How long does your battery last?

[Ashton]

Post how long your phone(s) battery lasts
Intrepid:
~4-6 days with regular on-phone data usage and SMS
~2 days with semi-regular calls
~2-4 hours Tethered with Bluetooth
~4-6 hours tethered with WiFi (WMWifi Router)

Feel free, of course to estimate (i.e. "well in X hours it goes down to 1/2 power so it should last (2x)")

 

[T4rd]

Motorola Droid:
~2 days using only SMS/talking moderately (extremely rare)
~1 day w/ moderate web & SMS usage and have about 20% left at bed time (my normal work day)
~4-5 hours of constant internet usage
~4 hours of video/movie playback

Whenever I tether, I always try to use the USB cable to keep it charged. I've never used BT/WiFi tethering for more than ~20 mins without it being on a charger too, so I'm not sure about that. I would suspect about the same as you though.

I also have my phone OC'd to 1.1 GHz and using a low voltage kernel. And I picked up a couple of these spare batteries for $10 shipped (they were $1.26 at one point, lol) a couple months ago so I have 3 batteries in case I'll be away from an outlet for a while .

 

[Ashton]

Whenever I tether, I always try to use the USB cable to keep it charged. I've never used BT/WiFi tethering for more than ~20 mins without it being on a charger too, so I'm not sure about that. I would suspect about the same as you though.

None of my devices (well except the 1 I rarely use) support USB tethering... Mac cant figure out what it is, and my netbook cant locate appropriate drivers (XP issue perhaps?) I would get a charger except I'm planning to upgrade to the Epic so it will likely have an entirely different charger port/pin configuration... and becides, WiFi is universal, Mac, PC, Linux, even my old WM PDA could connect to it for internet with NO drivers

 

[cyclone3d]

My current phone is a Palm Trio 750.

With the high capacity battery, I have only been having to charge it about once per week.

If I do a bunch of talking on it, it drops it down to about 4-5 days.

 

[SixtyWattMan]

Samsung Captivate: 2 days tops depending on use.
Blackberry 8900: Had to be charged once a week.

 

[Vermillion]

Motorola Droid rooted and using Simply Stunning 4.8

3 days if I don't use the phone much but an occasional, very fast phone call.
1 day with moderate data and phone usage.
5+ hours of video playback.
I guess I get just shy of 2.5 hours of Flash 10.1 playback.

 

[oldpablo]

Motorola Droid:
~2 days using only SMS/talking moderately (extremely rare)
~1 day w/ moderate web & SMS usage and have about 20% left at bed time (my normal work day)
~4-5 hours of constant internet usage
~4 hours of video/movie playback

Whenever I tether, I always try to use the USB cable to keep it charged. I've never used BT/WiFi tethering for more than ~20 mins without it being on a charger too, so I'm not sure about that. I would suspect about the same as you though.

I also have my phone OC'd to 1.1 GHz and using a low voltage kernel. And I picked up a couple of these spare batteries for $10 shipped (they were $1.26 at one point, lol) a couple months ago so I have 3 batteries in case I'll be away from an outlet for a while .

Do you pay for tethering? I have an aircard that doesn't always work when my phone still retains a signal, so I sometimes tether my phone. But I don't want to do it wirelessly. Is there a free tether program that I can use the USB cable with?

 

[King Icewind]

Do you pay for tethering? I have an aircard that doesn't always work when my phone still retains a signal, so I sometimes tether my phone. But I don't want to do it wirelessly. Is there a free tether program that I can use the USB cable with?

I don't thinkn you have to pay for it. I have the Motorola Droid as well (typing on it right now). Its just under wireless and security, then click tether. I don't remember seeing that option on 2.1. You do have to pay for the wireless hotspot, which I think is only for the newer series phones.

BOT, 2.2 has definitely helped me with battery life. Unfortunately it seems like my microphone is all messed up now though. People have complained about me sounding muffled/hard to hear.

 

[T4rd]

Do you pay for tethering? I have an aircard that doesn't always work when my phone still retains a signal, so I sometimes tether my phone. But I don't want to do it wirelessly. Is there a free tether program that I can use the USB cable with?

Lol @ paying for tethering .

(Assuming you have an Android phone) If your not rooted and have 2.2, you can do what king Icewind said and use the native USB tethering option under the wireless options. If you don't have 2.2 or get redirected to the Verizon tethering plan page when attempting to use the USB tethering option (not sure what causes this for some users, I can use it fine on my rooted Droid running SS 4.8, but my buddy that's rooted running vanilla FRG22D gets redirected), then you can get "PdaNet" free from the market and use that for USB and BT tethering. Pdanet requires its client software to be installed on your PC though. I haven't used it since the 2.0.1 days, but it was painless to install and setup back then so I doubt its changed.

If you're rooted, then you can do all of the above and use "wireless tether", which is also free and in the market. This is pretty much the only wireless tethering option available for the original Droid because there's not even any official Verizon hotspot app for Droid (Verizon says its hardware isn't good enough, LOL when mine out-benches the Droid X and Droid 2). Wireless tethering is definitely the easiest way to tether since it requires no driver/software install, but every vista/win 7 machine I've plugged my Droid into automatically found and installed the required drivers for my Droid for instant USB tethering. I've never heard of Verizon catching onto anyone using these tethering options either.

Hope this helps.. whew, just typed all this out on my Droid too.. physical kb FTW .

 

[oldpablo]

Lol @ paying for tethering .

(Assuming you have an Android phone) If your not rooted and have 2.2, you can do what king Icewind said and use the native USB tethering option under the wireless options. If you don't have 2.2 or get redirected to the Verizon tethering plan page when attempting to use the USB tethering option (not sure what causes this for some users, I can use it fine on my rooted Droid running SS 4.8, but my buddy that's rooted running vanilla FRG22D gets redirected), then you can get "PdaNet" free from the market and use that for USB and BT tethering. Pdanet requires its client software to be installed on your PC though. I haven't used it since the 2.0.1 days, but it was painless to install and setup back then so I doubt its changed.

If you're rooted, then you can do all of the above and use "wireless tether", which is also free and in the market. This is pretty much the only wireless tethering option available for the original Droid because there's not even any official Verizon hotspot app for Droid (Verizon says its hardware isn't good enough, LOL when mine out-benches the Droid X and Droid 2). Wireless tethering is definitely the easiest way to tether since it requires no driver/software install, but every vista/win 7 machine I've plugged my Droid into automatically found and installed the required drivers for my Droid for instant USB tethering. I've never heard of Verizon catching onto anyone using these tethering options either.

Hope this helps.. whew, just typed all this out on my Droid too.. physical kb FTW .

I see the option, but with Windows Mobile you had to hack it to get it for free. So I just assumed it was the same on Android. You're telling me rooted or not, you can tether via your USB cable out of the box? I am rooted though I'm not running a custom ROM, so I guess I'll just try and see if I get redirected. If I don't though I still wouldn't trust that I might get hit with a bigger bill.

 

[jiminator]

got a LG, 3 years old + original battery, charge about every 10 days. needless to say I don't talk or text much

 

[T4rd]

You're telling me rooted or not, you can tether via your USB cable out of the box?

That is indeed what I'm telling you. Unrooted, you can tether via USB (via native tethering or PdaNet) and BT (via PdaNet). There's a couple of other tethering apps that I don't know off hand in the market, but PdaNet is the only one I've used know works and it's free.

Rooted, you add WiFi tethering to the above options (via "WiFi tether", free in the market too).

I am rooted though I'm not running a custom ROM, so I guess I'll just try and see if I get redirected. If I don't though I still wouldn't trust that I might get hit with a bigger bill.

Well, just know that I frequently visit many Android Forums since I've had my Droid (Dec. '09) and not once have I seen one person get burnt for tethering without the tethering plan. I've even seen many users go past 5+ GBs monthly consistently by tethering and with just normal phone usage without getting charged extra for data. So even though many people like to sling around FUD about there being a 5 GB data cap, if there is one (I've seen older ToS agreements that say there is, but after searching the new one thuroughly, I can't find it any more), then Verizon obviously isn't enforcing it.

 

[Ashton]

That is indeed what I'm telling you. Unrooted, you can tether via USB (via native tethering or PdaNet) and BT (via PdaNet). There's a couple of other tethering apps that I don't know off hand in the market, but PdaNet is the only one I've used know works and it's free.

Rooted, you add WiFi tethering to the above options (via "WiFi tether", free in the market too).

Well, just know that I frequently visit many Android Forums since I've had my Droid (Dec. '09) and not once have I seen one person get burnt for tethering without the tethering plan. I've even seen many users go past 5+ GBs monthly consistently by tethering and with just normal phone usage without getting charged extra for data. So even though many people like to sling around FUD about there being a 5 GB data cap, if there is one (I've seen older ToS agreements that say there is, but after searching the new one thuroughly, I can't find it any more), then Verizon obviously isn't enforcing it.

I wonder if that works on Sprint too... guess I'll find out next week...

Verizon's DROID line has an uncapped data plan. If you tried that on another phone then you WOULD be hit with overage charges past the 5gb mark. (On sprint this is their argument for charging me $10/month more for Evo/Epic --- despite that I already HAVE truely-unlimited data...)

I've used PDA-net with my old MotoQ and attempted it with my Instinct (before learning that the reason the "update" killed tethering was a simple reg hack, which took no time to find and remove, now I have unlimited BT and USB tethering and WIFI using WMWiFiRouter) The only problem with it, atleast on the WM version, is that you have to pay PER PC you want to use. So I'd have to buy 4 copies of it to use it... (used to be you only needed to pay Per-phone-copy, now it's either phone OR pc...

 

[Vermillion]

I wonder if that works on Sprint too... guess I'll find out next week...

Verizon's DROID line has an uncapped data plan. If you tried that on another phone then you WOULD be hit with overage charges past the 5gb mark. (On sprint this is their argument for charging me $10/month more for Evo/Epic --- despite that I already HAVE truely-unlimited data...)

I've used PDA-net with my old MotoQ and attempted it with my Instinct (before learning that the reason the "update" killed tethering was a simple reg hack, which took no time to find and remove, now I have unlimited BT and USB tethering and WIFI using WMWiFiRouter) The only problem with it, atleast on the WM version, is that you have to pay PER PC you want to use. So I'd have to buy 4 copies of it to use it... (used to be you only needed to pay Per-phone-copy, now it's either phone OR pc...

I don't tether my Droid but I tried it in the past just to see how well it worked using this: http://code.google.com/p/android-wifi-tether/

That one requires you to be rooted though and there may be better options out there now.

I do enjoy my unlimited data especially with Flash now. Already at 9.5GB this month with another week to go.

 

[Ashton]

I don't tether my Droid but I tried it in the past just to see how well it worked using this: http://code.google.com/p/android-wifi-tether/

That one requires you to be rooted though and there may be better options out there now.

I do enjoy my unlimited data especially with Flash now. Already at 9.5GB this month with another week to go.

oh I plan on rooting as soon as I've had time to play on it and get a good feel for it's speed un-rooted (for comparison) I'll be looking into that, thanks.

9.5gb WITHOUT Tethering!?!? what the hell were you doing? using it for Torrents?!?! I thought I was ridiculous using 10.2gb WITH tethering (I average around 0.5-1.5gb with minor tethering and 200-800mb usually w/o tethering) But you sure take the pie! (I'd give you the cake instead, but we all know the cake is a lie )

 

[Vermillion]

oh I plan on rooting as soon as I've had time to play on it and get a good feel for it's speed un-rooted (for comparison) I'll be looking into that, thanks.

9.5gb WITHOUT Tethering!?!? what the hell were you doing? using it for Torrents?!?! I thought I was ridiculous using 10.2gb WITH tethering (I average around 0.5-1.5gb with minor tethering and 200-800mb usually w/o tethering) But you sure take the pie! (I'd give you the cake instead, but we all know the cake is a lie )

I actually don't do anything outside what the phone is capable of by default when it comes to bandwidth. My Droid is about 10 months old and this month is the most bandwidth I've ever used. I generally rarely even hit 4GB in a month.

The killer is actually Flash. It eats bandwidth like Homer eats doughnuts. I was doing stuff like streaming the StarCraft II GSL matches on the way to work and at work during the course of the month.
Then top that off with lots of YouTube, TV.com app or Day9 dailies during downtime at work (which we have an abundance of right now). Bandwidth goes quick.

After seeing how much bandwidth Flash eats it is easy to understand why tiered plans are the future for mobile because of Flash and HTML5 video.

 

[BodyBagz]

On my Droid X, non-rooted since Froyo update, I routinely get 12-17 hours with above average use. My longest to date "off charger" session has been just a tad over 31 hours, again with average use....

By "average", I mean:
5-10 less than 5 minute phone calls
1-5 more than 5 minute phone calls
5-15 text and MMS messages
1-5 Facebook updates/checking Facebook
1-3 E-mail checks/deleting sessions for Gmail and Charter accounts
1 hour of MP3 playback on the commute home from work
1/2 - 1 hour of "showing off apps" to friends
1-5 YouTube video viewings

All I have done so far as "tweeks" to get this type usage? Leave the damn thing alone for the most part...lol Once Froyo came, a better Battery Manager was included, and by default the phone is always in Nighttime Saver Mode...and by battery life increased 50% easily with the update.