How bad does Always On affect battery life?

[Theot]

Well I did an overnight test with AOD off, and for the same amount of time, it cut the rate of drain in half vs having it on. I didn't notice this on my Pixel 2 so I'm thinking there's some bugs to fix or further optimization to be done.

I don't think you will ever get rid of all the drain with it on. You have an application running and a small part of the screen is lit up. It's going to use power no matter what.

I've often just set the phone face down at night, that turns the AOD off as well and when you pick it back up it's there running.

 

[pixel3person]

I don't se why apple doesn't use AODs...

 

[chezm]

I don't se why apple doesn't use AODs...

Because it would likely kill the standby time battery rates, plus raise to wake likely kills more battery than I’d like so I’d prefer AOD vs that

 

[recDNA]

Great arguments for led notifications. I wish Google didn't desert its best features

 

[legion125]

Need the notification light back. Less drain on the battery than this method.

 

[bhatech]

I use it as a feature, like any other feature on the phone it does affect battery. But it's insignificant for my usage so leave it on all my phones if it has always on display.

 

[vzwuser76]

I don't think you will ever get rid of all the drain with it on. You have an application running and a small part of the screen is lit up. It's going to use power no matter what.

I've often just set the phone face down at night, that turns the AOD off as well and when you pick it back up it's there running.

Well I never expected to stop the battery from draining, you've still got push notifications, and the cell radios need to stay active. But by shutting off AOD, I've cut the overnight battery drain in half. And the reason I found it disconcerting is that I had AOD enabled ony Pixel 2, but never had this amount of drain overnight. So that tells me that they need to do some tweaking for the Pixel 3.

 

[Theot]

Well I never expected to stop the battery from draining, you've still got push notifications, and the cell radios need to stay active. But by shutting off AOD, I've cut the overnight battery drain in half. And the reason I found it disconcerting is that I had AOD enabled ony Pixel 2, but never had this amount of drain overnight. So that tells me that they need to do some tweaking for the Pixel 3.

I meant that if you leave it on and they fix the drain there still be drain it will just be less.

See I'm still on the Pixel 2 and I've always had it, even on 8.1. it's always been at the top of my battery stats. I think some of it is software but some of it could very well be hardware related too if not everyone is seeing it. Some hardware more sensitive to it maybe?

 

[klau25]

Yeah I miss the notification light too. Another reason why I don't need AOD is because of my Garmin active watch. It has smart notifications, let me read all my messages, dismiss them, mark them as read, and even do simple reply. It does make not having the notification light a little easier.

 

[vzwuser76]

I meant that if you leave it on and they fix the drain there still be drain it will just be less.

See I'm still on the Pixel 2 and I've always had it, even on 8.1. it's always been at the top of my battery stats. I think some of it is software but some of it could very well be hardware related too if not everyone is seeing it. Some hardware more sensitive to it maybe?

I understand that, but my point was it appears to be using more juice than it did on the Pixel 2. If they fix it, then I'll probably re-enable AOD, but as it stands now, I don't necessarily miss it. It doesn't take much effort to tap the screen a couple times. Regardless, cutting battery drain in half is still worth it to me. Now I'm not going to keep it in airplane mode or anything that drastic, but every bit helps.

 

[TraderGary]

Do you ever see AOD in your Battery Usage list?

 

[Theot]

Do you ever see AOD in your Battery Usage list?

Not sure who that was for but I do all the time. Yesterday I had light usage and it was at the top.

 

[akhil8]

I believe it won't affect that much...

 

[TraderGary]

Not sure who that was for but I do all the time. Yesterday I had light usage and it was at the top.

I asked because I'm not seeing AOD in my Battery Usage list.

 

[Martin_F]

After a day of not using AOD, I can report that it does use battery, but it's not severe.
I've listened to music in the background for almost 5 hours that I didn't the day before, and I still came out at 40% left at the end of the day.
So for me, AOD battery drainage equals around 5 hours of background (screen off) music.

 

[klau25]

I asked because I'm not seeing AOD in my Battery Usage list.

I belive its called Ambient display.

 

[TraderGary]

I belive its called Ambient display.

Thanks!

 

[Kevin_G_Sanchez]

For me it's not a big drained. More rather of how often you forget to press the power button to turn screen off.

 

[Theot]

After a day of not using AOD, I can report that it does use battery, but it's not severe.
I've listened to music in the background for almost 5 hours that I didn't the day before, and I still came out at 40% left at the end of the day.
So for me, AOD battery drainage equals around 5 hours of background (screen off) music.

Yeah I've always found that I like having it on for informational purposes more than not and the cost of battery drain was negligible and the use I get from it out weighs the little bit of drain.

 

[puch96]

If AOD accounted for screen on time, then we will all have super high numbers.!!...

I used mine the first day, but I've turned it off since.