Database Users

Consensus on Smart Stay battery hit?

It works well as advertised. Just wondering if it's taking a toll on the battery life.

I doubt there's any noticable hit on the battery - "smart stay" is only active when the phone's screen is already turned on. Compared to the power drain of the screen, flicking the front camera on for a few fractions of a second every 30-60 seconds is meaningless.

It doesn't work well for me. I see the eye pop up in the notification bar, then my screen goes dim, then off.. while I am reading a web page or xda. What do you do to make it work?

durhamite said:
It doesn't work well for me. I see the eye pop up in the notification bar, then my screen goes dim, then off.. while I am reading a web page or xda. What do you do to make it work?
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That happens to me in low light. Sufficient ambient light seems to be requisite for it to work. Other than that I'm not sure.

It seems not to like my glasses. I watch the eye flash on and off, then it goes dim anyways. no tinting, just regular glasses.

durhamite said:
It doesn't work well for me. I see the eye pop up in the notification bar, then my screen goes dim, then off.. while I am reading a web page or xda. What do you do to make it work?
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Works fine for me, maybe you were blinking or something.
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda app-developers app

I haven't noticed any difference in battery life with disabled vs enabled. Works great for me (as manual states, must not be in low light otherwise will not work). Works with my glasses on as well.

Battery hit should be minimal. I use Face Unlock which uses the camera and the battery drain is negligible.
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda app-developers app

Did you know your Note 2 has a separate controller for the sensors?

I just found this out yesterday but the Note 2 has a separate controller for gathering sensor data.
In short, unlike previously where the CPU had to wake up to gather data, a dedicated low power processor takes care of this!
It works for the accelerometer, magnetosensor, and orientation sensors for sure.
It may also work for the other ones.
Source: Samsung SGS2 Note Development Engineer i talked to yesterday at Samsung's Tech Fair

Interesting. I wonder if that's partly why it gets such fantastic battery life?
Sent from my SGH-T889 using Tapatalk 2

Instead of waking up the whole phone it uses a low-power unit for sensors?
It sounds plausible.
Like when you move your hand above the front sensors when the phone's locked, and half of the screen lights up for a few seconds.
Handwritten from my GT-N 7100

how about the wifi and bluetooth? if i turn on the wifi and bluetooth all the time, will i get less battery drain than other device?

Olaeli said:
Instead of waking up the whole phone it uses a low-power unit for sensors?
It sounds plausible.
Like when you move your hand above the front sensors when the phone's locked, and half of the screen lights up for a few seconds.
Handwritten from my GT-N 7100
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yes that is exactly one of the features it enables without destroying battery life

dseo80 said:
yes that is exactly one of the features it enables without destroying battery life
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And I guess, the Smart Stay, which checks on you every now and then when looking at the screen.

Olaeli said:
And I guess, the Smart Stay, which checks on you every now and then when looking at the screen.
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Doesn't Smart Stay use the front-facing camera? I understand that the camera isn't a sensor, as opposed to the proximity and light sensors beside it (correct me if I'm wrong...)

MarionCast said:
Doesn't Smart Stay use the front-facing camera? I understand that the camera isn't a sensor, as opposed to the proximity and light sensors beside it (correct me if I'm wrong...)
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Smart Stay pushes the CPU freq to 1600 (aka max freq) every time it has to check.

I don't use smart stay.I prefer a longer battery life.
Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk 2

DanDroidian said:
I don't use smart stay.I prefer a longer battery life.
Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk 2
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if u never idle til the timeout, smart stay wouldnt activate and no battery drain

emprize said:
if u never idle til the timeout, smart stay wouldnt activate and no battery drain
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Once it activates, does it continue to check at the regular intervals you have set?
Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk 2

DanDroidian said:
Once it activates, does it continue to check at the regular intervals you have set?
Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk 2
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afaik it only check when u idle til timeout, so if u keep interact, it should be no extra battery drain

never knew this, great find

It makes sense. That's how it keeps the accelerometer on to let you know when you a missed call or message. And also led notifications hehe. Makes sense to me! And I'm glad they did it this way.
Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk 2

emprize said:
afaik it only check when u idle til timeout, so if u keep interact, it should be no extra battery drain
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It also shows a little eye symbol in the status bar when it does it. Just before the screen dims it checks to see if someone it looking at it then again just before the screen turns off.

DanDroidian said:
I don't use smart stay.I prefer a longer battery life.
Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk 2
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I have smart stay turned on and i don't notice any real difference in battery life.
Sent from my SGH-T889 using Tapatalk 2

Chrissssssss said:
It also shows a little eye symbol in the status bar when it does it. Just before the screen dims it checks to see if someone it looking at it then again just before the screen turns off.
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busab said:
I have smart stay turned on and i don't notice any real difference in battery life.
Sent from my SGH-T889 using Tapatalk 2
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Thanks to everyone for that!
Explained well! And I'll definitely use it from now on! It seems it might possibly use less battery to use this feature than having to tough the screen sometimes to stop it from turning off, and if you're not looking at it, it will just turn off like it normally would.
Basically, I have my timeout set to 1 minute.
Normally, I have to scroll up or down when I see the screen get dim moments before turning off. That's annoying, and sometimes probably spend more time touching the screen and messing something up when trying to do that.
With Smart Stay, if I'm looking at the screen, it checks for a split second (and you see the little "eye" symbol pop up) and it never dims out out either. That is really nice, and I don't have to keep messing with the screen to make sure it doesn't time out, which probably saves battery too. It continues to check for a split second every 1 minute.
If I'm not looking, it simply turns off.
Will definitely be using it from now on!
I also tried the feature where the red glowing sensor stays on ALL THE TIME WHEN THE SCREEN IS OFF and you can wave your hand over it to see missed calls, song playing, status bar, etc...
I'm gonna pass on this last feature. Not very helpful, and that must drain your battery somewhat faster, as you can even see the red glowing sensor on all the time when the screen is off. No thank you.
Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk 2

smart stay i suppose only uses the ffc when your phone is about to sleep. if you set it to 1 min, it'll check every min, 5 min, every 5 min. i don't think it'll use much battery.
the only problem i have with smart stay is that even when i lay it down on my talbe in front of me while browsing on my pc, it wouldnt' sleep. i need to place it away from my face so the ffc can't see my eyes.

For a few years now, there has been another core or companion core in smart phones that handles minimal situations. It is a low power core that does not require the resources of the main processing unit. Tegra calls it “4+1” technology which means there are 4 cores running at the same speed and a slower fifth core that can handle most of what you’d be doing on your device. Here is their comments:
http://blogs.nvidia.com/2012/02/technology-formerly-known-as-vsmp-gets-a-new-stage-name-4-plus-1-2/
VSMP has been around for years and Samsung has used it in their system architecture. Back when one of the big things was increasing processing power one of the big problems was dealing with the low power core.
It just doesn't make sense to use power when you don't need it. Its like the V8 engines which drop to 4 cylinders at the traffic light to reduce gas consumption.

Sebring5 said:
For a few years now, there has been another core or companion core in smart phones that handles minimal situations. It is a low power core that does not require the resources of the main processing unit. Tegra calls it “4+1” technology which means there are 4 cores running at the same speed and a slower fifth core that can handle most of what you’d be doing on your device. Here is their comments:
http://blogs.nvidia.com/2012/02/technology-formerly-known-as-vsmp-gets-a-new-stage-name-4-plus-1-2/
VSMP has been around for years and Samsung has used it in their system architecture. Back when one of the big things was increasing processing power one of the big problems was dealing with the low power core.
It just doesn't make sense to use power when you don't need it. Its like the V8 engines which drop to 4 cylinders at the traffic light to reduce gas consumption.
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I think there is a difference here as the GS3 does NOT have this feature, you can test this by turning "smart rotation" off then testing the autorotation speed of both phones - which is how it was demonstrated to me. The Note 2 is noticably quicker.
I guess what im saying as in the OP , it is not part of the exynos SoC at all. The microprocessor is a seperate package on the PCB

op2 owners: any regrets?

If coming from op1 or any other flagship device?

SO far, none. The OPO was the best phone I ever owned. I just got the OPT and after 24 hours it has amazed me. Some glitches here and there but nothing a software OTA cannot fix.

None. Certainly not with all the development going on here already. I'll enjoy the heck out of my phone.

My gripes since I had to buy on swappa.com, as I ordered on 9/1 and still don't have the actual phone.
1) Exchange only through Gmail. Poor implementation.
2) Can't see battery as percentage. Prefer time in middle on top.
3) slider notification should be reversed
4) no stock Gallery app (only accessible through photo app)

The phone is beautiful but let's be honest here, it is a buggy mess!

rallysquirrel said:
My gripes once I had to buy on swappa.com, since I ordered on 9/1 and still don't have the actual phone.
1) Exchange only through Gmail. Poor implementation.
2) Can't see battery as percentage. Prefer time in middle on top.
3) slider notification should be reversed
4) no stock Gallery app (only accessible through photo app)
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Click to collapse
Well to be honest, point 1 & 2 are the same for stock Android. What do you mean with 3 exactly?
And actually, you can change the battery as percentage. Head to Settings > Battery and tap the battery icon next to the menu icon. It gives you inter alia an option to show percentage.

#3 would be the physical notifications slider on the left.
Thanks for the battery percentage heads up.

rallysquirrel said:
#3 would be the physical notifications slider on the left.
Thanks for the battery percentage heads up.
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In my opinion the placement is perfect, also for the other buttons. That's personal preference of course. You're welcome by the way.

My stock messaging app doesn't consolidate my conversations properly. It creates to separate threads for one conversation, it shows one thread for what I text and a separate thread for my friend's responses??? Does anyone know how to fix this so the "back and forth" is in one thread?

Currently the OPT has a big failure that may force me to sell it. My contacts are only synced with 'mobile' to my car radio. So I am forced to choose of 6 'mobile' numbers from a list of only ONE mobile number of my wife. Not really a big bug but a total fail for me because I daily call my wife from the car while driving home. This is the one feature that really has to work but it does not.
With the ONE all works as you could expect. The Parrot Asterroid syncs without a fail and offers me the numbers correctly tagged with 'mobile', 'work', 'home' and so on. The TWO fails on this. So not really my phone atm.

no regrets. just little bugs that need to be addressed. fingerprint scanner works perfect for me also

Guys, there's no benefit to lying. The fingerprint sensor is not 100% and sometimes doesn't even respond.

stu5797 said:
Guys, there's no benefit to lying. The fingerprint sensor is not 100% and sometimes doesn't even respond.
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I agree. I've reset my fingerprints to the way I hold the phone usually. It's still hit or miss. If i've just been using the phone, it works. If I leave the phone to sit for some time, i need to use the power button to wake it, then the sensor works.

stu5797 said:
Guys, there's no benefit to lying. The fingerprint sensor is not 100% and sometimes doesn't even respond.
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rallysquirrel said:
I agree. I've reset my fingerprints to the way I hold the phone usually. It's still hit or miss. If i've just been using the phone, it works. If I leave the phone to sit for some time, i need to use the power button to wake it, then the sensor works.
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You guys are definitely using the latest version of Oxygen OS? I don't have the phone yet...

stu5797 said:
Guys, there's no benefit to lying. The fingerprint sensor is not 100% and sometimes doesn't even respond.
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Click to collapse
Mine works fine as long as I don't wake the device before scanning, if I do it doesn't respond for some reason lol. Software issue though, I'm sure they'll fix it soon.
Sent from my ONE A2001 using Tapatalk

For e, battery is a big disappointment so far. I hope with custom ROMs and kernels battery life should improve. Other than that, pretty much satisfied. However, does not feel like much of an upgrade over the one.

Battery is a big one for me as well, but I know future releases will solve that. The other thing would be heat. In 10mins of having the screen on, it jumps from ~26 degrees (where it idles) to ~40 degrees.

I'm surprised about the battery complaints. It's been really good for me. I can easily get 5-6 hours sot. Today I'm at 1hr 18mins sot with 78% battery left and exactly 14 hours since I unplugged it from the charger. Maybe I'm just lucky
Sent from my ONE A2005 using Tapatalk

I'm coming from a nexus 6 and you can really tell the difference between the screens the op2 looks washed out compared to the QHD screen on the nexus but apart from that I love it but I will still go for a moto x style.
Sent from my ONE A2003 using XDA Free mobile app

very happy with it. Fingerprint scanner works 100% for me, much better than the crappy one of my previous s6 edge.
Only complaint is contact sharing with my car bluetooth makes the car system crashes......

Faulty Light Sensor?

Has anyone had any problems with the light sensor on their Nexus 6P?
I've noticed that it works fine if the light is shining directly onto the device, but it's not so good at picking up ambient light.
If I put my Nexus 6P and Nexus 9 flat on my desk at work, I get a reading of 225 lux on the Nexus 9 and 226 lux on the Nexus 6P - basically the same.
But if I pick up both devices and stand them upright on the desk, the Nexus 9 shows 90 lux and the Nexus 6P shows just 36 lux.
Most of the time this isn't a problem, but if I'm using it somewhere where the light levels are borderline and change a lot (like on a bus or train at night) I find that the device ends up changing the brightness a lot because there's not much light directly shining on the screen.
I've been using the free App "Sensors" from the Play Store to check the light levels - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.calintat.sensors
Has anybody noticed anything similar? I'm running stock on build MDA89D (not had any OTAs yet).

I am seeing the same behavior with my 6P. Borderline light conditions at all, and the brightness is constantly changing.

hammersfd said:
I am seeing the same behavior with my 6P. Borderline light conditions at all, and the brightness is constantly changing.
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Could you check the readings you get from the light sensor when it's happening?
There are lots of apps that will let you see the sensor readings.

I noticed this last night in a dark room with a few lamps on -- the brightness would just randomly increase and decrease.

Yep, was sitting on the couch last night reading in a moderately lit room and the screen would randomly get bright and then dim again. Got so annoyed that I turned off adaptive brightness and will just adjust the screen manually. My biggest complaint with this awesome phone.

Nothing to add except that I also turned off adaptive brightness as it wasn't functioning properly and was pretty annoying.

aw1974 said:
Yep, was sitting on the couch last night reading in a moderately lit room and the screen would randomly get bright and then dim again. Got so annoyed that I turned off adaptive brightness and will just adjust the screen manually. My biggest complaint with this awesome phone.
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Would you be able to try and get some light sensor readings in that same location?
I'd be very interested to know if it's the same cause as mine.

Same thing here with the low light. It kept going bright and slowly back to dim where it should be.

Same issue. This and being virtually unable to use the phone in direct sunlight are my only two gripes.
Watching the sensor as I move around it bounces all over the place where as with my S5 the sensor readings appear much more constant.

Same issue, I wonder if it's software or faulty device

I checked out the light sensor In the lux app as I was having a similar issue, I can see the sensor go from 1 lux to 11 even though it's in a pretty dim room at night, it keeps changing...

Same for me.
Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

+1 for this issue, when playing games in a brightly lit room, my brightness on the phone keeps constantly changing, even though I always hold my phone in the same position while playing.

I ordered replacement and will check

kolyan said:
I ordered replacement and will check
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Is the replacement any better. I have the same issue and was not sure if it is hardware or software issue.

amfractal said:
Is the replacement any better. I have the same issue and was not sure if it is hardware or software issue.
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Don't think it is any better. EX Kernel dev also noticed this issue and made some fix in his Kernel

kolyan said:
Don't think it is any better. EX Kernel dev also noticed this issue and made some fix in his Kernel
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Would you have any source on this, I'd love to get this better as it's pretty god damn annoying. I'm sure it can be fixed with a kernel or xposed module.

TigerSoul925 said:
Would you have any source on this, I'd love to get this better as it's pretty god damn annoying. I'm sure it can be fixed with a kernel or xposed module.
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Click to collapse
Not sure what u mean by source. Download this Kernel and app
http://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-6p/orig-development/kernel-elementalx-n6p-t3240571

kolyan said:
Not sure what u mean by source. Download this Kernel and app
http://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-6p/orig-development/kernel-elementalx-n6p-t3240571
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Click to collapse
Thanks, that's what I meant with source: source of the information

Hey guys, did the ex kernel fix the issue for you? So are we sure it is a software issue and Google is gonna have a fix up its sleeve?
Cheers

Adaptive brightness or not?

So do you guys use it? Been reading about how it may cause more battery drain. I've been using it myself but if I switch, I feel like I'd have to run a higher than normal brightness to accommodate for when I go outside. So thinking it may not even be beneficial then. So what do you use and recommend?

I don't use it because of battery hit for me. I manually raise brightness if needed outside.

galaxys said:
I don't use it because of battery hit for me. I manually raise brightness if needed outside.
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Pretty noticeable difference for you?

I stopped using it a few days ago. Didn't really offer my any advantage since I have a Wear device and it was a hit & miss when I picked the device up.