Switched to 2Degrees, my battery life has halved (Galaxy SIII)

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nzapster

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#144029 5-May-2014 13:52

So I have a Galaxy SIII that I purchased from Warehouse Stationery (2Degrees) and used it on Telecom's network for the past year and a half.

The new Freedom plan ($29 for 1GB data, 300 min, carryover) had convinced me to switch to 2Degrees again a few days ago.

The problem is, my battery life has rapidly deteriorated. I checked it today at 1.30 and it was at 54% - I hadn't turned the screen on since 9am when it was sitting at 82%

I looked at the battery stats and it shows 19% usage by the Android OS, 15% Device Idle, 13% Cell Standby. This seems a lot higher than I ever experienced on Telecom. Also most of the time the mobile signal was yellow. I'm in the Wellington CBD most of the day.

Does anyone have any experience with this, or any helpful tips to improve my battery life? It could be enough to get me to change back to Telecom.

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Vocus

#1037015 5-May-2014 14:05

It's probably related to fast dormancy... Root your phone and switch it to see if it helps. XT doesn't have it, the other two networks do afaik. If the network has it and your phone does not it can be bad for battery life.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gokhanmoral.fastdormancytoggle.i9300

edit: see here for more info: http://www.androidnz.net/2012/06/at-your-own-risk-how-to-disable-fast.html

blakamin

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#1037025 5-May-2014 14:09

Edit: Beaten to it!

sbiddle

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#1037056 5-May-2014 14:57

Except a 2d handset will have the correct fast dormancy settings configured for the 2d network (which I believe is on). If it was fast dormancy battery life on XT would have been worse.

Does the handset have 2d firmware on it? How is your signal strength?

nzapster

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#1037090 5-May-2014 15:41

sbiddle: Except a 2d handset will have the correct fast dormancy settings configured for the 2d network (which I believe is on). If it was fast dormancy battery life on XT would have been worse.

Does the handset have 2d firmware on it? How is your signal strength?

I had originally rooted it to turn off fast dormancy, but then I unrooted it when the most recent update came out and never needed to re-root it (I didn't notice any real difference from the toggle). I can try rooting it again tonight to see if toggling fast dormancy makes a difference.

Can I check if FD is turned on before rooting?

frankv

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#1037759 6-May-2014 15:10

You haven't inadvertently turned on Wifi or GPS??? They're battery killers.

ubergeeknz

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#1037760 6-May-2014 15:13

sbiddle: Except a 2d handset will have the correct fast dormancy settings configured for the 2d network (which I believe is on). If it was fast dormancy battery life on XT would have been worse.

Does the handset have 2d firmware on it? How is your signal strength?

Handset with FD on on network without is less bad than the alternative. But if the default is in deed FD on then it's not that. Just the only thing really related to the network (aside from signal strength, low signal strength is another battery killer)

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nzgeek

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#1037945 6-May-2014 20:44

frankv: You haven't inadvertently turned on Wifi or GPS??? They're battery killers.

I've seen this said a few times, but there are good reasons why you shouldn't just take these "facts" as gospel.

GPS only uses battery when something is using it. Unless there's some app that frequently/constantly asks for your GPS location (which you can see happening in status bar), it should have any appreciable effect on battery life.

WiFi should also be much more efficient than 3G or LTE when it comes to battery usage. WiFi typically needs to transmit over a short distance, maybe 30m at most, which means it only needs a low transmit power. Cell towers are hundreds of metres or even kilometres away, requiring much more transmit power. 2G connections are more efficient because they make use of a channel that's open anyway.

I can personally verify that 3G uses a lot more battery than WiFi. With both my old S2 and current S4, battery usage is at least 50% more on cellular data than it is on WiFi. I doubt the S3 is any different.

That being said, both of these phones were on the 2degrees network. I would not be at all surprised if they are both affected by whatever is affecting nzapter's S3, causing higher battery usage than expected.

frankv

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#1037991 6-May-2014 22:08

nzgeek:
WiFi should also be much more efficient than 3G or LTE when it comes to battery usage. WiFi typically needs to transmit over a short distance, maybe 30m at most, which means it only needs a low transmit power.

Not completely true... basically, the higher the speed and/or distance, the higher the power required.

That being said, both of these phones were on the 2degrees network. I would not be at all surprised if they are both affected by whatever is affecting nzapter's S3, causing higher battery usage than expected.

Yeah, I was just throwing those ideas out there to make sure the obvious hadn't been overlooked.

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#1038048 7-May-2014 07:13

Having location services turned on can drain the battery more quickly even if they're not being used, in my experience. They may have fixed it by now, I haven't tried it in a few months.

robjg63

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#1038059 7-May-2014 07:51

Is it worth doing a complete reset of the phone. Just to try and eliminate any other software causing issues?

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lokhor

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#1038492 7-May-2014 17:42

If it's a 2degrees phone it shouldn't be a problem with fast dormancy since it should have been disabled by default and would have caused problems on Telecom. It sounds like it is probably an issue with reception strength - 2degrees have pretty terrible signal, especially inside buildings.

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

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nzapster

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#1038570 7-May-2014 20:02

lokhor: If it's a 2degrees phone it shouldn't be a problem with fast dormancy since it should have been disabled by default and would have caused problems on Telecom. It sounds like it is probably an issue with reception strength - 2degrees have pretty terrible signal, especially inside buildings.

Yeah I think this is it. The signal is poor most of the day :/ I was really hoping that being in Wellington it would be alright, but sometimes in the CBD I can't get mobile data working. It's very disappointing.

lokhor

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#1039125 8-May-2014 14:41

nzapster:
lokhor: If it's a 2degrees phone it shouldn't be a problem with fast dormancy since it should have been disabled by default and would have caused problems on Telecom. It sounds like it is probably an issue with reception strength - 2degrees have pretty terrible signal, especially inside buildings.

Yeah I think this is it. The signal is poor most of the day :/ I was really hoping that being in Wellington it would be alright, but sometimes in the CBD I can't get mobile data working. It's very disappointing.

Yeah not surprising though, I think 2degrees typically use 2100mhz in Wellington CBD which has pretty awful building penetration. Vodafone used to be pretty awful but they have started rolling out 900mhz towers even in town and their LTE coverage is pretty good too. Telecom uses 850mhz for their 3G network which is basically the bees knees for signal strength in buildings.

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

Yabanize

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#1040956 9-May-2014 17:48

Is this a Telecom or 2degrees S3? Does it say Telecom when you turn it on?

nzapster

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#1041029 9-May-2014 19:06

Yabanize: Is this a Telecom or 2degrees S3? Does it say Telecom when you turn it on?

As it says in the OP, 2 Degrees. No Telecom branding.

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