# An in-depth look at battery life. What drains it, how to improve it, and get 35-40 hours



## DHO (Nov 6, 2011)

For about the last 2 weeks I have been carefully following and tweaking my phone for max battery life.
*There should be no reason this phone will not make it to consistant 35-40 hours between changes with light to moderate use*

*Average battery life with current settings:*
Light: 1.25-2.5% battery/hour.
Mod: 2-4% battery/hour
Heavy: 3-6% battery/hour
Battery Killer: 15-20% battery/hour

*Definitions*
Light usage: Occasional phone calls, checking time, reading news
Mod usage: Greater than 2 hours of any of the following Phone calls, listening to streaming radio > 2 hours OR screen on > 1 hour noncontinous
Heavy Usage: > 4 hours Phone calls, listening to streaming radio OR > 2 hrs screen on noncontinous
Battery Killer: screen on all the time AKA gaming

*Disclosure*
ROM: AOKP milestone 3
Kernal: Leankernal started with 1.7.1 230expimental. Then changes to 1.8.0 230experimental5. With moderately agreessive UV (see pictures below of settings)
Radios: 4.0.3 initially. Changes to 4.0.4 day after release

*Tweaks*:
UV --> #1 battery saver saves 2-3% hour all settings. You should be able to set your phone below 800 mHz at rest without any loss of stabilty. My phone does not like anything < 750 (Each phone will vary). I hightly recommend Leankernal or Pete's because they include these slots. You do NOT been to agressivly undervolt your 1200, 950, and 700 as your phone spends minimal tine in those states. I have found that 700 slot causes the most problems.
Google+ --> disabling chat/notifcations (keeping upload on wifi) saves 0.5% hour on light
Changing all widgets/weather/news to update once every 6 hrs --> 1-2% battery/hr save
Autobrightness --> depends on conditions (and if it even works on your ROM) saves only on heavy/battery killer use. Can be 1-5% an hour
NFC: Turned off, use is too infrequent to justify leaving on, minimal power save
4G: I use 4G, but 3G is definitly a powers saver ~0.5 (good reception)-4%(poor reception) an hour depending on quality of 4G signal
4.0.4 - Has drastimally improved 3G signal in my area. Areas with no reception on 4.0.1 and 4.0.3 now get good reception. Has improved battery life as a result
Locale - automatically turn off wifi/GPS/bluetooth/4G when no need. Considerable power savings
Sync - I always leave my data on push. Can consider an interval, it will likely bring power consuption < 1% hour. Will be HUGE power saver if you have poor reception. 
Likely others,...

*Pictures*: You can see about 2 weeks of daily battery life. Based on my definitions most mod use. Only 2-3 days of heavy and 1 1/2 of battery killer. If there is confusion I will label each

[sharedmedia=core:attachments:16061] [sharedmedia=core:attachments:16063]







[sharedmedia=core:attachments:16801] [sharedmedia=core:attachments:16800]






[sharedmedia=core:attachments:17205]
[sharedmedia=core:attachments:17206] [sharedmedia=core:attachments:17207]
[sharedmedia=core:attachments:17213] [sharedmedia=core:attachments:17214]
[sharedmedia=core:attachments:17211] [sharedmedia=core:attachments:17212]
[sharedmedia=core:attachments:17209] [sharedmedia=core:attachments:17210]
[sharedmedia=core:attachments:17208]
[sharedmedia=core:attachments:16060]
[sharedmedia=core:attachments:16799]

*Note*: It will take me several posts to upload all the photos since there is a 300kb limit, then I will edit them all into this first one

*Discuss*


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## Art Vandelay (Jan 4, 2012)

I see a lot of negative comments about this. I like the write up, but not sure your use is practical for most users. 1-2 hours of screen on time is hardly anything.

And where is the screen on time? By the looks of the pics, it looks like most of these are less than an hour of screen time.Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using RootzWiki


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## DHO (Nov 6, 2011)

Typlically my screen on time is between 45-1:30 a day.
I defined my usage above. 
Today was mod-heavy usage: I spent 1:18 minutes screen on, 6 1/2 hours streaming music from Google Music and played with bluetooth speakers, 42:31 minutes of calls, a couple dozen texts and a couple dozen G-chat conversations. And used the navigation map to 13:55.
[sharedmedia=core:attachments:17213] [sharedmedia=core:attachments:17214]

The one from 2-7-12 on for 2 hours, the screen was on continously on for the first hour, then off/on for second hour. that was a test just to see it continously on.

I would wager most users fall in 15 minutes -1 hour window a day of screen use. I would even wager >90% use <2 hrs/day. So I think this is practical for most, but will not apply if you use 4-5 hours a day... but aside from gaming why would you need to?


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## alatedseraph (Jan 23, 2012)

I found this very useful I would also like to see some tests on what settings is best for the longest possible screen on time if you can. Also you put 4.0.4, i think you meant to also add that they were the radios, should fix your op.


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## DHO (Nov 6, 2011)

alatedseraph said:


> I found this very useful I would also like to see some tests on what settings is best for the longest possible screen on time if you can. Also you put 4.0.4, i think you meant to also add that they were the radios, should fix your op.


Thanks, I added radios.
To maximize your screen on time, I think working autobrightness is the best thing (many ROMs the autobrightness does not work or not well). It keeps your screen to the lowest energery setting for each night setting. Autobrightness uses a very small amount of energy when enabled, so it's worth using.

The super amoled screen is a beast, that gulps energy. The only way to use less is to turn down the brightness.


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## alatedseraph (Jan 23, 2012)

actually i have it set at manual 30 pct or close to that. on aokp b22 with the .4 radios and fauxs kernel, trying imos cause of you, I have the extended battery and my screen on time cant break 2 hours lol. Thats including wifi time not radio.


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## michaelearth (Dec 25, 2011)

Where did you find the files to install the 4.04 radios?

Thanks, Im gonna try this rom now because of your post.


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## scott62185 (Jan 6, 2012)

great work putting all this together! Thanks man

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using RootzWiki


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## alatedseraph (Jan 23, 2012)

michaelearth said:


> Where did you find the files to install the 4.04 radios?
> 
> Thanks, Im gonna try this rom now because of your post.


in this forum if you just go back a page or 2 you should find the radios along with instructions, make sure you flash back to 4.0.2 radios first like the instructions say!!!


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## micro23 (Sep 1, 2011)

Alright just wanna make sure I'm doing this right.

I'm going to turn off pretty much every feature
Make sure I have a full perfect green signal
Never use my phone
Turn all services to updating every 6 hours
Have an hour of less of screen time

Then I will get 35-40 hours? This post is SICK! Thanks! Cant wait to give this a shot.


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## synth3tic (Nov 19, 2011)

OP, some more screen-on time would have been nice. My typical screen-on is about 2-2.5hrs and about 12hrs charge on mostly 4G with some WiFi. I would like to see how that stacks up against your setup.



micro23 said:


> Turn all services to updating every 6 hours


I doubt that you need Facebook and weather updating every 30min. I have all of my stuff manual update, except for email, which is on Push, as the OP stated.

Your usage obviously varies from theirs, as does everybody else's. OP was well intentioned by taking the time to log their usage, and if anything, it gives others with terrible battery life a baseline to start from.

dbad.


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## nklenchik (Dec 1, 2011)

Over a day with 43% left is pretty impressive...nice job


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## cubsfan187 (Jul 17, 2011)

Great write-up. Thanks for taking the time to share your findings. We should all know, that this may not be the same on EVERY phone as they are react different to different settings/conditions.


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## alatedseraph (Jan 23, 2012)

Wow so I was on fauxs kernel, which I like, i have no complaints really the battery still lasted me all day, but I installed imos kernel yesterday and the battery life difference is phenominal! I think I might even break 2 hours of screen on time in the first day of using it and i hadnt even installed the tweaks yet. Thanks for the help and info!


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## DHO (Nov 6, 2011)

Glad it seems to be helping

Synth3tic's responce was the perfect answer to micro23. It's more of waste not/want not philosophy. I use many features that use more battery 4G, picture uploads, Gchat. But turn off GPS/BT/Wifi if not using. Apps like Locale make these automatic so you don't even need to think about it.

Radios are here: http://rootzwiki.com/topic/12864-radiosgalaxy-nexus-all-available-radiosbasebands/

I will post more screen on times, as they have been requested.


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## ERIFNOMI (Jun 30, 2011)

Your definition of heavy usage is more than 2 hours of screen on time? Or maybe I'm just really tired and I misread...


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## ronnieruff (Jul 27, 2011)

Why does anyone need 35-40 hours ? I sleep nightly. I put my phone on the charger at that time. 18 hours is the most I ever need. I like my phone fully functional when not charging. Bright, fast, everything full bore!

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk


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## ronnieruff (Jul 27, 2011)

micro23 said:


> Alright just wanna make sure I'm doing this right.
> 
> I'm going to turn off pretty much every feature
> Make sure I have a full perfect green signal
> ...


You can get even more battery life by pulling the battery and sticking the phone in a drawer. Cut off communication with the world. Too funny.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk


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## ERIFNOMI (Jun 30, 2011)

Alright some of these posts are harsh. I didn't mean for mine to sound like an attack or anything. It was a serious question. Everyone always says I get x hours with light usage or x hours on heavy usage.

Today is going to be a long day so I'll see how long I last and how much screen on time I have.


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## DHO (Nov 6, 2011)

ERIFNOMI said:


> Why does anyone need 35-40 hours ? I sleep nightly. I put my phone on the charger at that time. 18 hours is the most I ever need. I like my phone fully functional when not charging. Bright, fast, everything full bore!


I'm a doctor (hense the avatar). I do not sleep nightly. Call sucks.


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## Justifi (Aug 6, 2011)

OP have you tried an app called betterbatterystats? One of the options will report a one page screenshot of how much battery it's being used for different functions.










As opposed to this alone

















If you throw in cpu spy









You can add the numbers between my betterbatterystats and cpu spy which will give you a clearer understanding of how I managed to get 13+ hours with over 3hrs screen-on time.

I appreciate your effort as I have been doing battery studies of my own. I've been on Milestone 3 AOKP and tried different kernels. I

I am heavy user. Rarely do I use less than 2.5 hrs of display and I don't game at all. This is not to contradict your study. Most people that would be attracted to your thread are rom/kernel flashers and probably heavier users. I think more detail with your screenshots will communicate even better to users such as myself.

FYI. These shots are from one charge of standard 1850 battery. I was on franco's 15.2. Hotplug enabled without any additional tweaks. I never turn off 4g on my own accord. If I'm not on 4g, I didn't have anything to do with it. LOL. Typically wifi, bluetooth, and 4g are always on. My goal is to find out what is the most amount of hours based on heavy usage. This way on a light to moderate day, I have nothing to worry about.

















Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk


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## ERIFNOMI (Jun 30, 2011)

DHO said:


> >2 noncontinous hour is my current definition. Maybe 3+ would be a better definition.
> If your not playing games, it is unlikely you will have your screen on for more than 5 minutes at a time. So 2 hours(120min)/5 min = 24 instances of looking at the phone. Assuming most people use their phone 12 hrs/day --> looking at your phone 10 minutes out of every hour. And _if_ your not playing games I would consider that heavy usage.
> That is why I chose 2 hours, based on frequency you would need to be looking at the phone, and not battery usuage.
> 
> I'm a doctor (hense the avatar). I do not sleep nightly. Call sucks.


I feel like I have more than 2 hours of screen on time a day, but we'll see here later. Is there any way to quickly tell how long my screen was on? I know batter usage will show you visually but I'm looking for a number.


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## doublea500 (Dec 22, 2011)

DHO im curious to see what battery life you will get on 4.0.4 stock rom. Its been working wonders for me. Android OS went from around 30-40% to now 3%. doubles my battery life.


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## DHO (Nov 6, 2011)

ERIFNOMI said:


> I feel like I have more than 2 hours of screen on time a day, but we'll see here later. Is there any way to quickly tell how long my screen was on? I know batter usage will show you visually but I'm looking for a number.


When in the battery stats tab, tap on screen, and it will show you time on. Better Battery Stats and other apps of similiar elk will also track it.

*Justifi*: thank you for your great post. Future posts will have more pertinant data such as screen times and times for other significant apps.
I try to avoid Better Battery Stats becuase when I tried it, I had difficulty getting my phone into deep sleep. I cannot say 100% causitive relationship without more testing, but it seemed to be the culprit.


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## DHO (Nov 6, 2011)

doublea500 said:


> DHO im curious to see what battery life you will get on 4.0.4 stock rom. Its been working wonders for me. Android OS went from around 30-40% to now 3%. doubles my battery life.


Wow nice, I might try flashing one this weekend. Depends, if I can get away from work for more than a few hours


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## ERIFNOMI (Jun 30, 2011)

DHO said:


> When in the battery stats tab, tap on screen, and it will show you time on. Better Battery Stats and other apps of similiar elk will also track it.


Duh. I can't believe I couldn't remember how to get there. I'm at 1.5 hours of screen on time after 9 and I'd say I had light usage today. I've only sent a few texts. I've spent some time on here and twitter though.


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## DHO (Nov 6, 2011)

Just over 32 hours:
First 12 hours: Very light usage with poor reception
Second 12 Hours: No usage (sleep) great reception (notice the drastic change in the curve, with only change in reception)
AM Last 6 hours: Very heavy usage - backuping/uploading to dropbox/updating/streaming music from Google Music

Significant battery expenditures: 
Screen on - 2hrs, 20 minutes, 51 secs
Google Music - approx 4 hours streaming on Wifi + 4G


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## razzbaronz (Oct 30, 2011)

Lowest screen setting and Wifi on the whole time, admittedly, but I got 5h of SCREEN TIME on the 2100mah battery on AOKP Milestone 2 with leankernel http://rootzwiki.com/topic/13092-kernel-leankernel-minimalistic-kernel-1100-2912/ (1.10.0 exp1, 180mhz-1200mhz, interactive, 4.0.4 radios). I am using the following undervolts:

180mhz: 750mV
350mhz: 825mV
700mhz: 900mV
920mhz: 1000mV
1200mhz: 1125mV

Of note, I am also using black apps to save battery: http://rootzwiki.com...sible-currents/

I also invert the colors in the default nexus browser (to white-on-black) to save battery when I'm looking at text and not images. This is in Settings-->Accessibility-->Inverted Rendering. I use Chrome Beta when I want color so I don't have to go into settings every time. The black uses no screen so it helps a TON.

I also turned off notifcations for G+ and facebook but still have google sync on (push e-mail etc).


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## ERIFNOMI (Jun 30, 2011)

OK so my battery fell steadily until it got to 30% and stayed there for awhile and now it's going down slowly after that. We'll see what goes on from here.


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## tb7andro (Dec 16, 2011)

Here's my most recent battery life. My setup is faux kernel #12 w/ Liquids b4. These are from the same charge. I have screen brightness on Max along with 4G, wifi, GPS, and syncing two Gmail account. I also did video chat for about 15mins

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using RootzWiki


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## yarly (Jun 22, 2011)

DHO said:


> 4.0.4 - Has drastimally improved 3G signal in my area. Areas with no reception on 4.0.1 and 4.0.3 now get good reception. Has improved battery life as a result


Your signal didn't really get better for 3G, it was a placebo effect done by Verizon to stop complaints by people that just look at "bars" for the signal. The signal under settings is the same before and after 4.0.4, just the bars show more. Try re flashing 4.0.3 and see for yourself if you wish to be impartial with your recommendations.

http://www.anandtech...ignal-reporting


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## pedxing (Jan 15, 2012)

Here is my battery life with the extended battery and the following settings.

Auto brightness on
Undervolted 
Min 350 max 1200
Screen off max 350
Rom is codename android 1.2.0
Kernel is Franco 14.3
Gps, bt, WiFi, 4g, on the entire time
Push email on exchange, gmail 
1 hour sync on another email
1 hour sync for a weather widget
Most apps are inverted to black

























As you can see, over 4 hours screen on time with more than 50 % remaining.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk


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## pedxing (Jan 15, 2012)

Also I'll mention that I'm using the 4.04 radios and my 4g coverage is reasonably good in my house. -100 to -110 db usually. Was on WiFi the whole time though.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk


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## Lyxdeslic (Nov 30, 2011)

pedxing said:


> Here is my battery life with the extended battery and the following settings.
> 
> Auto brightness on
> Undervolted
> ...


Amazing. Which governor do you use, and what are your UV settings?


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## pedxing (Jan 15, 2012)

Governor is interactive (standard). Here are the under volt settings:









I think the biggest change was with new radios and setting the screen off profile with setcpu to max at 350 mhz. The phone spends by far the most time in state at 350 even when awake like when doing simple web browsing.

Also I'm fanatical about getting rid of apps that set wake locks too much.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk


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## pedxing (Jan 15, 2012)

Followup for the end of today stats...

















Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk


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## derfasaurus (Nov 16, 2011)

pedxing said:


> Followup for the end of today stats...
> 
> Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk


What the. Even in airplane mode with the lowest brightness I can't even approach 7 hours. What extended battery are you using, not the 2100?

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk


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## zerocool79346 (Jan 10, 2012)

Screen on is the only battery image that means anything to me:



















Stock 4.0.4 with no changes to anything. 2 push accounts, Facebook, accuweather, and heavy browsing, tapatalking, and ifunny.


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## pedxing (Jan 15, 2012)

derfasaurus said:


> What the. Even in airplane mode with the lowest brightness I can't even approach 7 hours. What extended battery are you using, not the 2100?
> 
> Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk


Yep, 2100 battery. Despite screen on time, usage was admittedly light... mostly reading forums and e-books. Last half an hour was you tube videos. No gaming or other heavy cpu using apps.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk


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## DHO (Nov 6, 2011)

pedxing thank you for your great posts. Your posts reinforce that even with heavy usage and high screen on times people should be getting great battery life from this phone.

As mentioned above the inverted trick works wonders for battery life for people surfing the web.

I have been doing alot of debugging and not so much following battery life over the last week. Which is why I have not been posting my stats. But they all fall in line with previous posts.

Due to too many weird bugs and stability reasons I'm not using AOKP anymore. I'm back on Axom (because it's rock solid, fast, and great battery) and testing Pete's (and liking it). Once I stabilize (and after Mardi Gras) my ROM selection, I'll re-vamp this thread a bit to focus more on heavy users.

derfasaurus and any others: I'm happy to work on unique battery situations if you post here or PM me. ROM/Kerna/Uasage/battery goals


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## 4 TRAC (Jul 31, 2011)

zerocool79346 said:


> Screen on is the only battery image that means anything to me
> 
> Stock 4.0.4 with no changes to anything. 2 push accounts, Facebook, accuweather, and heavy browsing, tapatalking, and ifunny.


How many apps do you have installed? I've never seen such a high screen on time. Makes me want to go back to 4.04


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## Justifi (Aug 6, 2011)

This is my first full charge on a standard 1850 battery using Codename 1.4.0 and the rom's stock kernel

Bluetooth always on
Wifi always on
4g always on
4 email accounts on push
Onedemand governor

Activities: 
Reading and responding to email
Web Surfing 
Nook ereading
Listened to streaming music for aprox an hour.
A few phone calls

Most of my display time is on the forums and reading ebooks.




















































Tomorrow, I'm going to try the interactive governor.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk


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## PrimeDirective (Dec 31, 2011)

im using rootzboat and while downloading a torrent and watching movies at the same time i got around 2.5 continuous. kangbang kernel uv'd and oc'd to 1350 brightness ~30%.


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## ERIFNOMI (Jun 30, 2011)

PrimeDirective said:


> im using rootzboat and while downloading a torrent and watching movies at the same time i got around 2.5 continuous. kangbang kernel uv'd and oc'd to 1350 brightness ~30%.


I hope I'm not sharing bandwidth with you...


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## fused2explode (Jan 6, 2012)

Justifi said:


> This is my first full charge on a standard 1850 battery using Codename 1.4.0 and the rom's stock kernel
> 
> Bluetooth always on
> Wifi always on
> ...


Mobile Signal :-(

f2e


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## Justifi (Aug 6, 2011)

[quote ]
Mobile Signal :-(

f2e[/quote]

What is wrong with the mobile signal?

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk


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## pedxing (Jan 15, 2012)

I have about 100 apps installed. Also,i concur that using inverted apps that are more black than anything else makes a large difference.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk


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