big green. That makes me feel better

 

[sailfast]

You should probably install a better kernel.

Check for wake-locks.

Undervolt

And install Green Power Free to control data usage.

 

[General Lee]

What do you think would be an "acceptable" battery life???

Off to bed now...

That is hard to answer. My iphone will drain fast on a long phone call, a lot of web/video browsing, etc, BUT based on my user habits the charge lasts me all day or more. Some days I don't talk on it at all. Your battery life does seem short but like I and others said, its not unheard of from a smartphone. Is it right? No, it needs to be what you find acceptable and at least close to advertised. All users results vary......call time, use time, coverage area, etc.

 

[s219]

I am a mobile developer part time, and have a lot of experience with various devices. In general, older BlackBerry devices were the best (but then again, they are primitive by today's standards). Android devices are all over the place, but generally have poor battery life in general because they are going crazy with screen size and hardware features without corresponding software optimizations. iPhones are right in the middle, and battery life depends on how you use them. For my iPhone 5, I can generally go 2-3 days between recharges, and it gets down to about 35-45% when I decide to recharge, so it probably would have more time in it. That's mixed talk/internet/app usage. On the other hand, if I am running a nav app full time without being plugged in, it can suck down to 70% in just a couple hours.

Having dealt with all the companies and devices for the past 6 years, I'd say get an iPhone if 1) you care about battery life, and 2) you want to be treated well as a customer. I think they have the best balance between performance, battery life, and software support compared to many other manufacturers who push out phones with crazy features and then never update the OS or fix bugs (Samsung has about the worst track record). And you can always walk into an Apple Store or call their phone support and be treated with respect and efficiency. They do not repair bad iPhones within the first year warranty -- if there is a true hardware issue (not due to abuse), they will give you a new one on the spot. They won't dick you around. I know several friends and family members who are now Apple fans because of their customer service policies. It's an American company run by people with common sense, and they are fair to their customers.

 

[LD1]

Well...there may be light at the end of the tunnel. I did go to the store. Battery tested fine but he agreed that what I describe is horrible. And there were no obvious settings causing it. WiFi is off, GPS is off, screen is dim, etc.

So I call *2 again. This time they give me a direct number to an account executive. He works 3:15-12:15 CST though. So I left a voicemail and now I wait.

On a side note, as I type this, my phone has only been off the charger for 3 hours an 47% of my battery has been used up. And that 47% has got me 20 minutes of phone calls, and 45 minutes of screen time. Everything else is nil. Those two total 75% of my usage.

 

[riptides]

Well...there may be light at the end of the tunnel. I did go to the store. Battery tested fine but he agreed that what I describe is horrible. And there were no obvious settings causing it. WiFi is off, GPS is off, screen is dim, etc.

So I call *2 again. This time they give me a direct number to an account executive. He works 3:15-12:15 CST though. So I left a voicemail and now I wait.

On a side note, as I type this, my phone has only been off the charger for 3 hours an 47% of my battery has been used up. And that 47% has got me 20 minutes of phone calls, and 45 minutes of screen time. Everything else is nil. Those two total 75% of my usage.

I'd be curious as to seeing your battery stats display.

I am sure Sprint has on-line forums. Have you tried posting in there?

I had a Verizon update go wrong. Tied to go global on me, ended up "breaking" all service. I had to swap out the phone, not happy about that, but even the people in the brick and mortar were amazed at the "upgrade" behavior. Turned out, I saw it on the phone, and read about it on line. A few other, repeat few, had the same issue.

Perhaps you have a firmware issue.

 

[sailfast]

Well...there may be light at the end of the tunnel. I did go to the store. Battery tested fine but he agreed that what I describe is horrible. And there were no obvious settings causing it. WiFi is off, GPS is off, screen is dim, etc.

So I call *2 again. This time they give me a direct number to an account executive. He works 3:15-12:15 CST though. So I left a voicemail and now I wait.

On a side note, as I type this, my phone has only been off the charger for 3 hours an 47% of my battery has been used up. And that 47% has got me 20 minutes of phone calls, and 45 minutes of screen time. Everything else is nil. Those two total 75% of my usage.

That does sound odd. Can you take and post a screen shot of your battery stats screen?

When I added the Green Power Free app battery time increased about 35 %

New kernel about another 40%

And under volt about another 15%

My Nexus 4 went from about 8 hours with 2 hours screen per a charge to about 17 hours (full day) with 3 hours screen with some 10-13% battery remaining. I charge every night.

Went from intolerable to acceptable..

One should expect to charge their phone every night.

AS well I picked up an external battery for less than $30 to plug into wherever I happen to be if I am on a heavy usage day.

 

[Chilly807]

I replaced the battery in my Samsung Ace under warranty shortly after I got it, turns out the original wasn't up to snuff. So did my wife, she has an Ace as well. After that, the battery life is still just ok.. Samsung is noted for poor battery life, or are we just all used to flip phones that would hold a charge for 7-10 days if you didn't use them a lot?

I get about 2-3 days of use out of mine between charges, but I'm not a heavy user either. Maybe 30 mins a day of browsing, a dozen or so texts, and a 5 minute call or two.

Sean

 

[The kid]

I have a Samsung Galaxy Proclaim and it sucks on battery life. Not as bad as your describing though. I turn everything off when I'm out and about. If in the car I manually turn on the Bluetooth. I turn it off when not in the car. Since I'm not using the phone for a GPS. That is turned off too. I goto applications and shut down almost all background apps which does help on battery life. If your home tower is weak the phone will power up in output thus eating up the battery.

An alternative is to get a larger battery pack. You can buy extended batteries and matching rear cover that would extend your talk time two or three fold. I've seen them on ebay fairly reasonable. My phone is on the Verizon network and will probably get an extended battery pack and cover. -kid

 

[Tony_S]

Maybe that 47% of the battery used up is really only ummmm....errr...say, 27% of your battery used up. I say burn 'er to the ground...see how far she'll take ya till she circles the drain.

 

[94BULLITT]

Doesn't it take a going from 100% charge to 0% to calibrate the battery level meter? Is GPS, Wifi, or Bluetooth on? Also if you charge thought a computer you will get more battery life.

 

[k0ua]

LD1 I can't add a lot here, but I will say my Motorola Droid Razr M came off the charger at 08:00 and it is now 22:44 I used the phone all day with several calls. maybe 2 hours total of talking on calls, no browsing today with it and no text. and the battery is at 63%. I have had the phone for several months, and of course use it every day, some days heavy talking, and browsing, or streaming audio, and have never seen the battery lower than about 40% for a 10 hour day even with heavy use. I have never run the phone down, I ran the phone for 2 days without charging once and I believe it was at about 15%. I am not bragging or complaining but I am just saying that some android smartphones can last a good long while and mine does. I run wifi all the time, I do not run the blu-tooth. I have done nothing but the default settings for battery life, and truthfully for my use I never worry about the battery life. I hope you get your situation resolved, and I would be upset too, if mine didn't do any better than that.

James K0UA

 

[LD1]

Thanks for all of the suggestions everyone. Most I have tried. And yes I have read the sprint forums and android forums and this is just a bad design phone from most of what I read. Yes, GPS, wifi, bluetooth, etc are ALL off.

I am hesitant to down load battery saving apps, new kernals, rooting, undervolting, etc. Mainly for two reasons, 1, I dont really understand them and I dont want to risk voiding any kind of warranty with them. and 2. I really shouldnt have to jump through hoops to get the performance that is advertised. Now I know 7.5 hours of talk time is a stretch, and I am sure it can vary. But I would expect to get at least 5-6 hours of air time. Certainly not 2. Kinda like buying a truck that says it has 350hp. That means it should have 350hp (or darn close) right off the lot. I shouldnt have to add a chip, exhaust, intake, etc...

I am also hesitant to drain the battery completely. I have heard some say do it, and others say absolutely not as it is bad for the battery. Old school of though says its bad for the battery. But I know these batteries are different. Maybe I'll give it a try. At this point, I dont have much to loose right...

And I am still waiting on a call back from the sprint exec. So hopefully this will have a happy ending once I get a chance to explain my situation to someone with the authority to actually do something.

 

[LD1]

Thanks for all of the suggestions everyone. Most I have tried. And yes I have read the sprint forums and android forums and this is just a bad design phone from most of what I read. Yes, GPS, wifi, bluetooth, etc are ALL off.

I am hesitant to down load battery saving apps, new kernals, rooting, undervolting, etc. Mainly for two reasons, 1, I dont really understand them and I dont want to risk voiding any kind of warranty with them. and 2. I really shouldnt have to jump through hoops to get the performance that is advertised. Now I know 7.5 hours of talk time is a stretch, and I am sure it can vary. But I would expect to get at least 5-6 hours of air time. Certainly not 2. Kinda like buying a truck that says it has 350hp. That means it should have 350hp (or darn close) right off the lot. I shouldnt have to add a chip, exhaust, intake, etc...

I am also hesitant to drain the battery completely. I have heard some say do it, and others say absolutely not as it is bad for the battery. Old school of though says its bad for the battery. But I know these batteries are different. Maybe I'll give it a try. At this point, I dont have much to loose right...

And I am still waiting on a call back from the sprint exec. So hopefully this will have a happy ending once I get a chance to explain my situation to someone with the authority to actually do something.

 

[94BULLITT]

Thanks for all of the suggestions everyone. Most I have tried. And yes I have read the sprint forums and android forums and this is just a bad design phone from most of what I read. Yes, GPS, wifi, bluetooth, etc are ALL off.

I am hesitant to down load battery saving apps, new kernals, rooting, undervolting, etc. Mainly for two reasons, 1, I dont really understand them and I dont want to risk voiding any kind of warranty with them. and 2. I really shouldnt have to jump through hoops to get the performance that is advertised. Now I know 7.5 hours of talk time is a stretch, and I am sure it can vary. But I would expect to get at least 5-6 hours of air time. Certainly not 2. Kinda like buying a truck that says it has 350hp. That means it should have 350hp (or darn close) right off the lot. I shouldnt have to add a chip, exhaust, intake, etc...

I am also hesitant to drain the battery completely. I have heard some say do it, and others say absolutely not as it is bad for the battery. Old school of though says its bad for the battery. But I know these batteries are different. Maybe I'll give it a try. At this point, I dont have much to loose right...

And I am still waiting on a call back from the sprint exec. So hopefully this will have a happy ending once I get a chance to explain my situation to someone with the authority to actually do something.

I read somewhere that rooting a phone is illegal. I use juice defeneder on my phone. I went from 1 day to 2 days. I use the free version cause I am cheap. I just downloaded the beta version today for my tablet. A batterry saver app should not void your warranty. I would think you should be able to get close to the advertised specs withou doing anything to the phone.

You don't have to drain the battery completely but let it get low to calibrate the meter. I read somewhere that you should kill the battery once a month to condition it.

 

[troutsqueezer]

I know this is totally unhelpful but hey, it's the Internet:
Another reason why I have zero use for a smartphone in my life. Who needs the aggravation?

 

[crazyal]

I've got the GNexus as well, but with Verizon. The first month was fine but after that the battery would go dead in about 2 hours even in the middle of the night. When I brought up the battery graph it would show at times the battery draining rapidly at the oddest times. I made plenty of calls to Verizon with very little help other than to replace the phone but I really didn't want a refurbished one. For a month or so I just lived with keeping it plugged in. I had installed a program called JuiceDefender, even that didn't do much. One day, I noticed the 4g symbol was on then was gone, never seen it before at the house. A couple of days later I went into the settings and turned off 4g LTE (just 3g). Magically the phone would last days on a charge.

I left it that way for several months until one day I turned 4g back on and left it. The next day the phone wasn't drained. After the fact I realized what was going on was the towers were being upgraded/ worked on and it was sending signals to the phone repeatedly. Now that 4g is turned on all around me the phone works fine. I don't know about 7.5 hours of talk time but I bet I can do 6 hours on a charge. I don't talk much, most of my battery life is used on the internet.

 

[wyeguy]

I've had very good luck with Samsung phones but the Galaxy Nexus is a dog. Mucked around for 8 months with a phone that would shut the data off randomly but often. 2 weeks ago they finally sent me a "like new" replacement that was a disaster. Locked up, no sound, screen wouldn't come on until after I reset it by taking the battery out.... Now on my 3rd phone. They've got me by the short & curlies. Good luck to you. (Good luck to me).

 

[LD1]

Wye guy, I too have had issues with data turning off. Even in Columbus where I work...and full bars of 3g signal, I can be browsing and all of the sudden the bars will go grey and no internet. Two minutes later... They turn blue an it works again.

 

[cqaigy2]

I've got the GNexus as well, but with Verizon. The first month was fine but after that the battery would go dead in about 2 hours even in the middle of the night. When I brought up the battery graph it would show at times the battery draining rapidly at the oddest times. I made plenty of calls to Verizon with very little help other than to replace the phone but I really didn't want a refurbished one. For a month or so I just lived with keeping it plugged in. I had installed a program called JuiceDefender, even that didn't do much. One day, I noticed the 4g symbol was on then was gone, never seen it before at the house. A couple of days later I went into the settings and turned off 4g LTE (just 3g). Magically the phone would last days on a charge.

I left it that way for several months until one day I turned 4g back on and left it. The next day the phone wasn't drained. After the fact I realized what was going on was the towers were being upgraded/ worked on and it was sending signals to the phone repeatedly. Now that 4g is turned on all around me the phone works fine. I don't know about 7.5 hours of talk time but I bet I can do 6 hours on a charge. I don't talk much, most of my battery life is used on the internet.

That's a good point. Fringe 4g areas will really drain the phone fast. My old phone did LTE but live in very spotty area. The phone would try really hard to hook up and you could just about watch the battery drain right before your eyes. Turned it off on the phone and the battery would last much longer. The other thing about "smart" phones, is they are changing so fast, especially the android ones, that the people that sell them don't really know them as well as the old phones.