Is this battery life on my Pixel 2 normal?

[Android Central Question]

My Pixel 2's battery seems to drain abnormally fast. An hour of browsing chrome can take about 15% off my battery. 3 or so minutes of YouTube can take off 1%.

Recently I logged 8 hours and 12 minutes from full charge to 4%, with 3 hours 37 minutes of screen on time. It was probably above 90% brightness 70% of that time.

The battery usage breakdown of that day are as follows:

Chrome, 55 mins, 16%
WhatsApp (video call I think), 18 mins, 9%
Dream Leauge Soccer (game), 27 mins, 7%
beinSports (news and video), 21 mins, 6%
YouTube, 22 mins, 6%
Clock, 1 hour 15 mins (not sure what that means), 4%

the rest are pretty low percentages.

 

[PowrDroid]

My Pixel 2's battery seems to drain abnormally fast. An hour of browsing chrome can take about 15% off my battery. 3 or so minutes of YouTube can take off 1%.

Recently I logged 8 hours and 12 minutes from full charge to 4%, with 3 hours 37 minutes of screen on time. It was probably above 90% brightness 70% of that time.

The battery usage breakdown of that day are as follows:

Chrome, 55 mins, 16%
WhatsApp (video call I think), 18 mins, 9%
Dream Leauge Soccer (game), 27 mins, 7%
beinSports (news and video), 21 mins, 6%
YouTube, 22 mins, 6%
Clock, 1 hour 15 mins (not sure what that means), 4%

the rest are pretty low percentages.

No, that's not normal battery usage. Have you completely powered down your Pixel 2 and then restarted it?

 

[Photo_Drew]

No, that's not normal battery usage. Have you completely powered down your Pixel 2 and then restarted it?

With brightness turned up that high? Sounds pretty normal. Screen brightness with screen time is your biggest user.

 

[maverick7526]

My Pixel 2's battery seems to drain abnormally fast. An hour of browsing chrome can take about 15% off my battery. 3 or so minutes of YouTube can take off 1%.

Recently I logged 8 hours and 12 minutes from full charge to 4%, with 3 hours 37 minutes of screen on time. It was probably above 90% brightness 70% of that time.

The battery usage breakdown of that day are as follows:

Chrome, 55 mins, 16%
WhatsApp (video call I think), 18 mins, 9%
Dream Leauge Soccer (game), 27 mins, 7%
beinSports (news and video), 21 mins, 6%
YouTube, 22 mins, 6%
Clock, 1 hour 15 mins (not sure what that means), 4%

the rest are pretty low percentages.

With brightness that high I would say that's normal. I usually keep my screen around 15% brightness, and I usually end up with around 5hrs+ of sot when I charge around 20% The biggest killer of battery is the screen, if you want better battery life I suggest turning down a little bit.

 

[Rukbat]

Charge at around 30%, only charge to 75-80%. At 90% brightness, your numbers are around normal, especially if you normally drop the battery to 4%. Lithium batteries don't like deep charge (to 100%, or even over 80%) or deep discharge (under 30%). And an Amoled screen is a big power hog.

 

[TraderGary]

Charge at around 30%, only charge to 75-80%. At 90% brightness, your numbers are around normal, especially if you normally drop the battery to 4%. Lithium batteries don't like deep charge (to 100%, or even over 80%) or deep discharge (under 30%). And an Amoled screen is a big power hog.

Can you document your charging recommendations because this is contrary to my understanding of how Lithium/Ion batteries work. I had understood that those kinds of charge/discharge recommendations were for older NiCad battery technology.

It is also my understanding that AMOLED screens are much more energy efficient as energy is only used to turn individual pixels on and off instead of LED screen technology's using an LED backlight that is turned on all the time.

I must confess that my technological understanding is not always correct and I'm always open to learning new things.

 

[B. Diddy]

The 80-40 guideline is fairly standard -- Tesla recommends it for their big lithium battery packs as well. Following that guideline will prolong overall battery life, but from a real world standpoint, it detracts from the routine usage of the phone, since you'd only be able to use it for 40% of a battery charge. I don't have any qualms about charging up to 100%, but try not to let it drop much below 30% on a regular basis.

BatteryUniversity.com (from Cadex) is a good, heavily detailed resource.

 

[Morty2264]

I'd say that is a pretty normal SOT. I know for me, personally, seeing that battery percentage indicator always makes me anxious about my battery life and I'm always wondering what my battery "health" is like. I wouldn't worry! See how you feel after turning off your battery percentage indicator (if you have it in the top right corner of your screen).

 

[TraderGary]

What I've gleaned from my reading is that battery electronics in chargers and devices already limits maximum and minimum charge percentages in order to optimize battery life. This makes good sense. Leaving it up to the user to determine optimum maximum and minimum battery percentages for optimum life would make no sense as literally no one would (or realistically could) follow those recommended percentages.

I've always charged to 100% (according to my device, which was undoubtedly limited to well below an actual 100%) and charged at night without regard to a low percentage. I've had many phones and have never had a battery problem. So the bottom line for me is that I'll continue to use my phones the same convenient way I always have. My wife is now using my old Nexus 6 and after 3.5 years it is still going strong and giving her a full day's battery life.

 

[Morty2264]

What I've gleaned from my reading is that battery electronics in chargers and devices already limits maximum and minimum charge percentages in order to optimize battery life. This makes good sense. Leaving it up to the user to determine optimum maximum and minimum battery percentages for optimum life would make no sense as literally no one would (or realistically could) follow those recommended percentages.

I've always charged to 100% (according to my device, which was undoubtedly limited to well below an actual 100%) and charged at night without regard to a low percentage. I've had many phones and have never had a battery problem. So the bottom line for me is that I'll continue to use my phones the same convenient way I always have. My wife is now using my old Nexus 6 and after 3.5 years it is still going strong and giving her a full day's battery life.

Wow, that's amazing about the Nexus 6! So glad it's still working well - the Nexus line was amazing! I miss it!

 

[PowrDroid]

Well I completely skipped over the part about screen brightness at 90% so, yes, I agree that your battery usage is "normal" considering the brightness setting.

 

[msr360]

My Pixel 2 is currently at 78%, last full charge was 3hrs 30mins ago, and screen usage since full charge is only 48mins........ Brightness is set at 50% with adaptive on. Wondering if that sounds normal.

 

[TraderGary]

My Pixel 2 is currently at 78%, last full charge was 3hrs 30mins ago, and screen usage since full charge is only 48mins........ Brightness is set at 50% with adaptive on. Wondering if that sounds normal.

With "Adaptive brightness" turned ON, there's no way of telling how much battery your screen has been using as brightness is continually changing and adapting to whatever environmental lighting you take it to.

 

[Theot]

What I've gleaned from my reading is that battery electronics in chargers and devices already limits maximum and minimum charge percentages in order to optimize battery life. This makes good sense. Leaving it up to the user to determine optimum maximum and minimum battery percentages for optimum life would make no sense as literally no one would (or realistically could) follow those recommended percentages.

I've always charged to 100% (according to my device, which was undoubtedly limited to well below an actual 100%) and charged at night without regard to a low percentage. I've had many phones and have never had a battery problem. So the bottom line for me is that I'll continue to use my phones the same convenient way I always have. My wife is now using my old Nexus 6 and after 3.5 years it is still going strong and giving her a full day's battery life.

I'm with you, I keep reading about this 40-80% thing and I'm not saying there isn't any validity to it but I'm just getting tired of worrying about battery life frankly and I don't have time to worry about finding a charger if I'm at 40% nor do I have time to worry about overcharging it if I let it hit 81%. Battery degradation is inevitable with phones and unless my phone is over 60% when I go to bed I'm going to plug it in.

 

[B. Diddy]

The 40-80% thing is not necessary for the average phone user, since the average user will upgrade their phone after 2-3 years. This usually isn't enough time for the kind of degradation we're talking about to become a significant issue. But if you want to keep your phone for 5-6 years (which hardly anyone does these days), then it does become more important.

I would say that if there's one guideline to follow, it's to avoid frequent deep discharges (i.e., letting it drop to single digits or zero on a regular basis). If you do this a lot, the battery will degrade faster, such that it might become more noticeable after as short as 6-12 months.

 

[Morty2264]

The 40-80% thing is not necessary for the average phone user, since the average user will upgrade their phone after 2-3 years. This usually isn't enough time for the kind of degradation we're talking about to become a significant issue. But if you want to keep your phone for 5-6 years (which hardly anyone does these days), then it does become more important.

I would say that if there's one guideline to follow, it's to avoid frequent deep discharges (i.e., letting it drop to single digits or zero on a regular basis). If you do this a lot, the battery will degrade faster, such that it might become more noticeable after as short as 6-12 months.

Thank you - this is important information and it made me feel better about my own charging practices!

 

[GSDer]

nor do I have time to worry about overcharging it if I let it hit 81%. Battery degradation is inevitable with phones and unless my phone is over 60% when I go to bed I'm going to plug it in.

If you don't want to deal with it then let an application take care of it for you (after all, isn't that what apps are for?) - Battery Charge Limit [ROOT] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.slash.batterychargelimit will ensure that your device doesn't charge above whatever limit you choose while leaving it plugged in overnight. Note that, as the title suggests, it requires root capabilities.

 

[Mike Dee]

The 40-80% thing is not necessary for the average phone user, since the average user will upgrade their phone after 2-3 years. This usually isn't enough time for the kind of degradation we're talking about to become a significant issue. But if you want to keep your phone for 5-6 years (which hardly anyone does these days), then it does become more important.

I would say that if there's one guideline to follow, it's to avoid frequent deep discharges (i.e., letting it drop to single digits or zero on a regular basis). If you do this a lot, the battery will degrade faster, such that it might become more noticeable after as short as 6-12 months.

Agreed....best thing is not to run on empty.

 

[Joltcola1234]

I usually charge my phone before it gets below 30%. never worried about charging it to 100%, but I usually do (overnight). trying to keep it between 40 and 80% is far to burdensome. I've never had to replace a battery during a 2 year life cycle of any phone I've owned.

 

[msr360]

I've been noticing recently that the Pixel Launcher is killing my battery. anybody else notice this?