Tips to improve T-Mobile G1 battery life

How do I turn off unneeded radios

To turn off Wifi
From the Home screen go to Menu–> Settings–> Wirelsess Controls –> Wifi.(set this to Off)
To turn off GPS
From the Home screen go to Menu–> Settings–> Security and Location–> Enable GPS Satellites (set this to Off)

Good advice. I’ve actually taken this a step further by shutting off 3G unless needed, which is something I learned from iPhone users. I keep hoping that small fuel-cell batteries will start appearing soon!

one thing that anyone can try that will greatly improve battery life is to recalibrate your battery. the thing about lithium-ion batteries is that they dont really generate electricyity through chemical means like most batteries. if you ignore the low power warnings and let the phone keep running until it shuts itself down and then recharge it until a few hours after it says that it is full then it will recalibrate itself and the battery will now “know” how much power it can really hold. doing this should give you at least 3-5 hours more battery life. also instead of giving it a long charge everynight, give it little charges throughout the day.

I am also having trouble with battery life, sometimes having to charge twice a day. I do shut down the wifi when not in use but it seems rediculous to always be turning it off! The whole point of having a cell phone is for people to be able to contact you. I also set it up so I get a message when I receive email and that is set up to refresh every 5 minutes. I will probably have to bump that up to save battery. My battery can go down to around 50% just sitting on my desk at work with less than 20 notices coming to me which I view and delete the thread. I haven’t even spent time playing the games or really using the apps that I downloaded yet so not sure how quickly the battery goes down. I have the 2nd gen ipod touch for most of that (which can need recharging after a few hours of game play) and for listening to music but I have to be in a wifi area to use some of the programs. with the g1 as long as I have a signal they can be used which is more handy.

My previous phone was the blackberry pearl and even after having it for 2 years I still only had to charge it about every other day and that was also getting the notifications of email and leaving bluetooth on 24/7. Even with heavy use I still only had to charge the next day, not multiple times during the day.

I just got my phone on the 20th so I haven’t experienced how long it stays once it notifies you that your battery is about to die. I’ve had some phones that beeped a couple of times then died. The blackberry would stay on for a good length of time before dying giving you a chance to finish a conversation. I’ve had to make sure I have extra cords for the g1 so I can charge at home, work or in the car so I don’t end up with a dead phone.

I also like the fact that I don’t have to install a program on any computer I hook the g1 up to so I can access the pictures, etc.

This is the first time I rushed out and bought something before it was released let alone as soon as it came out. I usually wait until the bugs are worked out and the price comes down. The price was reasonable and I wanted a bigger keyboard then the pearl had. I was planning on getting the curve until I hear the g1 was going to be released right when it was time to renew my contract so I went for it. Other then the battery life I really do like the phone.

Turning off GPS helps tremendously. Unless you’re making a long drive or something like that, GPS doesn’t help that much anyway.

I like the phone however the battery life is killer. It dies before my school day is even over and that’s not good I like to text during school. Can some one inform me on how to turn the 3g off?

the g1 has the worst battery life of any phone ive ever owned!!!!(iphone,sidekick,blackberry)

whats the point in having a phone with all these features if you have to disable all of them and it dies every few hours of using the “amazing” features

not a good phone for heavy talkers or buisness people who dont have access to charge it all day, makes a great paperweight when it dies 5 times a day its pretty heavy.
definitly going back until tmobile come out with the next version

How are the batteries if they were to be sold seperately?

i wish my g1 battery lasted longer,,, now i will have to get the car charger and keep that thing plugged in on the drive home from work everyday… booooo… my last cell by sprint played mp3’s and it would live for like 5 days on a single battery charge, but i wasn’t surfing the net or playing around with gps & maps either….

i’m listening to some mp3’s on it (16gb card full up) and just watching the battery life go down while reading and responding to this forum…

I really dont know what you guys are talking about.. my G1 will last the whole day.. and that is with about 1 hours of going on the net and some youtube videos.. maby 30mins of call time and about 45mins of texting.. I think you guys just need to let your phone go down to like 2% battery life then let it charge for a good 2-3 hours.. after you do that 1 or 2 times you can stick it on the charger when you need to when you are home.. I mean its a new phone and of corse you are going to want to play with it.. I mean if you just used it as a phone it would lasts 2 days.. but when you play on it, it will use alot of the battery life right there.. once you get over messing with it for 4 hours non stop and start charging it all the way, you will be set.. and dont worry about leaving it on the charger over night, it will not hurt it at all..

I have had a few phones in my time. This is the best phone for features but the battery life is the worst I have seen. I thought my particular phone had a fault but instead it has a design fault after reading othere posts. The manuacturer needs to come put with a larger battery.

I turned of everything but still battary kinda sucky. When i using an Internet, listening musick or going on youtube, batary going bacd fast, even faster then Iphon’s
P.S. sorry for my English, it is not my first language

There is a new app in the Android Market right now called “Toggle Settings”. It does just that: makes it easy to switch GPS and Wifi on and off. Description says it plans to add Bluetooth and 3g soon also.

I just got my phone on October 31st.I charged my phone throughout the night, got up this morning at 6 am and sent 3 texts from 6 -7 am. My battery went down to 49% with everything off(wi-fi, gps, screen brightness below 30) and it is still sucking battery life crazyyyy. i am returning the phone for a blackberry cause this phone wont last me until school is even over. this phone is not worth the money even is you have a full upgrade.

The worst battery life ever . 4 hours of normal useage at work and its already halfway dead, wtf…. the battery probly went down 10 percent while I was typeing this . Htc needs to fix this

How do you disable 3G on the G1 phone?

i thought i was the only one with this problem. Absolutley WORST battery life EVER. It is so frustrating. There are seriously no larger cell batteries that can be of a solution??>??? help. i did like this phone. Now It is exactly what another reader said…a paperweight for half the day. If I have to send it back I will.. I will go back to the Blackberry- new one is coming out,

Hey Guys, I was reading everything you were talking about the G1, I got mine few days ago and I did all of the tips and tuning possible, including installed down the latest update (RC30) to try to improve the battery. But let me talk about the features that iti has and try to compare.

Let me start saying some of my experiences:
Nokia N95/8G

The battery can run much more sucx than G1 if you kept it connected pushing mail, even every 30 minutes, your battery probable goes off less than a half day. The other point is that the N95 has fual core processor as the G1 has, to give it much more power and if runs away loads of battery.

Nokia E71/8G

I have been playing with one for about two weeks and it is amazing, it has a dual core processor as well and if I apply to let it connected pushing mail every 30 minutes, surfing in the 3G network, massaging and talk a bit it goes remind up to 2 days. But, let me put something really clear about it, this cell phone has a LARGE battery to improve it which is totally different from the one that we have on our loved G1;

T-Mobile G1

First of all, it cames with the latest linux embedded systems, but rather than Apple Iphone, that equally cames with a Unix like software, it has a really cool armor because all of the application is running through an Virtual machine based on Java, but it is not the same as we heard before, the third part application were written using java language but after the compilation it had to be converted to an other format that actually came with the Android SDK. The Google decided to use a Virtual machined called Dalvik, that was designed to use less memory the the original one J2ME, although it demanded some modifications on the code that can be done using the previously mentioned convert applications.

Thus, it needs some process to ensure that you are running such a secure platform where you can trust, though it has TWO big processors and videos independent processor as well to give you that so brightener and fast screen.

What can we expect to the future, I better battery technology, or a new “chunk” battery that probably will make us change up even the back cover.

But let me give you some tips:

-Recharging

I talked with a PHD chemist professor and he was totally clear: YOU MIGHT WAIT IT RUNS OFF BEFORE RECHARGE IT…. AND THROUGH OVER TIME IT WILL REACH THIS FULL POWER.

- 3G
As I explained the 3G drain loads of battery because it is using much more energy to reach the frequency to send and process the reception as well, have you seen how fast your laptop run out of battery while using WIFI? So, it is the same, try to use EDGE, it can be a little bit more frustrating but it will works good even for youtube video… And be patient, your laptop probably ran out of battery, last night, after 2,5 hours, your small computer are doing it after a day which you were applied for a massivity use. An other point, have you realised how warm it takes when you start to use, I always though it was the transmitter until I put it on the flyer mode, I realised that it the processors, when they start to required it start to get heated, and if something is producing heat it is spending more energy, consequentely more battery… though, life is like that, we have to enjoy our new peace of wonderful technology but let be realistic it is like we hava a brand new technology from 2010 when we still in 2008.

I heard on the internet that the G2 is about to be released and it will come with a big battery like the Nokia E71 has, lets hope to the best.

Cheers,

Gustavo Campos

If u are having battery life issues, download the FREE power management app in the Android MARKET. U set ur phone up to function fully until it reaches certain battery levels and then adjust to the lower battery life (for example, at 30% battery turn off wifi, gps, and reduce screen resolution…no support for auto changing the sync frequency though). Check it out.

all of ya are bugging my g1 last me lke 5 days with out charge idk whats wrong with your phones but mines is legit and on point

You can also use the Anycut app to create a shortcut that points to “test” (just scroll down the application list in Anycut until you see “test”) on the homescreen. Touch the shortcut and select “Phone information”, then press the menu button, select “more” and touch “disable data connection”.

This should make the battery last a couple of days, although obviously you cannot connect to the internet or any data services unless you enable the data connection again.

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Thanks for the tips,
But Holy **** this battery is junk. It didn’t even last my work time which is about 6hr’s, it died like 4 and a and hours through so I turned it on and it says there is about %20, and then that died in about half an hour. That is so ridicules! seriously what the h***?

My Curve lasts like around 2 todays minimum with same usage!

I charge my curve like once every two days. wow, I hope I didn’t make a bad purchase!

Ok i get it i will turn off GPS unles i need it and I rarely have Wifi on cause 3g rocks. But C;mon I refuse to turn off 3g if that is what sells the friggin thing thing. I mean why am i buying a phone with all these features if i can’t even use them?

[...] 36 hours. We did however run into some technical issues during that time, most notably when the battery of my G1 died shortly after arriving at the Fader Fort. So I wasn’t able to blog/tweet much about the [...]

I tried making my new G1 last as long as it could by turning off the GPS, using a 2G network and having sync off, it still lasted 14 hours. POS battery what is the point of having a great phone that can do all sorts of things, but runs out of gas after half a day. I have owned 4 blackberrys before and NONE ever had a problem lasting 2 full days of use. LAME.

This batter is the worst thing ever. I charged my phone over night to 100% went to work and didn’t use my phone for 5hrs and by lunch time it was completly dead, this is horrific!

There is an app on the android market called APNDroid which is brilliant. it’s a one touch app that turns on or off all 3g/edge/wap services