Android Phones
Battery life tips for the HTC Hero
November 5, 2009 | by Robert Nelson
Android Phones, HTC
Browsing around the interwebs, I recently came across a nice (albeit older) thread over on gdgt dealing with the battery life, or more specifically the lack thereof in regards to the HTC Hero. And as a Hero user myself, one that is still tinkering I am looking for all the help that I can get because I am far from being able to get through the day without a recharge or two or three.
Anyway, I will say that I am typically not a fan of these improve your battery life types of posts because they generally tell you to turn things off. That said, they do help, and I guess I truly do not need to be running things like GPS and Bluetooth all the time. Not to mention, I do not need my Twitter app polling every 15 minutes. But hey, that is why I bought a smartphone, its just a shame the battery cannot keep up with me.
Below is a summarized list of the tips, but you can always hit the read link below to see the tips with a full description.
- Turn off the “Always-on” mobile data connection.
- Disable Wireless network usage for positioning purposes
- Turn off “Background data” usage (but not if you use Google services!)
- Always keep Wi-Fi off when not in use – automate this with Y5 Battery Saver app
- Always keep Bluetooth off when not in use
- Avoid usage of push or very frequent email polling – configure it to sync every 15 or more minutes
- Turn off automatic Weather updates (and other data polling widgets)
- Set a reasonable update frequency for Twitter, Flicker and Facebook
- Get a fast mobile network connection to minimize data connection uptime
So, any other HTC Hero users, or Android users in general have any battery improvement tips to share or add.
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One additional tip: Force the device to use 2G networks instead of 3G if your 3G coverage isn't close to 100% – otherwise it will ramp up the power for 3G transmission instead of using a 2G cell that is much closer (and therefore needs less power to send to)
Which is most likely a good reason for at least some of my battery issues. I am often bouncing back and forth between 3G and 2G where I live.
Download Taskiller and kill numerous programs that autostart and you do not want . Helps a lot
Also, if you’re using the Sprint version here in the US, some great info here: http://community.sprint.com/baw/thread/23043 – In this thread a Sprint rep claims they are working on a fix, and will have one (presumably) for 1.5. Basically, the issue is the internal texting app doesn’t let go of the CPU, so your CPU won’t sleep despite the phone being in sleep mode. The workaround is to use a 3rd party texting app. Typically this is Handcent SMS or Chomp SMS. I prefer Handcent for the ability to customize the look and feel. Personally, after doing this, my battery life is MUCH better. I easily get a full day now, where it wouldn’t even get me to the end of the work day before without a recharge. I’m going to use the suggestions above as well, hopefully I can get it to last longer! On a personal side note, it’s been interesting experience with the Hero coming off a Windows Mobile devices. While not issue-free, the overall out of the box experience is so much better with Android! WinMo had tons of issues I needed to tweak and hack the registry to fix. With the Hero, I’m confident the Hero’s issues will actually get fixed (unlike WinMo). Glad 2.0 is going to see release on this device.
After I installed WiSyncPlus on my myTouch 3G battery life improved dramatically.
Don't use the default messaging app. It keeps the phone on even when the backlight times out. Use another messaging program from the market. I use Handcent SMS and like it alot. Another good one is ChompSMS.
The only thing which I found helped was unmounting the SD card, with most things disabled and light use it goes down about 10%-20% a day now as opposed to 50% a day when the SD card is mounted (in use).
So I need to use a fast mobile connection unless I’m not in a 3G area often? What percentage of time in 3G range is the watershed for this dilemma?
Does anyone know how to access the HTC Hero screen that shows the percentage your phone is pulling on the battery? When I was at the Sprint store the representatvie would access a screen then scroll to the bottom to view the battery percentage. He personally had a HTC hero and his phone never showed more than 10%. My phone would show 67% to 100%. He did another hard reset on my phone, downloaded handset, and set my setting the same as his phone as he said his battery lasts four days — and he had apps like Facebook always open. He told me it would take about a day to see my usage change. Well now I can not find that screen and I have looked through the entire manual for assistance. Of course the Sprint representative is nowhere to be found.
What does "downloaded handset" mean?
Probably meant Handcent, the replacement SMS app.
Dianne, Go to settings then at the bottom there should be Phone Info, Touch that and scroll to the bottom of that and you'll see your percentage.
Great post, will bookmark to my facebook, hope all of my friends will see this…is it sunny in your place,lol…kiding,,,:)
Should I buy this phone? I'm very cocerned about the battery life?
I have two different google app for two different business. How do I login both google app for business at the same time?
My solution to this problem was to buy a new battery with a higher capacity. Mine is from Ebay, cost me 15 quid (UK currency for you Yanks out there) and it has a capacity of 3000 mAH. Basically more than twice that of the standard battery. I use my Hero a lot. I mean what’s the point of having arguably the best smarphone on the market and not being able to use all of its features properly? With this “fat” battery, which comes with a new back cover for the phone, I get 2 to 2.5 days of normal to heavy use out of one charge cycle. I would definitely recommend that you follow all the tips on this thread for optimising your Hero’s battery life. I’ve used most of them with this new battery, except the 2G one. It’s just too frustratingly slow in the UK. The biggest drain by far for me is the backlight. Go into your brightness settings, Disable Auto backlight, and manually dim the phone to minimum whenever you’re indoors or if the sun’s not shining, as is the case almost every day where I live
(. It prolongs battery life dramatically for me. Search on EBay for “Hero extended battery 3000″ or something similar and you should be ok. All the best to my fellow gadget lovers! HRH
I searching a phone with long better life,i think that this phone completed my search.i want to buy this phone if it is under in my pocket budget Muscle Max XL
Nice article! You can get even more life from your battery now with Black Google Mobile at http://bGoog.com!! It has a black background that uses less energy and it looks sweet too.
I will come back with some suggestions and comments later but right now to those that would like a nice Android handset for not too big a price, go for the Samsung Galaxy Apollo i5801. Has a faster processor and better battery life than the HERO!
You really nailed in with a great post with a bit of excellent information and facts