A little bit weird - even knowing battery is not good

[Tran Trung Le]

Hi all
Can anyone advise if the below battery usage is weird?
Even I know the battery is not good by 2h7m and 81% battery already used, is a little bit too much.
I uninstalled unnecessary apps already.

 

[kramer5150]

That does seem a bit short. I can't think of too many times when YT batt percentage is half of my screen. Even with my screen brightness at its lowest setting.

What was your screen brightness during the cycle?

Are all your apps fully updated? I am wondering if there was an auto-update somewhere in that cycle.

 

[kixfan]

YouTube taking 20% is horrible. It's taking 5x what the whole Android system is using! I would delete and reinstall that app to see if it gets better. Do you watch YouTube constantly? If not then that is a part of your issue.

 

[kramer5150]

Heres my usage last night... watching MKBHD, Flossy, Max Lee and Jaime vids last night over wifi.

Screen set to 0% (dimmest) and YT set to highest res. Even though the YT percentage is pretty high, I still should get over 5 hours of SOT from this charge.

 

[kixfan]

Yeah 5 hours is really bad although I get less than that here at work due to being on the fringe of coverage so the cell radio just keeps searching for service until the battery dies. I have to shut my data off here. Is the battery usage the same if you don't run YT for a charge cycle?

 

[kramer5150]

FWIW here is my Youtube session from last night... 68% after 2:15, most of which was screen on time with it dimmed down to its lowest setting. So your apps are definitely eating up your battery.... especially if you are running a "normal" screen brightness. Keep in mind my numbers below are based on my screen set to 0%.

 

[kramer5150]

Yeah 5 hours is really bad although I get less than that here at work due to being on the fringe of coverage so the cell radio just keeps searching for service until the battery dies. I have to shut my data off here. Is the battery usage the same if you don't run YT for a charge cycle?

If you are under wifi definitely use that. I am not sure why but cellular data uses more power than wifi data even with strong cellular coverage. Look at my cellular signal strength in the pics, I have no cellular data signal in my neighborhood so all the usage shown is with my wifi. Even voice-cellular is very weak in my area. So I turn cellular data off... theres just no need to activate something that doesn't work. I would turn off cellular-voice data too if I could... no one is going to be calling me in the middle of the night.

You are getting 5/5 bars of 4G LTE, it shouldn't be burning through battery searching. My understanding is once its locked on it remains that way. Unless your carrier network is off and on continually.

I am in and out of cellular coverage areas throughout my work and commute day. So I just leave cell-data turned off, until I actually need it. It would "probably" use battery needlessly... although I really doubt it would be that much. I don't always turn cellular data off, there are many times I forget, and I do not have battery problems.

 

[kramer5150]

... Also what does your "Ignore battery optimization" screen look like? You should uncheck as many of these as possible. Note on Verizon there are a handful of functions that force OFF the battery optimization.

 

[Tran Trung Le]

That does seem a bit short. I can't think of too many times when YT batt percentage is half of my screen. Even with my screen brightness at its lowest setting.

What was your screen brightness during the cycle?

Are all your apps fully updated? I am wondering if there was an auto-update somewhere in that cycle.

Hello.
Yes, I used a lot for YouTube. More than 2 hrs SoT, among that 2h27m.
Brightness ~65%. Sound ~60%
I tried to leave my phone untouched during sleep but the battery was ok. I guess that it is because of using Youtube.
But 2 hrs for 80% battery is still a little bit too much..

 

[Tran Trung Le]

YouTube taking 20% is horrible. It's taking 5x what the whole Android system is using! I would delete and reinstall that app to see if it gets better. Do you watch YouTube constantly? If not then that is a part of your issue.

Yes, I used 2hrs constantly, but taking 80% of my battery os still a little bit too much, I think.

 

[kramer5150]

Thats too much, YT should not be consuming that much battery... especially with your screen turned up to 65%.

Have you tried using wifi data instead of cellular?
Don't quote me on this, but I suspect YT uses more battery when you are watching higher res and higher fps video content.... 4k and 1080p / 60fps. You could try reducing resolution of the video stream... see if that helps. FWIW not all the videos I watch are the highest, many are 480 and 720p... depending on the channel

 

[Tran Trung Le]

Yes Kramer, I'm watching mainly 720p, using 100% cellular of 4G.
Could be that the connection of my 4G is not strong enough yet, so it consumes lots of energy than usual.
When I did not use my phone much, the battery is not bad, I think.

 

[kramer5150]

Just for the heck of it, I was watching YT at 1080P, but this time with my screen fully cranked at 100%. I watched for about 35 min. I still get ~4 hours of estimated time. I didn't fully run it all the way down however, so take this for what its worth. I actually find the screen TOO bright, it hurts my eyes... so I watched about as much as I cared to tolerate. But 3:30 ~4:00 is what I am seeing from mine with the screen at 100% the entire time.

You might want to take some time to un-install apps or at least de-activate them if you dont use them. How old is your battery? It might be time for a replacement. I see a ~25-30% reduction in screen-on time after 15~16 months from all the phones I have owned in the past.

 

[Tran Trung Le]

This batter is much better than mine. My stock battery is 13 months old now. I have a pair tos swap them when I need. Maybe I need to get a new pair now.

 

[kramer5150]

Have you tried de-activating cellular data?... and stream ONLY over wifi?
Cellular radios are less efficient than wifi, even in strong, consistent coverage areas.

A new battery WILL NOT solve your problem, if the differences we are observing are caused by our different connection methods.

FWIW the battery I used above is 17 month old, and the original cell that came with my phone. I also have two extras that have been in regular rotation.

 

[Tran Trung Le]

Thank you. Actually, my funny problem is that I could not use YouTube with wifi, only cellular. That's why I had to use cellular radios all the time.