Nexus 6p battery life question

[isaacjkim]

Hey guys,

I read about how amazing the nexus 6p has a great battery but I can't seem to get similar results.

I do everything to optimize the battery life (delete fb app, battery saving location settings, lowest brightness etc...) But I can barely get to the end of the day (8 pm?) with moderate use. And by moderate use I mean 2hrs of music playing, maybe 1 hour total of screen on time use to check msgs and social media during work hours/on the way home)

Also I lose about 10% overnight when people rave about the standby time. Is my phone a lemon?

 

[ianeb]

Hey guys,

I read about how amazing the nexus 6p has a great battery but I can't seem to get similar results.

I do everything to optimize the battery life (delete fb app, battery saving location settings, lowest brightness etc...) But I can barely get to the end of the day (8 pm?) with moderate use. And by moderate use I mean 2hrs of music playing, maybe 1 hour total of screen on time use to check msgs and social media during work hours/on the way home)

Also I lose about 10% overnight when people rave about the standby time. Is my phone a lemon?

Something is definitely eating your battery! Being new to Android I've struggled a bit with getting the best from the battery!

I'm now happy with 4 hours plus SOT every charge, and standby time is brilliant. I go to bed on say 45 percent and usually wake up with 45 or 44.

I switch off mobile data at home simply because the reception is so poor in the house so that helps I guess. I have Wi-Fi on and it's set to stay on when sleeping only when plugged in.

I switched off all the usual culprits, as you have. What has worked for me it seems lately is switching off Google Now and location services. Very noticeable difference for a service I barely make use of so not missing it really. I have brightness half way and today, I took phone off charge at 6:15am, currently on 85 percent with an hour screen on time and half hour streaming music.

I don't think you should have to switch off all the features to get good battery life. Android struggles with battery management it seems coming from iOS. Wi-Fi, according to my battery stats never turns off, ever. I've switched off everything and still it shows it as being on, even in aeroplane made so clearly a bug. Sometimes for no apparent reason google services and Android OS are 2nd and 3rd on the list with really high usage (9% upwards) and it coincides with bad battery performance, then for the next few days they're right down the bottom and battery is great!

Make sure you wipe cache, fixed couple issues for me (app cache and the partition cache)

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[isaacjkim]

Thanks for the tip!

I was just trying to get a sense from the community if i should be expecting "amazing" battery life like some of the reviews say or if people are barely getting a days worth.

Im not disappointed, as it can get me through most of the day but just wanted to make sure nothing was wrong with mine.

Thanks guys!

 

[damnyankees]

Hey guys,

I read about how amazing the nexus 6p has a great battery but I can't seem to get similar results.

I do everything to optimize the battery life (delete fb app, battery saving location settings, lowest brightness etc...) But I can barely get to the end of the day (8 pm?) with moderate use. And by moderate use I mean 2hrs of music playing, maybe 1 hour total of screen on time use to check msgs and social media during work hours/on the way home)

Also I lose about 10% overnight when people rave about the standby time. Is my phone a lemon?

Sounds like you're heading in the right direction as far as troubleshooting, but I figured I'd pass along some stuff that I read recently as I researched my own battery drain issues. It might be a bluetooth issue - possibly from a 3rd party app (I read a ton of posts about Gas Buddy and My Radar being major culprits), but possibly just an android bluetooth bug, which I think is my issue. I have my phone paired with my car's bluetooth system, and that's it. I have a 20 min commute. I noticed that I'd have the bluetooth icon in the nav bar, no matter if I was connected to my car or not. When I read in other forums that some people are experiencing general bluetooth wakelock bugs, I decided to shut off bluetooth to see what would happen. Instant fix. I think it's pretty annoying that in 2016, I paid $500 for a brand new phone and have to manually toggle bluetooth to preserve my battery, but c'est la vie. I'm sure Google is aware of it and hoping they are working on a fix. Not saying that my issue is the same as yours, but figured I'd pass along the info just in case. Good luck

 

[hallux]

Mine has been doing well. I have a BT headset connected pretty much all the time (connected from 6:30 AM until 7 PM). I don't spend a TON of time on the phone. What I DO use is Google Play Music to stream music over WiFi and to a stereo BT headset while I'm at the gym.

I charged my phone Tues. evening (I think), did 2 gym sessions (Wed., Thurs, 50 mins. each with music the entire time) plus an hour long phone call. With POOR cell signal at work and only slightly better at home, I made it through 2 days with 28% left in the battery. Oh yeah, I have 5 mail accounts syncing when the phone isn't in Doze mode. As I said, I don't use it a TON, I have a tablet (which is getting ABYSMAL battery life these days) for reading of periodicals and most games that I play. I have the 6P mainly for the screen size for work emails.

Oh yeah, Doze overnight last night only drained 7% from the battery, it had 99% when I went to bed as I had just taken it off the charger 2 hours before.

 

[isaacjkim]

See I am getting nowhere near these results and my phone isn't even a month old!

 

[icwhatudidthere]

There's no magic to the 6p battery life. You have to remember, battery life is very very subjective to how you use it. It's also very open to interpretation. When someone says they "barely" made it to 8pm, it could mean you've got 20% left to you but someone else can see that as 5% left.

Another thing to remember is a lot of people who are posting 6+ hour SOT actively manage the phone features to get there.

That said, you mentioned social media use, which can still be a drain even though you've deleted FB. The other day for example, I noticed Instagram took up 4% of my battery for the day, even though I never opened the app at all!

Check for any apps that are keeping your phone awake and check your screen brightness. And take people's anecdotes with a grain of salt.

 

[anon(5506951)]

I agree, there's no magic formula. I am indeed one of those who pays attention to what drains my battery. I have a plain AMOLED black wallpaper for my home screen, and I use AMOLED themes where possible. I also have an app that allows me to manually control screen brightness while giving me an exact percentage value (5%, at max brightness, my screen is quite bright). I disable apps and features I don't use, but toggle on as needed. All in all, I've been pleased with the results yielded.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Mojofilter9]

All these hoops that people seem to jump through to get slightly better battery life - are they really less hassle than having a small battery bank that you take out when you're going to be away from a charger for a long time?

 

[getbretweir]

one of the nice things I've experienced with the battery is I don't have to disable half the phones features to get decent battery life. my biggest drainer is Clash of Clans. If I play for an hour or so, or watch a Netflix movie (which I've only done once) it dramatically decreases my battery.

I remember when the S6 came out and people literally had to disable half the phone's features, that they paid for, just to squeeze out 4 hours SOT.

It really varies from person to person though. For instance, if I'm streaming music from a great signal, and you're doing the same thing from a weaker one, that's gonna have a significant impact.

Here's all I do ... 1) brightness low which is my preference (unless outdoors of course) 2) 30 second screen time out 3) black wallpaper 4) dark backgrounds when possible 5) no widgets, which I hate anyway 6) a strong signal in PA courtesy of VZ 7) disable Bluetooth when not in use

That's it. I leave location on, don't have any special battery saving apps or anything, and 99% of the time I use WiFi instead of data (I never turn data off though). I only check Facebook once a month, if that, so I don't have the app. I'd say the 30 second screen time out and strong signal help the most. I get a little over 5 hours SOT and it lasts the day, unless I'm playing CoC then it'll need a 20 minute charge.

Last thing, if I'm on an app like AC, with the dark background, the battery doesn't drain much at all. Same thing if I'm web browsing. But when I play Clash of Clans, or I'm on YouTube it drains significantly faster.

As far as Doze I had a one week period where it wasn't functioning properly and I'd lose 10% overnight. I didn't do anything and now for whatever reason it's more like 2-4%. If you have a strong signal, you're not draining the battery by playing games all day (which I know you're not), your brightness is low and screen time out under a minute, and you don't get about 4 hours SOT, and/or Doze isn't functioning properly, I'd definitely contact Google.

I'm amazed with some people's experience with the 6p (like Alex in that article yesterday). It's like we're using two different phones. I've had issues with people hearing me on speaker phone, but that's it. I've had none of the issues people, certainly Alex, have experienced. Battery is the #1 reason I bought this phone and no way I'd tolerate anything less than what I paid for. And like somebody else mentioned, we shouldn't have to disable half the phone's features, on any phone, just to get the battery life these OEMs advertise.

Good luck and my apologies for the long winded response. Just downed two cups of coffee and I get worked up when good people have bad experiences with battery life.

 

[rong21]

I'm not a heavy user, battery life is better on this phone than it is on my S6 Active. Both have similar size batteries and this one is bigger. Any of the hoops I see people jump through for better battery life yield very little for me.

 

[crosspatch]

My 6P's SOT is nearly 7h and I don't do anything special. Shortly after posting this, I used the phone a bit and the SOT went past 7h. I'm sure I could get it quite a bit higher if I wanted to for some strange reason.

SOT is clearly a poor benchmark for battery life.

GSam is telling me that my average per complete charge is 17h 50m. I've no idea how typical or representative that is.

I run ~130 user-installed apps, so I'm guessing my battery life is a lot lower than it could be. I don't care. I didn't buy the thing so I could prove how awesome I am at wasting money. "Look, kids! I disabled all the things that make it a great device, avoided using it the way I'd actually like to, and now I hardly lose any battery over night! Best $650 alarm clock ever!"

 

[matt3166]

I'm in the same boat. My phone got charged to 100% at 4pm and have been on WiFi ever since, only used it for a little web browsing, 1 YouTube video and a couple of pictures and its now 10:30pm and I'm at 51%

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Stang68]

All these hoops that people seem to jump through to get slightly better battery life - are they really less hassle than having a small battery bank that you take out when you're going to be away from a charger for a long time?

No, a phone is meant to be used. I don't see the point in crippling it by removing features. But to each his own, I guess.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[maverick7526]

Battery life is very subjective. You could have the biggest battery in phones to date, and poor signal will kill it faster than any rouge app would.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[sstephen17]

On all my previous phones, any time I have to send/receive a lot of SMS or MMS is when I experience the most battery drain. The 6P isn't immune to this but it fares much better than my GS4 or Note 4 ever did.

 

[Go0gle]

What is your WiFi doing when it should be dozing? Does the chart say it's on or off? I've run into a few people now whose WiFi won't turn off during doze, and that was the culprit. Go to WiFi --> Advanced --> Keep Wifi on during Sleep --> "Only When Plugged In". Something was keeping WiFi active on those people's phones, but you can force it off with no ill effects during sleep.

 

[isaacjkim]

But wont that stop all incoming data, msgs, and emails?

 

[John Cusick]

got this phone a week ago. moved from a HTC one m8. I thought the M8 was bad with battery. But that was only worse after 2 years of use. This nexus is crap. The speakers are poor. and its running out of power very quick with minimal use. im really annoyed. totally regret getting it.

 

[Morty2264]

I don't have a 6P; however, I do agree with those here who have said that battery life is *extremely* subjective. Everyone uses their phones differently: while someone streams music, others play games; or people have widgets; bright wallpapers; have a ton of social media apps taking up memory and battery function... It's tough to get an objective response from something that can have so many variables working against it; and even such things as the specific device (i.e., right down to the serial number) can have an impact. I'd say, as another poster here has said, to take everyone's reviews about battery with a grain of salt.

On my G3, Netflix can be a killer for my battery; but otherwise, it's usually an okay drain over the course of the day. I turn off Wi-Fi when I go to sleep and make sure my brightness isn't on high (100% hurts my eyes haha!). It's good that you uninstalled your Facebook app, as I heard that that can really take a toll on the performance of the battery.

So, don't feel bummed. Everyone's battery will perform differently based on different levels/types of use. There are some days where my battery takes a hit because I am using it heavily; whereas other days, it's still chuggin'.