Pixel 2 - Terrible "Phone Idle" battery life??

[robtani]

Despite all my optimizations to make sure there's nothing (no syncs, or any other apps) running background services, with the Battery Saver mode and Data Saver modes on and the phone on Airplane mode. 5 hours of idle time over night cost 6-7% of battery usage on the Pixel 2 with all of that going to "Phone Idle".
Under identical conditions the Pixel 1 only uses 2% and just about all the other devices I tested (LG G6, GS7, Moto G5Plus, Sony Xperia XZ) using about <.5-1.5%. The Sony Xperia incidentally seems to be consistently best in class with near less than 1/2% usage.

Why would the Pixel 2 have a significantly worse idle battery life than the original Pixel? Has anyone else experienced/noticed this??

 

[scorpiori]

re:

Mine (idle) was something like 4% .
Also, some nights the stand by drain is 2% and other nights it can be 7,8% , and the phone is on the same status. Don't know on what it depends.

My LG g2 (!) had zero (!) night stand by drain :/

 

[PowrDroid]

Re: Pixel 2 - Terrible &quot;Phone Idle&quot; battery life??

Pixel 2 battery = 2,700 mAh

Pixel 1 battery = 2,770 mAh
LG G6 battery = 3,300 mAh
GS7 battery = 3,000 mAh
Moto G+ battery = 3,000 mAh
Xperia XZ battery = 3,230 mAh

Not really a mystery.

 

[vzwuser76]

re:

My Pixel 2 has much better battery life than my original Pixel did. Best I got out of my P1 was 4hrs SOT, the P2 manages to get 6hrs SOT. I took a hit after the 8.1 update, putting it closer to the P1 battery life. But last night I decided to try disabling the visual core chip and battery life seems to be back to where it was pre update.

 

[Forest Dane]

re:

Try it in safe mode.

 

[1901Madison]

re:

My Pixel 2 has much better battery life than my original Pixel did. Best I got out of my P1 was 4hrs SOT, the P2 manages to get 6hrs SOT. I took a hit after the 8.1 update, putting it closer to the P1 battery life. But last night I decided to try disabling the visual core chip and battery life seems to be back to where it was pre update.

Agreed. My Pixel 2 battery life has been awesome, especially for the battery size.

 

[neerajgv007]

re:

My Pixel 2 has much better battery life than my original Pixel did. Best I got out of my P1 was 4hrs SOT, the P2 manages to get 6hrs SOT. I took a hit after the 8.1 update, putting it closer to the P1 battery life. But last night I decided to try disabling the visual core chip and battery life seems to be back to where it was pre update.

Hi, can you please suggest, how you disabled the visual core chip. Also, what is the difference in SOT now, post disable. I have pixel 2 (non XL) and I am getting around 4-5 hrs SOT.

I hope your observation is for Pixel 2 (non XL) variant.

Thanks

 

[cbreze]

re:

Never heard of doing that or what it does when disabled. Can someone explain what this disabling core chip is? How to do it? Mine has def taken a big hit since updating.

 

[Rukbat]

re:

neerajgv007, if you mean disabling the GPU, you can't. That's the part of the SoC (it's all one chip - CPU, GPU and a few other things) that does the display. Without the GPU there wouldn't be anything on the screen. (The GPU takes very little current compared to the amount of current the screen itself takes. Set the screen timeout to 30 seconds, and either leave the screen brightness on automatic or install Velis Auto Brightness (which does a better job than Android's auto brightness).

 

[sixty_four]

re:

neerajgv007, if you mean disabling the GPU, you can't. That's the part of the SoC (it's all one chip - CPU, GPU and a few other things) that does the display. Without the GPU there wouldn't be anything on the screen. (The GPU takes very little current compared to the amount of current the screen itself takes. Set the screen timeout to 30 seconds, and either leave the screen brightness on automatic or install Velis Auto Brightness (which does a better job than Android's auto brightness).

My guess is that it's not the GPU being referred to in this conversation but the previously-disabled Visual Core chip. 8.1 brought a new developer option called "Camera HAL...something...something". It's disabled by default AFAIK.

 

[cbreze]

re:

My guess is that it's not the GPU being referred to in this conversation but the previously-disabled Visual Core chip. 8.1 brought a new developer option called "Camera HAL...something...something". It's disabled by default AFAIK.

Yeah, if that's what is being suggested it did not help me at all and it was already disabled anyhow. So fake news.

 

[Mike Dee]

re:

Yeah, if that's what is being suggested it did not help me at all and it was already disabled anyhow. So fake news.

The poster who disabled it had it enabled as many do. Doubtful that it would give a perceived difference either way.

 

[worldspy99]

re:

I notice that the battery drain is a bit high but I consistently manage 20 hours off charger and about 4.5 hrs SOT before I have about 15% left in the tank. I don't think this idle drain bothers me one bit. FWIW, I do have the Visual Core chip enabled in Developer Options - I love taking pictures so that was a no brainer.

 

[robtani]

Thank you everyone for your posts. To be clear, I was okay with the overall battery life of the Pixel 2 and never complained about the SOT battery life but strictly the Idle/Standby time which was definitely the worst in class compared with all the other phones I had listed. I made another round of optimizations (disabling all VR and AR apps and services and also turning off the "Find my Phone" service). FINALLY, I have the overnight consumption down to just 2-3%. I feel like disabling the "Find my Phone" feature made the biggest difference.

 

[scorpiori]

I've just turned off 'Find my phone'. I'm curious to see if it made a change

 

[e30ernest]

I'm curious about those getting bad standby consumption... Are you doing on WiFi or using mobile data? My phone only loses 3-4% overnight (8-10h), and I didn't need to turn any of the services off.

My guess is an errant app is causing your drain.

 

[sixty_four]

I've just turned off 'Find my phone'. I'm curious to see if it made a change

I'd be interested in hearing your results. Post an update if you can!

 

[psteve2005]

My overnight standby drain used to be 3-5%. It's now nearer 20% overnight since 8.1. No other changes. So frustrating.

 

[cbreze]

I've just turned off 'Find my phone'. I'm curious to see if it made a change

Had mine off for quite some time and it has made no difference to my battery life which dropped to 3 1/2 to 4hr SOT at best, from 5 to 6 hr SOT pre- 8.1-update.

 

[cbreze]

My overnight standby drain used to be 3-5%. It's now nearer 20% overnight since 8.1. No other changes. So frustrating.

Wow, that's pretty terrible. Mine was usually 1% overnite before 8.1 and now is usually 7% overnite. But 20% or there abouts is outrageous. Curious if you tired the Gservicefix app from the play store that has been mentioned in the battery thread. According to some users it has improved some battery longevity"s. I tried it and I think it has improved a little, but I'll take what I can get, even crumbs.