On a quest for better battery life - back to 4.4.4 I go!

[Geodude074]

I don't use my Nexus 5 anymore, it's my backup device when I need mobile data only. I started losing faith in my N5 after I installed a new battery, but the battery life was still atrocious. It wasn't the screen on time that was bad, but the stand-by time that was bad. This was my N5's battery life as of yesterday/today.



And the screen on time:



I used my N5 as a GPS for 2 hours, from which it went from 95% battery to about 60%. I forgot about my N5 and left it in my car, and when I went to get it around 4 PM today, the battery was dead. It went from 60% to 0% in less than 24 hours, which is quite typical for my N5. My Moto G on the other hand can be left on stand-by for a week before the battery dies, and that's with 1-2 hours of screen on time and while still getting notifications from Facebook/emails/etc.

Battery life on Lollipop has been terrible for my N5, and I've finally decided to rollback to KitKat. There were many things I preferred about KitKat over Lollipop anyways, like the stock keyboard, gallery app, separation of Gmail/Email apps, and a quick easy way to either silence your phone and leave it on vibrate or disable all notifications.

I'm not sure if the terrible battery life has to do with Lollipop or with the N5, but I'll soon find out. If battery life is still bad with KitKat on my N5, I'll probably be switching to a different phone - most likely either a Galaxy S5 or a Note 4, since they have removable batteries.

Anyways, I'll update you guys soon and let you know of my findings with KitKat and stand-by battery life.

 

[belodion]

Your battery discharge is directly related to your Awakes. Is this something you are aware of and have investigated, and the likely cause in your settings?

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Geodude074]

It's because of the Google Play Services. I rolled back to 4.4.4 and I still have the same issue.

 

[Geodude074]

Well I looked around and I disabled as many of the Google Play services as I could. I set Location to Battery Saving, and I turned off all the syncing except for Gmail. I definitely saw an improvement in battery life, but it's still not good. It's gotten better but it's still not good.







Stand-by time uses roughly 22% a day now, instead of 30%-40% a day that I used to be seeing on my N5. Google Play services only used 4%, compared to 60% when I didn't have most of it disabled. Stand-by time with KitKat is also much better than with Lollipop - with Lollipop I would see a 50%-60% drop in just a day of stand-by.

But it's still not good, this is my Moto G the past 23 hours.







It only used 13% battery life on stand-by. And I rarely used either of these phones yesterday, they were both just sitting there.

This means my N5 will last about 4 1/2 days just sitting idle. My Moto G will last about 7 1/2 days sitting idle. It's a pretty big difference.

My best guess is the Snapdragon 400 is just much more power efficient than the Snapdragon 800 when sitting at idle. Either that, or HD Widgets is a huge battery suck. In either case, the N5 hasn't been my main device for a while, and I don't see it becoming my main device either. I don't use my phone very often anymore, and my main priority is battery life, especially during stand-by.

Maybe I'll just get an iPhone.

 

[belodion]

Have you tried turning wifi off for a while, diagnostically?

Posted via the Android Central App