Database Users

[Q] [Kernel Test]4.20.2011 Which has better battery life?

Hey folks,
I am giving two kernels out to test. Don't worry, both are quite stable. However, I am looking at some different settings to see which gives better battery life. So, in an effort to avoid any "placebo effect" results, I am not saying which settings these are just yet.
What I am looking for, if you folks could be so kind as to check:
Battery life between the two.
Performance between the two.
Neither of these kernels are overclocked.
Please test using the same governor between both, preferably Ondemand.
Thanks!!!
Kernel a
http://www.mediafire.com/file/p85vkw9a1329kb8/a.zip
Kernel b
http://www.mediafire.com/file/tbmpl1nlugyvgy3/b.zip

Will test and reply back at a later time
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA Premium App

Awesome!
D

Ugh...you would drop this right when I just started doing a battery calibration.

Anybody test yet?
I am at work and can't till later.
D

I getting better battery life on a so far
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA Premium App

I would love to help test, but I'd like to know if you have any good criteria for the testing. It's really hard to test something without any guidelines as maybe you end up using the phone more on one, or downloading or whatever, and both seem like 'moderate usage', but in reality they are quite different.
As a matter of fact, I'm having a hard time verifying the current draw on my phone, and knowing what is good or not good, in general.

Just use your phone as you normally would, for both.

Are these compatible with the new RRU?

nmyeti said:
Are these compatible with the new RRU?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, any and all versions and ROMs.
D

Cool, I'll test both out for a day each and report back.

Kernel A has better battery life thus far here...

I get no 3G with A. That might be why battery life is better...B is fine.
jc

papi92 said:
I getting better battery life on a so far
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
cjmcmillion said:
Kernel A has better battery life thus far here...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How can you really tell how much better the battery life is in such a short amount of time to test?

This reminds me of a test that kmobs did back in the day for kernels on the nexus. Turned out that heavily undervolting the kernel has a negative impact on battery life. Where's jlevy at. I know he remembers.

cjmcmillion said:
Kernel A has better battery life thus far here...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol, that was quick. I'm thinking he wants testing to go a little more than 30 minutes with each.

I'll test out A for 12 hours and B for 12 hours, if you think that's suffiecent. That should get me through a full charge on each.

Should be sufficient.

THATTON said:
This reminds me of a test that kmobs did back in the day for kernels on the nexus. Turned out that heavily undervolting the kernel has a negative impact on battery life. Where's jlevy at. I know he remembers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's correct. Stock voltage for the Nexus One was 975mV. Kmobs found that undervolting below 950mV had negative impacts on battery life.

Do i have to clear battery data everytime i switch kernels?
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA Premium App

Using CM7? You must read this! (Correct post)

Ok guys. I have to admit, I was about to give up on CM7 due to battery issues and what seemed to be memory leaks progressively making my phone lag more and more throughout the day. I have found something some of you may not be aware of and I wanted to share this amazingly helpful kernel with you.
Using x99, Scary, and stock kernels regardless of governor I seemed to maybe get 8 hours of battery life with moderate to heavy use. I am proud to say, using bcnice20's kernel I have had my phone on for 9 hours with 60% battery life today. This is incredible, even with lighter use on the other kernels I had NOWHERE near this amount of battery left.
Most of you may not have seen this kernel because it isn't posted. (as far as im aware) Let me help you out. First, go into your Market and download Kernel Manager. There is a lite version in there that is free. If you have an extra buck or two donate to the developer for making a neat app where you can download kernels in a convenient place by downloading the pro version.
What you will be downloading is called bcblend SIO tinyRCU kernel. I have not tried VR tinyRCU kernel yet. Not sure what the differences are, if someone could elaborate that'd be appreciated.
Regardless, I find the sweet spot for this to be at 245MHz min and 1GHz max on Interactive governor to work really well. The phone does not seem to get laggier throughout the day and consistently performs well, snappy, and just way better than the other kernels. (No offense to x99 and Scary, I appreciate all you've done!)
Give it a try and let me know if you all have similar results! I have heard that AOSP gets less battery than Sense ROMs from people on this very forum, and this may be the kernel to put that little debate to rest.
Oh, and be sure you have the latest CM7. I am on 7.0.2.1 trying this out.

Thanks ima try this out
Sent from my PG06100 using Tapatalk

+1
I've been flashing too much to test out battery life but bc's kernel is just like melted garlic butter smooth. At 768mhz max my Shift still hums along like it's OC'd
^ Shift Faced

jesusice said:
+1
I've been flashing too much to test out battery life but bc's kernel is just like melted garlic butter smooth. At 768mhz max my Shift still hums along like it's OC'd
^ Shift Faced
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I owe it to you for having me download kernel manager.

Well with CM7 and the x99 kernal seems to give me the best battery life with the SMARTASS governor. About 20 hours with medium to heavy use.

Link?
Sent from my EVO Shift 4G powered by CM7

koolkid09 said:
Link?
Sent from my EVO Shift 4G powered by CM7
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is no link at this point, you have to do it via kernel manager. I'd upload it but I don't want to without bc's permission.

I haven't use any other "controllers" other than the one built into cm7... can I use that or is there a prefered one to change governers and such. Thanks!
Sent from my PG06100 using XDA Premium App

lilgrass71 said:
I haven't use any other "controllers" other than the one built into cm7... can I use that or is there a prefered one to change governers and such. Thanks!
Sent from my PG06100 using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Since CM7 lets you change governors right in its settings I uninstalled SetCPU for now, in theory I would think it would cause more battery drain but I don't know for sure. But yes I just changed it right in CM7. I changed the governor to interactive and set the max cpu frequency to 1036MHz.

Gonna try this out. I love CM7 but the battery is killing me. I pray this works.

Android system & cell standby seem to be the battery use culprit. I will give this a try though but don't really think its in the kernel. Ill report back...
Sent from my PG06100 using XDA App

This kernel seems to be really good about not sucking the battery while on standby for me, that seems to be the crown jewel of it all. Right Now I am at 14 hours off the charger with 29% left.. remember I was lucky to get 8 hours most days before using this kernel.

This is off-topic, but along the same lines: which kernels gave the best battery life for Sense?

+1 OP was right I flashed this kernel and so far so good on battery life
Sent from my PG06100 using Tapatalk

c00ller said:
This is off-topic, but along the same lines: which kernels gave the best battery life for Sense?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Honestly I didn't get much difference between x99 and bcnice20's 1.5GHz kernel so either of those two. Scarykernel SUV works well on Sense if your phone can boot it too.

fifedogg said:
Android system & cell standby seem to be the battery use culprit. I will give this a try though but don't really think its in the kernel. Ill report back...
Sent from my PG06100 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It seems to be true. I'm def getting better battery life. I also calibrated my battery but I've done that before without any major change. So far I have 5 hours of quite a bit of use and I'm at 71% I would normally be around 55-60% by now. I wonder what the main difference is with the kernel...

PaulB007 said:
Ok guys. I have to admit, I was about to give up on CM7 due to battery issues and what seemed to be memory leaks progressively making my phone lag more and more throughout the day. I have found something some of you may not be aware of and I wanted to share this amazingly helpful kernel with you.
Using x99, Scary, and stock kernels regardless of governor I seemed to maybe get 8 hours of battery life with moderate to heavy use. I am proud to say, using bcnice20's kernel I have had my phone on for 9 hours with 60% battery life today. This is incredible, even with lighter use on the other kernels I had NOWHERE near this amount of battery left.
Most of you may not have seen this kernel because it isn't posted. (as far as im aware) Let me help you out. First, go into your Market and download Kernel Manager. There is a lite version in there that is free. If you have an extra buck or two donate to the developer for making a neat app where you can download kernels in a convenient place by downloading the pro version.
What you will be downloading is called bcblend SIO tinyRCU kernel. I have not tried VR tinyRCU kernel yet. Not sure what the differences are, if someone could elaborate that'd be appreciated.
Regardless, I find the sweet spot for this to be at 245MHz min and 1GHz max on Interactive governor to work really well. The phone does not seem to get laggier throughout the day and consistently performs well, snappy, and just way better than the other kernels. (No offense to x99 and Scary, I appreciate all you've done!)
Give it a try and let me know if you all have similar results! I have heard that AOSP gets less battery than Sense ROMs from people on this very forum, and this may be the kernel to put that little debate to rest.
Oh, and be sure you have the latest CM7. I am on 7.0.2.1 trying this out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have been using the x99 kernal and i have about 1 d and 12 hrs with about 45 % left.. I also have the calibrator apk from the market so it wipes the battery stat when im at 100%. and various other apps that deal with the speed of the sd card and what nots. So, me coming from the Hero is very happy with this phone...
Thank you for sharing your findings... THIS IS SO AWESOME !!!!!

CrashV2010 said:
I have been using the x99 kernal and i have about 1 d and 12 hrs with about 45 % left.. I also have the calibrator apk from the market so it wipes the battery stat when im at 100%. and various other apps that deal with the speed of the sd card and what nots. So, me coming from the Hero is very happy with this phone...
Thank you for sharing your findings... THIS IS SO AWESOME !!!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Holy crap that is good battery, how often are you using the phone?

Thanks PaulB007. Followed your suggestion and my battery life has DRASTICALLY improved!

PaulB007 said:
Holy crap that is good battery, how often are you using the phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Medium use.
On my Gingerbreaded Evo-Shifted Premium XDA App.

Best Kernel for battery

Which ROM performs the best in terms of battery performance. If you are using any Governor and I/O setting please do mention them.

PA rom...Franco kernel...ondemand settings...

I'm also curious on what you guys experienced.
I'm currently testing Franco R15 with Stock JB on my Nexus 4. It's the first day and I'm running for 9 hours with 1h 46M of screen time.
So I'm expecting about 3h 30m of screen time.
Will give it a fews days and report back. Then I'll try out Matr1x.

Please use search next time because there are threads with the same exact title. No such thing as a best kernel. It is subjective such as if you were to ask the question, what is the best car for conserving gas usage.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium

My first cycle (settings on signature) gave me almost 4hs of screen time.
Trying second cycle today.

calanizzle said:
My first cycle (settings on signature) gave me almost 4hs of screen time.
Trying second cycle today.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
your sig is wrong, unless you are running 4.1.2?

calanizzle said:
My first cycle (settings on signature) gave me almost 4hs of screen time.
Trying second cycle today.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
4.1.2????
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

This is what I'm getting constantly and I'm running Stock everything/rooted... not sure if I would leave stock with these numbers I'm getting... Anyone getting better numbers with custom ROM/kernel
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium

fresh_TD said:
This is what I'm getting constantly and I'm running Stock everything/rooted... not sure if I would leave stock with these numbers I'm getting... Anyone getting better numbers with custom ROM/kernel
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's really good. I'm getting 4 hours 45 min running Xylon 012 with Matr1x 3.0
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

Jefferyrbrown1983 said:
That's really good. I'm getting 4 hours 45 min running Xylon 012 with Matr1x 3.0
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm going to give francos kernel a run to see if I can squeeze a little more out the battery
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium

I'm on Stock rooted using Franco's R15 kernel since a couple of days. Every charge cycle brings a slight improvement. Will test the kernel for a week and then flash Matrix's kernel and compare.

Thanks for letting us know.
Sent from a galaxy far far away.

Wish I had better battery life
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium

for best battery : CM10.1 + faux kernel (the last beta) + intellidemand + UV -150mv .
+5h00 screen on

fresh_TD said:
This is what I'm getting constantly and I'm running Stock everything/rooted... not sure if I would leave stock with these numbers I'm getting... Anyone getting better numbers with custom ROM/kernel
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So ~5 hours screen time. And you got 1.4 days on WiFi with hardly any awake time. That's not really a good measure of battery life.
I don't know about everyone else, but I find the Nexus 4 gets really good battery life. Maybe not as good as the GSIII or the H1X+, but those have tremendously aggressive power-saving features.
Using faux kernel with Snake Charmer (caps max freq on all 4 cores) and Eco Mode (only allows 2 cores to be simultaneously active) provides adequate performance with very good battery life; even better if you undervolt. You will definitely beat the GS3 or H1X+ with those faux kernel settings. I don't use Eco Mode, because my phone lasts nearly a day, and I can charge it mid-day. I should probably be more conservative so I won't have to replace the battery as soon, buttphuckit, I do what I want.

I've used faux, Franco, motley, and Matr1x a lot. As of now, the best battery with performance goes to Matr1x by Mathkid. Version 2.5 undervolts by 150, which my phone runs fine. However, a few people had instability because it was too low for their devices. Enter v3.0, which undervolts by 100 (and you can uv even more using System Tuner or perhaps Faux app). Either way, great battery life (I routinely get 5 hours screen time with 16 hours battery time, or 4 hours screen with 24 hours total, etc).
Absolute best battery life is probably faux with his battery optimized settings (1.35 max speed, snake charmer, eco mode, and some undervolt by 100 or so). It runs fairly well, but it's not as quick and smooth as stock because it sacrifices some of that for battery (fair trade off if you need it because it's still a damn fast phone). People have gotten 6 and even 7 hours screen time. Obviously this won't happen playing games but it's possible with light browsing and texting and whatnot.
Motley's kernel also gets good battery and excellent performance. Franco's kernel does too, but not quite as good of battery because it doesn't support undervolting YET. When it does, it might be the best battery for performance of all (likely).
I use Matr1x daily and am happy with it. Some people, even smart devs, will sometimes tell you undervolt battery gain is negligible. However, at least with this device, it can make a huge difference because it handles such a big undervolt while remaining stable. It also stays much cooler and will run at high clocks longer before reaching the thermal throttling limit.
Anyway, some people might disagree, but these are my experiences. Franco has a huge following and for good reasons. His kernels are awesome. I just don't think the battery life will compete until he adds undervolting. He has said this will come when he feels it is stable and good overall. I'll probably switch then unless Mathkid adds more features to his like gamma control, etc.
Hope this is helpful. Btw, another thing I really like about Matr1x kernel is that he uses the older touchscreen driver which increases screen sensitivity. Many people complain about the nexus 4 screen sensitivity, and if that applies to you, this will fix that.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

^^ A good write up, deserved its thanks. Am on latest rasbean & matr1x, never experienced smoothness & battery life like this. Screenshots at the Matr1x thread later today.
However, all users are different. Battery life WILL differ, that's the only certain thing.

Am I The Only One ....

...Who seems to be getting worse battery life since I've rooted and installed CM10 and Franco Kernel than stock.
Before with stock I was only losing about 1% every two hours on standby (sometimes even better I've no idea how)
Now I'm losing about 3% an hour on standby and also about 30% an hour screen time with just basic browsing (Screen brightness set to auto).
Also Media server is hammering my battery. Like I lost 3% battery in 15 mins without the screen on just playing music (not streaming) is that normal, I've come from an iphone 4s which didn't lose that in an hour :S
have i flashed it badly is there something else maybe i should try or are these stats about right ????
thanks guys

That's just the way it is just custom roms. When flashing, put your head between your legs and pray for the best. You can spend hours trying to figure out what's gone wrong, but you might never get an answer.

You can try underclocking your N4. Currently my dual-core Snapdragon S3 T-Mo Galaxy S2 is underclocked to 810MHz from 1.5GHz and performance is still great. I'm guessing you can UC your N4 to at least 1.2-1GHz and performance will still be great because of the quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro CPU. Also, what governor and i/o are you using?
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium

Hi Gents
Thanks for the reply, yeah it does seem a bit of a hit and miss kinda situation, I'm not masively bothered, im hoping eventually someone will stumple across a fix for the way the screen murders the battery life but im not holding my breath. Still love the phone, really getting used to it now, have tried (and failed) many times to switch to android, must be honest, this is the closest I've come so far to waving bye bye to ios, android is really really fantastic as an os, it's also super pretty to look at these days, stock apps like contacts, calender and the phone app itself are beautiful.

Let the phone and battery have several cycles, it will improve, eventually

thanks mate !!

android88 said:
You can try underclocking your N4. Currently my dual-core Snapdragon S3 T-Mo Galaxy S2 is underclocked to 810MHz from 1.5GHz and performance is still great. I'm guessing you can UC your N4 to at least 1.2-1GHz and performance will still be great because of the quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro CPU. Also, what governor and i/o are you using?
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Under clocking your phone isn't a viable situation. It's a phone, what's the point in it if you're not going to use it to your fullest when my phone lasts through the whole day going from 384-1500?
Some battery tips for op:
- download better battery stats (Google it for a xda version) use this to debug wakelock and ensure your phone is deep sleeping under cpu states. You can also use cpu spy to check cpu stats. Better battery stats is a must need.
- disable Google latitude in maps. Disable the automatic reporting and any other checked marks
- disable Google now cards that you have no use for
- disable gps (some apps use gps and drains battery when it keeps using gps when it isn't necessary)
- ensure your governor is interactive and on latest version of Franco (r20 is very good)
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium

Just stick with the stock kernel that comes with cm10.

peachpuff said:
Just stick with the stock kernel that comes with cm10.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Highly advise doing that. Other kernels are way more optimized whereas CM is focused on the ROM itself and not optimizing the stock kernel.
I believe CM10 uses stock Google kernel anyways (could be wrong).
Use Franco Kernel or anybody elses kernel that you choose to.

Mine definitely improved after rooting and flashing custom ROM. Battery life when I was still stock was horrible.

m3lover1 said:
Mine definitely improved after rooting and flashing custom ROM. Battery life when I was still stock was horrible.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Kernel is what makes battery life better, not a ROM.

zephiK said:
Kernel is what makes battery life better, not a ROM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A rom can make the battery life better as well...

AshtonTS said:
A rom can make the battery life better as well...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A ROM has very minimal battery life improvements, it isn't as significant as a kernel. Hence the definition of "better"

ROM with best battery life?

Coming from an LG G2 (long story), battery life is what I miss the most. The nexus 4 has about half the screen on time than my g2 did.
I'm already unlocked and rooted but still stock ROM. Are there any Roms that significantly improve battery life?

I found smart 3G on Cataclysm to be pretty good at saving battery.

ROMs and kernels have little to do with battery. Your usage, signal for mobile data and WiFi, screen brightness, your configuration for location services, gps and the like and your apps determine your battery life.

brian85 said:
Coming from an LG G2 (long story), battery life is what I miss the most. The nexus 4 has about half the screen on time than my g2 did.
I'm already unlocked and rooted but still stock ROM. Are there any Roms that significantly improve battery life?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd try Paranoid. I used it for a while after using stock and I found that the battery improved.

roms have absolutely zilch when it comes to battery life. only thing rims can do with battery is reduce it. generally, the more added mods/features a rom has, the worse the battery life. but not always. battery life is determined by hiw you personally use your phone, how you set it uo, what apps you use, and the quality of your phone/data connection. everything else, including kernels, have a very minimum effect on battery.

Well
When I was with Carbon, the play store thing killed my battery to 3hrs on screen time
Switched over to Purity Rom with Hells kernel and I have 5-6 on screen time
WiFi on all the time, no data or GPS or Bluetooth.
Mostly Reddit and a game or two, and a movie

Not the Rom but the Kernel is decisive

Nuhro said:
Not the Rom but the Kernel is decisive
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Kernel doesn't make much of a difference either. See simms22 post above
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Free mobile app

jd1639 said:
Kernel doesn't make much of a difference either. See simms22 post above
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay, but why is the battery life better with an another kernel?
I use the HeelsCreed kernel and Mahdi rom. My battery life is better with the HeelsCreed kernel as with the Kernel of the Mahdi rom.
P.S.: I know my english is bad, sorry for that

Nuhro said:
Okay, but why is the battery life better with an another kernel?
I use the HeelsCreed kernel and Mahdi rom. My battery life is better with the HeelsCreed kernel as with the Kernel of the Mahdi rom.
P.S.: I know my english is bad, sorry for that
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
set up your CPU and everything else just how the kernel sets it up for you, and you'll get the same battery life. be more active, set things up manually.

brian85 said:
Coming from an LG G2 (long story), battery life is what I miss the most. The nexus 4 has about half the screen on time than my g2 did.
I'm already unlocked and rooted but still stock ROM. Are there any Roms that significantly improve battery life?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
can you tell the story please , anyway ROM has weee little to do with battery life , its mostly on how you use it and the kernel you are using as well as sync loops and dodgy leaky apps , my personal setup is rom = paranoid android and kernel = hellsdoctor , using synapse app i switched the maximum clock speed to 1.2 Ghz , and changed the maximum core online to two, gpu is overclocked by default , rest is, location settings are turned off only turned on when required , brightness is set to 50 % , no dodgy apps on the phone , i can squeeze about 5 and half hours sometimes 6 its good enough for this battery size though and hope it works out for you :good: