Don't Let your Android Battery be a Drain

To continue the theme of performance as specified in To Kill or Not to Kill Task in Android.  One area that people complain about a lot is the lack of battery performance from there Android devices.  I stumbled upon a great post Tips to maximize battery life on Android by John Edgar I specifically like how to calibrate a battery he says

“Calibrate the battery by completely draining it until the phone completely shuts itself off. Turn the phone on again and let it shut itself off one more time. Then charge your phonewhile it is off for over 8 hours. This will fully charge the battery so that when the phone is turned on, it now sees the battery as full. It is recommended to repeat this process at least one more time. You will see an increase in your battery’s charge life and longevity. Calibration of a battery can be done at any point and a maintenance calibration is recommended every month.”

Even though Lithium Ion batteries are not suppose to have "memory" like the old nickel cadmium batteries it is still good from time to time to calibrate or refresh your battery.

As seen in the image of my battery statistics I am not doing to bad.  The one area that takes up the most battery power is the display.  This is common for smartphones in general.  I was running 62-65% on my display settings.  I  took my brightness setting off of Automatic brightness and moved it to the lowest setting.  As seen in the display I have dropped to 48% and this is taken within an hour of changing it.  I also updated the app Settings Profiles Full change this to the lowest setting upon each change.

HTC Incredible Receives Froyo 2.2 Today

The highly anticipated Froyo 2.2 update finally happened on our HTC Incredible Android Phone.  Woke up this morning with the message to upgrade now or later.  Choose now and after two reboots and about 7 minutes Froyo 2.2 was installed.  Some of the feature of 2.2 are:

• 3G Mobile Hot Spot
• Flash 10.1
• HTC Widget: Mail
• HTC Widget: News
• EAS Updates
• 720p Video Recording
• Amazon MP3
• Skype
• My Verizon

Time will tell if it helps the battery.  The only gripe we have with the Incredible is the battery life.  We installed Automatic Task Killer and it does help a lot.

2 Must Ask Questions For Picking An Android Phone

I've had numerous people ask me what Android phone to get.  Here is my recommendation using the Verizon Wireless network.  There are two major criteria that I like to ask before recommending phones.

1) Do you want a physical keyboard?
2) Does size matter?

Let's take a look at number one.  Do you want a physical keyboard?  If the answer is yes then I recommend looking at one of three phones.

Motorola DROID II Android Phone
Motorola DROID Android Phone
LG Ally Android Phone

Out of these three Android phones I personally would go with the Droid or Droid 2.  It would be a matter of which keyboard feels the best.  The new Droid 2 has a slippery feel unlike the Droid.

If a physical keyboard does not matter then I would ask you Does size matter?  I've had both the Motorola DROID X Android Phone (current device) and HTC Incredible Android Phone and love them both.  It came down to wanting a larger screen however, my wife loves the size and feel of the HTC Incredible.

Do your own homework to help you decide.  Take a look at this excellent Droid X Review and don't forget the review of the HTC Incredible.  Might want to compare the Droid X vs the HTC Incredible.  A well thought out review of the Droid 2 is located here.  For those wanting to compare the Droid 2 vs the Droid this is a must read.  I know it can be overwhelming but all else fails walking into a local Verizon store and touch all of them.  Do not hesitate to spend a few minutes at each one playing and calling people.  Well worth the time when you are dealing with a 2 year contract or extension.

No matter what way you decide to go at least your going with an Android device.