Develop Bugs

[Q] Several Questions About This Phone...To Keep, Exchange, or Return...Please Help

Greetings,
I bought the GNex from Expansys USA the day it came out and I have had the phone for about 5 days now. There are several things that are making me questions whether or not to keep it, get an exchange, or return altogether. Please advise:
1. The main thing I am concerned with is the battery performance. I am a Noob, so I am not sure how to run all those fancy battery tests, but I can say that when I take the phone off the charger in the morning there is only about 30-40% left by the afternoon, and that is with moderate browsing, music, and a few calls and texts. I installed the Advanced Task Killer to try and save battery life. I am coming from an iPhone 4 (I was locked into it with a contract, bad purchase I know) and it seems that the battery life is way better on the iPhone. Is there a way to determine if my GNex battery or device has a genuine problem before I return this one and potentially get a worse one? Also, I read somewhere that with these batteries they get better over time, is that true?
2. Since I got a GNex from the very first batch sent to the USA, I am wondering if the newly resumed/shipped batches will have the volume fix installed? If so, is it worth me sending back the one I have now for a newly flashed one with the update? How can anyone tell if their device is updated anyway? I have Android Version 4.0.1, but isn't that what everyone has now?
3. The speaker volume is not that impressive, and I tried installing those volume booster apps to no avail. Is the speaker just not that powerful on this device?
Feel free to insult and/or flame me on my previous iPhone usage and also my lack of technical knowledge. I love the GNex because of it's amazing features on paper and all the available bandwidths I can choose from as I travel abroad frequently and this is one of the only penta-band phones I could find other than a few Nokias. But they don't run Andriod!

tk123456789 said:
1. The main thing I am concerned with is the battery performance. I am a Noob, so I am not sure how to run all those fancy battery tests, but I can say that when I take the phone off the charger in the morning there is only about 30-40% left by the afternoon, and that is with moderate browsing, music, and a few calls and texts. I installed the Advanced Task Killer to try and save battery life. I am coming from an iPhone 4 (I was locked into it with a contract, bad purchase I know) and it seems that the battery life is way better on the iPhone. Is there a way to determine if my GNex battery or device has a genuine problem before I return this one and potentially get a worse one? Also, I read somewhere that with these batteries they get better over time, is that true?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Android has "worse" battery life than iOS mostly because it has true multi-tasking and constant connectivity (unless in airplane mode). They generally do improve slightly, but anything 8 - 12 hrs. is pretty average, with "average" usage.
tk123456789 said:
2. Since I got a GNex from the very first batch sent to the USA, I am wondering if the newly resumed/shipped batches will have the volume fix installed? If so, is it worth me sending back the one I have now for a newly flashed one with the update? How can anyone tell if their device is updated anyway? I have Android Version 4.0.1, but isn't that what everyone has now?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You will get an OTA (over-the-air update) sometime over the next 6 days. Most likely any replacement one you received you would still have to wait for the OTA anyways.
tk123456789 said:
3. The speaker volume is not that impressive, and I tried installing those volume booster apps to no avail. Is the speaker just not that powerful on this device?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, it is fairly underwhelming (Nexii always have been actually)

Thank for the quick reply s.m.knipe! Like I said I am new to this type of phone OS, so I appreciate the answers. I forgot to add another question before:
When I make a call, and I tap the icon for speaker phone, and then immediately try and tap the icon for the keypad numbers, there is a delay and the keypad numbers do not appear immediately. I guess I am saying there is a lag of sorts between pressing the speaker icon and the keypad icon to appear. However, this only seems to happen when the phone is taking a while to connect the call. When I tried doing the same thing in a better service area the icons switched back and forth seamlessly.
I really don't notice any defects on the phone at all in terms of build quality as opposed to others' here on this forum that have screen issues and cameras not being centered so that is why I am reluctant to send this one back for replacement if there is really no problem with the battery or speaker. Unfortunately I have no one to compare devices with as this phone is rare in the US. Anyway, I guess I'll be keeping this bad boy and use it as best I can!
Regards

Ok so I just retried making a call in this better reception area, and I still have the lag between the speaker icon and the keypad icon. Must be something else besides the reception?

tk123456789 said:
Greetings,
I bought the GNex from Expansys USA the day it came out and I have had the phone for about 5 days now. There are several things that are making me questions whether or not to keep it, get an exchange, or return altogether. Please advise:
1. The main thing I am concerned with is the battery performance. I am a Noob, so I am not sure how to run all those fancy battery tests, but I can say that when I take the phone off the charger in the morning there is only about 30-40% left by the afternoon, and that is with moderate browsing, music, and a few calls and texts. I installed the Advanced Task Killer to try and save battery life. I am coming from an iPhone 4 (I was locked into it with a contract, bad purchase I know) and it seems that the battery life is way better on the iPhone. Is there a way to determine if my GNex battery or device has a genuine problem before I return this one and potentially get a worse one? Also, I read somewhere that with these batteries they get better over time, is that true?
2. Since I got a GNex from the very first batch sent to the USA, I am wondering if the newly resumed/shipped batches will have the volume fix installed? If so, is it worth me sending back the one I have now for a newly flashed one with the update? How can anyone tell if their device is updated anyway? I have Android Version 4.0.1, but isn't that what everyone has now?
3. The speaker volume is not that impressive, and I tried installing those volume booster apps to no avail. Is the speaker just not that powerful on this device?
Feel free to insult and/or flame me on my previous iPhone usage and also my lack of technical knowledge. I love the GNex because of it's amazing features on paper and all the available bandwidths I can choose from as I travel abroad frequently and this is one of the only penta-band phones I could find other than a few Nokias. But they don't run Andriod!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1.) Battery is what it is. You might want to wait for undervolted or underclocked kernels or more battery concious roms to come out. There is one (Android Revolution HD) which the first post claims to have better battery life than the stock rom. Second, as pointed out by many members, task killers do not help the battery at all. (Cannot confirm this myself, speculation from different posts) If you wanted, you could post some screenshots about your battery life and screen time and see how it compares to other members with Galaxy Nexus'. Note: The iPhone 4 has lower battery consumption because its clocked significantly less than the Galaxy Nexus (Single core 800mhz i think) and the OS itself is heavily optimized for the phone. Plus, I would assume that the iPhone has less processes running in the background compared to the G-Nexus (could be wrong though)
2.) The volume fix is being rolled out via a software update, so it should automatically be sent to your phone whether its the first batch or the hundredth.
3.) For the speaker volume, you might try changing some settings in the equalizer? Not too sure about this, but many people have reported that the speakers are reasonable in terms of performance and if you seriously feel as though the performance of the speaker is that bad, you could try exchanging it, but I doubt any good would come out of it

tk123456789 said:
Greetings,
1. The main thing I am concerned with is the battery performance. I am a Noob, so I am not sure how to run all those fancy battery tests, but I can say that when I take the phone off the charger in the morning there is only about 30-40% left by the afternoon, and that is with moderate browsing, music, and a few calls and texts. I installed the Advanced Task Killer to try and save battery life. I am coming from an iPhone 4 (I was locked into it with a contract, bad purchase I know) and it seems that the battery life is way better on the iPhone. Is there a way to determine if my GNex battery or device has a genuine problem before I return this one and potentially get a worse one? Also, I read somewhere that with these batteries they get better over time, is that true?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Since it's a new phone try charging the battery fully and letting it discharge completely. After 3 to 5 times you should see improvement in your battery life. There is a thread on this that gives more info. Also a task killer is a bad idea and the thread covers this topic too.
I have a Nexus S and it's lasts me over 24 hours on a full charge with 3G and WIFI turned on.

mohitrocks said:
1.) Battery is what it is. You might want to wait for undervolted or underclocked kernels or more battery concious roms to come out. There is one (Android Revolution HD) which the first post claims to have better battery life than the stock rom. Second, as pointed out by many members, task killers do not help the battery at all. (Cannot confirm this myself, speculation from different posts) If you wanted, you could post some screenshots about your battery life and screen time and see how it compares to other members with Galaxy Nexus'. Note: The iPhone 4 has lower battery consumption because its clocked significantly less than the Galaxy Nexus (Single core 800mhz i think) and the OS itself is heavily optimized for the phone. Plus, I would assume that the iPhone has less processes running in the background compared to the G-Nexus (could be wrong though)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The galaxy nexus also has a much larger screen than the iPhone which I think also plays a part in battery consumption

Thanks for the replies! Any link for the thread you mentioned? I tried a search and couldn't locate it...

the screen is, without a doubt, the most power hungry component in the phone.

Typically the battery display says 60% of the battery is being spent on the screen. Is this in line with other GNex users?

Oh, and has no one else noticed the lag I mentioned above in the on-screen display when pressing the speaker icon and then the keypad icon and then the long wait for the keypad coming up when making a call?

nope

ruthlesset said:
Since it's a new phone try charging the battery fully and letting it discharge completely. After 3 to 5 times you should see improvement in your battery life. There is a thread on this that gives more info. Also a task killer is a bad idea and the thread covers this topic too.
I have a Nexus S and it's lasts me over 24 hours on a full charge with 3G and WIFI turned on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Anyone know where this thread is that is mentioned above with info about the battery life and why the task killer has issues or is a bad idea?

I've been doubting myself too much

to the point where I'm thinking of returning my Galaxy Nexus. The phone is beautiful and slick but I can't deal with the battery life. I'm especially worried for when I go back to my University next week because I'm not sure if the phone would last while I'm going from class to class from 9 AM to 5 PM everyday and most rooms having low to no reception.
Before this phone I had the HTC Thunderbolt with the extended battery and it could last me the whole day while I was going from class to class and under heavy and constan usage (to the point where I never had to bother monitering it or caring about the battery). I would have auto-brightness on, GPS, Google Latitude, use Facebook app freeling, have Google+ uploading my pics as soon as they were taken, use Pulse, and be ALWAYS connected to 4G without worrying about the battery life.
Now with the Galaxy Nexus I'm forced to turn down my brightness, turn off GPS, turn off Latitude (you can see where this is going. Pretty much opposite of Thunderbolt), uninstall Facebook and disable Google+, minimize my usage, and use Wifi whenever possible to get through a few hours. I even uninstalled Google Voice today to see if that makes any difference. Really? Why am I crippling my smartphone? Why should I have to turn off 4G on a 4G phone to save battery?
I'm obviously an idiot for comparing a Thunderbolt that has an extended battery (2,750 mAh) with the Galaxy Nexus that has a normal battery (1,850 mAh). It's also my fault for trying to believe that battery technology would improve in about a year especially after the horrible battery life from the Thunderbolt; I thought that people would learn from other's mistakes. I thought that the Galaxy Nexus, Google's new and precious baby, would fix the woes from previous phones.
I've been following a ton of forums to find out if there's a fix and I've done a bunch of stuff (disable Google+, uninstall Facebook, etc) but there's barely a difference. Some people are suggesting that an update will come along to fix the battery but I'm tired of hearing that excuse. A software fix will only do so much. And 4.0.3 has been announced for a quite a while from Google. Why hasn't this phone been update to 4.0.3? Why did Google halt it from the Nexus S? Is there something that's running down the battery even more with that update? I don't want to go off topic but I just hate being kept in the dark and not understanding what is going on.
Here I am now typing this as I'm looking at my Thunderbolt while it charges. I'm planning on trying out a few ICS ROMs to see how they go. I'm just tired of second guessing myself. The Galaxy Nexus is a beautiful device, both software and hardware wise; the camera may not be the best but I love it's speed and ICS is just sleek as F. But I can't fully enjoy the phone with the mediocre battery life that I am getting.

I suggest stock 4.0.2 with ogdobber's jamesbond kernel which only has undervolt open and the gpu oc'ed. Probably need to turn off lte and stick to the CDMA. 3g CDMA isn't fast but it is passable and battery efficient.
Sent from my Nexus in Texas.

even if battery tech does drastically increase 1750 mah will ALWAYS still be 1750mah it may take up less space or create less heat.. Mah is a measurement of milliamperes per hour

Try Paul O'Brien's excellent MoDaCo ROM - very impressive battery life and for $9 you get access to the kitchen. There's an update due today which will fix a flaky call issue.
Alternatively, hang on for 4.0.3 which is likely to bring some decent battery life improvements and bug fixes (though wouldn't surprise me if it's out for the Galaxy S2 first). I used to get 2-3 days of heavy use from my SGS2, get one of those and wait for ICS if you want better battery.
And a last alternatively... shove one of these in your bag:
http://www.firebox.com/product/2692/Pebble-Portable-Charger

If your in places with no reception, put the thing in airplace mode or disable mobile data.
This phone gives me the best battery life vs my last 4 phones,... HTC hero, htc evo, Nexus s, and htc evo 3d...

Get an external battery. Since you are in uni I suppose you will be carrying around a bag anyway so it won't be too inconvenient to lug around. Just leave your phone charging during lunch and it should last the rest if the afternoon.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

Go into your sstem/app folder and take off apps that you don't use. EVERYTHING you don't use. if you take a trip to that folder you're gonna see a lot of **** that you didn't know was there.
Do some cleaning and you should be fine with your normal usage. Also, try to flash a kernel so you can customize the governors and allow the phone to sleep more efficiently.
Coming from a thunderbolt, you should know how horrible battery life is for ANY stock android device...
There's no need to gimp your smartphone. I fluffing hate it when people say "just disable 4g, 3g, take auto-sync off, turn brightness all the way down, and only surf the web with wifi"
WHAT? WHY THE **** DID I BUY A 4G SMARTPHONE THEN IF I'M ONLY GONNA USE IT AS JUST A PHONE?
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA Premium App

Also to put it in context...I'm using the epic 4g and I still have the stock 1500 mAh battery and the only time I lasted more than 4 hours on stock without having to charge was with a gngerbread leak.
But after a couple days of devs getting dirty and taking the time to clean up, your battery should last exponentially longer since people will have figured out what exactly drains the batter and how to stop it.
On the epic, it was the DRM. **** always ran in the background, then someone discovered it and about a month later it became so irrelevant since all the devs knew what code to get the drm to stfu until you needed it
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA Premium App

A_Flying_Fox said:
Go into your sstem/app folder and take off apps that you don't use. EVERYTHING you don't use. if you take a trip to that folder you're gonna see a lot of **** that you didn't know was there.
Do some cleaning and you should be fine with your normal usage. Also, try to flash a kernel so you can customize the governors and allow the phone to sleep more efficiently.
Coming from a thunderbolt, you should know how horrible battery life is for ANY stock android device...
There's no need to gimp your smartphone. I fluffing hate it when people say "just disable 4g, 3g, take auto-sync off, turn brightness all the way down, and only surf the web with wifi"
WHAT? WHY THE **** DID I BUY A 4G SMARTPHONE THEN IF I'M ONLY GONNA USE IT AS JUST A PHONE?
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol lay off the nerd 'roids. It like leaving all the lights on and air conditioning in your house and wondering why the bill is so high. It's like a lot of people are expecting their smartphone to automatically be efficient. Get a bigger gas tank if you need to run a marathon. Otherwise sprint efficiently with what you have.
Sent from my Nexus in Texas.

@rbiter said:
Lol lay off the nerd 'roids. It like leaving all the lights on and air conditioning in your house and wondering why the bill is so high. It's like a lot of people are expecting their smartphone to automatically be efficient. Get a bigger gas tank if you need to run a marathon. Otherwise sprint efficiently with what you have.
Sent from my Nexus in Texas.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hah.. fallout new Vegas Nerd Rage perk. STR to Max and screen-on drain resistance +50% when battery falls below 20%.
Sent from my GSM Galaxy Nexus on TMoUS using Tapatalk

David Horn said:
(though wouldn't surprise me if it's out for the Galaxy S2 first).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

Game4set said:
to the point where I'm thinking of returning my Galaxy Nexus. The phone is beautiful and slick but I can't deal with the battery life. I'm especially worried for when I go back to my University next week because I'm not sure if the phone would last while I'm going from class to class from 9 AM to 5 PM everyday and most rooms having low to no reception.
Before this phone I had the HTC Thunderbolt with the extended battery and it could last me the whole day while I was going from class to class and under heavy and constan usage (to the point where I never had to bother monitering it or caring about the battery). I would have auto-brightness on, GPS, Google Latitude, use Facebook app freeling, have Google+ uploading my pics as soon as they were taken, use Pulse, and be ALWAYS connected to 4G without worrying about the battery life.
Now with the Galaxy Nexus I'm forced to turn down my brightness, turn off GPS, turn off Latitude (you can see where this is going. Pretty much opposite of Thunderbolt), uninstall Facebook and disable Google+, minimize my usage, and use Wifi whenever possible to get through a few hours. I even uninstalled Google Voice today to see if that makes any difference. Really? Why am I crippling my smartphone? Why should I have to turn off 4G on a 4G phone to save battery?
I'm obviously an idiot for comparing a Thunderbolt that has an extended battery (2,750 mAh) with the Galaxy Nexus that has a normal battery (1,850 mAh). It's also my fault for trying to believe that battery technology would improve in about a year especially after the horrible battery life from the Thunderbolt; I thought that people would learn from other's mistakes. I thought that the Galaxy Nexus, Google's new and precious baby, would fix the woes from previous phones.
I've been following a ton of forums to find out if there's a fix and I've done a bunch of stuff (disable Google+, uninstall Facebook, etc) but there's barely a difference. Some people are suggesting that an update will come along to fix the battery but I'm tired of hearing that excuse. A software fix will only do so much. And 4.0.3 has been announced for a quite a while from Google. Why hasn't this phone been update to 4.0.3? Why did Google halt it from the Nexus S? Is there something that's running down the battery even more with that update? I don't want to go off topic but I just hate being kept in the dark and not understanding what is going on.
Here I am now typing this as I'm looking at my Thunderbolt while it charges. I'm planning on trying out a few ICS ROMs to see how they go. I'm just tired of second guessing myself. The Galaxy Nexus is a beautiful device, both software and hardware wise; the camera may not be the best but I love it's speed and ICS is just sleek as F. But I can't fully enjoy the phone with the mediocre battery life that I am getting.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Battery lasts me all day on the GSM version.
Folks, powering an extra radio uses extra power.
Moreover, the longer your data connection stays active, the longer your radio is active which is an even bigger drain. Since the LTE Gnexus devices are powering 2 radios (CDMA *and* LTE) simultaneously, and the second radio isn't as efficient as the standard radio that's part of the SoC package, this means that you need to ration your data usage if you want your battery to last.
Again, on the GSM version this isn't an issue because the radio is built into the SoC from the ground up, as well as it being only a single active radio at a time (GSM *or* UMTS/HSPA).
Software updates won't change that. It's a matter of physics. The LTE version may see some improvements here and there, but no software will counteract the effects of having to power 2 radios constantly.

@rbiter said:
Lol lay off the nerd 'roids. It like leaving all the lights on and air conditioning in your house and wondering why the bill is so high. It's like a lot of people are expecting their smartphone to automatically be efficient. Get a bigger gas tank if you need to run a marathon. Otherwise sprint efficiently with what you have.
Sent from my Nexus in Texas.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol its definitely not like that. Its more like buying a new eco lightbulb that you use just like your old lightbulb but your bill is $80 more. Wut? LOL
But nah my epic 4g lasts me the whole day with 4g on (no access to wifi :[ ), auto-sync for gmail (i don't use facebook so its always the first app to go), blah blah blah. The only time battery is a problem is if I'm in a no sprint zone and forget to make my phone roam. Other than that, its used as a smartphone with 3+ hours of screen on time (voodoo color allowsyou to edit the gamm values and what not so its able to sip less power for the same brightness if that makes sense)
Seriously, root your phone and if stock is your thing, just install a custom kernel. Kernels handle the voltages and frequencies andhow your phone interacts with certain things so a custom kernel will almost ALWAYS have been optimized over stock. You will probably see a muc better result if you flash a ROM and Kernel, simply because custom roms are made to work without all the extra **** running in the background that no one wants
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA Premium App

Originally Posted by David Horn
(though wouldn't surprise me if it's out for the Galaxy S2 first).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Willing to stick my neck out and bet that we see 4.0.3 with all the Touchwiz toys out before the 4.0.3 update from Google.

A_Flying_Fox said:
Go into your sstem/app folder and take off apps that you don't use. EVERYTHING you don't use. if you take a trip to that folder you're gonna see a lot of **** that you didn't know was there.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just to clarify, make sure you KNOW what you're deleting and make backups anyway, just in case something you remove from there causes issues with another application that expects it to be there. Sure, you can remove a lot (if not most) of things from system/app without harm, but don't just go deleting random things unless you are SURE there will not be side effects.

David Horn said:
Willing to stick my neck out and bet that we see 4.0.3 with all the Touchwiz toys out before the 4.0.3 update from Google.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, but that's not gonna happen...
Terminators run on Android

You can have good battery life, of course
Here is mine, all stocks, not-rooted, not-unlocked, 4.0.1, yakju.
Using EXTENDED Battery 2000 mAH, GSM version.
Stand by 2 days and 7 hours, screen on time was 3 hours and 18 minutes.
It still has about 17% battery life, which could easily translate to 1 hour or so screen on time
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

copkay said:
TERRIBLE advice. Make sure you KNOW what you're deleting and make backups anyway, just in case something you remove from there causes issues with another application that expects it to be there. Sure, you can remove a lot (if not most) of things from system/app without harm, but don't just go deleting random things unless you are SURE there will not be side effects.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Common sense dictates not to delete something if you aren't sure what it is.
I apologize for having faith in the OP's cognitive functions.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA Premium App

A_Flying_Fox said:
Common sense dictates not to delete something if you aren't sure what it is.
I apologize for having faith in the OP's cognitive functions.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your words were to delete EVERYTHING in system/app that you don't use. I'm not trying to pick an argument here, but I just like to clarify, because what may be common sense to some people may not be to another. Not even necessarily the OP, but others that come across the thread in the future.
/worked in tech support -- common sense can never be assumed.

gogol said:
You can have good battery life, of course
Here is mine, all stocks, not-rooted, not-unlocked, 4.0.1, yakju.
Using EXTENDED Battery 2000 mAH, GSM version.
Stand by 2 days and 7 hours, screen on time was 3 hours and 18 minutes.
It still has about 17% battery life, which could easily translate to 1 hour or so screen on time
Forgot to tell, im using original gsm 1750mAh bat.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WOW! Best iv'e seen so far! I manage to get about 3h on screen time over one day of use, but 2 days and nights with already over 3h screen and still 17% to go!! Wow i do keep gps, sync, latitude, g+ turned on at all times though and always 100% screen brightness, no facebook.. gonna delete that acc soon.. any trix you use to get that bat,life?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

ics and battery life

At first my girlfriend had her Nexus S updated to ics and immediately we noticed a huge difference in how long her battery lasted and she is the furthest thing from a heavy user.
So when I heard that ics ws being released for our phone my first thought was i hope that what she experienced won't be what i do as we have a better phone right?
Well I am sad to say on a stock but rooted rom I experience the same lack of battery life as her.
Now I am no beginner to Android and have changed all sorts of settings available and nothing syncs on its own and when I unplug my phone from charging in the morning I will need to plug my phone in at night before bed as my phone will be completely dead.
I have to say I am very disappointed in the battery life of thr the stock rom and hope some good kernels make it out to help.
Sent from my SGH-T989D using XDA

Have you tried to find out which app/process is draining your battery? Better Battery Stats can help you identify what is using up your battery.
I had a big keep awake problem when i first installed stock ICS on my T989D. I did a full wipe of the phone and formatted my internal SD card (after backing things up of course), reinstall the same stock ICS and everything works great now. Battery life is about the same as before (stock GB w/ Synergy kernel), which is about 30 hours with moderate use.

Try CM 9. I get almost 2 days of battery life.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-T989 using xda premium

I've never had better battery life personally.
Sent from my SGH-T989D using Tapatalk 2

Though I am now on AOKP, I had great battery life on stock ICS as well. But, everything is subjective. How many email accounts are being synced? Do you have Facebook / Twitter / G+ updating every hour? Do you have news feeds continuously updating as well?
I have to agree with the poster above. Get Better Battery Stats and find the culprit draining your battery and work from there.

biggest thing draining the battery is the screen.
you can literally watch the battery usage drop 10-15% in a period of 10 to 15 minutes which is absurd when its set to low.
Sent from my SGH-T989D using XDA

Wait for kernel development. Its underway as we speak. It will make a significant difference.
Some battery saving tips:
- use juicedefender and set it to aggressive mode.
- use romtoolbox or other programs to underclock cpu frequency.
- also try using telus stock ics. Very good battery life.
Sent from my SGH-T989D using XDA

I have a brand new T989D (I'm new to Android, former iPhone user) and got the ICS upgrade the day I got it (9 days ago). Battery life is terrible, I'm lucky if I get 10 hours of moderate usage. The phone also tends to run very, very hot. Sometimes apps freeze and all I can do is either wait or, in some cases, remove the battery to reboot.
I'm open to any tips that will get this fixed! I haven't rooted yet (no time). I think I will try those wipe tools and reflash the stock ICS ROM.
First post btw - glad to have joined XDA!

Rooting takes 5 seconds. Follow the sticky. Use odin.
Run a custom rom.
Sent from my HTC Vision using xda premium

Android_Monsters said:
Rooting takes 5 seconds. Follow the sticky. Use odin.
Run a custom rom.
Sent from my HTC Vision using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, although a lot of howtos seem to be for GB since ICS only landed 9 days ago. Also there's a lot of conflicting information, so I prefer this one:
http : // galaxys2root.com/t-mobile-galaxy-s2/how-to-root-icsgb-on-t-mobile-galaxy-s2-sgh-t989/
Aaaannnd... rooted! \o/

anomy13 said:
Wait for kernel development. Its underway as we speak. It will make a significant difference.
Some battery saving tips:
- use juicedefender and set it to aggressive mode.
- use romtoolbox or other programs to underclock cpu frequency.
- also try using telus stock ics. Very good battery life.
Sent from my SGH-T989D using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
phone is a telus phone so its already using that rom.
setcpu us setup already but thinking perhaps to undervolt
Sent from my SGH-T989D using XDA

Stock, not rooted, my battery life is great. Something is using your battery up, and flashing some exotic kernel isn't going to change that. The stock kernel works fine. You'll want to find the root of the problem. Keep a real-time (or 1-5s interval anyway) eye on the phone's current (mA) usage, and when it's high for no apparent reason, you'll know that whatever is sucking your battery is doing it right then. That should help you characterize the problem. I've noticed when my WCDMA/GSM radio signal sucks, so does the battery life, so I either turn off the radio or switch to GSM only when I'm in that area. If your display is what's eating your battery, well a kernel can't stop that. Turn the brightness down, leave it on auto-brightness, or just deal with it if you need the display on all the time. But if tweaking and modding makes you happy, by all means...

firebane said:
biggest thing draining the battery is the screen.
you can literally watch the battery usage drop 10-15% in a period of 10 to 15 minutes which is absurd when its set to low.
Sent from my SGH-T989D using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the same complaint. The "screen" battery usage is just unacceptable, especially compared to GB. My phone has been draining from a full charge for ~4.5 hours and my screen usage is 70% and battery is down to 65% with hardly 10 minutes of screen-on time.

I use an app called autostarts and you basically enable/disable apps that start running when certain events happen (phone startup, wifi being turned on, incoming call/sms/mms, other apps turning on, etc.). Just make sure you do your homework so you dont disable something critical. Hopefully this app works on ICS. You'll be surprised what different events make certain apps turn on automaticly. Screen, data/wifi, gps and bluetooth are the biggest battery drainers. No matter what Rom you are on if you don't keep control of those items your battery will drain fast. Keep ur screen on auto, let it go off @ 15 seconds ( you have to be pretty used to your phone for that setting not to annoy you), turn OFF your data or wifi when not in use. With bluetooth and gps...well u know that when you use them your battery is gonna drain faster than normal...just keep that in mind. Its all pretty much common sense.
I'm not going to tell you how much battery time I get cuz its nonsense. There are times my phone lasts till the next day and others Im charging it by sundown. Then again Im still on Juggs n Darkside kernel and Im gonna wait a bit still b4 I make the switch. Also don't go by what other people say on battery life cuz if you might not get the same results on that ROM. Everyone of our devices is unique and acts different. Everyone user uses their phone different. You can't define "light, moderate, heavy" use so don't go by that either.
Sent from my Blutiful SGSII w/Juggs.

Duel core vs single core
Larger brighter screen
Processor is clocked higher
Radio is connected to hspa+ network
Tw vs Samsung.
These things make a difference
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

After upgrading to ICS stock unrooted battery life sucked (5-6hrs). I did the whole remove battery, factory reset and still sucked.
Broke down rooted (still stock), downloaded batterycalibration from play, followed the instructions. Easily get over 24hrs before having to charge again. and when I say easily, I mean I still have over 25% left.

Get a gnex extended....maybe a bad battery
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium

AOKP build 40, latest eugene373 streamline kernel. I went 9 hours earlier it earlier and it was still at 70% You will see a difference!!
Sent from AOKP Goodness :-D

mrrobc97 said:
Im not going to tell you how much battery time I get cuz its nonsense. .........Everyone user uses their phone different. You can't define "light, moderate, heavy" use so don't go by that either.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bingo. Vastly different battery life between ROM's is generally BS. Every once in a great while one of these threads has merit but typically someone saying ROM X had "Killer" battery life is clueless and drinking the koolaid. Then a placebo effect takes place. And definitely someones "Heavy" use is subjective. If someone says they get a day out of an android phone they are not heavy users by my definition. It doesn't happen with heavy use. Perhaps the Razr Maxx or another phone with a very large battery but I've had 5 Android phones. If I get past noon it's because I am not using my phone that much and forget about a full day. It's never happened in the 4 years I've used google OS phones. Never.

jonjon68 said:
Bingo. Vastly different battery life between ROM's is generally BS. Every once in a great while one of these threads has merit but typically someone saying ROM X had "Killer" battery life is clueless and drinking the koolaid. Then a placebo effect takes place. And definitely someones "Heavy" use is subjective. If someone says they get a day out of an android phone they are not heavy users by my definition. It doesn't happen with heavy use. Perhaps the Razr Maxx or another phone with a very large battery but I've had 5 Android phones. If I get past noon it's because I am not using my phone that much and forget about a full day. It's never happened in the 4 years I've used google OS phones. Never.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes exactly, I hate when people post screenshots of their phone getting 24+ hours, I'm there thinking "well obviously they don't use their phone alot". There is no way in hell i could get 24 hours no matter what rom/kernal I use. Im just happy when my phone can make it till I get home at night
Sent from Flip's SGS2

SOLVED: ICS Upgrade Myth Dispelled - Factory Reset Does Not Fix Battery Drain

EDIT: Please read this entire thread, there's some good info. Every phone and every situation is different, however it turns out my battery drain was the result of my phone not hitting "Deep Sleep". The culprit was my SD card, if you're experiencing battery drain after upgrading to ICS try removing your SD card and restarting your phone, use the app CPU SPY to verify your phone is now hitting "Deep Sleep". Again please read on, amidst some trolls there is more detailed information.
SIDENOTE: This being my first thread I have to say on the whole I really like this community!
I never thought I'd be that guy saying don't upgrade to ICS, because the OS is so slick and fun. However the glitch with the battery drain nullifies it's value. My brand new phone, less than two months old will die before the end of the day without me making a single phone call. I'm talking maybe an 1 to 1.5 hours of use texting, checking mail, surfing, and my battery now runs dead before I even get home from work. If you go into Settings > Battery it will show you the break down of what's using what. At the top should be your display, it takes a lot of power for to run the ultra bright display and this is what I saw before the ICS update. After the update these are the numbers:
Android OS: 58%
Screen: 18%
Cell Standby: 10%
Phone Idle: 7%
Android System: 2%
The OS is taking 58% of the battery?!? This is crazy!The buzz going around the net is if you do a factory reset it will fix the issue, well it does, but only for a very short time.
I went through the pain and formatted my SD card, then did a factory reset on my phone lost everything, well I backed it up, but still was a long process. After all that I loaded up my apps, and everything looked great. If you I went into the battery break down Screen was back at the top and the Android OS was several rungs below. I was SO happy! It was worth it after all.... THEN
Imagine my chagrin I woke up this morning to a full charge. Didn't make one phone call, just checked a couple emails, and being only a HOUR into my day my battery is at 76%!! I look back at the battery break down, and there's Android OS sitting at the top, draining double the battery juice as the screen display. I mean this almost makes ICS useless, what good is this great cell phone if you have to be tethered to a power cord. WTF!! Point being, don't bother resetting your phone, it DOES NOT permanently help. If you haven't upgraded to ICS don't, we're all just screwed until they come out with a fix, and you see how long it took them just to get ICS.
I don't know what happened between last night and today, but my hope is some dev person will read this and it will help them pinpoint the issue.

Did you backup and restore your app data as well?
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

squshy 7 said:
Did you backup and restore your app data as well?
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope, the only thing I backed up was pics, music, and video, and I combed through those folders to make sure there were no sys files.

It sounds more like your battery is going bad. You can go to Sprint store and they will test your battery for you.
You might also want to get a battery monitoring program and see what is using the battery up.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

its not a ics glitch its your phone lol.. ive never had this issue.. plus with the source kernels coming out and with roms/tweaks already out youcan increase battery life yourself.. because your battey cant keep a charge you bash ics? go back to gingerbread then lol. i can use my phone for two hours and leave it off charger over night and still have at least 50% charge
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA

nim6us said:
Android OS: 58%
Screen: 18%
Cell Standby: 10%
Phone Idle: 7%
Android System: 2%
QUOTE]
It looks like your phone may never be going into deep sleep. Get CPUSpy from Google Play and see what is going on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

theheathen said:
It sounds more like your battery is going bad. You can go to Sprint store and they will test your battery for you.
You might also want to get a battery monitoring program and see what is using the battery up.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Having a bad battery would not make Android OS use the majority of his power though. I have had this problem myself in the past and never did figure out exactly what stopped it. Running Blue Kuban now and my battery life, though never great, is reasonable. FYI, I also run Juice Defender which makes a substantial difference for me.

Running pretty much stock ICS FF18, just have agat safe recovery/kernal installed. Yesterday I left Wimax on all day and when I went to charge it last night it had about 28% left. I made several phone calls, many texts/whatsapp messages, reading emails and using twiitter/fb a couple of times.
The battery life on this is not the greatest, for example, I forgot to turn off wifi when I left my house the other day, well my battery dropped about 30% in just a few hours. I now find that just leaving Wimax on all day is actually better and pretty much on par with just having 3G on, I prefer wifi at home but if I forget to turn it off it kills my battery.
I was so used to Blazers 4.1 battery life, the battery lasted forever and I could leave wifi, bluetooth etc on all day. Just hoping for the ROMs to start incorporating the recently released source so that we can get better battery life on these great ROMS.

This is all known information. That's why you use custom roms that have much better battery life.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

I had same issue here with custom rom FF18 touched by SGS3. Went back to EL29, FF18 is glitchy and slower anyway.

Confirmed, factory reset battery drain exists.

OP, why don't you put up a screenshot of your battery graph? The expanded one, not the one that lists the percentages.
There are a number of reasons why this could be happening. One of my biggest drainers on CM9 was Google login service, turned out the "keep this device backed up with Google" in the backup and reset settings was completely preventing my phone from going to sleep. This is but one example.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

I am getting decent battery life with the 'super galaxy rom' almost on par with the caulkin el29 build I was using... LOVE it!
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda app-developers app

You guys need to quit crying wolf and figure out what is really draining your battery. Maybe your google drive is syncing, or you have facebook running, or email is pulling too often, ICS does not kill battery rogue apps and wrong settings do.
Try this https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.asksven.betterbatterystats (search xda for other versions)
and this https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=nextapp.systempanel&hl=en
Figure out whats waking up your phone and running when its not supposed to be and until you have data STFU

someguyatx said:
You guys need to quit crying wolf and figure out what is really draining your battery. Maybe your google drive is syncing, or you have facebook running, or email is pulling too often, ICS does not kill battery rogue apps and wrong settings do.
Try this https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.asksven.betterbatterystats (search xda for other versions)
and this https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=nextapp.systempanel&hl=en
Figure out whats waking up your phone and running when its not supposed to be and until you have data STFU
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
seconded, attached is the battery stats for an average day for me on ff18 based goodness.... these "problems" are all able to be resolved rather easily with very little effort... this is not a paid tech support forum and no one is going to spoon feed you when solutions have been posted countless times in countless hysterical threads like this
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda app-developers app

My phone is not rooted and this is the battery life I'm getting after the OTA with light use. With regular use I get at least 25-30 hours.

carole6m said:
My phone is not rooted and this is the battery life I'm getting after the OTA with light use. With regular use I get at least 25-30 hours.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just curious, what's your display time. From the looks of it, doesn't seem like much. But still, that's pretty impressive nonetheless.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda app-developers app

demonlordoftheround said:
nim6us said:
Android OS: 58%
Screen: 18%
Cell Standby: 10%
Phone Idle: 7%
Android System: 2%
QUOTE]
It looks like your phone may never be going into deep sleep. Get CPUSpy from Google Play and see what is going on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So if it's not going into deep sleep what's the fix?
daniel4653 said:
This is all known information. That's why you use custom roms that have much better battery life.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm a super n00b, if you or someone could link me to the best ICS ROM the cool kids are using I can figure out how to install it.
-----
However bottom line, before ICS upgrade my battery life was great and my Android OS was not 50% of my battery power. I'm not rooted or have any custom anything, after the ICS upgrade my battery drains rapidly. I'm willing to do what it takes to get it fixed, however I do fully put the blame on ICS, I'm using stock everything, the battery is good, something in that update is screwing my battery.
All I was trying to do was give developers, a little insight that the factory reset temporarily fixed the issue, for 3-4 hours before bed I monitored it and everything was good. So hopefully this will help turn the light bulb on in someone else's head.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

ICS works really well for some, but for others it renders the phone completely useless. I'm one that it won't work for as well. The battery life is **** and 4g connectivity is non existent. As a result, I'm back to EL29/GB until a patch is made.
I spent 4 days after teh OTA was released trying to find fixes, trying to make it work, using different kernals and modems, but had no success. I posted about it many times and more or less was told that I was doing it wrong.
On that not, good luck mate. Here's to hoping for a patch from samsung soon. :good:

nim6us said:
demonlordoftheround said:
So if it's not going into deep sleep what's the fix?
I'm a super n00b, if you or someone could link me to the best ICS ROM the cool kids are using I can figure out how to install it.
-----
However bottom line, before ICS upgrade my battery life was great and my Android OS was not 50% of my battery power. I'm not rooted or have any custom anything, after the ICS upgrade my battery drains rapidly. I'm willing to do what it takes to get it fixed, however I do fully put the blame on ICS, I'm using stock everything, the battery is good, something in that update is screwing my battery.
All I was trying to do was give developers, a little insight that the factory reset temporarily fixed the issue, for 3-4 hours before bed I monitored it and everything was good. So hopefully this will help turn the light bulb on in someone else's head.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a thread stickied in general called "welcome to he et4g" that might be a good place for you to start, from there you'll figure out what you need to search for to learn more... there is no best rom its a matter of opinion, so read the dev threads and see what looks good to you... bottom line without seeing more information from you I would guess you have something running in the background preventing deep sleep, as mentioned earlier... also are you leaving wifi, Bluetooth, etc on? That'll kill your battery quick... do you live in an area with poor sprint signal? Constantly searching for service will also drain you battery. What do you have to set up to sync? And how often? There are easy ways to prolong battery life on ff18 and the vast majority of people complaining about battery life have not taken positive steps to learn more and resolve their own issues... it can be done, good luck
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Verizon Galaxy Nexus battery fix!

Hi all, I found an awesome way to actually get solid battery life on my galaxy nexus last night so I thought I'd share with everyone:
So theres about a bazillion threads about people only getting 10-14 hrs of battery life on the Galaxy Nexus, and it looks like alot of them have to do with "Phone Idle" just draining the battery. Lately I'd pretty much given up and just figured that 14 hrs with normal use was about all I was gonna get.
Fast forward to last night, I was using Titanium Backup to go through and delete some of the Verizon crapware that comes on the stock ROM. I deleted "My Verizon Mobile" and "VZ Backup Assistant" and then left it fully charged over night to see what would happen. Woke up this morning and my battery was at 90% after 8.5hrs! Been using it lightly today and currently I'm at 58% battery after 17hrs.
So obviously one of these 2 applications has been running in the background and keeping my phone from going into deep sleep. Super glad to finally have this figured out!
BTW I'm running rooted stock 4.1.1. Also attached a few screenshots of the battery stats:

good find man. most roms already leave those apps out so i think you just got lucky because i still see pretty terrible battery. i suggest trying out a custom rom and kernel and youll get even better battery life. btw try to shoot for a high screen on time because thats when battery life really counts.

Phone Idle and Cell Standby higher than Screen... Of course you'll be getting good battery life if you never use the phone. Screen on time is the only good measure of battery life.

Probably a majority of users here don't have those apps because they have installed custom firmware. But AOSP has the same problem.. First thing I do after flashing gapps is "disable" all the Play apps (books, magazines, videos, movies, currents, etc).

WiredPirate said:
Probably a majority of users here don't have those apps because they have installed custom firmware. But AOSP has the same problem.. First thing I do after flashing gapps is "disable" all the Play apps (books, magazines, videos, movies, currents, etc).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup, this is why we Root & ROM. There are MANY Verizon apps/services that run whether you want them or not, and that is completely bogus. It's no wonder that we love phones that can be unlocked.

I agree that screen on time is the best measure of battery life. The best I ever have gotten is three hours of screen on time. That was done using WiFi all day and screen at lowest brightness setting.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Xparent Cyan Tapatalk 2

Really? This thread is stupid...and helps nobody. Ur impressed that ur phone drained 10% in 8 hours while you weren't using it?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app