Huawei IDEOS X5 - Android OS smashing my battery

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thejessjess

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# 81372 12-Apr-2011 10:11

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:

Android System: 79%
Beautiful Widgets: 2%

If I open the "Android System" thing it says:

Use details--
CPU total: 1 m 10s (I just rebooted phone in hopes of fixing it)
CPU foreground: 20s
Data sent: 16.45 KB
Data received: 32.05KB
Included packages--
Account and sync settings
Settings storage
VPN services
Network location
Android System
ProjectMenuAct
Google Backup transport
Settings

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??

Thanks in advance for your help,
Jessjess

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# 457718 12-Apr-2011 10:16

Try turning off background data sync. (It's in wireless/network settings)

bazzer

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# 457719 12-Apr-2011 10:18

I don't know 100%, but for a start, rebooting resets those battery stats so that's not much use. I've found the battery stat thing next to useless. Never seems to show any pertinent info.

I'm interested to hear what people have to say about this. I've found that having a bunch of widgets (twitter, weather etc) active really hurt my battery. I downloaded one particular widget thing and it seemed to immediately make things much worse. Now, the only widget I use is the standard power one.

I still get notifications from Facebook, Twitter etc and then just use the full apps if I want to interact, but I also have auto sync turned off most of the time. I only have the U8150 so I don't expect battery life to be awesome, so I make some sacrifices to usability in order to make it last 2-3 days.

lokhor

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# 457762 12-Apr-2011 11:25

If you use JuiceDefender it will schedule your data usage on for 1-2 minutes every 15 minutes which can save a huge amount of battery. You can also modify how often most applications update which will help.

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mejobloggs

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# 457781 12-Apr-2011 12:01

thejessjess:

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?

That would help. I used z4root to root my X5, and 'Root Uninstaller' (free or very cheap, cant remember) to remove Aldiko and Hi Space

Also try Autostarts. You can use that to stop apps starting in certain scenarios

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??

If by that you mean you often don't have a signal, then I believe that can be a real killer. If it's always trying to pick up a single it can suck your battery lots

Along with turning off gps, 3g etc I've also installed SetCPU. I've set a profile on that so when I turn my screen off, the cpu gets limited to ~100mhz. Seems to help a bit

chiefie

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# 457794 12-Apr-2011 12:33

It's been reviewed by quite a few people that Huaweit Ideos X5, although is a great phone at awesome pricetag, the downfall for it is actually its battery life.

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old3eyes

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# 457795 12-Apr-2011 12:34

Will be interesting to see if the X6 has a better battery life..

Regards,

Old3eyes

ajobbins

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# 457796 12-Apr-2011 12:43

chiefie: It's been reviewed by quite a few people that Huaweit Ideos X5, although is a great phone at awesome pricetag, the downfall for it is actually its battery life.

All the of reviews I have read seem to indicate it's pretty good. Do you have any links?

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chiefie

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# 457800 12-Apr-2011 12:56

ajobbins: All the of reviews I have read seem to indicate it's pretty good. Do you have any links?

I know two people in-person said the battery is disappointing, and Juha tweeted (or retweeted) a review of it stating the battery life is disappointing.

Link to Juha's RT. https://twitter.com/#!/juhasaarinen/status/57351840911728640

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ajobbins

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# 457801 12-Apr-2011 12:59

chiefie:
ajobbins: All the of reviews I have read seem to indicate it's pretty good. Do you have any links?

I know two people in-person said the battery is disappointing, and Juha tweeted (or retweeted) a review of it stating the battery life is disappointing.

Definition of disappointing probably varies. From the article that Juha retweeted:

"This won’t trouble most people, there’s enough juice to use the phone to listen to music on public transport to and from work, put in an eight hour day with a little light smart phoning. But if you tend to work extended hours you might not get to the other end of the day in good order. I found a 12 hour workday with some browsing and using the smartphone features for roughly an hour saw me reach the 15% power remaining warning before I started on my return journey."

I believe Jess is getting much less than this.

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chiefie

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# 457802 12-Apr-2011 13:01

@ajobbins, I agree it varies but it still doesn't shy the fact that X5 has battery life is disappointing.

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thejessjess

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# 457805 12-Apr-2011 13:09

Hi Chiefie and Ajobbins,

I am aware of some of the issues surrounding this, however my situation is markedly worse than what is outlined in most reviews, so I would appreciate if you you could perhaps have this argument that is largely unhelpful to and not in response to my question, elsewhere.

Thanks.

Wade

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# 457808 12-Apr-2011 13:25

How are you actually using the phone?

I can drain the battery in mine in under two hours or it can sit idle for 8~10 hours and barely move 10%. I am unsure if the battery life is actually bad or my usage habits are the killer? :P

thejessjess

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# 457812 12-Apr-2011 13:39

Basically I haven't touched it at all in the last 3 hours.

It has been idling with background data sync off, having used Advanced Task killer to kill unwanted apps after turning it on, I haven't opened any apps, received any tweets/FB notifications or text messages and calls.

But, my battery has still gone from 79% down to 56%.

It is connected to wifi, but no apps should be using it.

My thinking is since it really shouldn't be running any processes, the battery shouldn't have gone down by 23%.

jbard

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# 457816 12-Apr-2011 13:44

Using advanced task killer on android 2+ just makes things worse.
It will actually use more battery than letting android run by itself.

Do you have GPS enabled as this will drain battery.

Android is usually pretty good at manging battery if you leave it alone - when you start messing with it by dropping down the cpu, using task killers you end up making things worse in most cases.

I do use setCPU which i find gives me ~5% more battery during a charge but some people have had it give them 20-30% less so if your having problems get rid of all these sort of apps.

thejessjess

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# 457817 12-Apr-2011 13:48

Thanks, Jbard, I've uninstalled it now. I have GPS turned off and have done since getting the phone.

So what do you use for killing unwanted apps? Just the built in Android "Running Services" thing?

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