Picked up the phone after froyo update, and immediately upgraded to 2.2.1 over the air. Noticed that my battery life was absolutely terrible - maybe 6-7 hours tops under normal usage. Turned off all background syncing, kept screen at very low brightness, etc. - no change.

After much googling and research, it turns out that at least under froyo (and maybe eclair - not sure because I've never run eclair for any significant amount of time), the Bravo's default preferred network type is "WCDMA preferred" - which makes the phone prefer and poll for a 3g signal, even in conditions where signal is weak or unavailable. This uses A LOT of power if you run around in areas without excellent 3g coverage.

You can change the default preferred network type, however. You'll need a 3rd party application called "Network" (available in the app market). I switched my phone's preferred network type to "GSM Auto (PRL)" which uses lower powered edge connections to fetch a list of towers the phone could use, then step through that list to make the 3g connection - which eliminates the need for power wasting polling. After this change, my phone went from barely making it through a workday to using only 20-30% of the battery over the course of a workday. Huge difference.

Be aware that even if you've set your phone to something other than the default of "WCDMA preferred" the phone will still default to that setting on boot. You'll need to switch the phone to airplane mode then back to non-airplane mode to get your non-default preferred network setting to stick. You can tell which mode your phone is operating in by looking in Settings > Battery Manager > Cell Standby. If the Cell Standby percentage of power used is well over 40%, and if the Time Without Signal percentage isn't either very low, or a larger but rapidly dropping value - or if TWS isn't altogether missing from that status page, you're likely still on "WCDMA preferred" and losing power very quickly.

Hope this helps someone. This is a great phone if set up correctly - but the default settings really do the product a disservice.

It's also worth noting that the 2.2.1 update is indeed worth all this hassle, besides the just in time compiler and javascript engine speed improvements My biggest concern in switching to this phone was it was only suppoed to capture CIF video (352x288) - 2.2.1 gives you the ability to shoot video with the much higher VGA resolution (640x480), instead.

Thanks for posting this. I couldn't find the app when I went to the Market, so I did a search on Google & found it. The app is by Philip Mangelow. If you search for his name in the Market you should find the app. I will post back after using this app & let everyone know what my stats are.

Thanks, ohplease. Interesting stuff! I have also noticed since I turned off 3G completely a week ago to avoid going over my data limit for the month that my battery has gone from 35-40% at the end of the day to 75-80%. I was surprised that cell stand by consumed so much power. amylyn1970, please let us know how your testing turns out.

Well, I didn't see any improvemen in the battery & Cell Standby is still saying 40+%. I did everything that ohplease posted. I'm going to try & set it to GSM only today and see how that does. I'll post back.

Ok, after setting my phone to GSM only the battery life was still about the same. But, what I do like is that I seemed to get a better and more consistant signal with it on edge. I am on Wifi at work & at home, so I don't need the 3G speeds. Everyone I talked to sounded better too, so I am going to keep it set to GSM only for now.

Which menu allows you to turn-off the 3G?

I have 200MB plan and want to avoid using 3G if the WiFi connection to internet drops for any reason.

Thanks!

I am using APNdroid app. It cuts off all 3G/EDGE/ and GPRS and leaves phone and text functions and wi-fi intact. It's handy when you get close to your 200MB. I also use 3G Watchdog. With this app I can look at daily/ weekly/monthly usage and it can also be configured to use APNdroid to automatically disable 3G if I am close to my limit. Hope this helps you freeperjim!

Thanks Michael for your reply. I also have 3G Watchdog that like a lot. I hope APNdroid can eliminate the auto switching to 3G when WiFi drops off without any warning. I'll report back after downloading and observing the results for a few days.

I'm still trying to find a Bravo setting that does the same thing - I saw it once while searching around on the Bravo but for the life of me can't find it again.

Thanks again - much appreciated!

Just remember that you could experience call quality that is not as good when in GSM only mode, and in some places less coverage.

I should also say that I just updated to Froyo (just got the phone) and mine is setup to GSM auto by default, not WCDMA prefered.