[Droid Incredible General] liteon163:
I'm a noob here, but I'm a quick learner.

A month ago I rooted my AMOLED DInc. Initially I trimmed a bunch of bloat in an effort to extend my battery life a bit. It worked a bit, so I moved on to trying new ROMs. My first was CM 7.0.3. I quickly came to discover that I greatly prefer Sense.

My next step was to try a new kernel. I was disappointed by the lack of information regarding the strengths and weaknesses of kernels, so I have decided to take it upon myself to discover and share the information.

So here's my setup: I have an HTC Droid Incredible that I purchased directly from Verizon just a few days after it was introduced, so I have the AMOLED screen. I also have a 1750 mAh Seidio battery that I've been using since the beginning. If I don't use the phone much I can get more than 24 hours out of it. Light to moderate use takes that time down to 12 to 16 hours, while moderate to heavy use takes that time down further to 8 to 12 hours.

My typical daily usage pattern is as follows: 45 to 60 minutes streaming 128k MP3s over wi-fi, 60 minutes of news reading (Engadget app and Pulse reader) via EV-DO, K9 mail checking one email account every 15 minutes, 10 to 50 text messages daily, virtually no voice usage, using the Facebook app for up to 5 minutes every hour, updating the clock/weather widget once an hour, casual gaming for up to 45 minutes, and brightness at 20% most of the time but sometimes 50% or 100% depending on if I go outside. I get one or two bars of signal at work eight hours a day and two or three bars at home the rest of the time.

And thus, I set out on my journey to improve battery life...

I quickly discovered that I should stay away from AOSP kernels because I'm sticking with my rooted stock Sense. And I need only two point multi-touch since if I'm gaming it's nothing more that casual games or Angry Birds, but I have to have pinch-to-zoom. I searched for kernel suggestions and settled on three seemingly common and popular choices: HeyitsLou #9, incredikernel, and Ziggy471. After settling on trying these kernels, I devised a strategy to compare them using similar methodology.

While it may not be a perfect set-up this is how I am choosing to compare: I use ROM Manager to wipe the cache, the dalvik cache, and battery statistics. Then I apply the kernel and completely charge the phone. I use the phone just a little bit more than usual to take the battery down to 10% charge or less and then charge it fully. After that, I use the phone like normal but pay attention to how it's working. I use the kernel for a minimum of 48 hours and see how it goes.

My first choice in kernels was HeyitsLou #9. I was amazed at how well this kernel manages idle time. My stock phone usually loses about 10% idling overnight. With Lou #9 that number was down to 5 or 6%. Nice. #9 also seems to do a decent job of throttling the processor when engaging in simple tasks. I was able to get a bit more than 24 hours of moderate to heavy use under this kernel. My biggest disappointment, though, was how unresponsive to my touch the screen became. I initially thought I might have damaged my phone. Once I got used to it, it wasn't so bad. But the kernel definitely made me not want to use the phone much because it was so unresponsive and does such a great job at idling. I'm sure Lou took a lot of time on this kernel, but it clearly is not for me. Your mileage may vary.

Right now I'm trying incredikernel, version 2.6.32.27. I'll update this thread once my review is complete. After that, I will be trying Ziggy471 Droid Incredible (Sense) 4 Nov. If there are any other kernels you might like me to try, please make suggestions here. Just please remember my stated goal of extending battery life under rooted stock Sense.

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