2-day battery life? I'm not seeing it...

[lowgman1234]

Just got the Xperia Z3 - the battery life, waterproofing, and other features pulled me to the Android side from an iPhone. I've been a iPhone user since the first iPhone, and have supported Android devices at work (I'm in IT) so I have never been immersed in Android like I have been with iPhone, but I am familiar with Android.

So, first off - many reviews call the Z3 the new king of battery life, saying they get around 48 hours out of the device before needing to plug in - with about 5 hours of screen-on use per day, give or take (video streaming, music, checking email, facebook, texting, etc). And that's WITHOUT stamina mode activated or any power management features besides whatever is on by default.

I don't find this to be at all true. With stamina mode on, I maybe get a day under moderate use. In fact, I don't see much of a difference between stamina mode being on or off. Am I missing something here? I use bluetooth headphones about 4 hours a day for music, and check texts and email throughout the day. Occasionally I'll play a game or do some web surfing. I get AT BEST a day (plug in at night, by the next night before bed the device is about to die).

If anyone has a similar experience, or some insight into what may be killing my battery at twice the pace that others claim to see - i'm all ears!

 

[JBeef]

I've never seen a claim for 2 day battery life with 5 hours screen on time each day. It's 2 day with light to moderate use, the 2 day claim being a sales gimmick. It lasts a day for me but with at least double the screen on time of my HTC One m7. As it's still a new toy I'm using mine very heavily and haven't killed it in a day yet. As an aside I believe the compact has even better battery life as it pushes less pixels.

 

[JBeef]

How much screen on time are you getting? Can't comment on your battery life without it.

 

[lowgman1234]

I've read reviews on this phone extensively being that I was moving to a completely different platform, and there were several reviews that placed the phone at around 48 hours between charges, same as the compact version. I didn't believe the 2-day battery life claim either until I started reading that it in fact did hit about 48 hours under moderate usage before a charge from respected review houses. That got me excited. Now seeing it in action with as much power management as I can muster set appropriately on the phone, I expected better life than this. At least 1.5 days.

From Endgadget:
"I'd add that the battery life is the reason why this phone will be remembered. In my personal usage, I regularly got two days of full use, or so near to two days that I'm loath to mark it down for the odd 10PM finish on the second day. This is with pretty constant "Engadget editor" sort of use too. It feels weird -- unnatural almost. "

I have not seen a review that doesn't place this phone at 2 days or near 2 days of use.

 

[lowgman1234]

Screen on time through a full charge cycle? I don't have an exact number, but I would guess maybe 4 hours a day, tops? To put that into perspective, I don't do much differently than I did with my 1 year old iphone 5s, and that just about got a full day under my normal usage.

 

[psp1232171]

Go into app settings and "Turn Off or disable" any apps that you will not be using ever. Also that horrible Facebook app is a known battery hog. That should help.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[JBeef]

4 hours tops is pretty low. I did get 2 days when I went to visit friends and my screen on time was lower but I used camera, maps nd Facebook quite a bit.
You need to go into the battery settings more and see what's eating up the battery life and what kind of stats you're actually getting. Could be you have a dud. Every electrical item has them.
I also read a lot of reviews and most of them said it was a day and a bit rather than 2. I'd say that's pretty much fair.

 

[lowgman1234]

I was looking at that earlier - maybe that would help. The Facebook app runs heavy on Android, does it? Hmmm....

 

[JBeef]

No not really. The biggest drain is always the screen. There's a guy on here that gets 9 hours screen on time but keeps the brightness very low. I don't and usually get at least 5.

 

[lowgman1234]

NOOOOO - no dud! lol. You are right though, I very well could have a bunk battery.

 

[alhadee12]

Screen on time through a full charge cycle? I don't have an exact number, but I would guess maybe 4 hours a day, tops? To put that into perspective, I don't do much differently than I did with my 1 year old iphone 5s, and that just about got a full day under my normal usage.

I was able to get about six hours of screen time on a day and a half. I still had about 20% left on my battery.

 

[erasat]

No not really. The biggest drain is always the screen. There's a guy on here that gets 9 hours screen on time but keeps the brightness very low. I don't and usually get at least 5.

That was me, but like I mentioned in the other thread, that 9+ hours of Screen on time was the first full cycle of the phone everything was set already more or less as I still have it, but the only difference is that I didn't use my Moto 360 that day, with my Moto 360 used all day, I haven't been able to duplicate that but I'm getting the still great 7.75-8 hours of Screen on time.

To the OP, I just can say that coming from iOS all those years means that you will need to give it more time to learn and put it to practice all the Android tricks, I've been posting my battery results here and I've XDA for almost 2 years now and I've always managed to get great battery life, look and check some of my posts, I think the ones you will find more likely are from my Galaxy S5 and Tab S, but I even created a thread with some hints to get better battery life, you can look for it and many of those still applies to the Z3 so you can try, but the most important one is the brightness, you need to be sure that you are using the brightness you feel comfortable with, not too bright or to dim, knowing that the lower the brightness the greater the battery life.

I have mine on around 20% with auto turned on, auto will help when going outside while 20% for me is more than enough for when inside that is most of the time, just around the same that I had it on my S4 and S5, and still have on my Galaxy Tab S, all of them with Samsung Super Amoled screens, when I had my LG G3 for a week, the lower I could have it was over 50%, the battery life was not as good as my Galaxies. Sony created a wonderful display with the Z3 so ideal brightness for me is just like the Galaxies.

Today I unplugged my phone as usual at about 5:30am, and I'm ready to sleep and 17 hours later and about 4h 45 m of Screen on Time I still have 40% of battery left. And right in the ball park for averaging almost 8h of SOT.

This on what I consider a heavy use with all day with bluetooth and connected to my car and Moto 360, plus GPS On all day but in used mostly when in the car and when I ran my usual 3 miles, plus tons of personal and work emails on my Gmail accounts, plus about 10 pictures taken, browsing the web and reading my news on Google Play Newsstand.

So I can say that don't give up, just keep looking for what may be causing you the battery leak because this phone really can get you if not 2 days very close to it on a charge as advertised, look my experience, and believe me I'm a heavy user if not how in this world I could be using my phone 8 or even 9 hours a day? Here is my today's battery stats.

 

[Jonathan Lin1]

I get about 4 SOT. It gets me through the day. Better than charging my nexus 4 twice a day. I do have 10+ accounts synced though.

 

[erasat]

I get about 4 SOT. It gets me through the day. Better than charging my nexus 4 twice a day. I do have 10+ accounts synced though.

Well I have a total of 9 accounts syncing, just 2 of them are emails.

 

[lowgman1234]

Do you mess with the stamina mode at all eresat? It's good to hear that maybe it's just my setup, but like you I run bluetooth all day for music at work and in the car, use it quite a bit for email if i'm not at my desk, and quite a bit at night for texts and the occasional web search.

Today I have this so far:
Unplugged at 100% at midnight last night.
Right now at 1pm MST, I am sitting at 69%.

Today has been significantly better than the previous 2. Weird. I do have stamina mode kick on at 60% as well with just a few select apps that are left alone for the duration (textra, mail, exchange services, skype, and wifi calling (on by default with tmobile). My screen is sitting at around 25-30% brightness with auto on - which is fine for me so far even in sunlight.

I will give this some time, and see what kind of average I get by the end of the weekend.

 

[erasat]

Do you mess with the stamina mode at all eresat? It's good to hear that maybe it's just my setup, but like you I run bluetooth all day for music at work and in the car, use it quite a bit for email if i'm not at my desk, and quite a bit at night for texts and the occasional web search.

Today I have this so far:
Unplugged at 100% at midnight last night.
Right now at 1pm MST, I am sitting at 69%.

Today has been significantly better than the previous 2. Weird. I do have stamina mode kick on at 60% as well with just a few select apps that are left alone for the duration (textra, mail, exchange services, skype, and wifi calling (on by default with tmobile). My screen is sitting at around 25-30% brightness with auto on - which is fine for me so far even in sunlight.

I will give this some time, and see what kind of average I get by the end of the weekend.

I don't use Stamina mode at all unless the phone has charged completely before I go to bed, on such cases I turn it on so I can save some power until I wake up.

 

[lowgman1234]

Interesting.... Maybe I'll try killing stamina mode and let it run flat out and see what I get - only using stamina mode at night (that's actually a pretty good idea).

 

[techaddict2]

Interesting.... Maybe I'll try killing stamina mode and let it run flat out and see what I get - only using stamina mode at night (that's actually a pretty good idea).

At night I turn on airplane mode waking up with 2-3% less battery life works for me

 

[gunzkevin]

Hey guys. I have the Z2. I know it has a little bit bigger battery than the Z3, but it should still be similar.

I get amazing battery. I never charge my phone over night, as charging past 75% greatly reduces the battery longevity.

What I do, I will plug my phone in once I get up at around 7, and by the time I leave the house, I am at around 40-50%

This is more than enough to get me through the day. At night, I am sitting around 10% and repeat the process.

I always have stamina mode on with hangouts and snap chat exempt, never use wifi, and never use low battery mode.

I am always checking snap chat, instagram, Android central, and other websites throughout the day. My brightness is set to auto with the slider on the lowest.

I charged my phone to 60% today at 12pm, it is now 2:54 am, and I am at 30%

Unfortunately due to my lack of charging to 100%, my stats are screwy, but here they are.

Posted via Android Central App