Hmm, not seeing the incredible note 2 battery life everyone brags about

[spinedoc77]

Picked up a Note 2 to supplement my iphone5 and I'm loving it so far. I put in a $30 t mobile prepaid unlimited data sim and its a great mini tablet.

What I'm wondering is I've seen many of you say that with moderate use this thing should be lasting 2 days or more. I'm wondering what I'm doing wrong, half a day of moderate use and I'm at 40%. The only possible culprits I can think of are either my live wallpaper, or the fact that I updated to 4.1.2. Any suggestions on where I should start to look, or is the battery life overhyped?

Also as an aside, is there any way to make icons and UI elements smaller? Not fonts, but the actual UI elements which are kind of huge so with widgets you can't fit a lot on screen. I could fit much more on the N7 but I'm assuming that was a combination of a larger screen and higher resolution?

 

[MRU]

Live wallpapers is probably the culprit, plus if its new your probably have more screen on time as you play around with it than those that have had it for a while, hence they report greater battery life in time, but only because their actual screen on time is probably less than when they first got it..

 

[spinedoc77]

Live wallpapers is probably the culprit, plus if its new your probably have more screen on time as you play around with it than those that have had it for a while, hence they report greater battery life in time, but only because their actual screen on time is probably less than when they first got it..

Both are pretty accurate, its very hard to put this bad boy down.

 

[Cody3133]

They might be rooted and on custom ROMs too.

 

[spinedoc77]

They might be rooted and on custom ROMs too.

I've usually seen worse battery life with any root and aftermarket ROM I ever did with varying levels of how much battery life I lost. I haven't rooted anything in a whole, last one I did was a Samsung captivate.

I'm very hesitant to even root, I've just seen slowdowns and lag after rooting, maybe I've just been unlucky.

 

[siiip5]

Picked up a Note 2 to supplement my iphone5 and I'm loving it so far. I put in a $30 t mobile prepaid unlimited data sim and its a great mini tablet.

What I'm wondering is I've seen many of you say that with moderate use this thing should be lasting 2 days or more. I'm wondering what I'm doing wrong, half a day of moderate use and I'm at 40%. The only possible culprits I can think of are either my live wallpaper, or the fact that I updated to 4.1.2. Any suggestions on where I should start to look, or is the battery life overhyped?

Also as an aside, is there any way to make icons and UI elements smaller? Not fonts, but the actual UI elements which are kind of huge so with widgets you can't fit a lot on screen. I could fit much more on the N7 but I'm assuming that was a combination of a larger screen and higher resolution?

Battery life is dependent upon many things. It is up to you to determine what you want on or off to reduce or increase battery life. Those that root have additional options open to them like changing their kernel, overclocking , under voting, getting rid of bloat via different ROMs and so on. That said, if you do not want to root, some very useful and ready things to do include the following and don't require rooting:
1. Don't use live wallpapers, screen effects like ripple or touch sounds, don't use haptic feedback
2. Turn off auto upload to Picasa. In fact, disable Picasa if you don't use it.
3. Turn off the Samsung Motion crap in settings.
4. Try to maintain a solid 4g signal as much as you can. The weaker the signal, the harder the phone works.
5. Turn off auto uploads to dropbox, box and Drive until you are on WiFi.
6. Use blocking mode at night when you sleep.
7. If you use a weather app or anything similar, make it so your updates only occur every 3 to 4 hours, vice every hour or less.
8. Turn brightness down to 60 or 70% of max.

The whole goal is to have your phone do its thing and get into sleep mode asap and then to prevent as many wake locks as possible, so your phone stays in its deep sleep state. My S3 uses approx 1% per hour of battery life at night, assuming I don't put it on my charger.

Good luck. You decide what you want to use or not use for battery life. Choice is key. Remember, the iPhone already does or prevents many of these options, so you don't have to deal with the choices. You have both phone types, so use the one that fits your needs the best.

BTW, I am currently running a battery test on my S3 on a new ROM and kernel, and thus far I have 8 hours of total use, 3 hours and 10 minutes of screen on time and still have 34% battery remaining (on wifi , no 4g). Brightness at 70%. How does this compare to your Note2?

Regarding the UI, icons can be changed to look different on other launchers like Nova and Apex, but altering DPI for what you want requires root. Here is an app from the app store though that does this very easily: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.marutian.dpichanger

 

[siiip5]

I've usually seen worse battery life with any root and aftermarket ROM I ever did with varying levels of how much battery life I lost. I haven't rooted anything in a whole, last one I did was a Samsung captivate.

I'm very hesitant to even root, I've just seen slowdowns and lag after rooting, maybe I've just been unlucky.

Rooting doesn't do anything, other than make your root files accessible. Changing kernels and ROMs is what will effect the phone to lag. There is a vast distinction between rooting and roming, other than the prior must be done for the later to occur.

 

[nick_elt]

Ive had a note 2 since the beginning of oct and ive always had live wallpapers and ive never had bad battery like the op. this doesnt seem right at all. You should be getting more out of it. 4.1.2 didnt change much for me. Check you batt stats and see where all the drain is. I have been blown away by the bat life and even streaming full matches of football with flash doesnt dent it too hard.

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And to change all the elements you were talking about you dont need to root it, just get a free launcher and you can change all the settings. I use nova but there are a few good ones out there.

 

[TacticalDesire]

I bet maps is the culprit. I was for me on my nexus. Once I turn it off battery is fine.

 

[kiltedthrower]

I'm stock rooted. I have drive, Dropbox,.Facebook, groupme, LinkedIn all synced. I have my screen set on auto but all the way up..I'm sitting at 15 hours with a tad over 7 hours screen on time and have 65 percent battery left. It sounds like you have an app eating up your Barry

 

[Zaft]

I'm stock rooted. I have drive, Dropbox,.Facebook, groupme, LinkedIn all synced. I have my screen set on auto but all the way up..I'm sitting at 15 hours with a tad over 7 hours screen on time and have 65 percent battery left. It sounds like you have an app eating up your Barry

As believable as Godzilla

 

[kiltedthrower]

As believable as Godzilla

Did that make you feel better to call me a liar? And the only reason/time you posted on this thread is to say I'm lying. Seems kinda silly. Just so you know, I finally plugged in after a day and 5 hours on battery and still had 27% battery life left.

I suppose all that could be a lie. My question is why would someone lie about battery life when they have nothing to gain from that lie.

My note 1 would last maybe 8-12 hours under the same usage. Actually, I couldn't get 5 hours of on screen time so I'm happy with the battery life. This is the first phone aside from my old BlackBerry that I can go to out of town soccer tournament and not worry about having an extra battery or a place to plug in to recharge.

 

[spinedoc77]

It has improved with some power management, I was reading a lot of kindle books so had a lot of screen time.

For the guy who had 15 hours and 7 hours of screen time and was only down to 65% that's nuts, what's the secret? Today I'm on 10 hours use with 1 hour 20 min on screen and down to 74%, still pretty awesome but nowhere near what you are getting.

 

[siiip5]

It has improved with some power management, I was reading a lot of kindle books so had a lot of screen time.

For the guy who had 15 hours and 7 hours of screen time and was only down to 65% that's nuts, what's the secret? Today I'm on 10 hours use with 1 hour 20 min on screen and down to 74%, still pretty awesome but nowhere near what you are getting.

He is using a 29,000mAh battery. Energizer only made one for him though.

 

[Tig Bitties]

On my Note 2, running SKYNOTE v8 ROM. On average I can get 6h - 8h On Screen time. And on a heavy workday get total of approx 14 - 16 total hours of battery, that's running the phone pretty much non stop all day; phone calls, texts, e-mails, web surf, GPS, etc...

On weekend use, I can get total of 30+ hours easily.

My old Nexus never got anywhere close to that battery life, about half that. Especially heavy workday use, I use my phone a ton during the day. Actual phone calls too, quite a lot which is a drainer.

 

[Zwhaler]

Live wallpaper is the culprit, my friend switched his off and said there was a huge gain in bettery life. Second, I would recommend trying one of these I get amazing battery with it and you can use the original back cover.

 

[kiltedthrower]

Here's one of time on screen

 

[kiltedthrower]

And here's of how long on battery. I run an all black wallpaper I guess helps with battery life

 

[mib1800]

And here's of how long on battery. I run an all black wallpaper I guess helps with battery life

You have partially charged your phone. This explain your battery use. Don't forget the statistic do not reset until you fully charged the phone.

I get about 7-8 hours of on-screen time over a 48 hours period per charge. This with 3G/HSPDA (not lte) on, sync for email/fb etc and lots of widget. Plus live wallpaper (photo gallery lw)

 

[kiltedthrower]

You have partially charged your phone. This explain your battery use. Don't forget the statistic do not reset until you fully charged the phone.

I get about 7-8 hours of on-screen time over a 48 hours period per charge. This with 3G/HSPDA (not lte) on, sync for email/fb etc and lots of widget. Plus live wallpaper (photo gallery lw)

I rarely look at the stats. Why wouldn't it reset as soon as you plug in? Here's what I do know. Took phone off charger at 5 a.m. yesterday and plugged back in afternoon today

 

[mib1800]

I rarely look at the stats. Why wouldn't it reset as soon as you plug in? Here's what I do know. Took phone off charger at 5 a.m. yesterday and plugged back in afternoon today

Look at your battery curve. You see the bump up. You may have connected it to your PC (which recharges the phone). You dont get this bump if you have fully charged the phone (and have not connected the phone usb to a power source)