Android and batteries

[patseguin Global Moderator]

I made my big foray into Android with the Nexus 7 and now I have all 3 Nexus devices. I don't know if it's an android thing, but my one complaint about all 3 devices is battery life. I can let any of the 3 sit unused and pretty much overnight they are almost dead. On the other hand, I can leave my iOS tablets sitting around a super long time and they don't lose anything. It's almost like the Android devices are doing something to draw on the battery even in standby.

[Jeston Veteran]

It's mostly due to the fact that since iOS is only on a few select pieces of hardware it is able to be made more efficient, thus reducing power requirements. Since Android is made to be used on thousands of different hardware configurations, it is not as efficient and requires much more powerful hardware to run smoothly, which chews through your battery. It's just something you have to live with. Just charge your devices over night while you sleep and you'll be fine.

[ashpowell]

Usually wakelock problems.. I have cyanogenmod and franco kernel on my nexus 4 and I get about 3/4 days life with light usage (phonecalls, texts, facebook, emails)

(I also have a few other tweaks applied via franco kernel)

[Growled Member]

Android gets excellent battery life if you know how to tweak it. If you leave everything at the default settings it will drain your battery like no one's business. Leaving Mobile and WiFi on all the time are two of the worst offenders, I've found for me. I have widgets on my home screen and keep both cut off until I need it. I get excellent battery life.

[Raa]

I can't say I've found that myself... Usually my devices lose 1-5% overnight (I never "switch" them off).

[AJerman]

Look at how many things you have syncing and how often. That's the typical culprit. The Facebook app alone will drain the hell out of your battery if you have it syncing constantly. I also think Google sets too many of it's own services to auto sync when many could be off or far less often. The more apps you load and allow to do things like sync while you're not using them, the more battery used. It's a side effect of Android allowing apps to run more freely than on iOS, but obviously it requires you to pay attention more to what apps do while you're away. If you are losing more than around 10% overnight though, you've got sometime keeping your phone busy instead of sleeping (also known as wakelocks). You can use an app like Better Battery Stats to track wakelocks and find trouble apps, though you'll want root for full monitoring. Also, disable extra radios like Bluetooth, NFC, GPS and all that unless you need them. And finally, be aware of your screen brightness. I typically don't use automatic brightness because I find it tends to be too bright still. Keep your brightness down unless you're in bright light.

[Roger H. Veteran]

I get plenty of time on my Android devices. My Nexus 4 looses about 4% per night (8hrs) - not this completely dead crap. You have app that's keeping your phone awake the whole time which is what kills it. Install some of those apps (BetterBatteryStats being one) that shows you what's sucking your battery and kill that app (permanently!). My Nexus 10 would last days of usage - or about 6-7hrs of screen on time but about ~3 days total with my 2-3hrs a day of browsing/emails and such.