Battery life not as good as expected [solved]

[MercuryStar]

Came from a Galaxy S2 thinking I'd almost be doubling my battery life, but the battery life on my brand new Note 2 seems significantly lower than expected based on reports here. Getting battery lasting 18 hours or so including about 3 to 4 hours screen on time, which frankly is about the same as my Galaxy S2.

Here's some things I've tried:

* It's been used and recharged a few days now, so it's not just that the battery hasn't been "broken in".

* Google Chrome uses a lot of CPU time. It was using more CPU time than any other app, and in battery usage terms almost as much energy as the screen. The stock browser uses much less CPU time for about the same amount of browsing. I have stopped using Chrome and signed out of my Google account in it, disabling all Chrome-related sync tasks. No one feature of Chrome seemed to be the culprit. It wasn't the "tilt scrolling" that was a problem as I had that turned off.

* GSam Battery Monitor is a great app to measure how much battery applications are using, and it proved valuable in singling out Google Chrome as a culprit.

* Nonetheless, I still am down from 100% to 60% battery with only 1hr 20mins screen-on time so far since last charge.

* High CPU time usage is coming from "Kernel (Android OS)", then "Internet", then "Android System", then everything else below that is negligible (Facebook, Twitter and Google Keyboard rate at about 2% each but that's fair because I have been using them). Phone and Phone radio battery usage is negligible (even though I've made phone calls). App usage is using nearly as much as screen.

Any more tips?

 

[HypoDest]

Re: Battery life not as good as expected

Try disabling 'keep Wi-Fi on during sleep' under the Wi-Fi settings. If you have Viber, it tries to override this setting so you'll have to disable it in Viber settings.

Disable wake up to a voice command under S-voice settings.

Go to google now/maps location settings and disable the 'Report from this device ' option under background reporting.

Also, under your battery app, check the wake lock section. Some apps keep regularly waking up the phone, preventing it from going to the power efficient deep sleep mode, but they register low on the usage charts since they are active for very short periods each time.

You could post your battery charts, they may be helpful.

Sent from my GT-N7100

 

[MercuryStar]

Re: Battery life not as good as expected

Try disabling 'keep Wi-Fi on during sleep' under the Wi-Fi settings. If you have Viber, it tries to override this setting so you'll have to disable it in Viber settings.

Disable wake up to a voice command under S-voice settings.

Go to google now/maps location settings and disable the 'Report from this device ' option under background reporting.

You try posting your battery charts, they may be helpful.

Sent from my GT-N7100

Thanks HypoDest; here's my battery stats:

http://i.imgur.com/kDL059q.png

http://i.imgur.com/cDDz095.png

http://i.imgur.com/Lcv32AI.png

I have S-voice disabled and never report my location.

As you can see there is not a massive amount of apps keeping the phone awake, but there is some. Using GSam I've found the biggest offender is "Google Services" and going into that it shows "Google Contacts Sync" is the package name. But it's not extreme, only 8min keep awake time.

 

[HypoDest]

Re: Battery life not as good as expected

If the Wi-Fi settings change doesn't help, and you don't find any wakelocks, it's likely a 4g+weak signal issue. If possible, you may wanna keep Wi-Fi off when you are not using it.

Sent from my GT-N7100

 

[MercuryStar]

Re: Battery life not as good as expected

GSam battery monitor rates Wifi as being only responsible for 0.3% of my battery use. It doesn't even register on the in-built battery monitor.

The weak 4G signal may be an issue, but phone radio/cell standby rates at only 3% of battery use on both GSam and in-built.

All rate far lower than "Android OS/kernel" and "Android System/" which amount to a combined 16% of battery use, this on a day with relatively low use with the screen on so-far.

My guess is that something set to sync in the background is doing so slowly and timing out each time. I'm not good at interpreting the details pages in GSam though. I had a feeling at one stage it said something about Contacts Sync under package name. Contacts sync is not something I want to turn off though, and according to the sync settings there are no errors, so maybe this isn't anything to do with my problem.

Maybe there's actually no problem and I just have unrealistic expectations for battery life.

 

[jrsharp70]

Re: Battery life not as good as expected

I use mine all day for s note and looking stuff up. I lose about 10% per hour if I am on wifi, and that is a ton of screen time.

All I can say is use the built-in power save mode (toggle), and set it so that the screen has the power save dimming. I keep mine at 25% unless I'm outside. I've never noticed lag using the power saver.

I could seriously go for 2 12 hr days if I put airplane mode on for the 6 hours I sleep.

I went for an hour runor yesterday with runtastic gps on and music and 4G, and only burned about 10%.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[MercuryStar]

Re: Battery life not as good as expected

Just wanted to update this thread as I've done some more research and learning.

There are a few things that use quite a bit of battery on my Note 2:

1. Network Location Provider, specifically the part which runs in the background and helps Google collect information on the location of Wifi access points. This is enabled/disabled through "Use wireless networks" under the Location Services settings. Unfortunately disabling it also means you don't get wifi or cell-based location as a backup to your GPS. Alternatively you could disable GPS and leave "Use wireless networks" on which should prevent that service from being able to do anything, too. The Network Location Provider makes up part of what is known as "Google Services" in the battery stats.

2. The kernel itself seems to use quite a bit of CPU time. This can't be helped, and is probably normal. I think it's similar to my Galaxy S2. This shows as "Android OS" in the battery stats.

3. The Activity Manager, which is responsible for dealing with background apps (possibly garbage collecting and/or saving app state). This is a normal part of Android and can't be helped. Suggestions on other forums say you can avoid this by fully closing each app, however if you do that you are simply doing the same level of work, except it will be recorded as foreground CPU under the specific app. So I wouldn't worry about it. Tends to be high if you switch between apps a lot, especially those with high memory usage. The Activity Manager is just one of the wakelocks that make up the "keep awake" part of the "Android System" entry in the battery stats.

That said, I think I still don't get enough battery life giving all of the above. I'm aware that I have 4G which is only medium strength signal, and I have wifi enabled, but I should be getting more than around 3 hours screen-on time with mostly web or Twitter browsing (I used my Galaxy S2 in the same way but got the same or better battery life). I am actually thinking of purchasing a new battery for my device. If it helps, great, otherwise it'll at least mean I have a backup battery.

 

[MercuryStar]

Re: Battery life not as good as expected

Bought a new battery for it last night (same as the stock one).

So far, even though it's the first charge, the battery life looks greatly improved. It's chewed through very little battery today at all, and it looks like I'd probably get 6+ hours screen on time with this battery (even just on the first charge).

Ironically the new battery has an earlier manufacturing date.

Will let you know if things change.

Edit. Yes I think the new battery fixed it. 12 hours including over 3 hours screen time and it's still only down to 60% battery. At this rate it's like I don't have to worry about battery anymore!

There must have been something quite wrong with the first battery...