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In the DInc forum more than probably any other forum on XDA, there is a copious amount of battery life related threads. How to extend your battery life, what kernel is best, what ROM is best, what extended batteries work, what applications will help, combinations of CPU and brightness, all kinds of jazz. Truth be told, most people who have come to a "solid conclusion" about what is best for their battery life are misleading themselves, and others. Why? Well..
#1. There are too many variables.
Your average joe who posts on here claiming they got XX amount of battery life compared to average joe number two's claim of getting YY hours tells no one anything. The fact of the matter is that in these phones, there are SO many things that act as variables on battery life that most people don't even consider. The obvious ones are data usage, WiFi connectivity, screen brightness, and CPU clocks to name a few. But what a lot of people don't consider are things like signal strength. My battery life personally is bad through the week because my school has absolutely terrible service. My battery life triples throughout the day with Airplane Mode on and WiFi enabled. It's well known in the cell phone consumer society that the better your signal is, the easier your radio will be on your battery. If you're teetering on very poor service, or none at all, your radio is constantly searching for signal so it can get you back on the network as soon as possible. This also applies to the WiFi radio. Some people leave theirs on all the time, some don't. Same for Bluetooth, GPS, anything. There are too many variables for your average person to cover to be able to accurately claim that "this app" or "this ROM" or "this method" does exactly "this" to your battery life.
#2. You're probably undereducated about how your battery works.
Don't get me wrong on this one, we have a lot of very intelligent people here at XDA, many far more intelligent than I, that keep this place rolling on a daily basis, but far too many of the people who try to make factual claims about battery life don't know what they're talking about. The most prolific example of this is the argument between total discharges, and interval charging. There are people who argue that allowing your battery to completely discharge and then charge back to full is the best way to preserve battery life. Then there are some who are adamant about charging whenever a charger is present, regardless of battery percentage. While very few of us here, myself included, are battery technicians or something of the sort, there is factual data to support the idea that Lithium Ion batteries do not have any sort of memory like NiCad and other batteries do. While this may be true, on the other hand, fully charging and discharging your phone allows it to more accurately determine what voltage your battery is producing and thus gives a better percentage reading. Your battery life percentage on your phone is no clear indicator and is nothing more than the phone's mathematical way of processing the output of the battery and translating it into a more useful term for people like you and I. This is why wiping battery stats and completely draining a fully charged battery seems to help with battery life, because you won't see as many violent drops in percentage because the phone can more accurately calculate the power usage. That being said, wiping battery stats does nothing more for you than that. It does not magically make your battery superpowered and won't make dinner for you.
#3. All batteries are different.
Extended batteries are an interesting thing. You can buy two of the same make and model from the same place, and the two batteries can perform completely differently. This is because no two batteries are the same. Quality control issues, differences in materials, shelf life, production date, and all kinds of other factors go into how well a battery will perform. Some people get great experiences from the $10 eBay batteries and some get experiences worse than stock. Some people see quadrupled life out of OEM extended batteries, and some see minimal gains. This also applies to the stock battery that comes with the phone. That being said, mAh ratings are also relative and not all batteries live up to their true claims. A battery said to operate at 2500 mAh may not ever reach that capacity and it may run at a true value of 2000 mAh. The case will rarely ever be reversed, but you see the point. Take battery specifications with a grain of salt, because you aren't always going to get what you pay for.
#4. All phones are different.
The hardware in your phone may or may not be the same as the hardware in my phone, and one of the biggest differences in the DInc with this respect is the SLCD and AMOLED screens. AMOLED screens can save or expel more battery than SLCD screens depending on what you are viewing. A person with an AMOLED who uses primarily dark-themed apps and a dark background may see better life than someone identical who uses light-themed apps and a lighter background. Not to mention that all of the hardware in these phones aren't identical and sometimes parts slip through with lower efficiencies or defects that may or may not affect your battery life, and you will likely never know.
#5. ROMs/Kernels behave erratically.
The Warm Z ROM I use on my phone might deliver totally different results for you than it does for me. Same goes for kernels. We have found time and time again that kernel and ROM changes are not universal for battery life and everybody gets different experiences. You have to try out what fits you, and if you're that interested in finding the perfect balance, you'll just have to try them all. That's a long, painstaking process, but there's no solid evidence to tell you what will be optimal for your setup.
Now...
All that being said, I want you to understand I am not bashing anyone who tries to make a good conclusive result for how to improve battery life. Some methods are common sense and surefire, and some are wives tales. There are some great threads on battery life and topics related to it, two of which I will link to here:
Effects of CPU Frequency and Screen Brightness on Power Consumption
Your Battery Gauge Is Lying To You
These are both by XDA Member byrong, and he uses principles of science and the scientific method to make conclusive data in relation to battery life and how certain variables affect it. He eliminated as many variables as possible in his study and produced linear data that coincides with common sense ideas relating to smartphones and battery life. Note he does not make claims of how long your battery will last, or what kind of effects to expect from each setting, but he produces solid data that allows you to make your own interpretation.
At the end of the day, battery life boils down to balancing out functionality for conservativeness. If you're the kind of person who doesn't need auto sync'ing and push notifications, then by all means disable those things and keep your phone alive a little longer. If you're always by a charger throughout your work day, leave it all on! It's all preference, and there is no solid set method to making your battery all it can be. No ROM, kernel, app, wipe, or other method is going to be the 'be-all-end-all' of battery life extension. Simply see what works for you, and take your own results with a grain of salt. If you test one method one day, and another one the next, and you see that method A gave you 4 more hours than method B, take into account that you were driving through an area with no signal on your way home from work during the usage of method B, or you were playing a game on method B or you did less browsing on method A. Keep your trials as scientific as possible if you want to get real solid results.
Above all, just use your phone and enjoy it. If you never go more than 12 hours without being around a charger, and your phone lasts 15 hours, there's no real purpose in trying to sacrifice more things you use and enjoy to try and get a bigger and better number. Charging a phone, even just a little bit, doesn't take forever, and you can get a valuable amount of juice out of 15 minutes on the plug. Use common sense and don't overthink it. Everybody uses something a little different. That's why we have these phones, because we all want something a little different.
Reserved for future use...
This is great; very informative. Thank you.
Sent from my Magnolia Incredible
Thank you. I plan on updating the second post with a more comprehensive set of links to other articles about battery life that may be found useful.
Cool "A person with an AMOLED who uses primarily dark-themed apps and a dark background may see better life than someone identical who uses light-themed apps and a lighter background"
I guess that's why my phone digs on the Magnolia Rom,
or at least Steves last version it was all black.
Excellent write up. We need more threads like this one by sensible authors who actually take the time to research the topic they are posting about. Thank you for adding knowledge and integrity to this community.
Much love my friend
When I get the chance I'll scour the forums to try and find some more useful threads on battery life and consolidate them here.
its all about resolution or processors or gpu , what is all those big numbers worth without big battery, 5 hours of screen time with moderate use and your so called beast dies. most of the leaks first give idea of processor ,screen, resolution, ram but not battery capacity, may be its because battery capacity isn't that important in the eyes of most. 5 inch screen should have 3500 mah battery life droid razr maxx and 5.5 should have 4000 mah. if they say mobile gets thicker with bigger battery , lenovo gave 10mm 5 inch smartphone with 5000 mah , and 6 inch vibe z2 pro with 4000mah even with thin 7.7mm profile. im a heavy user like most , and i dont want to replace the battery mid day. im not an iphone user only to show off my device. i want substance as well.
Buy a cover like this http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00JCFETQ0?pc_redir=1409107931&robot_redir=1
Powerbanks
I think It's the Software/OS that's power hungry, so packing a higher capacity battery is not their priority. Take a look at the HTC One M8 for Windows, they claim that the battery lasts 20% longer than it's Android counterpart. What they should prioritize is optimizing the software's power consumption.
Getting a powerbank is a good choice... for now... until Android L arrives.
Its about software/os just like tunichi01 said and they also want to slim the phone most of the times so they are putting an average battery in it just like most manafactures also have in mah anmount. So its also the phone's design from inside and the outside to fit the batery. And for most users the 3009 mah battery is enough, I had an nexus4 with like 2200-2300 maH I believe and that had 6 hours sot that was enough for me and the most average users. Biggerbattery could also risk an explosion if the phone isnt good designed.
One of the most important features that I liked about the Xperia range is battery life.I am worried about the initial reviews that the Z5 has average battery life (comparable to the LG G4 ),please post your experience if you alrady have the phone and how it compares to the device it replaces .
Thanks
I charged mine at 6pm last night (UK Time) and haven't charged since and it's on 68% now at 09:23am - This is after a full setup and re-sync of all my stuff.
pss53 said:
I charged mine at 6pm last night (UK Time) and haven't charged since and it's on 68% now at 09:23am - This is after a full setup and re-sync of all my stuff.
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Hope you work nightshift
pss53 said:
I charged mine at 6pm last night (UK Time) and haven't charged since and it's on 68% now at 09:23am - This is after a full setup and re-sync of all my stuff.
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I don't think that is that good tbh, 32% drain and I presume that included some hours of sleeping also. Battery life concerns is one of the reasons I am waiting for the premium instead.
Talking of battery life and off topic but my mrs got a iphone 6s on friday and after setting the phone up she unplugged the usb from the laptop at 12.28am saturday morning (uk time) at 75% and she has used the phone for various things since then and the battery is still at 75%, 3+ days later its not normal.
I believe in Z5 battery, very good
My battery life doesn't seem great however it does charge really fast. My "opinion" cannot be used as comparison though because I am a heavy user with many apps. I came from the Xperia Z C6603 which I don't think the battery was that bad. Since I've had this I've not managed to do any extensive testing on the actual battery life and am currently using Snapdragon BatteryGuru.
Sent from my E6653 using Tapatalk
fast charging doesn't really make up for good battery life I had the Z2 then the Z3 and there was a slight drop in battery life (and capacity) I read that the Z3+ had worse battery than the S6 which I currently have and I have to charge overnight and then at 2 pm o make it last a day .
good
good battery
In a day of average use.. Not constant game playing.. What screen on time do people get on a full battery?
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
So far unimpressed. I took it off charge at 7am. It's 3pm and I have 33% left. Comparable to LG G4 which was also poor. My old Z3 definitely lasted better. I hope after a few days the battery will settle and improve but I'm not holding out too much hope.
Strange how Sony is decreasing battery life with each new phone! They had an advantage over most phones with the Z2, Z3 was also good but not as good as the Z3.the Z3+ was average and it seems so is the Z5.
Sent from my SGP611 using Tapatalk
Dead after 9 hours with less than 3 hours SOC. Won't be keeping this phone as battery was one of the main reasons I bought it.
zaki67 said:
Strange how Sony is decreasing battery life with each new phone! They had an advantage over most phones with the Z2, Z3 was also good but not as good as the Z3.the Z3+ was average and it seems so is the Z5.
Sent from my SGP611 using Tapatalk
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The A57's might not be as efficient, so the SD 800/01/05 devices have that advantage. When the A53 cluster is active drain should be better...but it's not clear how expensive (power wise) it is to constantly switch clusters. Also the faster GPU could be partly to blame if it requires more power than the previous generation. When Qual returns to making their own architecture with the 820 it seems like battery is one area that'll benefit.
http://www.phonearena.com/news/Coul...-poor-battery-life-of-high-end-Android-phones
Since being by my computer and having Pushbullet on I've noticed I've been getting "Verifying theme" notifications from "com.sonymobile.runtimeskinning.core" something or other popping up periodically. They don't show as a notification on my phone and this may suggest why I am getting almost constant wakelocks and appalling battery life. Hrm
On GSMArena Z5 Compact has slightly worse batt life than Z3 Compact (which was outstanding).
It's still great but it's a bit worse.
I assume Z5 will be similar story.
Probably nothing will come close to Z2...
@doministry, Before this thread becomes identical to all other lollipop running phones' battery thread, I'll just paste it here from Z3+ forum.
'Active mobile radio bug' of Lollipop is the main reason why 2015 phones' battery life took a hit. Wifi users won't be affected by this btw. Meantime, few things we could do to improve battery life
1. Always close all apps (from the MT window) before locking screen while you're on mobile data
2. If you're on wifi 24/7, turn off mobile data permanently
3. Use 2.4GHz Wifi instead of 5Gz if possible
4. Make sure 'Screen' is on top of the battery usage list. Otherwise, you got radio active bug or something else that's draining battery. That said, 'cell standby' tops my list occasionally if I don't use it for a long time. It doesn't affect heavy users but Sony needs to work on that for Z3+. Hopefully, it's better on Z5 out of the box.
5. For past Xperia owners, Z5/Z3+ screen is much brighter than Z2's, Z1. If you leave the brightness slider at 'zero' with adaptive brightness on, it's still much brighter than Z2. Stick to lower manual brightness to get Z2 like battery life.
6. Root
Thanks. What I was talking about is rather the endurance the device gives while performing
certain actions.
It's clear from Z3Compact/Z5Compact comparison that 3G Talktime got increased.
The rest got decreased.
Anyway thanks, I use some tricks and my batt life is great.
I think it's irrevealent to compare z5/z5c battery life to their predecessor'one until a few updates from sonymobile have rolled out. As a z5c owner, I can tell you that stock rom is laggy and full of bugs. However I'm impressed how Sony managed the 810 that provides solid performance (except in the UI atm) without overheating. Web-browsing and games are smoother than my z3c. The z5c remains definitely a bit warmer than the z3c, but less than the galaxy s6.
Envoyé de mon E5823 en utilisant Tapatalk
In theory M should be out for the Z5 soon as it's already out on the Nexus
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
I do not believe that updates make much difference .I had the Z2 ,Z3 and Z3+ each was a step backwards in terms of battery life .The Z3 was still godd but the Z3+ was worse than the Galaxy S6 with a smaller battery. The last phone I had that lasted a whole day was the Z3 ,if the Z5 is not at least on the same level I will pass.
Also I want a fully functional phone ,I do not want to turn everything off in order to get good battery life.
I love the design of the phone and it's specs but i'm not sure if 3000mah are enough for it.
What do you think?
At time's it's not about the power of the battery but the design of the overall phone. Factors come in place like the balance of the phone, weight, storage space within the device and cost. Just look at some of the other manufacturers which has have a similar size and design also have a battery of lower rate or not much higher just look at Samsung S6 to S7 devices.
What a lot of people forget a mobilephone is a portable computer and for those that on their device 24/7 or use demanding apps or work will have a main supply to hand to charities battery or compact batter busters are very good and cheap these days. I'm sure that this battery is more than enough for most daily use on this device.
Battery
chtsarts said:
I love the design of the phone and it's specs but i'm not sure if 3000mah are enough for it.
What do you think?
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I am fully satisfied with stamina , with my use i Charge over night..
I've been wanting to get this device but I am getting turned off because of the battery complaints. Is it really bad or enough to get you through the day?
Thanks
aytex said:
I've been wanting to get this device but I am getting turned off because of the battery complaints. Is it really bad or enough to get you through the day?
Thanks
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All depends... For me a full charge will go all day with about 3 hours SOT, but it varies a lot depending on WiFi access, traveling, signal strength, etc. TBH, I carry a charger and cable and tend to top off mid-afternoon of possible.
My only complaint with this device is battery life, but it's still better than my Nexus 4 was no matter how you look at it... But compared to my Moto G3 it's terrible. Is the battery life bad? I don't think so, but I would not call it good either.
Battery sux like on every snapdragon 808/810 device. Those procrssors are the most ****ed up things in mobile history.
U will get average/max 3h sot of normal usage and thats it, like on every other phone with this cpu. To compare, on xperia z2 I was getting 5h30min sot on average with the same usage.
At least battery is charging really fast, but only with original charger. With every regular charger under 1A it will be still discharging while using.
If u have money just buy something with snap820.
Tapatapatap Moto X Style
gemtin92 said:
Battery sux like on every snapdragon 808/810 device. Those procrssors are the most ****ed up things in mobile history.
U will get average/max 3h sot of normal usage and thats it, like on every other phone with this cpu. To compare, on xperia z2 I was getting 5h30min sot on average with the same usage.
At least battery is charging really fast, but only with original charger. With every regular charger under 1A it will be still discharging while using.
If u have money just buy something with snap820.
Tapatapatap Moto X Style
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It's no secret the battery life is not good with this device, but isn't because of the CPU. ~85% of the battery is used by the display in the Style/Pure because the 5.7" LED display is horrible on battery, its beautiful to look at but the battery consumption is ridiculous. The CPU is actually a minor draw of power in the device, if this phone was identical except with an energy efficient AMOLED display, getting 5-6 hours of SOT would be simple. The idle draw on this device is less than 3% per hour and if doze kicks in its under 1% per hour.
I have lg g flex 2 with 1080p oled display runing on snap810 and the story about battery is the same. Ofcourse oled display in moto x would help a little, but its not a display, its a cpu draining so much battery.
Tapatapatap Moto X Style
No complaints here. I'm stock, rooted, and xposed using greenify.
Im not complaining too, I just get used to it, battery sux on every 2015 flagship comapre to 2014 and 2016 flagships.
Tapatapatap Moto X Style
I've been using the phone for the last 6 months and I'm going to change it ONLY because of the poor battery life. A 5,7" QHD LED display + SD 808 + Moto Display and a relatively small 3000 mah battery isn't a good pack if the goal is to give a decent battery life.
Ironically Lenovo somehow managed to make a SD 820 based device (Moto z) that also has a bad battery life using a small battery. If was enough do do a new X Style with amoled, SD 820 and a 3500 mah battery, but apparently it is too difficult for them.
I had my first Pure for almost a year before I had to do an RMA due to some hardware issues. When I got the replacement a couple months ago, it really highlighted how much the battery in the original had deteriorated over 10-11 months.
Granted, some of the decline was probably due to software reasons, cache building up, more apps installed, etc. But man, the move towards unibody designs and sealed batteries by Android OEMs a few years ago is one of the worst things to happen in the mobile industry. Even if you only keep your device for a year, battery life drops precipitously over that time -- nevermind, god forbid, two or three years.
I'm fairly content with the battery life on my new MXPE for now. It's not stellar for the size of the phone, but in absolute terms, it's decent enough.
ominousnimbus said:
I had my first Pure for almost a year before I had to do an RMA due to some hardware issues. When I got the replacement a couple months ago, it really highlighted how much the battery in the original had deteriorated over 10-11 months.
Granted, some of the decline was probably due to software reasons, cache building up, more apps installed, etc. But man, the move towards unibody designs and sealed batteries by Android OEMs a few years ago is one of the worst things to happen in the mobile industry. Even if you only keep your device for a year, battery life drops precipitously over that time -- nevermind, god forbid, two or three years.
I'm fairly content with the battery life on my new MXPE for now. It's not stellar for the size of the phone, but in absolute terms, it's decent enough.
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Honestly, the battery probably deteriorates the most due to Quick Charge 2.0, it is much tougher on batteries than Quick Charge 3.0, and I probably charge mine 80% of the time with a standard charger and the rest with a quick charger... I highly recommend using a standard charger whenever possible. This is not device specific, a lot of QC2.0 devices suffer from quick battery failure, not just quick charging.
I've never heard so much bs, I get on average 5h sot which for a 3000mah battery is below average, it's the high res screen that's draining, like someone said before if it was an amoled screen I'd be looking at 6-7h sot but turbo charging helps a lot oh and doesn't deteriorate the battery at all, lmfao keep using your standard charger but also wrap tin foil round your head.
acejavelin said:
Honestly, the battery probably deteriorates the most due to Quick Charge 2.0, it is much tougher on batteries than Quick Charge 3.0, and I probably charge mine 80% of the time with a standard charger and the rest with a quick charger... I highly recommend using a standard charger whenever possible. This is not device specific, a lot of QC2.0 devices suffer from quick battery failure, not just quick charging.
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I agree 100% with this! I wish I had started using the regular charger sooner. Now I have a Z Force also and while it doesn't have the form factor and front speakers of the MXPE, it's superior otherwise.
I get around two days with 3,5-4h sot or one day with ~4,5h of sot. Imo it's not that bad for such a big phone.
Thanks for all the responses everyone. I'm getting one for 200 bucks as a temp phone for a while