Pixel 2 XL Battery: Is Android System and/or Google Play Services Draining Me?

slaskwroclaw18 · Mar 16, 2018

https://imgur.com/gallery/ULY5p

https://imgur.com/gallery/4jM6T

I got the Pixel 2 XL a litlle over 2 week ago and love it. I spend the majority of my day on WI-FI and on a good day can get 4, once 5 hours of SOT. But on days where I work from and home and then commute to center city Philly for class in the evening, my SOT and stanby time seems to suffer. The phone lasts me through the day but I would figure if I am not using my screen to much I should still have a lot of power left.

My Pixel 2 XL is on the Android 8.1 and I have the March security updates. I am using both the stable versions of Google and Chrome and my Google Play Service is at 12.5.18 Stable. I turned off adaptive display and keep my screen at 25% brightness. My location is always on High Accuracy and I keep bluetooth and NFC on always. The only time my bluetooth is connected is when I wear my Pixel Buds for ~1.5 hours during my train ride down to the city both ways.

TraderGary · Mar 16, 2018

When you are on the train or whenever there is no WiFi available, your Pixel is constantly searching for and not finding a connection. Constantly searching for and not finding a connection will cause battery drain. You might try turning off WiFi during those times.

B. Diddy · Mar 16, 2018

It'd be helpful to see what your cell signal strength is like throughout the day. You'd have to install an app like GSam Battery Monitor to get that on a Pixel 2 XL. And here's how to attach a screenshot to your post, without having to link to Imgur: http://forums.androidcentral.com/ge...ide-how-post-screenshots-android-central.html

slaskwroclaw18 · Mar 16, 2018

Hmm, I would argue that I am in an area of good connection and even, I am only on LTE for ~3 hours of the day. I will try turning off Wi-Fi as well.

Andrew_404 · Mar 16, 2018

Honestly, my battery life with the Feb update was really bad. The only cure after speaking with Google tech support was do a backup and, a full factory reset with a clean start. My battery life majorly improved. Now I have the March update and haven't seen such a rapid drop like the previous update which is good.

Look at my post battery drain for the Feb update in this forum. Google tech support explains how to put the phone in Safe mode to check the battery life. Note**** you won't be able to use the phone too much as only the the basics text and calls are available to you. You can see for yourself what's what and then make a decision on a factory reset or, put up with your limited battery life during the day.

slaskwroclaw18 · Mar 16, 2018

HI Andrew, thanks. I did a factory reset when I was on the Feb update for other troubleshooting reason and it seemed to help a bit. I might try safe mode this weekend.

B. Diddy · Mar 16, 2018

slaskwroclaw18 said:
Hmm, I would argue that I am in an area of good connection and even, I am only on LTE for ~3 hours of the day. I will try turning off Wi-Fi as well.

If you're only looking at the cell signal bars in the status bar, that might not give you an accurate cumulative picture of your cell signal strength over time. And it's not just LTE -- if your cell radio is on at all (i.e., for voice calls and not mobile data), it can drain battery if the signal is poor.

slaskwroclaw18 · Mar 16, 2018

Would I have the same problems even when I am on Wi-FI?

slaskwroclaw18 · Mar 16, 2018

So here is an update. I got to approximately 75% battery with a half hour of SOT. I have been on wifi the entire time and everything else remains the same. One 5 minute call and a few quick check of texts, emails, etc.

GSDer · Mar 16, 2018

Either Tapatalk or the forum is having a problem because I can't see your screenshots.

slaskwroclaw18 · Mar 16, 2018

https://imgur.com/gallery/LK33p
https://imgur.com/gallery/z0Sz4
https://imgur.com/gallery/dHtoh

B. Diddy · Mar 17, 2018

It doesn't matter if you're on wi-fi -- if cell signal is bad, the phone is still going to expend more energy trying to latch onto the cell signal. This happens to me as well in my workplace. Wi-fi is strong, but cell signal is weak, and my battery drains significantly more while I'm at work compared to anywhere else with a good signal.

The screenshots help somewhat, but it would be better to show us stats after using the phone normally from 100% down to about 20-30%, so we get a good idea of everything that's using battery over a longer period of time. It would also help to see the cell signal strength graph from GSam Battery Monitor (which you could install temporarily for our purposes here).

slaskwroclaw18 · Mar 17, 2018

Sounds good. Do I need to root GSAM to my phone? And once I have a charge worth of data what charts should I share?

thunderup · Mar 17, 2018

B. Diddy said:
It doesn't matter if you're on wi-fi -- if cell signal is bad, the phone is still going to expend more energy trying to latch onto the cell signal. This happens to me as well in my workplace. Wi-fi is strong, but cell signal is weak, and my battery drains significantly more while I'm at work compared to anywhere else with a good signal.

The exact same thing happens to me at my workplace, too.

LeoRex · Mar 17, 2018

slaskwroclaw18 said:
Sounds good. Do I need to root GSAM to my phone? And once I have a charge worth of data what charts should I share?

No... But to get the full stats, you need to be able to run an ADB command to give it a special permission.. but it doesn't require root.

B. Diddy · Mar 17, 2018

GSam should be able to show you the basic cell signal strength graph without root.

Forest Dane · Mar 17, 2018

Snap chat hammered my battery but didn't appear to be using much. It was the only change to my phone and when I uninstalled the phone was fine again

slaskwroclaw18 · Mar 17, 2018

My stats from today with GSAM. Still early but significant draw for < 1 hour of SOT. No commuting and I spent the majority of the day at home with WI-FI and it appears cell signal is worse than I thought. The spike where it improves is where I went out to lunch for an hour.