ThunderBolt real world battery life.

[dervin3]

 I have tried doing extensive research on the thunderbolts battery life and I don't need outstanding battery life but I do need a solid 13-15 hours with light calls but fairly moderate to heavy texting and light web browsing. Can an unrooted stock thunderbolt lasts this long assuming basic battery saving strategies are used such as GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth disabled, and increased refresh time intervals?

   I'm asking here because I've seen alot of tips on saving the battery but I haven't seen a real clear cut answer on just how long it can last. Like I said I just want to do the basic battery saving tips and some light calling and web browsing but frequent texting. Is 13-15 hours asking too much?

[TBhouston]

I think you're looking for a blackberry not any phone running android

[dervin3]

 I personally don't think that asking for a little over half a day of battery life is asking for too much. If people say that the thunderbolt cannot do that amount of time on a single charge I do have a backup plan in the form of the Droid X

[AZSALUKI]

Since turning off the 4G radio, I can get 15 hours of up time and 3 hours awake time. Everyone's idea of "moderate" or "heavy", etc use is different. But I can tell you that if you don't need the 4G all day then you can get through a full day while actually using it for 3 hours. The battery info gives you in detail the "up time" and "awake time" (how many minutes you are actually using the device). I track it and got over 3 hours of actual use yesterday while it was on for over 15 hours with about 15% left. I'm not using the extended battery.

[dervin3]

 I'm not going to be in a 4G area atleast anytime soon so even if you aren't in a 4G area and 3G is displayed on your status bar its still sucking juice up like you're in a 4G area?

[AZSALUKI]

---

dervin3 wrote:

 I'm not going to be in a 4G area atleast anytime soon so even if you aren't in a 4G area and 3G is displayed on your status bar its still sucking juice up like you're in a 4G area?

---

people that aren't in 4g areas are getting much more battery. you just turn off the 4g radio all together and it wont waste juice trying to search for a signal. i have great 4g coverage and it's kind of a bummer that it kills the battery so quick, but i can just turn on 4g if i want to stream or download large files. i still may get the extended battery if they'll give me a discount on it because i would really prefer to have 4g on all the time.....but for now i'm using 3g and wifi only and EASILY getting through a work day. yesterday wasn't quite as good as the day before, but i still had 10 hours on and nearly 3 hours of use when i fell asleep. it was dead when i woke up so i'm  not sure how many more hours it went before shutting off. my kids played angry birds for an hour straight before i crashed...lol. i'm sure that's what ran it down quick. stock battery, no task killers, i keep the screen very bright, and i have email set to pull every 15 minutes. if you have strong coverage in your area you should be fine. the real problem is those who have a weak signal. it's constantly looking for a signal and dies in hours.

[cmsjarhead]

iinstalled the 2750mAh battery and I'm easily getting 15-18hrs of heavy use out of it.
My stats for Friday (I am not using any power saving methods nor app killers these results are all wition the 4g network)
-3.7hrs of voice calls using a Bluetooth headset.
- received at least 170 emails. Push mail with prime hrs from 0600-2300. Responded to about a dozen on the phone.
- 30 texts, light day.
I plugged the phone in at midnight with 37% power available.

I like the extra bulk of the extended battery but, that may be the deciding factor.
Ma

[Tidbits]

Battery life isn't that bad...  It was better than my Droid 2.

I have 2 iphones that last me 2 days.  Android devices i tend to tinker with it 100x more than I do with my iphone so I assume if I tinkered with my iphone as much as I did with Android devices battery life would still be better, but I wouldn't probably get no more than 12 hours.

Currently I am using a TB, but I am thinking about going back to the iPhone 4.  On good days I get around 12-15 hours, on bad days I get around 6-8 hours.  I have the stock battery, and I am in at the outskirts of extended 4G coverage.  Sometimes I get 4G in my house. I step outside I get 3G.  I walk across the street I get 4G.  I walk to my neighbors house across the street I get 3G.

One thing I did notice if I turn off the TB and charge it to full, and then turn it on the battery widget types show 95-97%, So I charge it to full.  Since doing that my battery life was extended somewhat.  Got at least 1-2 extra hours.  I still have about a week left to test it out, and I shall before I make up my mind...

If anyone asks...  I used my mothers upgrade(I pay for her cell service so it's my choice )

[Newt76]

When I first got the phone I was getting maybe 3.5 hours until the battery completely died. I found that if you go to Accounts & Sync  under the Settings icon and turn off Background Data, you will get MUCH better battery life. 

On a full charge I am getting about a day and a half of battery life. You're email and messages will all still update, it just tells the phone not to constantly update all of your news feeds and such whenever it wants. You'll be able to keep the 4G service (which is why most of us bought the phone in the first place, right?)  and be able to use the phone all day without having to worry about charging the phone every 5 minutes. The only issue I have found with turning off the Background Data is that the Market will not work without it, but I just turn it back on while searching for Apps and then turn it back off when i am done. 

Hope that helps 

[dmruser]

Thanks for that bit of info - I just went back and got a Tbolt for the second time (battery life killed my joy the first time around) and I opted for the extended battery and the life of a charge is dramatically longer.  Now if I can fiddle with the phone and get a bit more, I will be very happy!

[jsun100]

Download the app from the app market that allows you to switch between 3G/4G.  Even if you arent in a 4G area, go ahead and turn the 4G off, it will save you a lot of juice.

[ayemat]

I would go ahead and purchase the enhanced battery, available at most verizon wireless stores, for the HTC thunderbolt. 

The enhanced battery gives you 18 to 20 hours between charges, and that's with moderate to heavy use, i.e. Streaming music, video, surfing, texting, and making phone calls. 

The cost -  $49. 

Hope this helps! 

--Alex

[philhyde]

Unfortunately, HTC put a sub-standard battery in this phone (1400mAH?  Really?).  The problem with the extended battery is the hump back.  If you can live with that, fine, but I opted not to.  Instead, just get an extra battery wall charger.  I opted for the products from Seidio:

http://www.seidioonline.com/category-s/5448.htm

So now I have two batteries (one is always fresh and charged), as well as the car charger to augment.  

I choose not to turn off 4G.  Why?  If I wanted a 3G phone I would have stuck with my Nexus S.  4G has much better building penetration anyhow.

Turn off background data?  Again, why?  That's the whole point of Android.  Sorry, it's not an acceptable solution to me.

My experiences have been that the 4G network is still young and evolving.  Occasionally 4G isn't available for some reason, and I think the phone hunts for it (battery drain).  I've also personally had several cases of what appeared to be stuck processes.  Complete battery drain in less than 4 hours.  Not normal!  But something to watch out for.

[mnpackrbackr]

Download and install the app called LTE On/Off (free, byw).  It allows you to switch between 4g and 3g.  Set your phone for 3g when you're only using it for making calls, texting, etc...  Set it for 4g when the need arises.  Thus your phone will not be constantly searching for the 4g service all the time and not switching back and forth between the two, which in turn kills the battery.  This is pretty much all I do and I can get a full day (12-14 hrs) out of my battery.

[philhyde]

@mnpackrbackr - The problem with turning 4G off is that 3G signal doesn't penetrate buildings nearly as well.  So I believe the phone would hunt more for 3G and switch more.  I never have any problem with 4G, yet 3G is spotty.

Obviously, if your ultimte goal is the longest battery life possible, then you need to turn some of these services off.  But I would rather keep it charged (wall/car) and take full advantage of the beauty of Android.

[mnpackrbackr]

With LTE On/Off, you can lock it onto 4g only.  As well as CDMA only, EvDo, only, whatever you need.  As far as 3g not being able to penetrate buildings better, that's something I've never heard of.  Not saying you're wrong, just never heard of it and I've never experienced any problems with 3g inside buildings.  Could be possible I suppose.  I'm just stating what works for me.

[philhyde]

Verizon EVDO is 1900Mhz (in most areas) and 4G/LTE is in the 700Mhz spectrum.  So yes, building penetration with 4G is much better.

[dervin3 · Accepted solution]

Now that I have gotten my phone and have had a few days to really see how it does I can say I get great battery life. All I have adjusted is turning off 4g since I'm not in an area with that right now and set my brightness to 30% and I'm getting great life. Easily 20-24 hours and that's egg moderate use. About 5-6 hours of awake time. Tomorrow I'm going to use auto brightness to see how that does. If the life is still good then all I will have disabled is 4g. One other adjustment I do is WiFi at home but that's it. I still have always on data on and background data on also. I can't speak for everyone but I think the Battery life issues is blown out of proportion

[philhyde]

dervin3 - with respect, I don't think the phone with 4G turned off represents a "real world" battery life.  

[dcsphoto]

I am visiting Orlando and have gotten much better battery life.

I am from Central NJ and work in NYC. At home in NJ I get a good 4G
signal but it keeps switching to 3G. I will lose 20% battery within an hour, and even with it on LTE only will lost battery. In NYC I get a sold 4G signal and it never switches to 3G, and there will still have to charge the phone within 4-5 hrs.

Where I am staying in NE Orlando Verizon coverage inside this house has always been poor for anyone phone. We need to go outside or the back porch for a decent call. 3G was getting no data so I switched to 4G. Even with 1 bar or no bars I had decent data. Yesterday we drove to Disney and I left the phone on CDMA+LTE so I would have data. As the day went on I was checking e-mail and also keeping an eye on battery. I had 3 bars in many places in Hollywood Studios and many time 1 or no bars. The phone stayed on 4G and I never once saw the phone change to 3G.The battery stayed all day. I made a couple of calls, texted lightly and received a lot of e-mail all day.

I had take the phone off the car charger at 10am, and at 10pm still had 45% battery left. This is far better than I have ever gotten in my home area.
Even though my usage was lighter I never would get anywhere near this in the NY/NJ area even with almost no use.
Has Verizon changed anything or has anyone else noticed a difference in other areas? Like everyone else I have been leaving my phone on 3G only to save battery.

[AZSALUKI]

---

philhyde wrote:

dervin3 - with respect, I don't think the phone with 4G turned off represents a "real world" battery life.  

---

it does if you live in a 3g only area. it also does for me because battery life is more important to me than 4g. i just turn on 4g when i want to skype or download something large. i get GREAT 4g coverage here.....but it still drains the battery much faster so i leave it on 3g. on 4g i could only get though a full day if i use it very little (maybe 2 hours of actual use and 10-12 hours standby) while on 3g i can get twice that and easily get more than a day out of a charge.