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It is easy to say that I’m a very satisfied owner of the HTC Hero since a couple of weeks. Overall, the smart phone is great and having the ability to run apps and processes in background gives it a clear edge over the iPhone. On the other hand, there are several areas where the Apple experience is just so much smoother. Without going into details I hope the rumoured couple of Android updates still this year will help ease these early misses.

Regardless,there is one thing a smart phone just has to offer and that is getting through a full day or 2 without having to recharge the battery. This is an area where the HTC Hero is struggling a bit. I often end up having to give it some more juice during the afternoon or early evening with the default factory settings. That is fine for a laptop but not acceptable for a smart phone.

To solve this I’ve been fiddling with the settings quite a while to maximize the battery life and below is a short summary of how I’ve managed to get through a heavy usage day without having to recharge the phone. One of the not so secret ingredients to a long battery life is to minimize active network connections – that is also where I focus my tweaking effort below.

1) Turn off the “Always-on” mobile data connection.

On the Home screen, select Menu => Settings => Wireless controls => Mobile network settings and de-select “Enable always-on mobile data”. This tweak probably has the biggest impact on battery life.

2) Disable Wireless network usage for positioning purposes 

This can be disabled via Menu => Settings => Location => Use wireless networks. This will turn off the anonymous (?) Google location data collection that uses the wireless data connection frequently. I still keep the GPS tick box checked as it is not an always-on configuration. Any app that will need a location will turn on the GPS separately. Please note that turning off wireless network usage for location purposes will slow down the GPS positioning fix when needed but that is a trade off I’m ready to do.

3) Turn off “Background data” usage (but not if you use Google services!)

This checkbox is hidden behind Menu => Settings => Data synchronization => Google => Background data. This will minimize background data usage that keeps the Hero’s network connedtions active and use a lot of power during the day. Note! If you are using Gmail, Calendar and Contacts on your Hero you need to have this enabled or it will disable automatic sync with Google online servers.

4) Always keep Wi-Fi off when not in use – automate this with Y5 Battery Saver

Personally, I have my Wi-Fi connection turned off all the time as I have a flat rate 5 Mbps 3G connection providing sufficient bandwidth for anything I do on my Hero. The Wi-Fi can be disabled from Menu => Settings => Wireless controls and de-select “Wi-Fi”.

If you still want to use your Wi-Fi connection I highly recommend installing the completely free Y5 Battery Saver application. It automatically turns off the Wi-Fi when when out of range and enables it again when you are close to known access points to save battery life . Please not that this app itself will use some resources and can slightly reduce battery life but you should still be on the winning side if you are away from your known Wi-Fi networks most of the day.

5) Always keep Bluetooth off when not in use

I tend to always use a Bluetooth headset when on the phone during the day so this is a tricky one for me. On the other hand, in the evenings I usually use the simple Bluetooth on/off toggle widget by HTC for controlling this. The geeky way of doing the same thing: Menu => Settings => Wireless controls and de-select “Bluetooth”. A bit of manual work but I’m fine with that for now.

6) Avoid usage of push or very frequent email polling – configure it to sync every 15 or more minutes

The default HTC mail client does not by default have push or “always-on” mail configured. Having that would keep the mobile network connection active all the time and drain the battery pretty quick. My Hero fetches email every 15 minutes which is often enough when I’m out and about. In case I’m waiting for something urgent I can always do a manual sync to get peace of mind. Mail sync frequency is set through (Menu =>) All programs => Mail => “Menu” button =>  More => Settings => Send & Receive => Set Download frequency => e.g. Every 15 minutes. I have also kept the Mail size limit at 5 KB as larger downloads consume more battery power. 

7) Turn off automatic Weather updates

The weather widget on the Hero is also using the network connection frequently even if weather forecasts are not updated that frequently. For me it tries to get new weather data every time I happen to scroll by the widget on one of my home screens. Once again, this turns on the network connection. These triggered updates can also momentarily freeze the UI and that is why I decided to disable automatic updates and instead just press the the little update icon on the bottom of the Weather widget when I want to see the latest forecast. Yes, it is one extra click but personally I not hysterical with always having the latest weather forecast in my face. Do this from (Menu =>) All programs => Weather => “Menu” button =>  Settings => disable Update automatically.

Set a reasonable update frequency for Twitter, Flicker and Facebook

The HTC Hero provides great integration into social network sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Of course, this integration needs to constantly ping network severs that use battery power. Personally, I’m much happier to get updates every 2 hours and not every 15 minutes as it I get less interruptions during my day. For changing Twitter settings try (Menu =>) All programs => Peep => “Menu” button => Settings => Send & Receive => Check frequency => Every 2 hours. The Facebook and Flicker update settings are hidden in the phonebook, i.e.(Menu => All programs =>) People => “Updates and events” tab => “Menu” button =>  Data connection settings.

9) Get a fast mobile network connection

I realized when upgrading from a 384 kbps to a 5 Mbps mobile connection that as the loading times as much, much faster, making the various automatic and manual updates much shorter timewise. In the end of the day, this is not a deal breaker but every little helps when it comes to battery life tweaking.

With these settings I’m easily getting trough a full day of Androiding with a small disclaimer regarding my talking habits that some days drain the battery much faster.

Mattias Mobile, Tutorials android, battery life, HTC Hero, Mobile