What's the battery life like?

[enPfzr4v 239]

I'm aware that the battery life on a smartphone is really dependent on what you're doing with it, but how does it compare to other phones? Like perhaps the Priv and the Google Pixel devices would be good points of reference for me.

[david 921]

8 hours ago, abielins said:

I'm aware that the battery life on a smartphone is really dependent on what you're doing with it, but how does it compare to other phones? Like perhaps the Priv and the Google Pixel devices would be good points of reference for me.

I'm guessing the people who tested the phones are still under NDAs for some things, but I have wondered this same thing.  Hopefully we'll find out in the next week, when people start getting their phones.

It certainly can't be worse than the Pixels!  I should preface that by saying that when Pixel phones get a couple years old, the batteries are horrible.  When they are brand new, they are okay.  However, I really can't believe what they did with the Pixel 4 (regular sized, not XL) phone battery size.  With all the trouble they have had with batteries failing (which again causes them to not hold a charge for very long), I would really like to understand why they thought it was a good idea to reduce battery size in the Pixel 4.  For this reason, plus removing free storage for videos and pictures in full quality mode in google photos online, I may end up not buying 2 phones for family members this Christmas.  I'm debating going with the Pixel 4 XL, or waiting for the Pixel 5, or going with some other phones.

The whole industry does horrible with batteries.  I'd much rather have a heavier/slightly bigger phone that has a bigger battery that lasts longer (both per day and lifetime), than the thinnest phone possible, and I think there are a lot of people who would trade some thinness for better batteries.

[EskeRahn 5,427]

I'm not sure what I'm allowed to say here, And not sure if some things are still in a 'debug'-mode, So I will be vague...

Phones with non removable batteries, and with a power button rather than a switch,  can not be turned truly Off, as some circuitry has to be active to detect if the Power button is pressed... That said, I put the Pre production unit in "Power Off" for a couple of days, and there were no detectable discharge during that.

The pre production unit I got lacks IMEI and some antennas, so I have tried to put it in Aeroplane mode, and here from a weeks statistics, I would estimate it could last a fortnight on a full charge left undisturbed.

On the "Final sample" I can say that the battery consumption -as most devices- is quite dependant on the signal strength of the GSM signal. So it should be measured/compared in a controlled environment.

But that said, no matter what I have done, I have not experienced the need of charging it during the day, when it had charged overnight.

It is really hard to compare it fairly with say my Samsung S8- also on Pie, as I simply use the Pro1 more - for obvious reasons: Testing it.

But that said I would estimate that a typical daily discharge I see is 30-40%, and that I charge it roughly every other day, from a 20-40% level. (Slow-charging from a PC-port to prolong the overall battery life - see this and links for more blah blah on batteries)

[VaZso 1,997]

54 minutes ago, EskeRahn said:

Phones with non removable batteries, and with a power button rather than a switch,  can not be turned truly Off, as some circuitry has to be active to detect if the Power button is pressed...

This is not as simple - in short, it is true, but expressed in longer form, it isn't really. 🙂

It really depends on the designer of the actual circuit and also on the needed functionalities.
The current consumption can be in a range of milliamperes, but even these circuits can be practically turned off completely.
I mean the whole system's current consumption can be reduced to the nano Ampere range, let's say 100nA - even the self-discharge of the battery can be much higher, so it can be practically nothing.

So even if the main circuit or power supplies can not be put into this current consumption range while they are switched off, designer still able to turn them completely off when necessary (like when the system is switched off), so I mean into a negligible range.

If the system need to be waken up at a certain date/time (for example to wake up the user while switched off), then current consumption will be higher, but not necessarily a lot higher, it also depends on design considerations and the actual circuit.

[Siani_8 105]

The battery on this phone is lower capacity than even the outdated Priv.  It's true that a better chip is more efficient at running many tasks but at the end of the day, it's screen on time that is the biggest killer of battery.  I can't see heavy users getting a whole day without charge when there is a large 6 inch diaplay to light regardless of chip efficiency. 

[_DW_ 628]

Your display uses most of the power. 

So with this phone using an AMOLED display you should use dark themes where possible as each pixel is independently powered black = off no power used.

[EskeRahn 5,427]

5 hours ago, VaZso said:

This is not as simple - in short, it is true, but expressed in longer form, it isn't really. 🙂

It really depends on the designer of the actual circuit and also on the needed functionalities.
The current consumption can be in a range of milliamperes, but even these circuits can be practically turned off completely.
I mean the whole system's current consumption can be reduced to the nano Ampere range, let's say 100nA - even the self-discharge of the battery can be much higher, so it can be practically nothing.

So even if the main circuit or power supplies can not be put into this current consumption range while they are switched off, designer still able to turn them completely off when necessary (like when the system is switched off), so I mean into a negligible range.

If the system need to be waken up at a certain date/time (for example to wake up the user while switched off), then current consumption will be higher, but not necessarily a lot higher, it also depends on design considerations and the actual circuit.

You should have included the rest of the paragraph in the quote " That said, I put the Pre production unit in "Power Off" for a couple of days, and there were no detectable discharge during that. "

So my point was that though it academically speaking isn't "Off", for all practical purposes it can be considered Off. (And not a word about NSA and the Paranoid among us...)

[enPfzr4v 239]

@EskeRahn I could never get more than a day and a half of use from my Priv while you somehow can get 5 days of usage from the device. I'm not sure what voodoo you're doing (You mention on your blog that you basically just disable and remove lots of apps) but you seem to get a LOT more usage from your devices than I or an average person does.

[EskeRahn 5,427]

2 hours ago, Siani_8 said:

The battery on this phone is lower capacity than even the outdated Priv.  It's true that a better chip is more efficient at running many tasks but at the end of the day, it's screen on time that is the biggest killer of battery.  I can't see heavy users getting a whole day without charge when there is a large 6 inch diaplay to light regardless of chip efficiency. 

...But with a WAY more lenient chipset. The 808 (and even more the sibling 810) were infamous for it's huge consumption while active.

[EskeRahn 5,427]

8 hours ago, abielins said:

@EskeRahn I could never get more than a day and a half of use from my Priv while you somehow can get 5 days of usage from the device. I'm not sure what voodoo you're doing (You mention on your blog that you basically just disable and remove lots of apps) but you seem to get a LOT more usage from your devices than I or an average person does.

A bit off topic - and I even had eight days with VERY little usage, after two years usage, so let me try to answer a bit more generally here

I tried to explain a lot about it on my blog, and if you are still having issues after following that, you might consider the following

Things people tend to ignore in my advices (any device) are

1) Keep the phone where the reception is as good as possible. This REALLY matters, install e.g. GSAM to easily see the portion burnt by the phone radios - it can be 2/3 ... Especially if you have the device in the pockets and moves around between masts (or the local net is overloaded and moves your connection between masts)

2) people are generally not kind to their batteries, and this can have a drastic effect on the phones stamina over time. You can use various apps to see the actually remaining usable capacity of your battery.

3) Free apps! These usually have ads, and these needs to be fetched and shown - and both eats battery. Some years ago there were a survey that found out that up to 75%(!) of the consumptions could be related to ads....

[enPfzr4v 239]

9 minutes ago, EskeRahn said:

Things people tend to ignore in my advices (any device) are

Yeah, I'm not going to bother with that kind of stuff. I just want my phone to work with the way I currently use it. I know that may give me worse battery life.

What I really want to know is how these devices compare with this kind of normal usage pattern. How will the Pro1 compare to the Priv when it comes to the way I use them, considering I will be using them basically the same?