6P - Let's talk battery expectations

[jdot104]

Re: Let's talk battery expectations

I posted basically the same thing in another thread, but SoT is a hugely inconsistent metric for battery life.

I could play streaming music for 10 hours, turn my screen on for 10 minutes, have the battery die, then say I got 10 minutes of SoT.

I could watch netflix streaming over 4G with 100% brightness and get an hour or so of SoT.

I could read an ebook at 5% brightness in airplane mode and get 8 hours of SoT.

This is why using SoT as a metric from how other people use their phones is not a good measure. Maybe comparing your own use case between different phones that you use. But not against how others use a phone.

It's important to note what different reviewers say they spend their time doing. And even then, cell signal strength and other factors are important for battery life. Android Police mentioned about 3 hours, but that was with adaptive brightness, Bluetooth, and GPS on constantly. I know I don't have a problem turning those off when I'm not using them (I hate adaptive brightness), so I bet I'll get a lot more mileage out of the 6P battery.

 

[CarbonOak]

Then in that case there is no point in doing tests, because no one person will use their device the same as another. A streaming test won't be accurate, because the signal strengths might not be the same from one person to another. Because of the infinite number of factors, personal usage, core phone settings, apps installed and their individual settings, environmental factors like signal strength and atmospheric conditions, etc, etc, there is no way to get a measurement that is 100% accurate for everyone, it's just not possible.

But you have to start somewhere. I've had people tell me that tests like those done on PhoneArena aren't valid because their tests aren't as scientific as those on a site like Anandtech. While that may be true, it does give you a starting point. A rundown test may not tell you exactly how long it will last, but it does give you an idea of how battery life will compare to another device. But otherwise there would be no tests they could do that would be relevant because everyone uses their devices differently.

The same applies to gas mileage in cars. Every person drives differently, so the tests they do that say this model will get X amount of mileage may not be what you'll see, but it gives you a rough idea. The only way you'll truly know how much mileage you'll get is by running it yourself, same with a smartphone 's battery life. But you have to start somewhere.

I'm not saying that battery tests aren't useful; I certainly think the controlled ones are (such as the Phone Arena one). Controlled battery depletion tests reduce the number of variables that could affect battery performance and they can be used as a starting gauge of battery life.

Most reviews are of uncontrolled battery tests (those that say, 'I had average use and have 5 hrs SoT') and they generally don't specify what exactly is 'average' for them, hence the wild range of SoT results. The issue is that most people read one or two reviews and say, 'battery is terrible!' or 'battery is amazing!' without considering their own real world usage case.

The main thing is people need to take all these battery results with a grain of salt. The phone is unreleased, in a limited number of hands, and those that do have it have had it for only a few days, which isn't much time to accurately gauge battery life. Wait till the phone is released, in our own hands, and we've had more than a few days with it, then we can all make battery judgments.

 

[vzwuser76]

I'm not saying that battery tests aren't useful; I certainly think the controlled ones are (such as the Phone Arena one). Controlled battery depletion tests reduce the number of variables that could affect battery performance and they can be used as a starting gauge of battery life.

Most reviews are of uncontrolled battery tests (those that say, 'I had average use and have 5 hrs SoT') and they generally don't specify what exactly is 'average' for them, hence the wild range of SoT results. The issue is that most people read one or two reviews and say, 'battery is terrible!' or 'battery is amazing!' without considering their own real world usage case.

The main thing is people need to take all these battery results with a grain of salt. The phone is unreleased, in a limited number of hands, and those that do have it have had it for only a few days, which isn't much time to accurately gauge battery life. Wait till the phone is released, in our own hands, and we've had more than a few days with it, then we can all make battery judgments.

I don't think anyone is saying that what some guy gets for SOT will be what they get. But if this is done by people just using their device, it shows what is achievable in real world use. Besides that, if most people are getting high SOTs or low SOTs that may be an indicator of what you will see in your use. But just like those battery run down tests, it isn't an exact measure of the battery life you'll see, simply a way to compare two different phones using the same test parameters. The problem is many people will look at battery rundown tests and think that's all they'll get for battery life in a day, when in reality all it will tell you is how long it will run if you use it constantly which no one does. And even those battery rundown tests are all over the map. Some have put the 6p at 10+ hours, where the one from PhoneArena only netted IIRC a little over 6 hours. So I would say that they're no more reliable for accurate measurements than random users SOTs.

None of these test results are set in stone, and they never can be, because as everyone here seems to agree, everyone's usage patterns are different. But SOTs aren't useless either, especially if the majority point to either a high or low SOT. If most people get low SOT,you might be able to do better if you stay on top of it, and a majority getting a high SOT doesn't mean you won't kill your device quickly either. What it does tell you is that if most are getting high SOTs, you probably will as well. Just like if the majority are getting low SOTs, you might be hunting for a Charger before the day is out. I'd look at all of the SOTs and average them, and that will be the best indicator of what you should see. By that I mean if 9 reviewers get 6 hours SOT but one only gets 3 hours, chances are you should be looking at a solid device. But again, it's not set I stone, just gives you an idea what you'll see.

 

[bunique4life05]

After seeing the reviews come in with 4hr 30 SOT, from a 3400mAh battery. Am I wrong to expect a little more?

I was getting 4hr 30 SOT from my HTC M8, which had 2400mAh battery.

But when the OPO was out, people were getting 5hr 30 SOT.

4hr + seems high and close to Note 4/5 and 6Plus territory. I have read several reviews where 6p comes up short in battery life. The reviews stated 6P has decent battery life where the Note 4/5 and the 6 Plus have excellent battery life.

I think what it comes down to with 6P its doze needs to be more aggressive. Then the Nexus line needs to some how have inhouse processor chip. Samsung and Apple make their own chips seem to be the key to improving battery life.

 

[wrich2005]

All depends on how you use your phone too. I have unlimited data and bad WiFi at work so I never use WiFi I know that comes at the cost of battery life to a point

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[constable]

4hr + seems high and close to Note 4/5 and 6Plus territory. I have read several reviews where 6p comes up short in battery life. The reviews stated 6P has decent battery life where the Note 4/5 and the 6 Plus have excellent battery life.

I think what it comes down to with 6P its doze needs to be more aggressive. Then the Nexus line needs to some how have inhouse processor chip. Samsung and Apple make their own chips seem to be the key to improving battery life.

You should venture over to the Note 5 forum. There is a thread there with hundreds of replies - battery life on the note 5 is mediocre at best. Also the IPhone 6 plus had notorious reviews for its battery life... That was one area they hoped the 6S+ would improve on.

 

[Alex98]

Even controlled tests of battery life like the one of PhoneArena will lead to inconsistent results.

For example, both PhoneArena and Arctechnica test battery life with an auto-refreshing script with the screen set at 200nits.
But because they don't use the same script, their results are really different :
* for Arctechnica, the iPhone 6S Plus has a far better battery life than the Note 5 and the 6P is close to the 6S+.
* On PhoneArena, the Note 5 is a little bit better than the 6S+ and both are 50% better than the 6P.

So no, these tests are not better than anything else because generally it's very unclear what they are really testing or how they are testing it (what is the refresh rate ? What sites ? What activity ? ...).

 

[bunique4life05]

You should venture over to the Note 5 forum. There is a thread there with hundreds of replies - battery life on the note 5 is mediocre at best. Also the IPhone 6 plus had notorious reviews for its battery life... That was one area they hoped the 6S+ would improve on.

Seems benchmark reviews and real world are not adding up between all these devices when it comes to battery life. MKHD said battery life was good but yet got same on screen time of Note 5. He gave 6p a A- for battery but yet have the Note 5 a B. IMO with all mixed reviews the majority still state the Note 4/5 and 6 Plus S or no S have better battery life than the 6P.

 

[ydooby]

So far, in all the reviews I've read on the 6p, I've seen a SOT range from 3 hours on the low side to over 6 hours on the high side.

You missed PC Magazine's review where they got 9 hours and 59 minutes out of continuously streaming video over LTE at maximum brightness (!!!) from the 6P. That's 10 hours SOT folks!!!
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2493305,00.asp

"In our battery test, we set screen brightness to max and continuously stream a fullscreen video over LTE. The 6P clocked 9 hours, 59 minutes of battery life, giving it one of the best results we've seen. It easily bests the paltry 4 hours, 11 minutes clocked by the iPhone 6s Plus, and outperforms the Note 5 (6 hours, 10 minutes) as well." - PC Magazine

 

[LeoRex]

I don't pay too close attention to battery comments. Battery usage is extremely volitile.... apps, brightness, signal strength, what services are active at any given moment, etc. That's why those battery tests are, in my eyes, horse poo. I know they design them to try to replicate 'real world' conditions... but for WHO? I mean, my real world conditions are different then everyone else's and my SOT times would be different as well. How long do you go between charges? Does your phone sit idle or are you on the move all the time. There are dozens of variables that contribute to the "How long will my battery last" equation and each and every one has a major impact.

I look at it this way... I'm guessing that the 6P will perform about on par with the 6. Before anyone gets bent out of shape here, let me say that the 6 has turned into a monster with the FINAL 6.0 update. Yes, idle drain has dropped a fair amount.. but the active drain has as well, so Google packed a ton of tweaks not just in Doze. If I needed to, I could go 36 hours between charges and register a good 5 to 6 hours of SOT. If I charged once in the morning and once at night, that pushes over 7 hours.

The 6P is going to be just fine. People will boast really long SOT times, others short. It happens on EVERY phone. I know a dude who can't barely crack 3 hours of SOT on his Note 4... while another gets close to 6 hours of SOT on his Nexus 5. Does that mean everyone should expect twice the battery life on a Nexus 5 over a Note 4? Nope.

 

[TeamPowerstroke]

I'll just wait till I get my 6P I'm sure I'll have no problem getting 6hrs+ SOT for what I do, since I get that with my Oneplus2 same 810chip/GPU smaller battery but it is a 5.5 1080p display

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[karmamule]

Re: Let's talk battery expectations

Android police only got 3h sot consistently. Which I thought was total bs.

And they also seem to be the only reviewers experiencing screen burn-in issues. Either they got a defective unit, their testing methodology is significantly different from most other reviewers, or they're hoping a more negative review will stand out from the crowd and drive more clicks to their site.

 

[Alex_NJ]

Re: Let's talk battery expectations

I use google chrome for web browsing. I do often wonder if that juices a lot of battery

 

[LeoRex]

Re: Let's talk battery expectations

they're hoping a more negative review will stand out from the crowd and drive more clicks to their site.

And this is a distinct possibility. A Device gets released to near complete glowing reviews... how do you get traffic? Publish something that you know will start a bit of a row, enjoy the traffic.

 

[Alex_NJ]

Re: Let's talk battery expectations

Is it possible that the super powerful and fast fingerprint scanners use a lot of power?

If they are constantly reading and looking for a fingerprint I imagine that can use up some power

 

[Almeuit]

Re: Let's talk battery expectations

Is it possible that the super powerful and fast fingerprint scanners use a lot of power?

If they are constantly reading and looking for a fingerprint I imagine that can use up some power

Technically anything will use power but I am not sure I would throw a fingerprint scanner into a "Super powerful" category. It simply just waits to read it -- Most likely it takes very little power.

 

[htowngator]

Re: Let's talk battery expectations

This was my first warning, I put this down to an obscure result. But then PocketNow didn't get much better, and now Android Authority got 4hr 30.

And this is without all of those apps installed, and I assume no widgets.

I keep saying it looks like 3:30 SoT is about average between all the heavy Android user reviews. People will flame on for that because they think that's ok, but for me that's very average for such a huge battery. Obviously the QHD screen doesn't help keep battery usage down, but even so I'd be happier with an exceptional 1080p screen that sipped battery power over QHD on a phone.

 

[htowngator]

Re: Let's talk battery expectations

Is it possible that the super powerful and fast fingerprint scanners use a lot of power?

If they are constantly reading and looking for a fingerprint I imagine that can use up some power

Very unlikely it takes much power when you consider the huge drains come from screen on. That's effectively the big hitter of the group compared to smaller processes that barely use anything.

 

[Techno-guy]

You missed PC Magazine's review where they got 9 hours and 59 minutes out of continuously streaming video over LTE at maximum brightness (!!!) from the 6P. That's 10 hours SOT folks!!!
Google Nexus 6P (Unlocked) Review & Rating | PCMag.com

"In our battery test, we set screen brightness to max and continuously stream a fullscreen video over LTE. The 6P clocked 9 hours, 59 minutes of battery life, giving it one of the best results we've seen. It easily bests the paltry 4 hours, 11 minutes clocked by the iPhone 6s Plus, and outperforms the Note 5 (6 hours, 10 minutes) as well." - PC Magazine

Thanks for posting that! VERY impressive! Hope real world usage shows similarly strong battery life performance.

 

[Joe Preen]

On my first full day with the phone I ended with 20% battery left and 4 hours SOT. Im pretty happy with that

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