Bold battery drain

Question

I got the Bold last week and have been generally very happy (even with very high expectations.) I'd read that the battery drained fairly fast, and that newer versions of the OS were better at retaining battery power.My Bold doesn't last for the whole day. I don't use the phone much, I haven't yet installed my RSS reader (which was a drain, even on my 8700c), and I've turned off the wi-fi and the bluetooth, which I'll just turn back on when I'm ready to use them. This situation is livable for me so far, although it's a little inconvenient.I don't know if this performance is typical. Some people on various forums have suggested that some units don't last long, and that a swap at the AT&T office within the 30-day period is called for. I'm hesitant to create a lot of trouble for AT&T and for myself by swapping the unit if it isn't going to change the battery situation for me.Is anyone else finding that the battery drain is much faster than the 8700c? Will software upgrades (or AT&T network upgrades) in the future help to minimize this problem? Any advice for me?Thanks.

RonAnnArbor · Accepted Answer

Your getting abnormal battery drain. Go to ATT for an exchange. My Bold, which I have had for several months purchased in Europe long before ATT finally released it, easily lasts the day with normal use, even with several hours of listening to music above and beyond the calls, e-mail and data use.

The Bold DOES have faster battery drain than your old BB, because of the way 3G accesses data. But YOUR particular battery drain is abnormal.

kstrouse · Answer

Thanks for your response. It validated that battery drain shouldn't be a problem. I really needed to hear that from someone who was using the Bold on the AT&T network.As it worked out, I have an application that runs all the time, and I upgraded this application to the OS 4.6 version of it when I got my Bold. I changed a setting to reduce battery drain within the application and now the Bold just seems to sail along through the day without a problem. Maybe this particular application didn't drain my 8700c battery as much as it did this one, but apparently just that setting has done the job for me. I'll keep an eye on it for the next two weeks, but I'm pretty confident that I won't need to exchange this particular device.

jonesbm · Answer

I have the Bold and am having the same problem. I've reduced the brightness to 50% and still, can't get through the day with "normal" use. What is this application problem that you found, and can you help with me finding this and how to change it? It's such a GREAT phone to be dealing with this issue! Thanks so much in advance!

kstrouse · Answer

The application I'm using is Instango, a chat application which has a 'preserve battery or keep alive' setting. I set it to preserve the battery instead of staying alive and my problem seemed to go away.I'm not 100% convinced that's what did it. Maybe the device needed a few days and a few full battery charges to get the battery right. I'm installing Viigo, the RSS application right now, and I'll see if that has a demonstrable drain (though I don't leave Viigo open, ever, because it drained even my 8700c too fast.)I purposely didn't plug it into the charger at all today, just to test it. I used the phone and used the browser at least an average amount, if not more. At 10PM, I had about 10% of charge left. I can live with that.I also find that the signal in my house is a little stronger (-70 instead of -90 or so) than it was with my 8700c, which might help the battery stay alive. I see in another forum that there's a later OS being used in Italy and the battery performance is better.

mgerbasio · Answer

Same here with poor battery life.Seidio.com is coming out with a larger capacity standard size (10% more) and extended size battery. I've also read where others using later firmware (including beta) are getting better battery life. I consider what we have now to be good, only to get better.Regards-Michael G.

lexie22 · Answer

I was having this problem the first couple of days I had my bold.  Complete battery drain in 4-6 hours.  I guess aftera few charges it gets better, because now mine works fine.

yourfriendjp · Answer

I agree with the previous response. I've had my Bold for 1 week and I've already noticed that my batter life is better today then it was when I first got it. The battery isn't great, that's for sure. But it's very realistic with 'normal' use.

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