Nexus 5 battery life after one year

[Geodude074]

Hello all. How is your Nexus 5's battery performance after about one year of ownership?

For me personally, my battery performance is at an all time low. I used to get 3 to 3 1/2 hours of onscreen time before the battery depleted. Now I'm getting roughly 1 hour of onscreen time before the battery is depleted. The degradation is quite astonishing but not too unpredictable, since nonremovable batteries means you're forced to buy a new phone every 1-2 years, which is what manufacturers want.

Sadly because of this sole reason, my next phone is not going to be a Nexus phone. My next phone will have a removable battery, simply because I want to replace the battery once it has gone bad.

 

[Rukbat]

I'm guessing that you regularly don't charge the phone until it tells you to charge it, at which time the battery is down to about 5%. And you got a whole year of use from the battery? That's doing pretty good.

You should never let the battery get down below 40%. Setting the "Recharge the battery now" notification at 5% or 10% is a great idea - for battery manufacturers. It lets them sell more batteries. It gives you a little over 300 charges at full capacity. (Charging at 50% will give you about 1,500 charges at full capacity - and some batteries just don't quit when they're not allowed to drop below 50%. I have a couple from a 2003 flip phone that are still running strong.)

 

[brosko]

Hello all. How is your Nexus 5's battery performance after about one year of ownership?

For me personally, my battery performance is at an all time low. I used to get 3 to 3 1/2 hours of onscreen time before the battery depleted. Now I'm getting roughly 1 hour of onscreen time before the battery is depleted. The degradation is quite astonishing but not too unpredictable, since nonremovable batteries means you're forced to buy a new phone every 1-2 years, which is what manufacturers want.

Sadly because of this sole reason, my next phone is not going to be a Nexus phone. My next phone will have a removable battery, simply because I want to replace the battery once it has gone bad.

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This is very disconcerting to know. I just Bought my n5 2 months ago, hopefully on 10 months the battery isn't dead. I do wirelessly charge so I'll try to always charge it before it gets below 40%, but that's a tough task with this phone. It doesn't take much to get below 40%. Guess I might have to get a wireless charger for my truck for when I'm at work.

 

[kojoti2]

Who told you that battery is not removable?
I order new battery and soon my nexus 5 will have new juice to suck up. Check on YouTube how to replace battery on nexus 5 is really easy.

 

[belodion]

My N5 is about 9 old months. Before Lollipop I could get 3.5h SOT easily enough, now it's about 2.5h. That's after Cache Partition wiping, Factory Resetting, and the usual attempted remedies, none of which has made a noticeable difference.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[mrsmumbles]

I'm getting roughly an average of 3 hours screen on time, maybe more. I've had the phone since launch. I used to get 6 hours SOT.

 

[belodion]

^^^6h is incredible. I'd have thought you'd have to do some fancy underclocking and undervolting to get that.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[only1canoli]

I agree battery life sucks since lollipop. I hope they fix it soon.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Geodude074]

Who told you that battery is not removable?
I order new battery and soon my nexus 5 will have new juice to suck up. Check on YouTube how to replace battery on nexus 5 is really easy.

Thanks, I did exactly just this. A new battery was $15 on Amazon with fast free shipping (I could have bought it for around $10 but then it would ship from China).

The way I look at it, I really have nothing to lose. If I don't replace my battery, I'll never use the phone again. If I somehow break the phone while installing a new battery, I'll never use the phone again lol.

The last time I tried to install a new screen on an old smart phone it didn't work so well and the phone wouldn't power on when I put it back together, but that phone was a lot more complicated to take apart, so hopefully with the N5 things will go better.

 

[PPP mcleod2]

Try turning off Google Now. See if your battery life improves as much as mine has. Just did this yesterday and significant difference

Posted via Android Central App

 

[DaInfamousOnE]

Mine has been performing better since the new OS. I kept wondering what was draining my battery on kitkat. I figured out It was playing videos from Youtube or downloaded to my phone would drain it quickly. I tested the theory yesterday by not playing any youtube videos. I only viewed webpages and texting friends throughout the day. I even increased the screen timeout to 5 minutes. I was able to get nearly 7hrs of OST. That is unheard of for me. I use to get 3 - 3 1/2 per day. So i know if I play videos I should recharge it right away. Is this the expected behavior on all smart phones to lose battery quickly on video playback?

Here is my battery stats from today so far

 

[mrsmumbles]

^^^6h is incredible. I'd have thought you'd have to do some fancy underclocking and undervolting to get that.

Posted via the Android Central App

Nope, I was just lucky. Plus I wasn't doing much of anything graphics intensive or a whole lot of video streaming. Just basic web and forums mostly. Some music.

 

[DaInfamousOnE]

Video playback from YouTube or direct download is what kills the battery it seems. I wonder if the nexus 6 drains fast from video playback.

 

[Geodude074]

Try turning off Google Now. See if your battery life improves as much as mine has. Just did this yesterday and significant difference

Posted via Android Central App

Thanks for the tip, but it's not a software issue, it's the battery. When using my phone for about an hour, it will go from 100% to 0%. The battery doesn't hold as much of a charge as it used to.

 

[Bront]

Video playback from YouTube or direct download is what kills the battery it seems. I wonder if the nexus 6 drains fast from video playback.

Mobile data always drains the battery, as you're using the mobile radio, which is a battery hog. Beyond that, you're processing the video (heavier CPU usage), and the screen's always on.

Ever want to see something amazing? Turn your phone on in Airplane mode (you can use Wifi), and see how much longer the battery runs. I retired my old Sprint GNex and did that, and used it for a while without the radio running, and it more than doubled the battery life. I could let it idle for 24 hours and lose less than 5% of the battery (Previously, it would use 20-30% at least).

Also, I suggest disabling LTE unless you need it. Saves a lot of battery, and for most general web browsing, you don't need full LTE.

 

[brosko]

Mobile data always drains the battery, as you're using the mobile radio, which is a battery hog. Beyond that, you're processing the video (heavier CPU usage), and the screen's always on.

Ever want to see something amazing? Turn your phone on in Airplane mode (you can use Wifi), and see how much longer the battery runs. I retired my old Sprint GNex and did that, and used it for a while without the radio running, and it more than doubled the battery life. I could let it idle for 24 hours and lose less than 5% of the battery (Previously, it would use 20-30% at least).

Also, I suggest disabling LTE unless you need it. Saves a lot of battery, and for most general web browsing, you don't need full LTE.

Honestly call me stupid but I see no real reason at all for LTE. Mine is on 3g mode and I have at&t hspa+ listed as the network type in about phone settings. Everything is nice and fast and works great. No need for anything more IMO.

 

[Geodude074]

Mine has been performing better since the new OS. I kept wondering what was draining my battery on kitkat. I figured out It was playing videos from Youtube or downloaded to my phone would drain it quickly. I tested the theory yesterday by not playing any youtube videos. I only viewed webpages and texting friends throughout the day. I even increased the screen timeout to 5 minutes. I was able to get nearly 7hrs of OST. That is unheard of for me. I use to get 3 - 3 1/2 per day. So i know if I play videos I should recharge it right away. Is this the expected behavior on all smart phones to lose battery quickly on video playback?

Here is my battery stats from today so far

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I don't watch videos on my phone, so that can't be the cause of my battery drain. I'm guessing my battery drains during standby because I'm constantly getting emails or FB statuses through the day, which causes my phone to wake up over and over. Tomorrow I'll leave my phone on airplane mode to test this theory. If leaving it on airplane mode solves it, then at least I'll know what causes it. But it's not the solution I want, since I NEED my phone to accept incoming emails.

 

[Geodude074]

Well I put my phone in airplane mode this morning. Standby time was excellent as predicted. Screen on time about doubled as well - what I did was set my display to fall asleep every 30 minutes, so the display would just stay on. No video running, no YouTube, nothing - just the screen being left on.

But, my screen on time is still only about two hours, which is still way less than what it used to be. If my N5 wasn't in airplane mode, that time drops in half as well.

I'm still waiting for my new battery to get in here, so hopefully it's just a battery issue.

 

[DaInfamousOnE]

Well I put my phone in airplane mode this morning. Standby time was excellent as predicted. Screen on time about doubled as well - what I did was set my display to fall asleep every 30 minutes, so the display would just stay on. No video running, no YouTube, nothing - just the screen being left on.

But, my screen on time is still only about two hours, which is still way less than what it used to be. If my N5 wasn't in airplane mode, that time drops in half as well.

I'm still waiting for my new battery to get in here, so hopefully it's just a battery issue.

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Hey Geodude Happy New year!

Trust me I don't want that as a solution either. The type of phone that I want is one that last a long time without me having to constantly recharge the phone. I heard great things about the nexus phones from other users. But I didn't expect the battery life to be this poor. But again I previously had the galaxy S3 phone and that battery life was terrible. I need to search for a phone that kinda lasts as long as my iPad. At least with that I can play videos and don't have to worry about the battery life draining. I was looking to swap to either the nexus 6 or the note 4 for mobile phone. But if the OST is still 3-4hours I think i'll just pass unfortunately.

 

[DaInfamousOnE]

Also I use the nexus 5 for incoming e-mails from my job. It's critical to receive exchange e-mail in my profession so I constantly need to be on alert in case of any issues. What battery did you purchase for the nexus 5? I'm assuming your going to follow a battery swap process. Does the shell have to be changed to support the new battery?