Android Phone's Battery Life

[sonofjay]

So my Mom's friend gave me a Firefly s100Q android phone since he probably noticed that I'm still using my 2009 xpressmusic which I don't really mind at all since it is still functioning just like when I first bought it but since the phone is there I'm not gonna say nope to it. Quad Core, KitKat 4.4.2.

The question is, is it normal to only have a battery life of 8-10 hours? All I do with the phone is standby, play music, standby, text(rarely on this phone since I'm not really the touch screen guy), standby, check time, standby and play Stone of Life and Adventure Town for a bit and browse when I'm lazy to open my laptop or desktop.

I went to the store and told me that 8-10 hours of battery life is actually very long considering that normal android phone's life is only around 5-6 hours and I stare at her for a good couple of minutes before leaving. Are Android Phone's really just like that? I'm considering just buying a spare battery that I can carry.

 

[edo494]

if you turn on wifi the batery goes down in chunks. Also the display has quite high power usage, so yeah, and this is not only android's problem, but generally any device. Even notebook's/laptop's(choose one fitting you the most) time before batery dies goes down rapidly when you turn on wifi.

 

[Heinvers]

Nothing out of the ordinary so far.
Except that I listen to music and surfing the net shitting out the battery out of my phone a lot.

I get the same thing

 

[sonofjay]

But I turn off my wi-fi when I'm not using it(its a habit of mine, I even turn off the router when I'm not using it) my screen brightness is set to low since my eyes are sensitive to too much brightness and my screensaver is on and always set it to idle when I'm not using it. For now I'm using a battery consumption manager to make sure that nothing is running on the background.

So 8-10 hours of battery life is just normal? Hmmm. Welp, I guess my new phone will accommodate a lot of dust since it looks like I'm still gonna use my XpressMusic since it is more reliable on the road. Can last a couple of days and I use it for listening to music a lot.

Thanks for replying. I thought I got robbed there(more like my Mom's friend). Still grateful for the gift though.

 

[edo494]

screen saver, the thing with the most misleading name of all time. Just turn off your display when not working with mobile, with turned off display and wifi you can have the phone run for like 2 days straight or even more(or you should be able to, anyways)

 

[sonofjay]

Isn't screensaver is the one that automatically turn off your display when you're not using it? I set it to automatically turn off when the phone is idle for 10 seconds.

Or am I using the word with different a context?

 

[Dr Super Good]

It depends on how good mobile reception is to it. If the phone is right next to a service mast it will consume noticeably less power than if you are at the very edge of a mast reception range. This is because it will have to use more power to communicate and also will spend more time trying to communicate when signal quality is low from distance or obstruction.

Disable features such as positioning (GPS) and Bluetooth to conserve power as well. You could also try setting it to "airplane" mode since that can change it into a lower power operating mode (to produce less interference around it).

Do be aware that if the phone is second hand (you were given his old phone when he got a new one) then it probably is natural battery degeneration. Replacing the phone's battery in this case with a brand new one (of reasonable quality) will give you considerably higher battery life.

Lithium Ion batteries used by phones have a finite charge cycle life expectancy. After so many thousand battery hours (hours spent using the battery) its charge holding capabilities will have degraded by some fraction. Degradation will be faster if the phone is allowed to run completely empty or left fully changed for long periods.

 

[sonofjay]

It depends on how good mobile reception is to it. If the phone is right next to a service mast it will consume noticeably less power than if you are at the very edge of a mast reception range. This is because it will have to use more power to communicate and also will spend more time trying to communicate when signal quality is low from distance or obstruction.

My Wifi router is in my room so its like 2 meters away from me when I'm at my bed and just arms reach when I'm in my work desk. Anyway, this is a cool info and I'll keep this in mind.

Disable features such as positioning (GPS) and Bluetooth to conserve power as well. You could also try setting it to "airplane" mode since that can change it into a lower power operating mode (to produce less interference around it).

My Phone is already set to that. I hate gps shit.

Do be aware that if the phone is second hand (you were given his old phone when he got a new one) then it probably is natural battery degeneration. Replacing the phone's battery in this case with a brand new one (of reasonable quality) will give you considerably higher battery life.

Nope, its brand new, he let me choose in the store of what model I want. And it seems that it is a quality product.

Lithium Ion batteries used by phones have a finite charge cycle life expectancy. After so many thousand battery hours (hours spent using the battery) its charge holding capabilities will have degraded by some fraction. Degradation will be faster if the phone is allowed to run completely empty or left fully changed for long periods.

Interesting, so having it fully charge for a long time is bad.

Anyway, I don't let my phone run out of battery. I'm doing the healthy charging by charging the phone when the battery is less than 20%

 

[Vinz]

My android takes about 12h to drain from 100%, with light usage (wifi, memo, firefox). Then again I don't play much anymore, I guess it's the games that eat battery.

 

[Dr Super Good]

My Wifi router is in my room so its like 2 meters away from me when I'm at my bed and just arms reach when I'm in my work desk. Anyway, this is a cool info and I'll keep this in mind.

I am sorry I thought you said "Android Phone's" not "Tablet I only use in home". I am talking about the mobile phone reception not WiFi (they work completely differently). Being a "mobile" phone means that a lot of power is used connecting to the mobile phone network (why you buy a mobile phone instead of lugging a tablet around).

Nope, its brand new, he let me choose in the store of what model I want. And it seems that it is a quality product.

What is the specified battery life on standby? Usually they are a few hundred hours not 8 (I just received some Android phone recently as well).

 

[Chaosy]

I got a new phone this christmas, the manual stated 9-10 hours of battery. But that's only if you have it on standby. Surf on the internet with wifi and it will only last a few hours.

 

[BloodDrunk]

Lumia phones have strong battery

 

[GhostWolf]

Hardware, software (ROM), usage (WiFi, Bluetooth, screen-on times, background processes, ...), cell reception, and many other factors should be taken into consideration.

GPS is actually a non-issue, because it does nothing when you are not using it.

Different ROMs can give different results regarding speed and battery life.

Using "RAM freeing" applications (and generally speaking, forcing applications to close) is a terrible idea that makes your phone slower and take more battery power (if you do this, google why this is stupid, Android doesn't work like a desktop OS).

If your phone can't get into deep sleep (due to background processes, bugs, etc.), it reduces battery power by a huge factor when it is locked. You can check this with different deep sleep applications.

WiFi in general takes a very big factor of power usage, doesn't matter if you have good reception.

You should obviously check your phone's battery stats and see what takes the most power.

Fact is, though, high-end cellphones tend to have bad battery lives. The batteries aren't advancing anywhere, yet the hardware is becoming a whole lot more power hungry, the result is obvious. This has nothing to do specifically with Android, though.

 

[Dr Super Good]

Using "RAM freeing" applications (and generally speaking, forcing applications to close) is a terrible idea that makes your phone slower and take more battery power (if you do this, google why this is stupid, Android doesn't work like a desktop OS).

It would never really save power anyway even on desktops since RAM is generally either on or off and is not a major power user anyway (almost always passively cooled).

WiFi in general takes a very big factor of power usage, doesn't matter if you have good reception.

Never said it did, I was referring to cell tower reception. It makes a noticeable difference if your phone is constantly dropping out of reception or if it is continuously connected.

Fact is, though, high-end cellphones tend to have bad battery lives. The batteries aren't advancing anywhere, yet the hardware is becoming a whole lot more power hungry, the result is obvious. This has nothing to do specifically with Android, though.

The big issue is people over-engineering phones. It is a phone not a super computer... Why does it need Direct3D 11.2 compliant graphics (snapdragon powered phones claim that)? The fact you can run a Nintendo Wii emulator on a phone says it all.

 

[sonofjay]

I am sorry I thought you said "Android Phone's" not "Tablet I only use in home". I am talking about the mobile phone reception not WiFi (they work completely differently). Being a "mobile" phone means that a lot of power is used connecting to the mobile phone network (why you buy a mobile phone instead of lugging a tablet around).

Sorry I thought we're talking about Wi-fi there. My concern is about my phone.

Using "RAM freeing" applications (and generally speaking, forcing applications to close) is a terrible idea that makes your phone slower and take more battery power (if you do this, google why this is stupid, Android doesn't work like a desktop OS).

I see, then I'll uninstall that app and find some good "deep sleep applications". Thanks for telling me this. Hopefully this will extend my battery life for at least a few minutes since my phone is always on standby.

You should obviously check your phone's battery stats and see what takes the most power.

I'm observing my phone for a few days now and its usually 30-40% on Cell Standby around 30% on Phone Idle (can someone tell me what is the difference between those two?) around 15-20% on Screen and 15% Android System the rest goes to music, the two games that I'm playing and wifi all not going more than 5%.

The fact you can run a Nintendo Wii emulator on a phone says it all.

New Phones can? Holy shit.

 

[Dr Super Good]

New Phones can? Holy shit.

Well there are still issues... However there are developers working on it extensively with several hundred commits every month towards it.

 

[sonofjay]

I see. Its impressive what this new phones can do.

Anyway, just have a question. Is it okay to use the phone while charging like playing music? It is fine for my XpressMusic but well, that is nokia so I'm just wondering if its also okay for Android Phones.

 

[Dr Super Good]

Anyway, just have a question. Is it okay to use the phone while charging like playing music? It is fine for my XpressMusic but well, that is nokia so I'm just wondering if its also okay for Android Phones.

The OS makes no difference? Cheap ones might suffer from overheating during the time (as both charging+using resources might make too much heat) however it should regulate itself to some degree even cutting down performance when required to keep cool. This applies to all phones not just ones using Android OS (such as Windows and IOS).

Once it is fully charged it should only ever use the charger as the source of power so the battery will not produce much heat. In fact it should run cooler than using the battery as draining the battery makes heat.

 

[GhostWolf]

I'm observing my phone for a few days now and its usually 30-40% on Cell Standby around 30% on Phone Idle (can someone tell me what is the difference between those two?) around 15-20% on Screen and 15% Android System the rest goes to music, the two games that I'm playing and wifi all not going more than 5%.

Cell standby is your cellular antenna working, phone idle is just your phone doing nothing (e.g. your screen is locked and you are not having background processes running, like music) and preferably in deep sleep.

The stats you mentioned are actually pretty weird, using my own experience. They could either suggest you are hardly using your phone at all and it is idle almost always (in which case your battery is just bad), or that your cell reception is terrible, and your phone isn't going into deep sleep.

 

[sonofjay]

The OS makes no difference? Cheap ones might suffer from overheating during the time (as both charging+using resources might make too much heat) however it should regulate itself to some degree even cutting down performance when required to keep cool. This applies to all phones not just ones using Android OS (such as Windows and IOS).

Once it is fully charged it should only ever use the charger as the source of power so the battery will not produce much heat. In fact it should run cooler than using the battery as draining the battery makes heat.

So its fine right? Thanks.

Cell standby is your cellular antenna working, phone idle is just your phone doing nothing (e.g. your screen is locked and you are not having background processes running, like music) and preferably in deep sleep.

Thanks for explaining that.

The stats you mentioned are actually pretty weird, using my own experience. They could either suggest you are hardly using your phone at all and it is idle almost always (in which case your battery is just bad), or that your cell reception is terrible, and your phone isn't going into deep sleep.

Yeah, I rarely use it. I just use it for playing music, reading some wattpad novels, and playing one rpg for like 10 minutes and checking my adventure town to harvest and restock my shops. My new phone is just like for killing boredom or when waiting for something.

So I observe the battery consumption of my phone again. I left it for 8 hours and the battery didn't reduce(the percentage remained the same). Just checking my phone like browsing apps and gallery without opening anything reduced 1% in less than 5 minutes but playing music(locking the phone when it started playing) for 30 minutes reduced the same percentage. Games are obviously battery eater, I left my phone fully charged to my lil bro before and it took four and a half hours of continues playing before running out of battery.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

Just a note on battery life, since that argument has been brought already:

Li-Ion batteries do not have the 'memory effect'. In fact, the life of a properly engineered Li-Ion battery should last for years without a noticable loss of capacity. Li-Ion batteries only get damaged from extreme states: very low or very high voltage. While every Li-Ion battery must have a protection against overloading (as it might cause the battery to explode) built-in, battery and phone manufacturers usually not prevent it from reaching the critical low voltages.
The reason for that is simple: they want to sell more. If proper protection against both high and low loading states exist, a Li-Ion battery can last an almost infinite load cycle (there's degredation through corrosion, though).

Modern car batteries like for the BMW-i series or VW Golf GTE series have an expected capacity degradation of only 20% over the first 8 years. Why? Proper protection.


So yeah; phone users are more or less a victim of planned obsolescence. They don't want you to use your phone longer than 2 years. That's why the batteries are usually the cheapest of the cheapest. They know that 90% of people will rather buy a new phone instead of replacing the battery.

 

[Dr Super Good]

Li-Ion batteries do not have the 'memory effect'. In fact, the life of a properly engineered Li-Ion battery should last for years without a noticable loss of capacity. Li-Ion batteries only get damaged from extreme states: very low or very high voltage. While every Li-Ion battery must have a protection against overloading (as it might cause the battery to explode) built-in, battery and phone manufacturers usually not prevent it from reaching the critical low voltages.
The reason for that is simple: they want to sell more. If proper protection against both high and low loading states exist, a Li-Ion battery can last an almost infinite load cycle (there's degredation through corrosion, though).

Battery performance is rarely specified over more than 500 cycles. This means that batteries of mobile phones, or other hand-held devices in daily use, are not expected to last longer than three years. But it is also quite possible to obtain lithium-ion batteries based on carbon anodes with more than 10.000 cycles

The problem is that the reactions that occur as part of battery operation are not perfect. Other unwanted reactions will always occur resulting in degraded cell performance.

Modern car batteries like for the BMW-i series or VW Golf GTE series have an expected capacity degradation of only 20% over the first 8 years. Why? Proper protection.

They probably use a different cell technology compared with smart phone batteries. For example "lithium-ion batteries based on carbon anodes". As the batteries are physically bulky they have more room for protection or other technologies to improve life.

Also do note that being a hybrid the chances of people heavily using the battery is quite slim. Instead the batteries will mostly act as capacitors, charging when breaking or driving and discharging when starting or going slowly. Most of the time the car will be using conventional engines to move around, hence a hybrid.

So yeah; phone users are more or less a victim of planned obsolescence. They don't want you to use your phone longer than 2 years. That's why the batteries are usually the cheapest of the cheapest. They know that 90% of people will rather buy a new phone instead of replacing the battery.

It is more like they are a victim of their own greed. If all they wanted their phone to do is phone then such a battery might need recharging once every month or so.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

The problem is that the reactions that occur as part of battery operation are not perfect. Other unwanted reactions will always occur resulting in degraded cell performance.


They probably use a different cell technology compared with smart phone batteries. For example "lithium-ion batteries based on carbon anodes". As the batteries are physically bulky they have more room for protection or other technologies to improve life.

This is true. The corrosion aspect varies a lot depending on the price of the cell. Still, corrosion is always a thing and not related to the memory effect - which is what people usually talk about when they say that you shouldn't recharge a battery too often. Corrosion happens no matter how you charge your battery. If your mobile doesn't even last a day, definitely get a better battery.

There's a reason why Li-Ion batteries in stores can cost anywhere from 5$ to 30$.

Also do note that being a hybrid the chances of people heavily using the battery is quite slim. Instead the batteries will mostly act as capacitors, charging when breaking or driving and discharging when starting or going slowly. Most of the time the car will be using conventional engines to move around, hence a hybrid.

Those are not hybrids but full electric cars.

It is more like they are a victim of their own greed. If all they wanted their phone to do is phone then such a battery might need recharging once every month or so.

Greed and convenience are not the same thing. I appreciate modern phones being all-in-one devices. There's no need to go back to the stone age.

 

[Dr Super Good]

Those are not hybrids but full electric cars.

Um... Then explain this...

The Golf GTE is driven by two engines: a 1.4-litre 150 PS TSI direct-injection petrol engine and a 102 PS electric motor.

The Golf GTE is clearly a hybrid car using both a conventional engine and an electric system. It is advertised as such by VW.

The BMW-i series is however purely electric although it has a number of hybrid "range extender" options which offer a power plant of sorts to generate power.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

Um... Then explain this...

The Golf GTE is clearly a hybrid car using both a conventional engine and an electric system. It is advertised as such by VW.

True. I made a mistake (and was talking about the e-Golf, which is indeed fully electric).
Still, even the GTE can drive fully electric over the first 50 kilometers (which is enough for most of daily shuttling). The conventional engine is just what it is: a range extender or for adding additional horsepower at the highway.

The BMW-i series is however purely electric although it has a number of hybrid "range extender" options which offer a power plant of sorts to generate power.

I don't think that the range extender options for electric cars matter in that discussion. The main power supply is still the battery. Range extenders are just there for that once in a month moment where you actually need the extended range.