Battery life is not what I expected - wifi eating a lot of battery

[MikeLip]

Hi. I am somewhat disappointed with the Turbo battery. It's better than the Moto X, but not as good as, say, the Droid Maxx or even the old Razr MaxxHD. In looking at my battery usage stats, wifi is using more than cell standby and phone idle. I am not using the phone most of the time so at the moment screen is way down there. On the other phone, when the phone is idle like this on has been all day, wifi usage is nearly nothing.

Running apps are about what I'd expect except for the EAB application which I've never seen before. The other apps are about the same as on the other phones. My OS is 4.4.4 system version 21.44.8. So while the latest update has eliminated the weirdness with using mobile data when wifi is available, wifi has gone to being the biggest power consumer on an idle phone, which is just wrong.

What the heck is going on? What is hitting the wifi radio so much on an idle phone? I am tempted to turn off both data radios and see what happens, or get one of the battery saver programs that allow you to set a schedule for radio usage, say once every half hour.

 

[MA2GA28]

Could be a trade off for the stronger/wider Wifi signal most are seeing. Might just mean the radio is sending/receiving a better signal. It also could just be a balance, with Wifi attributing to more drain because apps or idle time is more efficient.

However, I haven't noticed Wifi being that much more of a battery drain after the update. Maybe a percentage point or two, but that's it. I have noticed the battery struggling a bit more since the update. I had a few good days of excellent time immediately after the update (about 1 day, 18 hours each charge). But since then, I've been creeping around 1 day, 4 hours or so per charge. I have been doing more streaming as of late, so that definitely has something to do with it. I'll report back once I track a couple more 'typical' days.

 

[KoukiFC3S]

What are your advanced wifi settings?

I suspect "Scanning always available" is the culprit. I turned it off and wifi is showing at 8% on my battery usage stats.

 

[MikeLip]

What are your advanced wifi settings?

I suspect "Scanning always available" is the culprit. I turned it off and wifi is showing at 8% on my battery usage stats.

Thanks, I'll try that.

Battery isn't *horrible*, understand. It's better than the Moto X, But I would have expected it to be at least as good as my older Maxx type phones, and it's not at all. What is way better, surprisingly, is my HTC One M8 for Windows. That thing is incredible.

 

[MikeLip]

Could be a trade off for the stronger/wider Wifi signal most are seeing. Might just mean the radio is sending/receiving a better signal. It also could just be a balance, with Wifi attributing to more drain because apps or idle time is more efficient.

However, I haven't noticed Wifi being that much more of a battery drain after the update. Maybe a percentage point or two, but that's it. I have noticed the battery struggling a bit more since the update. I had a few good days of excellent time immediately after the update (about 1 day, 18 hours each charge). But since then, I've been creeping around 1 day, 4 hours or so per charge. I have been doing more streaming as of late, so that definitely has something to do with it. I'll report back once I track a couple more 'typical' days.

Actually it is somewhat better after the update. The mobile data radio isn't on all the time anymore, which improved things a lot. But it's still not quite right.