[Update: 29/10/2010 I have now done a new test to update how the HTC Desire battery fares running under Froyo. Click here to read more ]
Today I’ve decided to put my HTC Desire through its paces and leave my charger at home to see how the battery does.
I feel rather vulnerable without a charger but I can’t always carry one around with me so it’ll be a good test.
Today I have the following settings:
Fully charged at 9am.
Screen: Medium brightness
WiFi: ON
Syncing: ON
Bluetooth: OFF
GPS: OFF
FriendStream: ON
So currently my phone has a connection to my WiFi network and can sync as and when required. I will update this post throughout the day with the battery level for those who are sad enough to care.
09:00 100% fully charged and raring to go!
11:00 87% remaining – Listened to the radio on the walk into work. I’ve made a few phone calls, sent some tweets and taken a few photos (whilst it’s sunny). Still plenty of juice left before I am reunited with the safety that is my phone charger.
13:00 80% remaining, sent loads more texts and had a couple of calls, checked and read e-mails. Still plenty left to get me through the day.
14:00 75% left. Have only used the phone to send about 10 text messages and read new e-mails. Also, I have just started downloading the Guitar Hero 5 Demo (although the Market seems to be down 
)
17:00 52% remaining. I don’t think the phone’s done too badly today. I’ve used it pretty well and since the last post at 14:00 I’ve taken quite a long video on the phone and some photos as well as the usual texting and e-mailing. Even had time to play Guitar Hero too (which wasn’t that amazing)
I will leave my phone off-charge until I retire tonight and see how far I get. I’m pretty sure it’ll be fine but it’ll be interesting [probably not] to see how ‘home’ use is different to work usage.
At least you know that you can currently survive a work day with most of the bells and whistles turned on.
22:00 34% of love remaining. I’m sure my Desire is doing it’s best to hold out for me. Been using it for a couple of calls and a load of texts as well as messing around with the Android Market.
22:50 27% left. The battery icon is now yellow and looking pretty sad. I’m using the BatterTime Lite app to get all these details by the way. The app says that with 27% battery I have:
Idle Time: 110:42
Talk Time: 1:54
Video Playback: 1:05
Audio Playback: 2:04
Web Surfing: 1:14
That’s pretty impressive stuff really although I find it hard to comprehend that I could leave my phone for over 4 days straight without it needing a charge – if I didn’t use it at all obviously. [Oh and I'm not about to find out either]
[Update] I thought I’d include my Battery Saving Tips video now you’ve read through this article. It’ll show you how to save even more power when using your phone
Like this:
Tags: android, battery, consumption, Desire, drainage, hd, HTC, mobile, test
April 8, 2010 at 1:20 pm |
Sounds like your fairing better than me for battery. I’ve not managed to go one full day.
April 8, 2010 at 1:21 pm |
Thanks for the live test! awesome idea!
April 8, 2010 at 1:54 pm |
@Mike Oh dear, that’s not sounding too good. I’ve ‘streamlined’ what applications are running and how often they update to try and get the most out the battery but I will be doing some more experiments during the week. Previously I was sapping the battery to 50% by noon but have sorted that one out!
@Ju No problem! Hope it gives you an insight into how well the phone performs
April 8, 2010 at 8:55 pm |
The Desire still alive and kicking after 12 hours of regular use?
April 8, 2010 at 9:53 pm |
Indeed it is! Currently have 34% battery left although I haven’t used it as much as I’d have liked to tonight due to other “commitments”. Tomorrow will be a new day and a fresh set of settings to put it through…
April 8, 2010 at 11:26 pm |
I’ll keep on eye on your results. I have
Screen: Medium brightness
WiFi: ON
Syncing: ON
Bluetooth: OFF
GPS: OFF
then
Facebook: 2 hour sync
Weather: 3 hour sync
Seesmic: constant?, can’t see any options
Nimbuzz: constant.
I may try to disable Seesmic and/or Nimbuzz and see how my battery goes.
April 8, 2010 at 11:38 pm |
Good idea, keep me posted on how it fairs…
April 8, 2010 at 11:40 pm |
Idle 110hrs? I assume 11?
Pretty good considering the calls and video.
Is there a good graphing app like the Nokia power monitor for Android?
Also, how long does the phone last on 0%… sometimes devices “under egg” how long they can last :p
April 8, 2010 at 11:45 pm |
No it really was 110!
The Desire’s spec says 360 hours standby so that’s 15 days worth right there!
Haven’t found an app that does graphing like the Nokia one but I can get voltages and temperatures from the one I’m using so it’s quite a useful little thing.
Will probably find out tomorrow how long the phone’ll last on 0%, a good idea for the test!
April 8, 2010 at 11:55 pm |
Other tests you can try to see the minimums are…
Just playing video…
GPS on all day (even inside, trying to get a fix will suck the battery)…
April 9, 2010 at 9:52 am |
Yep good idea
April 9, 2010 at 12:21 am |
So what is the time period for then? I thought it was 09:00 to 22:50 (your end) so shouldn’t it be under 12 hours?
If the idle is 110hrs – does that mean the “talk time” is based over that 110hrs (well 110+talk)?
April 9, 2010 at 4:45 pm |
What software version is your Desire running?
April 9, 2010 at 3:45 pm |
Currently running 1.115.110.11
April 9, 2010 at 3:48 pm
Excellent, I’ve just updated OTA to that today.
April 9, 2010 at 5:31 pm
Really? What was yours on before? Did you have to manually accept the update?
April 10, 2010 at 4:35 pm
I was on 1.115.110.10 before – the release day firmware. 2nd batch already had updated firmware.
April 10, 2010 at 6:06 pm
Ah I see. But we are getting another update next week I believe too…
April 16, 2010 at 9:27 am |
[...] wird genau, was eingeschaltet wurde und wie sich der Akku im Verlauf des Tages verhalten hat. The HTC Desire battery test – A day without a charge HTC Desire Fanatics HTC Desire battery test day #2 HTC Desire [...]
April 21, 2010 at 4:24 pm |
Thank you so much for your information
April 21, 2010 at 10:24 pm |
No a problem, glad you found it useful!
May 17, 2010 at 10:43 am |
You should try juicedefender & juiceplotter – for the real pros upgrade to juicedefender ultimate
I’ve been able to go 2x-2.5x my regular battery usage with it.
It turns off all unnecessary background stuff and lets you monitor your usage in a nice graph as well.
May 18, 2010 at 10:01 pm |
Sounds pretty good, will give it a go and see how I get on! Thanks.
June 10, 2010 at 6:59 pm
after a few weeks now i must say that juice defender is still working alright – on the weekends at least….
however when i am travelling during the week work wise, i cannot go 1 full day anymore
a lot of emails and phone calls throughout the day along with an occasional browse on phone – drained empty….
thinking about going back to my BB
June 13, 2010 at 4:37 pm
How about getting a spare battery? They’re about £30 but probably worth it if you’re on a long haul…
May 20, 2010 at 1:45 am |
How to updated HTC Desire software? Step by Step please
May 25, 2010 at 8:43 am |
There is currently no firmware update for the phone…
May 23, 2010 at 8:50 am |
Hi, just got my phone today! Been charging for past 3 hours. To my dismay keep getting the message … battery not charging.
Anyone encountered this problem and can offer solution pls?
Thanks.
May 25, 2010 at 8:48 am |
Sounds like a duff battery/phone… I’d take it back to the shop and get a replacement…
June 2, 2010 at 8:08 pm |
A quick one…
Since talking about Desire battery… Is it Ok to charge Desire with new Nokia micro USB charger that outputs 1200mAH compared to HTCs charger with 1000mAh ? I know that if there was less mAh should be ok, but with 200mAh extra? (thinking bout battery health)
Thanks!
June 5, 2010 at 5:37 pm |
I’m not an electrician but my understanding is that as long as the voltage is correct, the amperage can be pretty much anything. That’s just the max it can output so I would assume it is intelligent enough to only charge at the rate it needs…. might want to check with an electrician though
November 25, 2010 at 10:51 am |
Micro USB is a standard so if it fits to your phone physically, it can be used to recharging. Also, the 1200mAH stands for battery life, meaning the battery can produce 1200 milli Amperes for one hour. Just plug it in and see your desire come to life =)
November 25, 2010 at 11:01 am
sorry, need to correct that.
of course the 1200 mAH in the CHARGER doesn’t stand for battery life, stands for the charger power, meaning it should just charge faster as it transfers more current per hour. still i stand before my statement that the micro USB is a standard and it will work on any phone or w/e device that has a micro USB charging port
June 10, 2010 at 3:58 pm |
Fuck! mine wont last a day with that much usage. Amazing device, but battery sucks
June 10, 2010 at 6:41 pm |
Really? What things do you have on or running in the background? You should get a days use out of a full charge at least…
June 10, 2010 at 11:54 pm |
I’m in the crap battery life department too. For two days I’ll run the phone with all non-phone things turned off. No data, not Bluetooth, no GPS, not checking email or using the music player, and locked into GSM.
It drops about 11% per hour (based on Juice Plotter) overnight with no calls. Checking emails and surfing at home yesterday dropped 10% in about 15% minutes.
My battery summary is Android System about 50%, Cell Standby about 25% and Phone Idle about 25%. I hope this improves because I want to use the data features but it won’t last a day if I do.
June 13, 2010 at 4:42 pm |
That doesn’t sound right. I’d try factory resetting your phone to see if that fixes things.
June 13, 2010 at 11:28 am |
well i charged my new desire for 4 hrs not 3 as recomended and used it first day with setting it up and lasts for 10 hrs slack, the second day lasted for 14 hrs with little use, so i said damn this phone and went and bought the htc legend and tried it , i thought that coz it had a smaller screen and smaller processor the battery should be good and i was right , i am getting 3 times better life than the desire, so the legend is for me guys and this is my opinion, thank u
June 13, 2010 at 4:45 pm |
The Legend is a lot less powerful than the Desire hence probably why you’re seeing better battery life. Good luck with your Legend though, it’s still a lovely phone
June 14, 2010 at 1:10 am |
I was losing 11% battery per hour with everything turned off. I uninstalled Fringe and power cycled my Desire and it is much better. I use about 0.5% to 1% per hour now. I use juice plotter to see how I’m going. The phone is much more usable now.
Also try the debugging Interface ddmp in the android sdk to see what tasks are running. That’s,s how I found fring.
June 14, 2010 at 8:26 pm |
Ah yes, good old Fring, that app has always been a battery hogger!
July 7, 2010 at 7:31 am |
This is all very interesting. I think I’m getting average results with my new Desire. The first day while constantly playing with the phone, downloading stuff etc, it lasted about 5 hours! But now i can go for the
hole day wtihout recharging. I normally have WiFi off, GPS off, backlight auto, 3G on.
Yesterday i tested the phone with everything off (3G off, WiFi off, GPS off, APN off, no widgets etc), and the battery lost about 1% in an hour.
AND during the night it lost only 3% in 7,5 hours. So if I wanted, I think I could go easily for 2 days without recharge. But then it wouldn’t be smartphone anymore.
After turning 3G on and syncing on (normal use) it loses about 4-6% in an hour.
Could be better, but I’m satisfied.
August 15, 2010 at 10:48 pm |
Android gets such crazy-looking idle times because of what happens when the screen blanks.
It simply goes into a “suspend” mode, very similar to what computers can do. The CPU isn’t actually fully running while like this, so the battery is barely touched.
All of you who are getting horrible idle batteries? Something is running in the background, keeping the phone from suspending. While suspended, I dropped about 2% in 6 hours – but while using Load Monitor to keep a wakelock (preventing the phone from suspending), it dropped by 25% in the same amount of time, with no usage either time (I was asleep).
(Granted I’m using a different Android phone, so my numbers may not match yours – but the idea is the same.)
October 12, 2010 at 1:00 am |
I’ve just installed JuiceDefender and I REALLY hope it works. Have had my Desire for almost three weeks and the battery life SUCKS! I have followed all instructions with charging from the moment I got it. Am going back to the telco now.
Very disappointed
October 22, 2010 at 12:50 pm |
How long are you finding it lasts? I can easily get a full day’s use from mine
October 28, 2010 at 11:34 am |
[...] Back in April you may remember I tested out my HTC Desire’s battery to see how long it would last over a day or normal use without being charged. Well, today I’m going to re-visit this test and see whether the “battery performance” improvements in Froyo really work or not. [...]
January 9, 2011 at 5:48 pm |
I’m at 80 % now …time since unplugged is 5 h 59 min and 2,3,4 sec ;D …ummm I’ve been editing my widgets for a combined total of time around 30 min… turning wifi on and off, also 3G on and off…had about 10 calls …around 10 texts, brightness: custom…less than medium I think, all the animations on, I sinc weather every idk…2 h … …etc.
Still I think it’s quite relative. Not all users have the same widgets, brightness set …and so on …I’ve heard that htc is investing quite some cash into battery research…so I’m hoping for new better batteries compatible with the desire
January 9, 2011 at 7:11 pm |
ok so update …the last post kinda failed and was posted like a min ago
…ummm my phone is now at 78 % … time is 7 h 29 min and 34,35,36 sec …I didn’t use it much …maybe a little so and so …
So it dropped 2 % in and hour and a half …so what do you guys think?
January 9, 2011 at 7:46 pm |
Sounds great! Looks like your phone’s battery is really lasting well!
January 9, 2011 at 8:17 pm
hmmm I don’t know …it’s really relative I’ve wrote 3 really long texts a min ago and received also 3 quite long ones and it dropped 3 % and that took 10 min …really relative …and I also rebooted my Desire 6 min ago so …I’t whipped the battery use time meeter xD
I didn’t know it would do that :/…hehe
January 9, 2011 at 8:20 pm
wiped* omg xD sry bad english
January 30, 2011 at 9:23 pm |
Could anybody please give me idea how can I check the HTC Desire is used or a brand new? Is there any technique to find out how many minutes had been talked using a particular phone?
January 31, 2011 at 7:48 pm |
I suppose the easiest thing to check would be for fingerprints on the touch screen. If they’ve been wiped off then check on the back of the phone where the camera is, any fingerprints on there?
I suppose the only other thing you can check is the call history…. :S
January 31, 2011 at 10:06 pm |
I got a desire on Saturday and so far it’s not lasted any longer than about 5 hours without losing all power. I also seem to have a problem with my SD card not working properly (I’m a complete technophobe but the error messages lead me to believe things aren’t quite right)…any suggestions anyone?
January 31, 2011 at 10:07 pm |
…and could the two be related?
January 31, 2011 at 10:48 pm
What error message are you getting?
5 hours is pretty poor. I’d suggest you follow my battery saving tips to help you out a bit
Check them out with the link below:
http://desirefanatics.wordpress.com/2010/10/30/top-10-htc-desire-battery-life-increasing-tips-hd/
March 7, 2011 at 4:44 pm |
By the way I have a primitive question rather! How you guys checked the percentage of remaining battery while it is *not* Charging. Thanks!
March 10, 2011 at 3:25 pm |
Hey all!
I got myself an extended battery from Mugen Power for wicked 3200mAh
http://www.mugen-power-batteries.com/htc/htc-desire.html
They also have 1800mah that does not change the phone into a monster but the big one has it’s merit. Travelling is much easier with it!
March 12, 2011 at 7:24 pm |
How long are you finding the 3200mAh battery lasts you? Does it come with a new back cover for the phone?
March 14, 2011 at 12:54 pm
The big one lasts twice as long as the stock one and of course it depends on how heavy U use it. I’m a heavy user but it goes 2-3 days without recharging.
and yep, it comes with a cover.
March 15, 2011 at 10:22 pm
Sounds great, I’ll have to see if I can find a UK supplier and give one a go! 2-3 days would be amazing!
March 16, 2011 at 2:06 pm |
U think you can test it? They ship worldwide. I got mine in US in a couple of weeks and ordered from their dealer site http://www.mugen-power-batteries.com
March 18, 2011 at 1:48 pm |
Is the battery the same type in the Desire as in the Desire HD
April 17, 2011 at 7:04 am |
Solved all my HTC Desire HD battery life issues by addressing a bug that constantly runs the CPU, and drains the battery. You have to enable debug mode. Since doing this, I’ve gone from 10 hours battery life to over 48 which is what I would expect.
Go to Menu / Settings / Applications / Development… then tick the “USB Debugging” option
Full details here: http://www.stephenjackel.com/2011/04/16/how-to-fix-battery-life-problem-on-htc-desire-hd-android-2-2-mobile-phone/
May 3, 2011 at 2:33 pm |
hi!
when i went to sleep, my phone was on yellow.. i then woke up to find my phone had ran out of battery. i plugged it in to charge, and it hasnt come on with the little light that shows it should be charging. i dont know what to do? or if i need to keep it on charge with it being completely empty! help! i have tried about 3 dif chargers that i have sometimes used, and nothing is happening! :/
May 3, 2011 at 10:11 pm |
Yeah it sounds like your battery was completely flat. I’ve had this happen before and the phone won’t turn back on even after you’ve plugged it in. Did it come back to life after 10 minutes or so of charging?
August 24, 2011 at 11:06 pm |
Hello, I followed all the tricks you talked about with my desire. 3G off, wifi off, GPS off, bluetooth off, brightness lowest, no live wall papers no vibrations/haptic feedback, In addition advanced task killer working round the clock. STILL my desire isn’t functioning as i would like it to work.
I charged it fully at about 3 am at night. Then it remained on standby for the next eight hours. Later wards, with about two hours of browsing/downloading, 3 short calls (under 10 minutes) and about 10 texts the battery was down to 20% by 11pm. Battery usage says idle and standby are taking up more than 40% of the battery time.
I am confused and sad!
August 29, 2011 at 5:21 pm |
Don’t be sad! Today’s smartphones only last around a day away from a charger. It sounds like you did reasonably well with yours if you were down to 20% by 11pm if it was unplugged at 3am in the morning.
I was down to 27% in this test after unplugging the phone nearly 6 hours after you did. Until batteries get better we can only reasonably expect a day’s battery with normal use.
I’d suggest getting a desk stand so you can just dock your Desire overnight and have it fully charged for when you wake up in the morning.