Official Idol 3 Battery Thread

[Karly Johnston]

Should the battery be better for it, if it would be using cyanogenmod instead of stock Android?

Every Nexus phone runs stock Android... none of them get the battery life people expect they should. OPO running CM had fantastic battery life much like the Idol 3, so put CM on Idol 3 and I expect it would be nearly epic battery life.

 

[Electriccars]

The Idol 3 just won't die! I'm using it around the house. Haven't actually put a sim card in it yet, so that might explain some of the great battery life that I've been getting. But this is the first full power cycle after getting it on Saturday. Auto brightness, full sync. I had to stop at 11% so I could do a charge test today. But I have no doubt that this 11% could have gotten me another hour of screen on time. Tons of streaming Sirius too over the front facing speakers (like 5 hours). Very impressed so far. The price is justified by the screen and the speakers alone in my opinion. Add great battery life to the mix and it's a pretty special device IMO.

What are you doing for such awesome battery life? My phone consistently shows the Android system as #1 battery drain where I'm losing 2.5% every hour when I'm not using the phone.

Great battery compared to other phones, but you have the same one and you went days with 4 hours of SOT.

Any idea what you did?

Edit: Just saw that you hadn't added a sim yet. So that's why, not constantly syncing. Good to know if I ever really need battery I can turn off sync and it'll work. ☺


Sent from my 6045I using Tapatalk

 

[lordlittlebrooks]

What are you doing for such awesome battery life? My phone consistently shows the Android system as #1 battery drain where I'm losing 2.5% every hour when I'm not using the phone.

Great battery compared to other phones, but you have the same one and you went days with 4 hours of SOT.

Any idea what you did?

Edit: Just saw that you hadn't added a sim yet. So that's why, not constantly syncing. Good to know if I ever really need battery I can turn off sync and it'll work.


Sent from my 6045I using Tapatalk

Yeah it was just chilling at home on my wifi. I am going to pop in a sim here soon and take it out on the town. I'll definitely report back how the usage varies. BTW, I'm now rooted and I wasn't during that original rundown. So there will be new variables to consider.

 

[famewolf]

Yall should really give https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.gpo.greenpower&hl=en a look. Unlike most "lite" apps it's not crippled to the point of just being a tease. I purchased the pro after a whille but the lite is very usable. Turn bluetooth on when charging....disable autosync and only do it periodically....only keep gps enabled for apps in the whitelist......etc.

Just reread the description on google play and some of what I mentioned may be premium only but give it a go....along with screebl lite to keep screen lit when phone held upright...and lux lite to adjust screen brightness based on ambient light levels....you might like "smart unlock"...the xda version allows up to 3 wifi ssid's or bluetooth connections and will auto disable keylock when connected to them. Moboclean puts a wrapper around an app allowing you to block access to certain things such as the phone number....stop apps from autostarting or running in background...prevent notifications. If you can't find it on google play then I probably found the app in xda's android apps & games here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/android/apps-games

Lenovo's Super camera is awesome with our camera hardware: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2706891

Hanger is great..it puts the 7 most used apps in the notification dropdown..you can also pin specific apps. Screen Off is useful to add double tap to sleep to a gesture in nova launcher. "Totally free VPN" gives you access to hundreds of vpn's from the vpngate service...great for protecting your wifi connection. Truecaller looks up phone numbers not in your contact list and does a great job at it. Universal init.d will add init.d which many apps use to put scripts that will run at bootup. Wefi Pro is a must have...it maintains a database of open wifi connections to which you can add your own fav's and will auto connect you to them when you are in range...helps to cut down on data usage. Lightning web browser...light with built in ad blocking....guess I got a little off topic....sorry.

Fa^..^e\/\/olf

 

[huntnyc]

Great list of apps. I use Lux paid. Just curious what levels of brightness are you using indoors? This screen is so much brighter than any I have had I am having a little trouble figuring out what is best balance. Thanks again for list.

Sent from my 6045I using Tapatalk

 

[Nikola Jovanovic]

Mine.. Playing games lightly, snaping from 10 to 30 photos on a daily, same goes for msg, and calls, and browsing on wifi with gsm netw always on...I'm satisfied if you ask me.

On stock 5.0.2 no updates.

Sent from hell

 

[Nikola Jovanovic]

Update :

Root + greenify + minor tweaks and uninstalls

Wanted to get an idea how long can battery last with on screen time. And it's half past 6 hours with 1/4 battery left! So you get an idea. Definetly better than on stock, can imagine what would happen with custom rom/kernel combo + these features.
4th sc is taken seconds before battery saver popped out..

And last pic was taken on 5% battery with 8h on screen time what I think is marvelous..

Sent from hell

 

[Rene_ajax]

Charging time is done. Used an Anker 2.0 Quick Charge (just to make sure it got the maximum it could handle). Went from 11% to 100% in 2 hours and 28 minutes. Not too shabby considering how long it holds on to the charge.

wow, this phone really looks beautiful imo.
is it worth it?

 

[lordlittlebrooks]

wow, this phone really looks beautiful imo.
is it worth it?

I would say it depends on what you're looking for. I love the phone, so my pros/cons will be a little biased, but here they are. The Pros: Low Cost, Unlocked, LTE, SD Card Support, NFC, Thin, Light, Fantastic Front Facing Speakers, 1080p Screen, Great Battery Life. The Cons: 2 GBs of RAM, Snapdragon 615 (which just means that you'll notice the lag, but by no means a deal-breaker), Plasticky Construction (but again, the phone is only $249.99 unlocked!), Camera Isn't Great. But as you can see, my pros far outweigh the cons so if you have the inkling to pick one up, I would say do it. Hope this helped!

 

[gideonMorrison]

I would say it depends on what you're looking for. I love the phone, so my pros/cons will be a little biased, but here they are. The Pros: Low Cost, Unlocked, LTE, SD Card Support, NFC, Thin, Light, Fantastic Front Facing Speakers, 1080p Screen, Great Battery Life. The Cons: 2 GBs of RAM, Snapdragon 615 (which just means that you'll notice the lag, but by no means a deal-breaker), Plasticky Construction (but again, the phone is only $249.99 unlocked!), Camera Isn't Great. But as you can see, my pros far outweigh the cons so if you have the inkling to pick one up, I would say do it. Hope this helped!

The camera begs to differ, from a guy on Flickr:

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/543/19111915008_d07f0a1770_k.jpg
https://farm1.staticflickr.com/283/19113413809_d713436edb_k.jpg
Selfie: https://farm1.staticflickr.com/541/19112687980_1f347ad16e_k.jpg

 

[lordlittlebrooks]

The camera begs to differ, from a guy on Flickr:

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/543/19111915008_d07f0a1770_k.jpg
https://farm1.staticflickr.com/283/19113413809_d713436edb_k.jpg
Selfie: https://farm1.staticflickr.com/541/19112687980_1f347ad16e_k.jpg

Lol. I wasn't trying to ruffle any feathers. I was just trying to come up with some "cons" and the camera makes the list for me. Make no mistake though. I LOVE the phone. To me, it's the best bang-for-the-buck going today.

 

[gideonMorrison]

Lol. I wasn't trying to ruffle any feathers. I was just trying to come up with some "cons" and the camera makes the list for me. Make no mistake though. I LOVE the phone. To me, it's the best bang-for-the-buck going today.

Hehe, all good. Well this camera is able to shoot nice photos, just not in every situation. So it's an "if" kind of thing I guess. How is the smoothness/lag in your experience after the update?

 

[lordlittlebrooks]

Hehe, all good. Well this camera is able to shoot nice photos, just not in every situation. So it's an "if" kind of thing I guess. How is the smoothness/lag in your experience after the update?

I've only done the one update that appeared out-of-the-box. Not sure if there's been another one since then. The lag is fine to me. I notice it the most when I'm using the little broom to close all of the open apps. That plus the little bit of stutter when I open apps sometimes. But to me, the pros way outweigh the cons. I can put up with the occasional stutter to enjoy the screen, the thinness and the speakers. I carry the phone from room to room playing Sirius XM all of the time. (I consider myself a power user, but not a picky power user. Lol.)

 

[gideonMorrison]

I've only done the one update that appeared out-of-the-box. Not sure if there's been another one since then. The lag is fine to me. I notice it the most when I'm using the little broom to close all of the open apps. That plus the little bit of stutter when I open apps sometimes. But to me, the pros way outweigh the cons. I can put up with the occasional stutter to enjoy the screen, the thinness and the speakers. I carry the phone from room to room playing Sirius XM all of the time. (I consider myself a power user, but not a picky power user. Lol.)

Alright, not sure whether that is THE update I'm talking about, but it's said to have improved stability and smoothness a lot, to a point where lag is negligible. To me it sounds as if the majority of the 'complainers' are exaggerating, with all due respect.

 

[lordlittlebrooks]

Alright, not sure whether that is THE update I'm talking about, but it's said to have improved stability and smoothness a lot, to a point where lag is negligible. To me it sounds as if the majority of the 'complainers' are exaggerating, with all due respect.

Yeah, I'm with you. Any "complainers" need to step back, take a deep breath and acknowledge that their $249 bought them one heck of a phone.

---------- Post added at 12:23 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:18 PM ----------

Alright, not sure whether that is THE update I'm talking about, but it's said to have improved stability and smoothness a lot, to a point where lag is negligible. To me it sounds as if the majority of the 'complainers' are exaggerating, with all due respect.

Also, I'm on 5.02.7SQR-UER0. Not sure if something has come out afterwards.

 

[gideonMorrison]

Yeah, I'm with you. Any "complainers" need to step back, take a deep breath and acknowledge that their $249 bought them one heck of a phone.

---------- Post added at 12:23 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:18 PM ----------


Also, I'm on 5.02.7SQR-UER0. Not sure if something has come out afterwards.

Yeah, that is the latest build :good:

 

[toni1409]

I solved my problems with the network signal going on and off by manually selecting the network operator. Now the battery life is great.
Stand by time with radio on, wifi on, data on is sometimes more than 10 days (269 hours).

 

[xda-soar]

I solved my problems with the network signal going on and off by manually selecting the network operator. Now the battery life is great.
Stand by time with radio on, wifi on, data on is sometimes more than 10 days (269 hours).

Toni can you give us more details on how you did this on your phone? Thanks.

 

[toni1409]

Toni can you give us more details on how you did this on your phone? Thanks.

I did Settings>More...>Mobile networks>Network operators and chose TMobile 4g. Also I uninstalled flipboard because there was a refresh of the status bar every 10 sec.

 

[xda-soar]

I did Settings>More...>Mobile networks>Network operators and chose TMobile 4g. Also I uninstalled flipboard because there was a refresh of the status bar every 10 sec.

I don't see 'Network Operators' under Mobile Networks. I see Access Point Names and I am using the tfdata one for Straight Talk. I also heard if you choose 'WCDMA Only' for 'Preferred network mode' that cell reception will be better.
Toni, what country are you in?