HTC Thunderbolt: How to Get Better Battery Life [Android]

The HTC Thunderbolt is a pretty great phone, but Verizon’s first 4G LTE phone on its network has at least one major problem – it can drain a standard battery in 4 hours when navigating 4G network space. While many people find that their Thunderbolt lasts longer, many Thunderbolt users complain of poor battery life as they won’t be surfing the web for four hours straight. Fear not, we are here to help.

We’ve compiled a list of ways to get better battery life on HTC Thunderbolt. These tips and tricks include settings that can be easily tweaked, Apps that can help you get longer battery life, battery solutions (which cheats a bit) and the more extreme of rooting your Thunderbolt to install optimized ROMs, kernels or even a new radio. method is included.

The standard HTC Thunderbolt battery is rated for approximately two weeks of standby time and 6.3 hours of talk time. In our test, with the screen set to 40% brightness, no WiFi and no apps in the background, the battery test came in as little as 4 hours. These tips will help you get better battery life on HTC Thunderbolt.

Settings to Change for Better Battery Life

Settings are the easiest things to change to get better battery life. The two biggest culprits are fake sync apps and screen brightness. This 4.3″ screen is gorgeous, but it consumes a lot of juice when your brightness is at its highest.

By default, your HTC Thunderbolt is probably set to be pretty bright. If you look at what is draining your Thunderbolt’s battery, you can be sure that the screen will be on top. If you want to take control of your brightness, you can use the HTC widget to quickly switch between the three brightness levels, or set the screen to automatically adjust to your surroundings.

To turn on auto brightness on HTC Thunderbolt, you need to go to Menu -> Settings -> Display-> Brightness. There, you will see a slider and a checkbox to turn on auto-brightness. Just tick that box and you’re ready.

If you need more control over brightness, check out one of our favorite apps in the section below that will let you better control brightness and your HTC Thunderbolt battery life.

You can also turn off Bluetooth and WiFi when not in use to save a little more battery life. If you’re in the 4G area, the connection will likely be just as fast as WiFi. You can use the widgets that come pre-installed or visit Menu -> Settings-> Wireless Networks.

By default, Thunderbolt has a number of apps that will sync in the background, including the Blockbuster app. We recommend cutting this list down on the merits. You keep Google, your email accounts, the weather, and maybe Facebook, but the rest of the apps can go.

To change these settings, press Menu -> Settings -> Accounts and sync. From there, you can tap on any of the accounts to change the sync setting. You can completely remove a sync or change the sync frequency. The longer you set this, the better battery life you will get.

Note that apps downloaded from Twitter like Tweetdeck won’t show up here, but they should be checked to make sure they don’t sync too often and don’t drain battery life. These settings vary from app to app, but most of the time they can be accessed while in the app by pressing the menu button and navigating through the settings.

Apps to Get Better Battery Life on HTC Thunderbolt

Apart from changing the standard settings, there are several apps that allow you to fine-tune your Android settings and thus get better battery life. Here we highlight a few of our favourites. You will notice that there is no task manager. In our experience, it’s better if you leave these apps in the market and feel the need to reboot quickly.

my settings It is a free application that allows you to better control many Android settings. We love how easy it makes changing settings and the precision it provides for things like screen brightness.

We recommend using My Settings to set your brightness to the level that’s perfect for you, and checking the screen timeout setting, which can be reduced to help save battery life while you’re there.

Free if you want your battery to last longer and don’t need 4G speed LTE OnOFF app To switch to 3G only mode The App makes it easy to switch between 3G and 4G via a menu option.

HTC Thunderbolt Battery Options

Yes, getting extra battery won’t make your HTC Thunderbolt battery last longer, but it’s a solution to help you use your Thunderbolt longer without sacrificing 4G LTE or other features. When it comes to Thunderbolt batteries, you have a few options.

Xavier has Thunderbolt Extended battery, he likes it, and as you can see, it doesn’t add as much as you might think. This battery costs $50 and is rated at 2750mAh compared to the standard 1400mAh battery. If you’re coming from an iPhone, the added thickness is about the same as a Mophie Juice Air pack. Thunderbolt’s extended battery only explodes in the middle of the back of the phone. Mophie Juice Pack Air adds thickness and volume to every edge of iPhone 4 except the front.

HTC Thunderbolt Extended Battery v. iPhone 4 with Mophie Juice Air

If you don’t want to mess with Thunderbolt’s graceful figure, take a cue from Chuong, who uses 2. regular Thunderbolt batteries to spend the day. These batteries are $40, so you’ll want to make sure you don’t want to switch to the Extended battery for just another $10.

Other Batteries: You can also get slightly higher rated batteries. [amazon_link id=”B004O0TGU2″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]1600mAh Seidio battery[/amazon_link] Available from Amazon or many cheap Thunderbolt battery packs of 2, 3, and 4 available on Amazon for $48 and eBay.

Root, Rom and Kernel

If you really want to get down and dirty to extend battery life and unlock new functions and skins to search for your Thunderbolt, you may want to Root Thunderbolt and install a new ROM and kernel. There are many specially optimized ROMs that can be combined with low voltage and overclocked cores that make your phone run faster while using less power.

Best place to look for more information on Rooting Thunderbolt xda-developers forum. You can learn how to Root your phone and install a new ROM and kernel. You can install the new Thunderbolt radio even before the official release.

Personally we found Das BAMF Remix ROM and the accompanying adrenaline core to overclock the Thunderbolt to 1.2 GHz, but only up to 1.5 GHz.

ROMs are not difficult on their own, but require you to root your phone and essentially void your warranty. There is a possibility of bricking your device while doing this. If you couldn’t tell, that’s my preferred method and one of the reasons I chose Thunderbolt.