Battery life after about 2 weeks

[mchockeyvette27]

I'm coming from a S2, so battery life on this device is great compared to the older device. I know a lot of people may not like it. Especially if coming from the G2, Moto X or Note 3. For what this device is, it's good.

Honestly, with the numbers I and many others are getting, its GREAT for this device. All you have to do is figure in the price compared to those devices and viola, excellent battery life. If mophie were to make a battery case for this thing and it costs 100 bucks, I would have paid about $550 for the phone and that's still less than all those devices. With comparable or probably even better battery life. That's just my thinking.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

[VagabondSteve]

My battery life was terrible . In an hour it would drop about seven or eight percent and that's with me basically just leaving it sitting on the desk. 50% in a few hours.
After reading a lot of posts in a lot of forums I tried turning off Location and Google Now.
Freakin Magic! Of course you lose some functionality....

Posted via Android Central App

OK, on a PC now, Anyway the phone has been on today for 8+ hours and I have had 95 minutes talk time, a couple texts and lots of GMail activity. LTE is good here, wi-fi has been ON, as has Bluetooth (used for the 95 min talk time). Trying to post a screenshot. If it fails to show....it's at 84% now. If you haven't experienced the battery drain from (apparently) Location and Google Now then you might not understand the magnitude of the difference, but some folks were returning their phones over this.

 

[JeffDenver]

My battery life was terrible . In an hour it would drop about seven or eight percent and that's with me basically just leaving it sitting on the desk. After reading a lot of posts in a lot of forums I tried turning off Location and Google Now

Yeah, that is definitely not normal. Even playing CPU-intensive games with the display on full I can get hours out of the battery.

 

[VagabondSteve]

I had to complete the post Jeff, and it is MUCH better now.
I am not sure why those would use SO much power, but the phone was gettting warm as well and google services of some sort was the largest consumer - more than the screen.
I'm happy, my wife should be happy (she's using one as well) and we'll survive not having the phone track our every move....

I know it's off topic, but the voice dialer seems to work poorly compared to my Nexus4.....

 

[mchockeyvette27]

I had to complete the post Jeff, and it is MUCH better now.
I am not sure why those would use SO much power, but the phone was gettting warm as well and google services of some sort was the largest consumer - more than the screen.
I'm happy, my wife should be happy (she's using one as well) and we'll survive not having the phone track our every move....

I know it's off topic, but the voice dialer seems to work poorly compared to my Nexus4.....

The fact that Google now and location services were chewing through your battery definitely means there's something wrong. I have all that on. It seems like you aren't too worried about having them active though. If that happened to me I would have factory reset my device. Or even flashed the factory images, which seems to fix more issues.

Did your wife have the same issues?

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[VagabondSteve]

The fact that Google now and location services were chewing through your battery definitely means there's something wrong. I have all that on. It seems like you aren't too worried about having them active though. If that happened to me I would have factory reset my device. Or even flashed the factory images, which seems to fix more issues.

Did your wife have the same issues?

Posted via Android Central App

McHockeyVette27: I gave the Readers Digest version of the process. Sorry. I am really not happy to lose the features but I can only do so much to solve the issues as assistance from Google...well here's the long version:

It included a long, warm & fuzzy phone call with Nexus Support (where I was given tips on dimming the display and such web-link fare) that did nothing to change the problem, a Factory reset from the web links provided by that phone call, (which only changed my attitude about calling Nexus support). Here's their latest response:

"You are doing all the steps that I would give you to improve your battery life, you can try and restart the device once every other day that may also help on getting you that extra battery life, you also want to make sure you are using the charger it came with some chargers may charge faster which can cause your battery to die faster. (I am Qi charging or using the factory charger only though I am not sure I buy the statement. Would you?)

If you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to reply directly to this email. Also, you can visit our help center at:
support.google.com/googleplay"

Yeah a visit "there" is not all that, I have been there.

Troubleshooting included experimentation with both the 16GB and 32GB Nexus 5's in the household (both of which have both problems I mentioned, of battery life and poor voice dial recognition. Both phones showed the same dramatic improvements upon terminating those two apps.)

Finally I decided on reading the forums to see what others were doing about this. I tried some other suggestions in the forums like reverting versions of Google Search, Play and other apps, clearing cache / data in these (and the Bluetooth Share), none of which provided the kind of solution termination of Location services and Google Now did. I will admit perhaps Google Now might not need to be stopped, but it was late and I had had enough fun for one day with this, so I turned both off at one step. Of course without location services "Now" is a little impotent.

I was told the voice dial issue was probably my speaking voice, which apparently was good enough for the N4 but not the N5(s). And my wifes voice as well, though she never had a Nexus 4, her 2 yr old TMob/HTC G2 worked well). I tried three different BT2.1+HDR headsets from Samsung (one was new in box) and a Motorola H500 vintage headset I had lying around with no joy. I have given up on the voice dial issue for the moment - I will get a newer headset soon and pick it up then. I admit I am not returning the phone as I believe these are soft issues, not hardware. Today it occurs to me, from another forum post, that Android Device Manager and / or my AVAST security software may be conflicting with Location or Now, so perhaps I will do more troubleshooting when time permits.(OR maybe not: My wifes unit has neither the AVAST nor the Android Device Manager active yet.....)

Now, you have peaked my interest with the phrase "flashed the factory images". I have no idea how one would do that but might try it if I felt comfortable with the process. I did not see it suggested before, so I did not investigate it. Is there any reason you might think it would be beneficial? I am assuming that it reverts all the software on the device to what was intended to be the system image at delivery. Perhaps something was corrupted in one device, but two? Srains the logical mind a bit, but I suppose it could happen. They were not shipped at the same time, but probably were delivered to Google in the same batch, delivered to me Nov 6 and 7th.

I used to make fun of the Genius'es at the Fruit Stand, but maybe a Genius would be handy about now....or at least a KB or TechNet from Google instead of the dumbed down support they offer. Geared for the lowest common denominator I suppose. I will say the phone support Rep was nice if ineffective.

Anyway thanks for the reply and if I missed anything (I did get tired during all this) please point it out!!! Thanks.

Steve

 

[mchockeyvette27]

McHockeyVette27: I gave the Readers Digest version of the process. Sorry. I am really not happy to lose the features but I can only do so much to solve the issues as assistance from Google...well here's the long version:

It included a long, warm & fuzzy phone call with Nexus Support (where I was given tips on dimming the display and such web-link fare) that did nothing to change the problem, a Factory reset from the web links provided by that phone call, (which only changed my attitude about calling Nexus support). Here's their latest response:

"You are doing all the steps that I would give you to improve your battery life, you can try and restart the device once every other day that may also help on getting you that extra battery life, you also want to make sure you are using the charger it came with some chargers may charge faster which can cause your battery to die faster. (I am Qi charging or using the factory charger only though I am not sure I buy the statement. Would you?)

If you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to reply directly to this email. Also, you can visit our help center at:
support.google.com/googleplay"

Yeah a visit "there" is not all that, I have been there.

Troubleshooting included experimentation with both the 16GB and 32GB Nexus 5's in the household (both of which have both problems I mentioned, of battery life and poor voice dial recognition. Both phones showed the same dramatic improvements upon terminating those two apps.)

Finally I decided on reading the forums to see what others were doing about this. I tried some other suggestions in the forums like reverting versions of Google Search, Play and other apps, clearing cache / data in these (and the Bluetooth Share), none of which provided the kind of solution termination of Location services and Google Now did. I will admit perhaps Google Now might not need to be stopped, but it was late and I had had enough fun for one day with this, so I turned both off at one step. Of course without location services "Now" is a little impotent.

I was told the voice dial issue was probably my speaking voice, which apparently was good enough for the N4 but not the N5(s). And my wifes voice as well, though she never had a Nexus 4, her 2 yr old TMob/HTC G2 worked well). I tried three different BT2.1+HDR headsets from Samsung (one was new in box) and a Motorola H500 vintage headset I had lying around with no joy. I have given up on the voice dial issue for the moment - I will get a newer headset soon and pick it up then. I admit I am not returning the phone as I believe these are soft issues, not hardware. Today it occurs to me, from another forum post, that Android Device Manager and / or my AVAST security software may be conflicting with Location or Now, so perhaps I will do more troubleshooting when time permits.(OR maybe not: My wifes unit has neither the AVAST nor the Android Device Manager active yet.....)

Now, you have peaked my interest with the phrase "flashed the factory images". I have no idea how one would do that but might try it if I felt comfortable with the process. I did not see it suggested before, so I did not investigate it. Is there any reason you might think it would be beneficial? I am assuming that it reverts all the software on the device to what was intended to be the system image at delivery. Perhaps something was corrupted in one device, but two? Srains the logical mind a bit, but I suppose it could happen. They were not shipped at the same time, but probably were delivered to Google in the same batch, delivered to me Nov 6 and 7th.

I used to make fun of the Genius'es at the Fruit Stand, but maybe a Genius would be handy about now....or at least a KB or TechNet from Google instead of the dumbed down support they offer. Geared for the lowest common denominator I suppose. I will say the phone support Rep was nice if ineffective.

Anyway thanks for the reply and if I missed anything (I did get tired during all this) please point it out!!! Thanks.

Steve

OK I have two things to say out of all this. The first thing, I don't want to insult your intelligence at all, but have you toggled GPS off? Its a little different in 4.4 and it comes turned on by default. And that may be why turning off location services is helping. Open your notification tray to the toggles and click on location. The very first option is mode. Switch that to power saving. It turns off your GPS and only uses WiFi/cell towers to find you I believe. Once again, I don't know if you've tried that or not since it wasn't mentioned. But that's where I would start after reading your last post.

Second, flashing stock images to your phone requires that you unlock the boot loader (which will wipe the entire phone) and being able to follow simple steps to use the android SDK and adb and using a command line. If that does peak your interest, I'd suggest searching YouTube for a couple videos on how to do it. I'm no expert at it but I always root/unlock my phones and flash custom Roms and thats how I gain my knowledge.

So if my first suggestion wasn't already attempted, do that first.

I really can't guarantee any results from my suggestions cause frankly that's all they are. But I am really trying to help you, through my experience. Hope it helps! Let me know.

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[mchockeyvette27]

Also if you would like, give the ART runtime a shot. Don't know if you know what that is but it is a setting in the developers section. There's also a ton of info about it in other forms if you'd like to know more. But I will say this, I was very disappointed in my battery life after the first few days with the phone. And after I switched from dalvik to ART, I am now utterly impressed with the battery life. Now, whether it was just a coincidence or it really did help, I'd recommend trying that before digging into flashing stock images.

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[rameshchowdhary]

My battery stats

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[rameshchowdhary]

My battery

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[mchockeyvette27]

My battery

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Very nice. Seems like it's holding up pretty well for you!

Posted via Android Central App

 

[clevin]

Very nice. Seems like it's holding up pretty well for you!

Posted via Android Central App

Seems like he or she was not using the thing.

@T-Mobile GN3

 

[mchockeyvette27]

Seems like he or she was not using the thing.

@T-Mobile GN3

If they weren't, the screen wouldn't be the second thing on there and there wouldn't be any applications showing there. So I would have to disagree with you there. Doesn't mean it was heavy usage though

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[clevin]

If they weren't, the screen wouldn't be the second thing on there and there wouldn't be any applications showing there. So I would have to disagree with you there. Doesn't mean it was heavy usage though

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

I actually was commenting on the first image, thought the second was the same. lol

GSMarena tested that it can last something around 40 hrs if one were to do 1hr call+1hr web+1hr video every day. so 9hr is really nothing if you ask me.

a screen on time would solve the mystery.

 

[mchockeyvette27]

I actually was commenting on the first image, thought the second was the same. lol

GSMarena tested that it can last something around 40 hrs if one were to do 1hr call+1hr web+1hr video every day. so 9hr is really nothing if you ask me.

a screen on time would solve the mystery.

Yeah which is why I stated in the op to do so to avoid this. Lol

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[DroidGuy1990]

The battery on the Nexus 5 should be enough to get anybody through a full day on regular use. I can get my full workday that includes talking on the phone, sending emails, receiving text, ect ect... But your are not going to get anything great on HEAVY usage.

 

[mchockeyvette27]

The battery on the Nexus 5 should be enough to get anybody through a full day on regular use. I can get my full workday that includes talking on the phone, sending emails, receiving text, ect ect... But your are not going to get anything great on HEAVY usage.

I'll have to disagree. My five hour screen time and 15 hour days are consistent with heavy usage. Usually includes an hour total of gaming, tons of texts, calls, email, forums, internet, YouTube, music and on and on and on. And that's with 50/50 Wi-Fi and LTE. Now unless heavy usage to you means constantly watching Netflix or playing a game for hours on end, then this phones battery holds up with heavy use. Or at least it's great enough for me.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

[DroidGuy1990]

I'll have to disagree. My five hour screen time and 15 hour days are consistent with heavy usage. Usually includes an hour total of gaming, tons of texts, calls, email, forums, internet, YouTube, music and on and on and on. And that's with 50/50 Wi-Fi and LTE. Now unless heavy usage to you means constantly watching Netflix or playing a game for hours on end, then this phones battery holds up with heavy use. Or at least it's great enough for me.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

To each their own...Some people are disappointed with the Moto X's battery but I can get a full day and half on a single charge. It all depends on the end user.

 

[mchockeyvette27]

To each their own...Some people are disappointed with the Moto X's battery but I can get a full day and half on a single charge. It all depends on the end user.

Very true. But there are others who aren't getting the most out of their phone that they can be getting. Like the gentleman I'm trying to help above. And thankfully he hasn't just given up like others on figuring out why.

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[DroidGuy1990]

Very true. But there are others who aren't getting the most out of their phone that they can be getting. Like the gentleman I'm trying to help above. And thankfully he hasn't just given up like others on figuring out why.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

I completely agree, If you purchase a device I think you should be fully aware of everything and anything that device does. That is how you get your moneys worth out of it after all. Alot of consumers get these top tiered phones and run facebook and send a few text and make a few calls that is all...They dont understand that they have a fully capable computer in the palm of there hands.