[tweakage]

Today is my first on the Nexus 5 and I'm seeing a strange issue with battery drain.

It seems the OS is eating up battery power quickly and was wondering what might be behind it.

Are there some good apps that can give more detail than "Android OS?" Thanks.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[Golfdriver97]

Since it is your first day, keep in mind the battery will need a few charge cycles to get in the swing of things.

[JMDxRIM]

37% over 3:25 on LTE doesn't seem too bad to me.

If you touch the graph it will give you a breakdown of what is on when, screen, GPS, wifi, etc.

[patruns]

Today is my first on the Nexus 5 and I'm seeing a strange issue with battery drain.

It seems the OS is eating up battery power quickly and was wondering what might be behind it.

Are there some good apps that can give more detail than "Android OS?" Thanks.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

I don't think you understand those readings. You have consumed 37% of the battery (assuming a full charge) over 3 hours and 25 minutes. Of that 37%, the O/S is responsible for 53%. Given that your screen time is only 10% it tells me you have not been using it a lot. The O/S runs constantly in the background so when your phone is sitting idle the O/S is responsible for just about all battery use. Play a game or surf for an hour and I think you will see quite different numbers.

[tweakage]

This is my third Android device and I don't recall a battery going down this quickly.

I understand your point about not using the phone a lot but I have almost 2 hours of screen on time and only have 20% battery remaining.

My Nexus 4 was never at this level at barely 11:30am.

Maybe after several charge cycles it should improve.


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[NexusNick123]

My first day was bad now I can get from 10-12 hours..

[tweakage]

Awesome, thanks for that Nick. I'm loving this phone. So much nicer than Nexus 4 and I loved the 4. The screen and LTE made this a no brainer in my case and I swore up and down that I wasn't gonna get this phone.

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[flipped4dinc]

One thing I've noticed is that the phone running background apps sucks down the battery even while sitting idle. I'm using DU Battery Pro and kills those apps every 10-15 minutes. So far it's cut battery consumption at least by half. The only negative effect I see is that apps don't have that instant response as when running all the time...

[QWIKSTRIKE]

My first day was bad now I can get from 10-12 hours..

I get better than that streaming music, and talking for three hours straight. Iget that and have 40% battery strength
after talkig for 3 hours and then play musinc stored on the device for a few hours, do a few down loads and signal checks. The battery out shines my GS3.

[NexusNick123]

For one week i was getting 16-17 hours but then I started using it all day so Im happy gets my past work and till i fall asleep..

I get better than that streaming music, and talking for three hours straight. Iget that and have 40% battery strength
after talkig for 3 hours and then play musinc stored on the device for a few hours, do a few down loads and signal checks. The battery out shines my GS3.

[mjburt]

To put it in perspective, take your screen time (convert to number of minutes) and divide by the percentage of battery life used to get minutes of screen time per percent.

You got about two hours screen time / 80% battery life used = 1.4 minutes per percent.

I'd say I use my phone a fair bit, and I got 1.4 hours / 28% battery life used = 3.0 minutes per percent (what it is right now).

So I'm getting about twice as much time on screen but I'm also using a battery saver app (among other things to help battery life).

Mike

[mjburt]

Just to clarify, by "percent battery used" I mean this:

If your phone is currently at 20% battery life left (your phone is almost dead), then the percent battery used = 100% - 20% = 80%

Mike

[tweakage]

Quick update on day 2 with new Nexus 5.

Slightly better today but not by much. I made a few minor changes that look like they helped a bit.

Here's what I did differently so far:
1. Installed a battery saver app
2. Disabled location reporting
3. Disabled Google+ auto backup (for images)
4. Turned brightness from 20% to 10%

Nothing I've seen so far can explain why "Android OS" is using such a high percentage of battery.

Coming from the Thunderbolt and then Nexus 4, it has always been the screen that takes up most battery according to how I use my phones.

I'm not doing anything differently with the Nexus 5 than I did with the Nexus 4 and there is a drastic drop in battery performance.

Below are today's screenshots with almost exactly the same" screen on" time as yesterday.

Not that it should have anything to do with it, but I'm unlocked and rooted with TWRP, otherwise stock with 4.4.2.

Are any of you seeing similar numbers with your Nexus 5?

Thanks

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[Gwaron]

Not that it should have anything to do with it, but I'm unlocked and rooted with TWRP, otherwise stock with 4.4.2.

Are any of you seeing similar numbers with your Nexus 5?

Thanks

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

That could very well be the issue. My unrooted N5 typically has an Android OS percentage from 6 - 7%.

[Sharky19]

I also found the stock Camera to drain the battery since you can't turn off location services. Try disabling it and switching to another app (e.g. Camera Zoom FX) and see if it makes a difference. I also switched to ART from Delvik and change GPS setting to battery saving.

I sideloaded 4.4 to 4.4.2 and re-enabled the camera and the battery started draining faster again. Those are my observations so far.

[tweakage]

That could very well be the issue. My unrooted N5 typically has an Android OS percentage from 6 - 7%.

That's always been my experience with Android OS being at or below 10%.

What I'll likely do is factory wipe the phone and install the latest factory image from Google. I'm gonna leave it locked and unrooted for a day or two. I'll let you guys know if this helps at all.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[mr.rickeyk]

I have all Google services on, including location services and I've been extremely pleased with my battery on my Nexus 5 compared to my N4. I make it through an entire day with 4+ hours of screen time. Every once in awhile I'll get a run away service or app that will want to keep my device awake and a quick reboot always seems to correct it. I've had my 5 for 2 weeks now and a few days ago I did have Google Play Services that went wonky on me and I only noticed because when I left work with only 35 battery, I knew something was up and sure enough, Play Services had kept my device awake for 10 hours. I rebooted and it's been great ever since.

My point is, I have found Google has done an amazing job at utilizing the batter with all their services on. It's usually a rouge app or service that needs to be reset and not turning everything off that makes a Nexus device so great. I think they've done a great job with the 5 and Kit Kat. Reading around I've found others are also happy with the N5s battery, so check for rouge apps and give it a couple days to see how it evens out for you. Like I said... I'm very happy with it.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[mjburt]

Yeah I think anything below 10% for OS is normal..I'm usually around 7-8

Mike

[rieuk]

I have more or less the same issue as OP. After 50% battery consumed, OS is taking up about a quarter of that with the screen at 37%. I also attached a betterbatterystats shot. While screen on is around 2hrs, the awake time is like 5.5 hrs (it was awake for 3.5 hours even though the screen wasn't on). Is this normal? What normally keeps it awake when the screen is not on?

[mjburt]

I'm assuming the distinction between "awake" and "deep sleep" have to do with running services and applications.

Your screen time is still pretty good though for the battery life that you've used.

Mike

[tweakage]

Here's an update after wiping and installing the Google 4.4 factory image, followed by restoring all apps, then the 4.4.2 OTA.

If you'll notice what I was referring to initially, "Android OS" consumes very little battery and screen is virtually always the biggest power drain.

There are still several tweaks I have yet to implement but I'm very happy so far with this. I'll add more to this when I'm able to improve on it. Thanks to all who responded so far.


Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[kcz7]

I don't know about anyone else, but the 4.4.2 update for my Nexus 5 has destroyed my battery. With the Qualcomm battery guru app, I was getting anywhere from 1.5 - 2 days worth of battery life. After this update my battery has been killed with no remorse. I'm not sure what all has changed, but it is not a merry welcome. I had to charge my phone twice yesterday within a 10hr span. I got a Nexus to stay up to date, but holy shizz man(!) this is frick'n nuts.

1st pic is 4.4 w/ART & the battery guru app. 2nd pic is after 4.4.2 update; still using ART/battery guru.


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[rieuk]

I got the update yesterday and my battery has improved as well. The OS doesn't seem to be consuming as much power. At least in the last 10 hours.

To the guy who used to get 1.5-2 hours ... How much screen on time were you getting?

Posted via Android Central App

[kcz7]

Before the update, my screen time was around 4h 30m +/-. I'm going to reset the Battery Guru this weekend and let it recalculate for 72hrs. Hopefully results will follow.



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[tweakage]

I'm really curious to hear your update on that. I had a record day today with the N5 and will post some great screen shots soon.