New to Android. Herotab RK7 Battery Life is Horrible!

[amylyn1970]

I've been lurking these forums for a bit. I have a Windows 7 Netbook, but it's a pain to carry with me all the time, so I wanted to get one of the Android Tablets. I decided on the Herotab RK7. G-sensor & multitouch weren't things I needed since I have an iPhone. The Herotab is very well made. I like that the screen is glass. But the battery life is horrible on it. I want to be able to put it in sleep mode since I will be using it throughout the day, but the battery drains even while in sleep mode. I turn Wifi off and airplane mode on before I put it to sleep. I also have Battery Booster installed, but it doesn't seem to help all that much. My take is that Sleep mode really isn't sleep mode, it's basically just turning the screen off. Am I right in this assumption? Not sure which battery I have. I bought it from Merimobles & it states that it's 1400mAH & the book that came with it states that it's 2600mAH. Is there anything else I can do to help with the battery life? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Carbira1]

make sure that you don't have a lot of background processes running. Do you need help with that? Try turning it off when you aren't using it. I read in a review for the tablet that you get about 3hrs of battery life. Is this true for you?

 

[amylyn1970]

Yes, I get about 3 hours. I hate to turn it off since I need to use it throughout the day. I turn background stuff off using Task Manager. Is there another way to turn off things that Task Manager doesn't show?

 

[Carbira1]

No they all do the same thing. The only other thing that I could think of is to turn your back light down as low as you can tolerate. Helps a little.

 

[iamdestruktor]

Try getting App Killer and kill apps before you put it to "sleep".

 

[amylyn1970]

No they all do the same thing. The only other thing that I could think of is to turn your back light down as low as you can tolerate. Helps a little.

I actually turned it down to 20%. Seems ok at that level.

 

[amylyn1970]

Try getting App Killer and kill apps before you put it to "sleep".

Will do that right now. Thanks for the tip!

 

[amylyn1970]

Ok, so after setting all my different programs like startup cleaner, auto task killer, etc., I fully charged the battery. It went from 100% battery to 80% battery in about 30 minutes. In that 30 minutes I searched the app store, downloaded some themes, read a few emails. That's about it. So, I guess the battery will last about 2 1/2 hours with a lot of use. Not too great. Is it a good idea to charge it while it's on if I am going to use it a lot? I've read that these tablets can get pretty hot if charging while using it. I don't want to damage it or cause it to overheat. I figured I'd ask before I do it so I can get someones opinion who has experience with these tablets.

 

[gurgle]

Two things to keep in mind is that all batteries are not created equal or truthful. I am not saying counterfeit, just suggesting, there is not good quality control. It is unfortunate the manufacturer are putting in really low mA batteries or batteries which say one value, but seem to be another.

In my opinion, the batteries in the RockChips or TeleChip units should be at least 3000 mAh batteries. I have helped a friend modify their TeleChips APad tablet, They used a battery which matched voltage but almost doubled the battery mAh capacity. They immediately saw a dramatic improvement. It went from about 2-3 hours to almost 5 hours.
The biggest battery utilization was the display. And they lowered the brightness to 20-30%.

Before you ask. I am working on a mod document on sourcing and changing the batteries, on some of the units. Some are easy. Some are very difficult with little space for larger capacity.

Best of Luck

 

[iamdestruktor]

With every new battery, you should fully charge it and let it fully die out completely a few times so that it extends the capacity of the battery. That's always recommended. On another note, if this is a common problem with the RK7, i'm so glad Merimobiles screwed up my order making me settle with the APAD e7002 - which i have yet to recieve!

 

[amylyn1970]

Two things to keep in mind is that all batteries are not created equal or truthful. I am not saying counterfeit, just suggesting, there is not good quality control. It is unfortunate the manufacturer are putting in really low mA batteries or batteries which say one value, but seem to be another.

In my opinion, the batteries in the RockChips or TeleChip units should be at least 3000 mAh batteries. I have helped a friend modify their TeleChips APad tablet, They used a battery which matched voltage but almost doubled the battery mAh capacity. They immediately saw a dramatic improvement. It went from about 2-3 hours to almost 5 hours.
The biggest battery utilization was the display. And they lowered the brightness to 20-30%.

Before you ask. I am working on a mod document on sourcing and changing the batteries, on some of the units. Some are easy. Some are very difficult with little space for larger capacity.

Best of Luck

I agree, the batteries should be 3000mAh. I would love to add a better battery, which I will try one day. Will wait for your guide or if I see any others before I attempt that. I'm not afraid to do it, I just don't want to end up with a battery that doesn't fit or a cracked case because I opened it wrong.

 

[amylyn1970]

With every new battery, you should fully charge it and let it fully die out completely a few times so that it extends the capacity of the battery. That's always recommended. On another note, if this is a common problem with the RK7, i'm so glad Merimobiles screwed up my order making me settle with the APAD e7002 - which i have yet to recieve!

I've done that 3 times. The manual that came with it says for the first 2 times to charge it for 10 hours and then for 5 hours every time after that. It definitely doesn't take that long to charge but I did charge it long the first few times. Do you think I should follow that or should I just charge it until the red light goes off?