Why does the Pixel 7 battery life seem worse?

[Crispy]

for reference, I am upgrading from a 2XL and as part of this I also have a Pixel 5 to test

Pixel 2XL vs 5 vs 7 upgrade?

I'm still using a Pixel 2XL which I bought a few years ago. I guess I'm not that heavy a user and I don't game because its still holding up. I saw the recent deals for P7, and used P5's on ebay that you can use for trade in towards a new P7 for a $320 discount, which makes it a good deal. So I...

forums.androidcentral.com

So I'm comparing a new P7 with a refurb P5 which will be going to Google as trade in.

Both have latest Android 13, newly setup. No apps installed except WhatsApp on P7. Both on same wifi. Overnight while idle, in ~16hrs, the used P5 had much less battery usage than the new P7. WhatsApp only showed 2% so its not app related.

I am struggling to understand how this could be so.

 

[Crispy]

A lot of threads on this topic say the 'adaptive battery' feature needs some time to learn your habits etc.

But both phones have this and yet the P5 has about 10-15% less usage.

 

[B. Diddy]

What's the actual difference in battery used over that same period?

Since they're both newly set up, I would be cautious about jumping to conclusions this quickly. The first couple of days are often associated with more battery drain on any phone -- partly because of Adaptive Battery learning patterns, but also because of the system doing a lot of updates. Even though you set up both phones at the same time, they're not the exact same phone, and it's possible the 7 has more (or different) updates that it's had to do. Although you probably don't have the time to do this, it would be more accurate to do the comparison after maybe a week of normal usage for both.

 

[Crispy]

What's the actual difference in battery used over that same period?

Since they're both newly set up, I would be cautious about jumping to conclusions this quickly. The first couple of days are often associated with more battery drain on any phone -- partly because of Adaptive Battery learning patterns, but also because of the system doing a lot of updates. Even though you set up both phones at the same time, they're not the exact same phone, and it's possible the 7 has more (or different) updates that it's had to do. Although you probably don't have the time to do this, it would be more accurate to do the comparison after maybe a week of normal usage for both.

I will not be able to keep both phones since I need to send in the P5 for trade in rebate.

I did try to make things equal - do all updates on both phones till there are no more shown, use same google account and same sim.

I have seen other threads here and other forums that say P5 has better battery life. P7 has slightly larger screen but also battery so IMO it should not be a factor. Also P7 is AMOLED vs OLED which means better battery usage as well. Not to mention new phone vs a used one which is now 2.5yr old.

I guess I'm just frustrated since I expected the new phone to be better in every way but to be honest you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference besides the small screen size increase. And face unlock.

The P5 went from 96-91% in approx same period P7 went from 92-74% so about 13% more loss. Like I said the only extra app was WhatsApp which showed 2% use.

 

[mustang7757]

Pixel 5 was a battery beast so the smaller version pixel 7 won't be as good the pixel 7 pro will come close but still the advantage pixel 5

 

[Crispy]

Pixel 5 was a battery beast so the smaller version pixel 7 won't be as good the pixel 7 pro will come close but still the advantage pixel 5

but why? based on the specs the differences just aren't there. by that I mean the P5 is by no means a low spec'd phone.

 

[rvbfan]

but why? based on the specs the differences just aren't there. by that I mean the P5 is by no means a low spec'd phone.

2 reasons really. Slightly smaller screen and most importantly the 765G was a mid range power sipping soc.

 

[Crispy]

2 reasons really. Slightly smaller screen and most importantly the 765G was a mid range power sipping soc.

IMO smaller screen was offset with smaller battery.
So really it seems Tensor SoC is to blame? Same complaints for Pixel 6 which has pretty much same soc. Doesn't this mean we aren't gaining much?

 

[B. Diddy]

Tensor allows a lot of processes to be done on-device rather than in the cloud. Examples include photo processing and language processing. The Pixel 7 is clearly more powerful than the Pixel 5, but battery life won't necessarily be better -- it's a give-and-take. It's hard for me to speak to this directly, though, because I have a 7 Pro that has excellent battery life, without having to turn off any significant features or use battery saver modes.

 

[mustang7757]

but why? based on the specs the differences just aren't there. by that I mean the P5 is by no means a low spec'd phone.

Some phone's are just that , a battery beast., Examples:
Note 9
Pixel 5
S23u
Iphone 14 pro max

I'm sure there more but these were the ones I used and had excellent battery experience

 

[Crispy]

Tensor allows a lot of processes to be done on-device rather than in the cloud. Examples include photo processing and language processing. The Pixel 7 is clearly more powerful than the Pixel 5, but battery life won't necessarily be better -- it's a give-and-take. It's hard for me to speak to this directly, though, because I have a 7 Pro that has excellent battery life, without having to turn off any significant features or use battery saver modes.

I believe voice recognition was made offline a while ago, but the new Assistant voice typing and other ML tasks need Tensor.

But even that is not clear. Google themselves are very vague about whats done on chip. There's a big thread here and conclusion seems to be that all these functions can be done on other Soc's as well. And actually if the Tensor does have dedicated silicon, it should mean better battery life ayway.

https://www.reddit.com/r/GooglePixel/comments/10dsg04

"Supposedly the TPU is custom designed, but I'm not sure.
Honestly, there's no real tangible benefit to the chip. I'm sure if Google just used the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, they'd be able to achieve everything Tensor does and if TSMC fabbed it, it'd run faster and cooler than Tensor does.

Maybe down the track if Google actually design the cores themselves, we'll see some difference, but as is, it's just a marketing gimmick."

"Maybe it doesn't exactly hold any immediate advantages since the AI features are possible on other chips. But it does have a big advantage in that its an in house processor by Google, which is much cheaper for them to develop. Think about how they got the Tensor into the Pixel 6a instead of a budget processor. I think that over time they might be able to better optimize the chip for their phones and reach an Apple level of optimization, but its definitely a big cost-cutting advantage for them in the short run."

I think the answer is pretty obvious - Tensor just isn't good enough or optimized compared to Snapdragon or Apple socs. This is also clear in raw speed which of course doesn't matter as much but does show where it lacks.

Unlike most people here I am upgrading from a much older phone 2XL so I expected improvements going to 5 and then to 7 that were immediate and obvious. and sadly so far they seem to be incremental or worse in some areas.

I hope thats understandable.

 

[B. Diddy]

I wish I were technical enough to give a better analysis, but unfortunately I'm not. I can only suggest giving the phone a little more time, but if it's not up to snuff for you, then by all means consider a return within the allotted time period.

 

[Crispy]

I wish I were technical enough to give a better analysis, but unfortunately I'm not. I can only suggest giving the phone a little more time, but if it's not up to snuff for you, then by all means consider a return within the allotted time period.

If the Pixel 5 was getting more updates I think I'd just keep that. At this point I'm leaning towards the 7 as it will get 3 more years support and I want to use the special features.

btw the 3 years support is another thing that is bugging me - now all the other oem's offer 4+ years never mind Apple.

It is what it is. I guess this is what Pixel phones are now.

 

[mustang7757]

If the Pixel 5 was getting more updates I think I'd just keep that. At this point I'm leaning towards the 7 as it will get 3 more years support and I want to use the special features.

btw the 3 years support is another thing that is bugging me - now all the other oem's offer 4+ years never mind Apple.

It is what it is. I guess this is what Pixel phones are now.

Like mentioned give it a week to settle in learning and if it last a day i think your going be ok .

 

[B. Diddy]

Keep in mind that Google was the first to announce expanding their support to guaranteed 3 OS upgrades and 5 years of security updates; then other companies followed suit, and did them one better. It's also unclear if this will matter, but it is worth pointing out that other companies use specific wording that could mean a lot. Samsung says it will give a minimum of 4 years of security updates, and up to 5 years for "select devices": https://security.samsungmobile.com/workScope.smsb. This could clearly be interpreted differently than Google's policy, which states that Pixel 6 and above will get at least 5 years of updates: https://support.google.com/pixelphone/answer/4457705?hl=en#zippy=,pixel-later

In addition, their official press release used similar wording for OS upgrades: "up to four generations of One UI and Android OS upgrades on select Galaxy devices" (italics are mine): https://news.samsung.com/global/sam...-up-to-date-and-more-secure-galaxy-experience

It remains to be seen if Samsung will actually guarantee 4 years of OS upgrades for its flagships (and it's almost certain these "select" devices will only be flagships, while midrangers are left behind, unlike the PIxel "a" series). If they do, then great! Competition in this respect is a good thing for the consumer.

 

[rvbfan]

Good try. But seriously, some people won't be be happy with changes.

 

[Morty2264]

My Pixel 7 seems to have much better battery life than my Pixel 5. But I'm a moderate user at best. Everyone's mileage will vary!

 

[PGrey]

Mine does well too, EXCEPT when it's idle. For example, I got a "no apps listed" drain of 17%, last night (since midnight until this AM), with Battery Saver and Data Saver enabled, so not much background should've been happening (except messages, phone and a couple of other system-critical apps, I have almost everything set to Optimized).
Most of my system drain is from "Mobile Network Connectivity", which is weird, because I have a great 4G/5G (depending on if Battery Saver is enabled) signal, in a suburban area.
Weird stuff, and annoying. This was an issue after the November update, fixed in the January one, and then seems to have reoccurred after the March update. Fingers crossed that something in the April update fixes it, but honestly I wonder if this is more of a TMo issue, than anything (something weird with radio balancing, etc)...

 

[Crispy]

Mine does well too, EXCEPT when it's idle. For example, I got a "no apps listed" drain of 17%, last night (since midnight until this AM), with Battery Saver and Data Saver enabled, so not much background should've been happening (except messages, phone and a couple of other system-critical apps, I have almost everything set to Optimized).
Most of my system drain is from "Mobile Network Connectivity", which is weird, because I have a great 4G/5G (depending on if Battery Saver is enabled) signal, in a suburban area.
Weird stuff, and annoying. This was an issue after the November update, fixed in the January one, and then seems to have reoccurred after the March update. Fingers crossed that something in the April update fixes it, but honestly I wonder if this is more of a TMo issue, than anything (something weird with radio balancing, etc)...

I remember this used to be an issue back in the early days of Android.

There used to be lots of discussion about Android system usage, wakelocks, disabling network/location when sleeping using Tasker etc.

I don't remember ever facing these issues since I got my Pixel. I think there is definitely something in Android that is still there and causes battery drain.

 

[Morty2264]

Mine does well too, EXCEPT when it's idle. For example, I got a "no apps listed" drain of 17%, last night (since midnight until this AM), with Battery Saver and Data Saver enabled, so not much background should've been happening (except messages, phone and a couple of other system-critical apps, I have almost everything set to Optimized).
Most of my system drain is from "Mobile Network Connectivity", which is weird, because I have a great 4G/5G (depending on if Battery Saver is enabled) signal, in a suburban area.
Weird stuff, and annoying. This was an issue after the November update, fixed in the January one, and then seems to have reoccurred after the March update. Fingers crossed that something in the April update fixes it, but honestly I wonder if this is more of a TMo issue, than anything (something weird with radio balancing, etc)...

I see what you're saying about it potentially being a carrier update -- especially if you don't have any active apps running that are notorious battery hogs *and* you have adequate signal. Keep us posted on what happens!