How to extend battery life.

Updated June 19th-2010.
Please read this post first
It has been a couple of weeks since launch and we’ve become familiarized with our phones. The recurring problem of poor battery life quickly took center stage. Luckily, through the efforts and ingenuity of many people, a whole lot of info has come forth on how to solve this issue. I have to admit, I was initially quite disappointed with the 4-5hrs of battery life. Now my phone will last more than 1-2 days, even using apps such as draw, games, calling, texting, music, camera, etc and I could not be more thrilled. I love this device and its capabilities.  And now that there is no battery issue for me, I hands down consider it the best phone out there.  
So, if you are considering returning this phone because of battery, take some time to read this post, I have tried to compile some of the most outstanding suggestions in this thread and from other sources.  I think you will also see great results and will become excited about being an EVO owner again.

Thanks Onthehunt for this link.  Look at power mgmt section
http://www.phonedog.com/2010/05/27/sprint-playbook-evo-4g-is-an-awesome-device-but-watch-that-battery/

Please read through these, thanks to goodandevo…
20 tips to improve battery life on the EVO
http://www.goodandevo.net/2010/05/20-tips-to-improve-htc-evo-4g-battery-life.html


By far, the most impact on the battery life will be from turning off background sync and mobile network. You can turn it back on if you need to update mail or go online.

For easy access to these, just add the widgets to one of your 7 front screens. I have a power mgmt screen where the 4g, wifi, background sync, mobile network, GPS, and bluetooth  all are so I can turn them off and on as needed. My default is all off.

Thanks Boo5ted and Bigdaddyinc  who both posted explanatons on how to add power mgmt widgets to the front screen. I will try to summarize:
1-From the screen you: tap +> widget>settings>mobile network. This will add the mobile network widget. Turned off you will still be able to talk and text but not download data
BTW, on the road I use mobile NW and at home I use wifi. I find wi-fi is faster and does’nt drain the battery anywhere near as much.
2-Then add the background sync shortcut. Tap +> add shortcut>settings>accounts and sync.
This will alow you to activate sync if you want to update-mail, facebook or whatever. Use only as needed. Otherwise off. Why does your phone need to be constantly updating s*** while it sits in your pocket?
3-Add power mgmt widget by doing this: Tap +> add widget>power control.
Boo5ted added a screen shot of this, I could not find it. It’s burried somewhere in the forum. Maybe you can find it.

And there it is, everything you need to take control of your destiny.

Another side note that, although not specifically dealing with the power mgmt , it does have an impact on your phones efficiency. It is regarding the advance task killer programs.
I do not have ATK. Android will manage the programs. They're in the background so they can be pulled more efficiently to surface when needed. Hence saving time and energy. They are not active. By default, your most frequently used programs will always be at the "tip of the phones fingers"(so to speak). Much more efficient than having to "boot them up". When it is full, android will just drop unused apps and replace it with relevant apps.
What is using energy is not apps in the background, It is active apps that are CONSTANTLY trying to sync data, they turn themselves back on even if ATK "shuts them off". The only way to solve that is to turn off background data sync. If you add the shortcut to your front screen, it is very easy to update your facebook, mail or whatever else only as needed. Then turn it off. Your phone will go a couple a days with 1 charge.

Think about it this way. Say you have a family game night. You have 12 games but only play 3 of them. You store them all in your basement.
You can save a lot of energy and time if you keep those 3 games on the main level rather than walking up and down stairs to exchange games when you are done with one and going to try another. That is what android does with apps. You are hurting your phone's efficiency by using ATK.


Here’s a tip bout battery reconditioning brought in by Fogbound
“Found this, won't hurt to try...at least the battery conditioning“.

http://forum.androidcentral.com/htc-evo-4g/17191-possible-solution-battery-issue.html



So, there. Don’t return or gripe about your phone until you try these things. Hope this is helpful.

good idea... you can keep editing the original post to make the list you mentioned and people can post their ideas or solutions... but they will all be nicely organized at the original post!

An interesting part in one of the training materials mentions setting up "peak and off peak hours" for email settings.  That is a GREAT feature!  I would have never thought about that!

Why thank you. Do you want the mods to edit OP as ideas come in or just let OP do it?

I did not mean to come up with this suggestion and then pawn it off on someone else. I just do not have the tech savy to know/understand which suggestions are worth adding. There are many things out there that people are doing that may be harmfull to the OS. Take theadv. task killer for example. I read a very detailed explaination from a self decribed Linux programmer on why android does not need the ATK, and in fact, why the ATK is deleterious to the optimum performance of android. I was convinced.
You know, that sort thing.

Another thing, Many people will be chiming in on suggestions on how this thread itself should work, rather than the original intention of adding tips to extend battery life. By the time the thread structure is sorted out, we could have a couple dozen posts before tips even start rolling in. Hence, would it be more wise to have the running list of performance suggestions on a different section?

Mimeis-3, I think you have a great idea. Some of the stuff is common sense but others can be deceptively difficult to get a handle on. There may also be patches/updates which can be applied to help.

I know my Instinct use to go through batteries and I guess that is why Sprint supplied two with the original Instincts. One of the software updates fixed this problem noticeably well. Battery life was extended greatly.

I think 4G does...unless you have a really weak WiFI signal and it has to keep searching.

This website says to charge with the power turned off to get quite a bit more time. I haven't tested it, but it's worth a shot.

http://www.enterpriseirregulars.com/19162/fixing-the-battery-problem-your-android-smartphone-seems-to-have/