HTC Desire Battery life

330d

I have a HTC desire which i really like, but the i find the battery life is quite poor. Is there any apps that can help with increased battery life?

Or have you got any tips on how to? At the moment, the 3g is always on, the wifi and gps are never on and i have changed the weather and news update to every 12 hrs.

Is there anything else i can do?

watcherman

Not really, it is poor with battery. If you turn off all the functions and cripple it you'll get a day, day and a half, pretty sad really. Even the 3GS performed better for me than the Desire....Back to a BB 9700 now.

BillScarab

Turn the brightness down to around 40% and don't use automatic brightness.

I don't find the battery life any wors than other smart phones with large touch screens. Also as someone on Andorid Forums pointed out recently, it's basically a pocket computer tha can make phone calls and compared to a laptop the battery life is great.

PvtPyle

Turn Wifi off if you aren't using it. Turn Bluetooth off if you don't use it. Limit the number of apps you run concurrently, and download App Killer to nuke any unwanted processes. Or, buy a spare battery.

jones.ci

The real battery killers are the screen and data use over the mobile network, particularly if your signal is a bit on and off.

There's not much you can do about the screen. Keep it off when you don't need it on. Reduce the brightness to a comfortable level. The difference in power usage on 0% or 100% is not insignificant, but putting it down will save you only a fraction of the power the screen is using by just being on, so don't have it so dim you can't see it.

The best way to minimise battery drain from data usage is to make sure anything that auto-updates is doing it infrequently. Email, calendar, News and Weather... etc etc. Just ensure they're only updating as much as needed. In the News and Weather app (assuming it's similar to the N1 app) you should be able to prevent it prefetching articles and images. You probably only read a minority of the stories, so no need to download them all.

If not in use, bluetooth, wireless and GPS do use a little power, but not much. Turning them off won’t save you a much, but will at least prevent them doing something in your pocket.

Task killers won’t help with the battery much. If you have something using the CPU in the background that will use battery. But any app not in use in the background (i.e the ones task killers will end) will not be using any battery. They won’t slow your phone down either - Android isn't Windows - have a look at http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-general-discussions/1480-please-read-do-not-worry-about-apps-running-background.html

About a days battery life seems to be par for the course these days. With no use it will last longer, but you can kill it in a few hours with heavy use.

rich_shot2003

Can i just ask if i turn off mobile internet does the Apps still run?

I know this may be silly but im not sure about if they still run and i have a problem with the life of my desire as well and was thinking that if i turn off mobile internet will that stop the apps and save on power?

mr_fishbulb

I improved my battery life on my Legend - very big difference now from when I first got it.

- Turn off WiFi and GPS. Only turn it on when you need it.

- Install JuiceDefender (free one available) - when the phone is on sleep mode, this will turn off the 3G and only turn it on for small bursts. For example mine turns on for 1 minute in every 15. Your phone goes back to normal when the screen is on.

- Install Sweet Dreams (also free) - you can program the phone to turn everything off (wifi, 3G, etc) between certain hours. You can also tell it to be silent at night time.

Jo_F

I have found that allowing the battery to run right down, and then fully charging a few times has helped the battery life. I last charged mine on Monday, and it's still at around 80%.

I have the email and the weather app running, the wifi is on, so it connects to the home router, if I leave the house, it switches to 3G and connects to Orange, but the minute the phone comes back in, it automatically switches to wifi.

flyingscotno1

Having a Desire, I charged it for the recommended 3hrs until light went green before switching on. Recharged fully again that night. Next day I was on low battery before dinner time, recharged it overnight again and now I'll use it a full day recharging overnight and with wifi, bluetooth, mobile internet, email updates every 15m along with other apps constantly on and updating be around 34% of battery left at night. Recharging every night isn't too bad given that the battery life isn't bad as it is a small computer in essence!

If you do phone and 'call' *#*#4636#*#* you'll get info on battery.

bubblesmoney

Changing wallpapers to static instead of live and selecting a darker less colorful background seems to have improved battery times for others. I am trying this too now.
I have installed onthe homescreen toggles for bluetooth , WiFi, ring, GPS and switch off anything that I don't need just with a tap. Will install today the brightness toggle as well.

Heard HTC had released a extended battery for the hero so probably they will soon do one for the desire too. Am looking at wireless charges now but there don't seem to be skin ones like there are for the iPhone. HTC website is selling wireless chargers but they don't seem to be the skin ones. Any one used these wireless chargers please give a review. Also if anyone has bought a travel dock/ speaker/ charger please give a review.

maxtweenie

Download QUICK SETTINGS, stick it on your homepage, and use it to easily and quickly turn brightness up/down (I turn mine off indoors), switch Wifi, APN, GPS on and off depending on where you are. There's also a battery indicator in the top right. If you tap on it, it shows what's using your power.