Huawei IDEOS X5 - Android OS smashing my battery

Forums › Android › Huawei IDEOS X5 - Android OS smashing my battery

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1377 posts

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#457822 12-Apr-2011 13:55

on 2.2 android will manage them in the background for you, you can set how strict it is on applications but i would leave this as default.

If your phone is idling most of the day you could try setCPU - i had good results with just basic settings on it. - but you have to be rooted for it to work.

I find the biggest drain on my phone to be wifi, so if i am by a computer i switch it off.
i find an hour doing nothing uses ~1% but an hour with wifi on uses 3-4% although nothing is using the wifi.

If your in a strong network area you can lower how strong your phones wifi is and this will use far less battery - not sure if their is an app for this but i imagine their would be.

Last time i edited this it was on an android tablet and i edited the source files.

thejessjess

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#457823 12-Apr-2011 13:59

How beneficial have you found rooting your phone? Is there much point?

I will try turning off wifi when I'm not using it and see if that helps. It seems like together all the little tips I've been given are helping - thanks everyone.

jbard

1377 posts

Uber Geek

#457828 12-Apr-2011 14:14

Well i used zRoot to root my phone which took all of 30 seconds, and the benefits have been worth it.

setCPU saves some battery.

Using launcher pro i completely changed my theme and fonts which i needed to be rooted for.

also root explorer is really helpful and it needs super user permissions.

really for 30 seconds rooting is well worth it.

Also if you find switching wifi off doesn't help to much running the battery all the way down to 0 and leaving it on charge overnight may help.

thejessjess

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#457831 12-Apr-2011 14:17

What handset are you using, may I ask? Not an X5, I'm guessing?

jbard

1377 posts

Uber Geek

#457832 12-Apr-2011 14:17

no i'm using a U8150.

thejessjess

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#457836 12-Apr-2011 14:25

Ta! Just checking you weren't using an HTC Magic or something :)

lokhor

2858 posts

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#457844 12-Apr-2011 14:32

I still think giving JuiceDefender a go is a very good option unless you require email notifications instantly and can't wait 15 minutes.

All comments are my own opinion, and not that of my employer unless explicitly stated.

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dukester

475 posts

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#457848 12-Apr-2011 14:43

Another thing to try is to have the phone go to sleep from wifi connections when the phone is not being used. I had this turned on, but my feeling was the battery life was dropping quicker.
Aside from the battery life, I think this is a great phone. Mind you, it is my first android phone and was a big step up from my last phone. Still, it is doing everything I expected, and more.

Linuxluver

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#458006 12-Apr-2011 21:30

thejessjess: So I've had my X5 for about two weeks now and over the last week I've noticed how incredibly fast my battery is dying.

For example I unplugged my phone from it's charger at 7.30, now at 10am my battery is at 75%, when I look at my battery stats it says:

....

I think this is because all the inbuilt apps, such as Twitter for Android (I use Plume), Aldiko, Hi Space, Layar and Google maps all open up automatically and are updating themselves. Is there anyway I can stop this?

Do I have to root my phone and use something like Titanium Backup to uninstall unwanted apps?

Has anyone else experienced this, or is it just because I live in Auckland where Vodafone can't seem to get a working network available??

A smartphone will eat battery. They all do it. But you can hugely slow that process down by making updating of apps manual instead of automatic. Go through the Settings in Plume, Facebook and any others and make sure background sync (or whatever the app calls it) is turned off. You can also turn off all packet data in the Settings -> Wireless & Networks -> Mobile Networks. This leaves you with a phone that's only a phone & txts...and you can't send PXTs because you need data on to do that. But your battery should easily last all day - UNLESS, as you say, you're in an area with poor service. My office is in such an area and trying to connect to 3G can see my battery completely drained to 5% by 4pm.

I don't worry about it much as I have 3 batteries for my Samsung Galaxy S...and I just swap in a fresh one and re-boot. I like to USE all that cool smart phone stuff and I have all the updating turned on all the time. Swapping batteries takes about 2 mins to get the phone booted up and rolling. I'd rather do that every 8 hours than be too frightened to use the phone lest I drain the battery. If I wanted that, I'd have bought an iPhone because you can't swap batteries in those things. ;-)

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richms

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#458014 12-Apr-2011 21:47

Biggest batteryhore I have found has been k9 mail and tweetdeck. Killing both off when not needing them has allowed me to get thru a day.

I never use wifi since it barely works at home and I am not interested in exposing myself on free hotspots. I just turn it on when indoors and wanting to get a slightly better fix for foursquare and then turn it off - something I wish it would be able to automate.

Richard rich.ms

tchart

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#458030 12-Apr-2011 22:38

Biggest battery saving I found was to select the "Only use 2G networks" under Mobile network settings. Unless you are downloading email attachments you don't really need 3G enabled all the time. I also set my MS Exchange email to only check every 15 minutes instead of being set to "Push". I now charge my phone every 2 days instead of twice a day.

BTW Im using a Vodafone 845 which probably has a similar or even smaller battery than the X5

nakedmolerat

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#458052 12-Apr-2011 23:38

thejessjess: How beneficial have you found rooting your phone? Is there much point?

I will try turning off wifi when I'm not using it and see if that helps. It seems like together all the little tips I've been given are helping - thanks everyone.

get juicedefender from the market! - no need for root etc. this will make your battery last more than 24 hours if set properly.

lokhor

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#458100 13-Apr-2011 08:05

nakedmolerat:
thejessjess: How beneficial have you found rooting your phone? Is there much point?

I will try turning off wifi when I'm not using it and see if that helps. It seems like together all the little tips I've been given are helping - thanks everyone.

get juicedefender from the market! - no need for root etc. this will make your battery last more than 24 hours if set properly.

This is what I've been trying to say

All comments are my own opinion, and not that of my employer unless explicitly stated.

kiwijunglist

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#458265 13-Apr-2011 14:19

I purchased Juice Defender/Ultimate Juice and i found it made battery life worse. (despite it reporting that it made my battery life 2-2.5x longer) I've had best results by just having a data on/off toggle widget and toggle it off at night. I also use 2g over 3g (uses less power). I have GPS always turned on, because the phone only tries to use GPS if I tell it to (eg. Google maps / nav) for location services you can disable exact location so it doesn't use GPS for location for apps. This way you don't have to waste time enabling / disabling GPS. Wifi definitely uses a lot of power.

Zeam launcher uses less memory than all the other launchers.
Also only have widgets that you need installed/on the home screen as widgets are constantly running in the background and eating battery.

HTPC / Home automation (home assistant) enthusiast.

BLazeD

239 posts

Master Geek

#459191 15-Apr-2011 15:28

I rooted my X5 and uninstalled Hi Space and Alikdo, then I installed SetCPU. I have it on ondemand mode normally and powersave mode whenever the screen is off. This is my first day using it and my phone is at 81% - usually it would be between 40-60% at this time. So a great improvement for me.

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