Battery Life

[capulet]

Hi, I recently bought a Palm Pre. I liked it especially because I was getting a 1400 Family Plan for two people for around 125 dollars a month, and it was just an overall better deal. I was thinking about getting the IPhone but I was sold on the Pre. I've had it for a few weeks now, and the only real problem that I have with the Pre is that the battery life is simply atrocious. I took my phone off the charger around 1:00 PM today, used it till about 4 with a little browsing and texting, and it was down to 65% in 3 hours. I charged it to 85%, and used it from 4:30 to 10:00 PM, at which point it completely died. The phone has died on me from moderate use 3 times in the last two weeks. I haven't been able to get it to work all day without charging it. I really like this phone's features (WebOS is amazing), but I use my phone primarily for internet browsing and texting, and really isn't lasting me as long as I hoped. I know that longer length batteries have begun appearing but I would it really make a difference if my phone dies in 6 hours with very moderate use?

I love Sprint and I honestly feel like the Iphone is a rip off, but the battery issue for the Pre is really affecting my use of it. I guess it would be possible to buy an extra battery, but I really feel like the phone shouldn't be dying that fast regardless. Any ideas or advice? All I've done on the phone today is look at a few web pages, text a little, and maybe talked for like 5 minutes total.

[pullbangdead]

Check previous threads.

It's pretty much universal consensus around these parts that battery life gets better after a few charge/discharge cycles. My experience was that letting it run until it died once was also good, but it sounds like you've done that now, even if you didn't mean to. Also, make sure your updates are all done up to 1.0.4.

[capulet]

Can most people get it to go 12+ hours without a charge?

[rmbwebs]

After using mine down to no battery left and fully recharging a couple times, battery life improved.

I suggest that you avoid charging it until the battery is almost dead, and when you do charge it, charge it fully. After ac ouple times of doing this the life will improve.

[kinster02]

There are plenty of threads related to battery life and most suggest you change your default settings. After two weeks and some tweeking, I have to say my battery last all day. When I first got this phone my battery life was just like yours and now its similar to my old phone, very good.

[feardunn]

Originally Posted by capulet

Can most people get it to go 12+ hours without a charge?

if by 12 you mean 6, then yes i can.

[leftyman]

Originally Posted by capulet

Can most people get it to go 12+ hours without a charge?

I usually bring my usb cable to charge at work because my Pre roams and get 1x all day here..
Yesterday I forget to bring the usb cable.. I got up at 6:00am and phone was @ 100%.... When I got home at 5:00 pm it was @ 15%

I used very little internet... at 1x I think you can understand
and I read several emails, responded to a couple and had about 20-30 texts.

I was actually pleased that I made it through the day, I didnt think I would.

At home and on the weekends I have no issue with the battery and I use it a lot.

[reynardmc22]

Mine lasts more than 12+ hours easily so far, even when i first got it. I tried to drain it out yesterday by doing stuff on it for most of the day and only got down to 34% before i went to bed, which was 16 hours, i don't have email hooked up yet though, but i had pandora music playing and lots of cards open the whole time. my build date i think was 6/26/09 based on what's in the forums, and have update 1.0.4

[areinus]

Originally Posted by capulet

Can most people get it to go 12+ hours without a charge?

I've had no problems using my Pre all day. I charge the phone over night and normally I still have about 30-40% remaining after a full day's use. I use the phone fairly frequently, but I wouldn't say I spend too much time on the internet (although I still use it some). However, I text and make calls quite frequently and don't see too much of a drop in the battery meter. I find that if I do stumble upon and area with little/no service, this drains the battery rapidly.

[wynand32]

This just reinforces my opinion that there are two trends: either you have roughly a 5%/hour discharge rate, or a roughly 10%/hour discharge rate. And it's caused by something specific--maybe folks with reception problems are in the second group. Maybe there's a specific Synergy configuration that's causing it. Etc.

Note that my Pre was purchased on 6/6, has been fully conditioned, and I experience a 10%/hour discharge rate pretty much no matter the setting. That is, with all services turned on--I'm not going to disable my Pre to get better battery life. So, if I take my Pre off the charger at 7:00am, make a few calls, send/receive some texts, check email, pretty basic use, I'll get the 20% remaining warning around 2pm and I'll run out by 4pm if I don't put it on the charger.

[fredc1]

I get about a 5% discharge rate consistently with pretty heavy usage in terms of WEB and SMS, and a couple of call per day. I can often go for more that 24 hrs between charges. I think a key might be the screen brightness. Unless I am out in the sun and need to have it super bright, I keep the blue dot on the brightness control slider underneath the "h"

[Elysian893]

Originally Posted by fredc1

I get about a 5% discharge rate consistently with pretty heavy usage in terms of WEB and SMS, and a couple of call per day. I can often go for more that 24 hrs between charges. I think a key might be the screen brightness. Unless I am out in the sun and need to have it super bright, I keep the blue dot on the brightness control slider underneath the "h"

I keep mine all the way down, screen still looks great.

[capulet]

I've been using it from about 12:30 till now (7:20), and the battery is at 33%, which is alot better than it was the other day. I didn't realize that going through an area with little or no service drained the battery as much, because I realized that I do go through such areas on the days that my phone has died haha. I'm gonna see how long this phone can go tonight without charging it, so wish me luck .

[JWTEKSA]

I have had my Palm Pre since June 2009 and until recently was happy. In the past week or 2 I am noticing that my batter life has gone to the dogs. I charged the battery on my touchstone last night so when I took it off the charger this morning a 7:30 it was at a 100%. I made one call that lasted about 2 minutes and I sent 3 text messages. At 11:15 I had 18% battery and by 11:30 I had 10% battery and by 12:00 it completely died. This has been happening a lot and I have tried all the tips with screen, email refreshig, etc. and have seen no improvement.

There have been no changes to my location every day as I am sitting here in my office where I typically have 3-4 bars.

Anyone have any ideas? At this point I am ready to go to Sprint with this issue.

~Frustrated~

[GodShapedHole]

!!! READ THIS !!!

I was in your boat. When I get up at seven and train-commute to work, my Pre used to be all but empty by lunch, just from some internet surfing or game playing on the train. When just idly lying there doing nothing, my Pre gargled down anywhere between 10% and 15% of battery in one hour. Surfing and stuff would easily get my 'mileage' up past 20%/h. Quite, quite terrible.

But then I sucked up my pride, went to the email app and changed my preferences. I have two gmail accounts on this phone, and I had both set on 'As they arrive'. I set both to '30 minutes' and recharged.

Right now, my idling Pre uses between 1.7%/h and 2.5%/h. And this is running the processor at a permanent 600mhz.

As much as I love push (or IMAP Idle if you're anal about it), getting informed every half-hour is going to be enough for me until new, stronger batteries are around.

<edit> Guy above me: since it's apparently not email for you, are you running any patches? I have found that some do alter your battery behavior quite a bit. For example, Unthrottle Download Manager seemed to be a battery hog to me - and it actually gave me big problems downloading or even accessing the web.

[bradley_80]

And just in case you're wondering, the iPhone battery isn't much better. My buddy has one and it is equivalent to the Pre's

[hinky]

Originally Posted by bradley_80

And just in case you're wondering, the iPhone battery isn't much better. My buddy has one and it is equivalent to the Pre's

For comparative purposes - my iPhone with dimmed brightness will do no more than 5 hours data / 3g. With 30 minute mail check and average usage with mail (always trying to connect), I'll make it through the day but probably down to 40% battery at best. Media player is much better, 8 hours on video I believe, perhaps more. But with GPS on, it burns out in under 3 hours.

[jmkjmk]

Originally Posted by JWTEKSA

I have had my Palm Pre since June 2009 and until recently was happy. In the past week or 2 I am noticing that my batter life has gone to the dogs. I charged the battery on my touchstone last night so when I took it off the charger this morning a 7:30 it was at a 100%. I made one call that lasted about 2 minutes and I sent 3 text messages. At 11:15 I had 18% battery and by 11:30 I had 10% battery and by 12:00 it completely died. This has been happening a lot and I have tried all the tips with screen, email refreshig, etc. and have seen no improvement.

There have been no changes to my location every day as I am sitting here in my office where I typically have 3-4 bars.

Anyone have any ideas? At this point I am ready to go to Sprint with this issue.

~Frustrated~

If you have wi-fi on, try turning it off.