Just switched from iPhone X to Pixel 2 XL - have a couple of questions

[NMCynthia]

^^THIS!^^

 

[TheDonJ77]

Thanks for all the really helpful advice d
everyone.

My iPhone is going back today, I absolutely love this Pixel. It feels like MY phone, and whilst the X is a stunning device, I wouldn't trade my Pixel 2 XL for the world. I've also bought a Google Home to further immerse myself into the ecosystem

Smart decision. The P2XL is an awesome device with stellar battery and an awesome camera. Throw in Google Assistant and it's a done deal

 

[Joltcola1234]

Charge only to 70%. Charge when it's down to 30%. (Charging at 40% is even better.

I don't know how anyone could possibly follow this advice. You are limiting yourself to only using 30% of the charge on your battery. This doesn't seem even remotely practical to me. The extra longevity you get from the life of your battery isn't worth the inconvenience of monitoring the battery like this. My battery was still above 70% after 10 hours off charge today .

 

[Mike Dee]

I don't know how anyone could possibly follow this advice. You are limiting yourself to only using 30% of the charge on your battery. This doesn't seem even remotely practical to me. The extra longevity you get from the life of your battery isn't worth the inconvenience of monitoring the battery like this. My battery was still above 70% after 10 hours off charge today .

Agreed....to each his own, but life's too short for me to worry about battery longevity. About the only thing I do is try to avoid a total discharge which in my mind is a real battery killer.

 

[LeoRex]

Agreed....to each his own, but life's too short for me to worry about battery longevity. About the only thing I do is try to avoid a total discharge which in my mind is a real battery killer.

I'm one of the first people who will come into a thread to touch upon good charging practices, but kind of agree here. Yes, limiting your charge widow to something like 40-80% will absolutely maximize the life span of the battery...

But...

You're basically turning this into a phone that'll give you a couple of hours of use...

And I don't take think it's all that necessary in the case of the 2 XL. In the early marketing of the phone, Google ran an ad campaign with questions people have about their phone.. one of them, one that really stood out, was 'Why does my battery not last as long as it once did?'. That got my attention. Told me that Google was looking to address battery degradation... And there is really only to ways to do that a) lower the peak charge capacity of the cell or b) use a more conservative charging profile.

Quick background here... I had a 6P, and that phone had a pretty aggressive charge profile, it stayed steep and landed at a pretty high voltage. That speed and capacity came at a price. After about 15 months, I lost about 15% of it's capacity. Anyone who left that thing on the charger overnight, something I never ever do (bad, very bad!), They probably lost twice that.

So Google learned some lessons here... The Pixel 2 begins to step down the charge speed fairly early, and come to a very soft landing. You'll see complaints about the charging speed, but I kind of scoff at those... That speed (or lack thereof) isn't an oversight, it's a conscious decision by Google to put as less stress as possible on the battery as it charges fully.

So I happily charge to 100%, secure in the notion that I'll not send this battery to an early grave. About 7 months in, my battery is still at full capacity (actually 101%, mine came higher than 3520 out of the box). I'll be curious where I'll be a year from now (I want two years), but I'm guessing I'll be in pretty good shape and, unlike my 6P, I won't be looking to get a battery replacement.

 

[Mike Dee]

I'm one of the first people who will come into a thread to touch upon good charging practices, but kind of agree here. Yes, limiting your charge widow to something like 40-80% will absolutely maximize the life span of the battery...

But...

You're basically turning this into a phone that'll give you a couple of hours of use...

And I don't take think it's all that necessary in the case of the 2 XL. In the early marketing of the phone, Google ran an ad campaign with questions people have about their phone.. one of them, one that really stood out, was 'Why does my battery not last as long as it once did?'. That got my attention. Told me that Google was looking to address battery degradation... And there is really only to ways to do that a) lower the peak charge capacity of the cell or b) use a more conservative charging profile.

Quick background here... I had a 6P, and that phone had a pretty aggressive charge profile, it stayed steep and landed at a pretty high voltage. That speed and capacity came at a price. After about 15 months, I lost about 15% of it's capacity. Anyone who left that thing on the charger overnight, something I never ever do (bad, very bad!), They probably lost twice that.

So Google learned some lessons here... The Pixel 2 begins to step down the charge speed fairly early, and come to a very soft landing. You'll see complaints about the charging speed, but I kind of scoff at those... That speed (or lack thereof) isn't an oversight, it's a conscious decision by Google to put as less stress as possible on the battery as it charges fully.

So I happily charge to 100%, secure in the notion that I'll not send this battery to an early grave. About 7 months in, my battery is still at full capacity (actually 101%, mine came higher than 3520 out of the box). I'll be curious where I'll be a year from now (I want two years), but I'm guessing I'll be in pretty good shape and, unlike my 6P, I won't be looking to get a battery replacement.

I guess I shouldn't leave mine on overnight either.....another good easy thing to do without driving myself nuts about charging....just have to remember to charge a bit before bedtime.

 

[LeoRex]

I guess I shouldn't leave mine on overnight either.....another good easy thing to do without driving myself nuts about charging....just have to remember to charge a bit before bedtime.

Yep, that's the silent killer. While true that these things won't overcharge (well, there was that XL bug)... That it's safe to leave it on doesn't mean it's good to do so. I equate overnight charging to taking a little too long to change the oil in your car. Do it once or twice and It won't cause the engine to detonate, but do it all the time and down the road, you'll start to hear those valves ticking much too soon.

 

[Mike Dee]

Yep, that's the silent killer. While true that these things won't overcharge (well, there was that XL bug)... That it's safe to leave it on doesn't mean it's good to do so. I equate overnight charging to taking a little too long to change the oil in your car. Do it once or twice and It won't cause the engine to detonate, but do it all the time and down the road, you'll start to hear those valves ticking much too soon.

Valves ticking on a 65 Chevy meant the engine was broken in....lol

 

[Kizzy Catwoman]

My battery is between 93% and 98% depending on the battery app. I don't tend to overcharge it, but I don't get the life many of the people on here talk about. I am even using NapTime to maximise it. But despite that I like that I can go out with 30% battery and come home with 20% left while listening on bluetooth to a podcast. My iPhone drops from 30% to 5% in less than that time. And I even changed the battery on my 6s fairly recently. I never let it die. I always try and remove it from charge as soon as it hits 100%

One thing I have noticed is that as soon as it hits 100% and I take the charger off it drops to 99 or 98%. I mean immediately. I wonder why....?

 

[Mike Dee]

My battery is between 93% and 98% depending on the battery app. I don't tend to overcharge it, but I don't get the life many of the people on here talk about. I am even using NapTime to maximise it. But despite that I like that I can go out with 30% battery and come home with 20% left while listening on bluetooth to a podcast. My iPhone drops from 30% to 5% in less than that time. And I even changed the battery on my 6s fairly recently. I never let it die. I always try and remove it from charge as soon as it hits 100%

One thing I have noticed is that as soon as it hits 100% and I take the charger off it drops to 99 or 98%. I mean immediately. I wonder why....?

I wouldn't be too concerned....I don't pay that much attention but I'll check next time I fully charge.

 

[hallux]

Since we're talking charge habits. I don't think I left my 6p on charge overnight very often. I RARELY do with my 2 XL. I have cables both next to the chair I use in my living room and next to my bed. If it needs a bump, I plug it in, and if it's charging next to my bed while I'm preparing to go to sleep I unplug it before I go to sleep regardless of the charge level, though my tablet charges overnight.

 

[Almeuit]

I personally never charge a phone overnight. I will do it some when I get home from work or maybe an hour before bed and then go to bed with it on battery.

 

[PowrDroid]

My charging habit is to plug the phone first thing in the morning when I wake up. Then I go about my morning routine which takes about 30-35 minutes. Then I unplug and go to work. I'm usually at 85% to 90% battery to start the day and I typically end around 50 - 55% at night. If I get below 40% I will plug it in for a while then unplug at bedtime. Works for me.

 

[hub1]

I do the same thing I have done since my first cell phone. I put it on the charger when I go to bed and take it off when I get up and use it all day, rinse and repeat. Never had any battery problems.

 

[anon(10000748)]

Wait leaving your phone on the charger all night is bad for it? Doesn't the charging circuit protect the battery?

 

[LeoRex]

Wait leaving your phone on the charger all night is bad for it? Doesn't the charging circuit protect the battery?

Well... battery protection circuitry protects your battery from overcharging and going all explody on you. When you leave a fully charged phone on a charger, what ends up happening is that it goes through a bunch of microcycles. It reaches full charge, but since your phone is still on (known as a parasitic load), it'll draw a little bit of power and then it'll charge back to full again... it does this over and over. It would be awesome if phones had power systems designed to completely bypass the battery when it hits 100% and have the phone run straight off of the wall current. But they don't.... you are running off the battery the entire time, it just throttles the charge rate to match.

Now, also keep in mind that the 'stress' a cell is under will increase as it nears its saturation voltage (full charge) as well as when it nears full depletion. How much stress is a function of how much charge you are pushing into it. That's why all phones will slow down charging as it nears 100%... Those recommendations to not charge past 80% are based on this concept. Under 80% (and over 30 or 40%) charge stress is minimal. That's why all those fast charge systems only truly fast charge in that meaty portion where the battery can take a ton of juice without breaking a sweat. If they kept charging at those fast charge speeds straight to 100%... you'd probably be able to use the thing as a space heater for a bit until it failed and decided to breathe fire.

A lithium ion based battery, if it lives its life between this lower and upper limit will last a very long time, certainly longer than what you would consider to be the current usable lifespan of a phone... which, sadly, is still not really that much longer than 3 or so years... at which point it the software will be grossly out of date.

So if the phone is left on your nightstand overnight, it's pretty much under charge stress for most of the time. It's not a ton of stress, but its still stress. Over time, this all starts to add up and the speed at which the battery degrades increases.

It's this same reason why it's not that good for the battery if you keep a fully charged phone on the charger and start using a power intensive application, like a game. Rather than the slow discharging of a sleeping phone on a nightstand, you are drawing significantly more power and forcing the phone to charge back up to 100% at a much higher rate. So if you are on the road a lot and tend to leave it plugged in while you are using a navigation app like Waze or Google Maps, you are putting a substantial strain on the battery. You'd be better served unplugging it and letting it drain.

Anyone here have a laptop that is left plugged in all the time? If so, I am sure you are well acquainted with having a battery be completely toast. Laptop batteries are exactly the same kind of cells, just more of them. And that laptop draws far more power... an always plugged in laptop can kill a battery in as little as 6 months. Some laptops actually have smart charging profiles that artificially hold the charge to 50 or 60% and allow you to set a time where you might want it to have it fully charged.

Sorry for the tangent... but coming back.... keeping it between 40 and 80 isn't exactly practical for the most part. So there are some other real-world practices that you can do that will strike a good compromise:

- Avoid leaving a fully charged phone on a charger for extended periods as best as you can
- Don't make a habit of draining it below 20% and certainly to the point where the phone turns off.

And, lastly, the Pixel 2 XL has excellent battery life, so don't stress if you have to head out and your phone's not fully charged. This phone has more or less cured me of battery anxiety. I no longer keep a arsenal of battery monitoring applications running, nor do I obsess over the little battery meter up there in the top right. I know the thing is going to get me through most days with ease.

Do those three things, and chances are you will have got rid of the phone before the point where the battery has degraded significantly enough to have become a nuisance.

 

[TraderGary]

I don't stress over battery life. I've always left my phones on their charger overnight. I leave my Pixel 2 XL on its charger overnight. My wife is using my old Nexus 6 that was purchased in November of 2014 and has been left on its charger overnight every night since it was new and it still gets her through the day. I have a Microsoft Surface Pro 3 tablet that has been left on its charger 24/7 since it was new in June of 2014. I occasionally take it off the charger and use it when watching TV and it will easily last an entire evening just as it is supposed to. I have a Nexus 7 tablet that was purchased in July of 2013 and it's still going strong, it's used every day and left on its charger when not being used and it's about to celebrate its 5th birthday! My main computer is a Dell XPS 15 9560 purchased in February of 2017 and it stays on its charger 24/7 except when I occasionally go to battery use and then it will easily last the day.

I would think that if overnight charging were harmful or dangerous to these devices, there would be a warning not to do so. There are no such warnings. So I will continue doing what I do and not have to think about my battery use.

 

[Mike Dee]

I don't stress over battery life. I've always left my phones on their charger overnight. I leave my Pixel 2 XL on its charger overnight. My wife is using my old Nexus 6 that was purchased in November of 2014 and has been left on its charger overnight every night since it was new and it still gets her through the day. I have a Microsoft Surface Pro 3 tablet that has been left on its charger 24/7 since it was new in June of 2014. I occasionally take it off the charger and use it when watching TV and it will easily last an entire evening just as it is supposed to. I have a Nexus 7 tablet that was purchased in July of 2013 and it's still going strong, it's used every day and left on its charger when not being used and it's about to celebrate its 5th birthday! My main computer is a Dell XPS 15 9560 purchased in February of 2017 and it stays on its charger 24/7 except when I occasionally go to battery use and then it will easily last the day.

I would think that if overnight charging were harmful or dangerous to these devices, there would be a warning not to do so. There are no such warnings. So I will continue doing what I do and not have to think about my battery use.

I don't stress it either but I wouldn't leave the laptop plugged in all of the time. You may get great battery life but some of that is because the surface doesn't draw as much as some bulkier laptops. I say this if you plan to keep it awhile. I don't leave my Pixelbook plugged in specifically because the hardware in that machine well exceeds what it needs so it shouldn't be obsolete any time soon.

 

[LeoRex]

I would think that if overnight charging were harmful or dangerous to these devices, there would be a warning not to do so.

It's not dangerous, but it is harmful (albeit only marginally). As for the warnings, everything with a LiPo battery should warn that leaving the device on the charger for extended periods can reduce battery life span, that they don't is shame.

I am not making this up, this is a long established fact and supported by industry lab testing and guidance from the manufacturers that have designed and built them. Whether we choose to follow their advice is our call. So I appreciate the fact that you've done this without worry is fine, but that doesn't invalidate the fact that these batteries do degrade quicker as a result.

We're getting in the weeds a bit here (partially my fault of course)...

Does the OP have any more questions?

 

[nucks26]

I too have had no issues with this screen. I have it set to saturated and it's perfectly fine. Never notice blue tint unless I tilt it off axis just to look for it. The colours do look dull when it is not in saturated mode though.