Update To 4.4.4: Observations

[PsychDoc]

First the most important observation...I don't see any downside. No new glitches, weirdnesses or other unwanted surprises.

Now on to the good. The battery life seems to be quite significantly improved. I was getting about 4 hours of screen on time with about 14-18 overall moderate use before the battery would drop to <20%. Since this update I have changed a couple of things in my configuration that should have brought down battery life. Specifically I have left location to "high accuracy" as I was finding it to be a pain to go into the location settings to enable high accuracy from 'power saving' every time I wanted to use google navigation. Second I am now leaving Bluetooth on 24/7 and not having my Green Power app manage it because I bought a new home cordless phone system that has "link to cell" built in and this very useful feature requires that BT be active for it to work. So with these two changes I was actually expecting a decrease in battery life. Well, since the update to 4.4.4 I have noticed just the opposite! Screen on time is now at least 5 hours and the phone is still at ~30-35% after 18 hours.

The only other change that I can see is that the graphic that tells you if your fingerprint has scanned correctly is now way more cool. It blinks red if it doesn't recognize a swipe and it puts a neat looking checkmark in the graphic when the fingerprint scanner has recognized your print.

So for any of you on the fence about accepting this update I'd say there's nothing to fear and some significant gains.

 

[slackerjack]

Thanks for the heads up. I've had the Sprint version sitting in my notification panel for two days ..I don't take OTas when I'm traveling.. Too risky, I wouldn't have a clue what flight to even get home with if it weren't for my phone ...so I'll join ya In a couple of days!

Posted via Android Central App

 

[AZgl1500]

Good report and appreciate it.

Two comments though.

GPS left ON in High Accuracy mode will not have any measurable effect on battery life. The only time the GPS receiver is active is when it is being accessed from another app. It does "wake up" periodically and gets a snapshot location and then goes back to sleep. The overall effect on battery life is about 12 to 15 minutes less per discharge cycle.


Bluetooth: this will have varying effects on battery life depending on how it is used.
If just ON and idle, it will consume about 20-25 minutes worth of battery life over the discharge cycle.

I got the above battery life report reads from several battery monitor apps, and they all seem "to be" in general agreement with each other on this. I unloaded all but one battery app, that is Battery Doctor, and the only thing I use it for is to occasionally switch something OFF, like Bluetooth when I use my headset with the PC's Bluetooth audio instead of the phone. (yeah I know, could do that from the Notification bar yada yada yada.)