Shocking HTC Sensation Battery life

I recently upgraded from the Desire HD, and was hoping that the new phone would last longer due to having a larger battery (even though the sensation is dual core I was hoping for a more efficient CPU).

The Desire HD would last just over a day on a charge with wifi and sync all on and the display at around 50%.

I charged the Sensation overnight and woke up a few hours ago. I have sent 2 text messages. Sync is on, so is wifi just like before. In 2 hours and 40 minutes the battery is already down to 40%.

How is the battery life so horrible? Even though sync is on, the sync is every 4-8 hours or so depending on the application. I only have email and weather syncing.

The display has been on around 5 minutes today, but looking in the battery usage it has contributed to 30% of the battery loss apparently. What gives here?

My dad has a similar problem with his regular desire, and after complaining to HTC has been given 5 different batteries. I would rather not have to carry around multiple batteries with me all the time just in case...

Badbonji said:

I recently upgraded from the Desire HD, and was hoping that the new phone would last longer due to having a larger battery (even though the sensation is dual core I was hoping for a more efficient CPU).

The Desire HD would last just over a day on a charge with wifi and sync all on and the display at around 50%.

I charged the Sensation overnight and woke up a few hours ago. I have sent 2 text messages. Sync is on, so is wifi just like before. In 2 hours and 40 minutes the battery is already down to 40%.

How is the battery life so horrible? Even though sync is on, the sync is every 4-8 hours or so depending on the application. I only have email and weather syncing.

The display has been on around 5 minutes today, but looking in the battery usage it has contributed to 30% of the battery loss apparently. What gives here?

My dad has a similar problem with his regular desire, and after complaining to HTC has been given 5 different batteries. I would rather not have to carry around multiple batteries with me all the time just in case...

Click to expand...

Have you tried an application like Juice Defender? It may help, though as far as I know, nobody has done any rigorous testing which demonstrates 'how much', exactly, it does or can help.

This is rather obvious, let the battery discharge completely then recharge. Do this 2 times or so....whether it really makes a diff, I dunno. Got my HD Desire and it lasts a day...same as my HTC Desire.
Have you considered a "Mugen" battery or just buying an extra HTC battery?
I was thinking about a Mugen for my Desire HD but it claims %22 extra battery life, thats not a heckuva lot for what you pay.
The solution that works best is to carry the charger w/ me everywhere I go.

I contacted HTC so I have 2 batteries for it now.

The battery discharges every time as it manages to run out by the time I arrive home from uni (beginning from 100% on that day) at around 5pm. I had no problem with the HD, that is what I was comparing it too as it had a smaller battery and was expecting the dual core cpu to be more power efficient, although this doesn't seem to be the case.

I didn't think a third party application would help, because the battery lasts this long without even any apps running in the background at all. Sometimes the battery just decides to discharge at 10% per 30 minutes or so, even without me touching the phone and no apps open (it says things like the "cell standby" have taken all the battery etc.)

Run current widget and see what you idle at. I get between 2-5ma on standby on my hd2. I know, different phone, but it should give you an idea of what to expect.

I got tired of my wife complaining about her battery. Some days it was OK others not so much. All though she is using a Galaxy S 2. I finally got her a 3200ma battery and the problem was solved. If they make one for your HTC, you might want to go that route.

EDIT: I only see 1900mAH... http://www.shopandroid.com/seidio-innocell-1900mah-slim-extended-life-battery/8A37A9445.htm

Im using a Droid 2 Incredible and I too get horrendous battery life, even with the extended 3500mah battery. Seems that the display accounts for approx. 35% of battery usage. If I play mp3s on the phone-forget it the the battery is dead in under 12 hours. Ive noticed a trend with phones that run the Droid OS and poor battery life-hope they address this is the near future.

I have a sensation. The battery life is pretty bad. I usually don't have a problem with it, as it is always plugged in at home or in the car. However, its very frustrating when you don't have the charger and it dies when you're away from home.
I don't think my battery life is as bad as yours. My phone shows that the screen uses 90% of my battery. That's because when I'm not at home(on battery) I'm using it and i used to be stupid and leave brightness all the way up.
If I don't use it at all the battery will last me a long time (well, over a day anyway).

Did HTC give you the batteries for free?!

The big killer on battery is data and screen brightness. Also some of those resource heavy launchers and widgets can eat up a bit of processing power, which in turn affects battery. Think motoblur. Live wallpapers can suck juice too.` Turn off automatic updates, apps like to update themselves. This both raises your data usage and lowers your battery. If you have rooted your phone (highly recommended), get ad blocker as a lot of free apps like to send ads which can affect battery and data usage. I do recommend juice defender as well. What it does basically in the free version is disable data when screen goes off to save battery. It re-enables it every 15 minutes for a few seconds for email notifications and facebook and such. I recommend it if it doesn't cause a battery pull, which ive had to do before.

Do this.
Turn off data when not in use and lower screen brightness with a toggle widget if your phone does not have it in the status bar
I also reccommend against live wallpapers and lots of widgets. I dislike resource heavy launchers and prefer simple like adw launcher or launcher pro in the market.
DO NOT use live wallpapers.

For the more advanced users.....

install a custom rom and kernel. Morfic's kernels called trinity are really good and one comes pre-undervolted. I use faux kernels myself.

Currently I'm running a T-mobile lg g2x overclocked from 1ghz dual-core to undervolted, overclocked 1.4ghz on a Hellfire rom (ice cream sandwich version). Most current phones run on gingerbread version of google os while the more recent ice cream sandwich seems a bit better in terms of speed, battery, and resource use. If your phone does not support custom roms, at the very least, check for manufacter updates. Another advantage of ice cream sandwich is it lets you kill background applications easily. Though you can do the same with a third party app from the market.


I get 12+ hours of battery with minimal use.

Dang, that is terrible battery life. I have the venerable HD2 and it gets around 24h with medium use on an ICS build that wasn't even meant for the phone.

I would definitely try a custom rom and kernel, possibly undervolted like mas5acre mentioned.

Since no-one has mentioned it I would try to use an app that underclocks/undervolts your phone when you are not actively useing it and ups the speed/voltage back up as needed on demand. If your phone supports it, I have a Galaxy S 4g that I could barely go a day on one charge w/ light usuage but now I have been useing Tegrak overclock to overclock when I am useing it (I managed to hit 1.42Ghz w/ stock voltage up from 1Ghz stock speed) and underclock/undervolt it when its sitting idle and can generally get twice as much battery time may sound rediculous but I can generally get 1d+21-23hrs give or take a few % and have 5-11% left when I charge. A buddy of mine has a Galaxy S2 and his battery life was upped about 40% during light useage/idle. Its like $2 in the google play but well worth it.

*EDIT* Your device must be rooted for these apps to work.

• Turn off data. If you're at a university, there's probably a wireless network. Last time I checked, an 802.11 radio uses far less power than a 3G/4G radio.
• Turn off the 3G/4G radio unless you're using it specifically for data (see above). It doesn't make your voice calls any better.
• If it's not a company phone:
  • Have wifi/data sleep when the phone is sleeping. If you're not on-call, you don't need instant notification of emails. If somebody in your family has an emergency, they're probably going to text or call anyway, rather than email, and that stays on even when the phone sleeps, so wifi/data off won't be a problem.
  • Try a ROM from the xda-developers forum. Nearly all of them use kernels that provide better battery usage than the carrier-provided ROMs.

Not the same model phone, and I purchased an extended battery, but...

some times poor battery life is caused when an application causes a wake lock, stopping the phone from going in to deep sleep.

try downloading BatterBatteryStats and check the "partial wakelocks" stats to see if any programs are causing long wake locks.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.asksven.betterbatterystats