Observations on battery life - please share your experiences

Stefano

Meizu Pro 5 Ota-5, around 1.5 - 2 days with moderate use. Wifi off, GPS off, Mobile data on. Excellent battery life. ( sometimes battery drain while browsing net on data connection - in areas with not so good signal )
Can't complain at all.

zx81

Up to update version 22 it was pretty abysmal a full charge lasting no more than 8-10 hrs max even with no use

since then it has improved vastly and seems to last a couple of days, not had the chance to see what heavy use would do

more than happy with it at the minute

zx81

@zx81 pro 5

alan_g

@zx81 it would be easier to follow if you edited your first post: You can you know.

jezek

As I wrote in another thread:

I have the same experience on FP2 with OTA3 (15.04).
If wifi is on, there is a huge battery drain (~36% in 12 hours).
If wifi is off, the battery drain is much lower (~6% in 12 hours).

So, on FP2 (OTA3) with minimum usage and

wifi off - something above a week (~ 7 days)
wifi on - something above one day (~ 1 day)

Note: I was a while on OTA5, the battery drain was like on OTA3
Note2: Mobile data off

On my previous BQE5HD with original Canonical UT, the operational time with wifi on (and mobile data on) was about 4-5 days.

Edit: typos
Edit2: updated details on mobile data

chdslv

@alan_g said in Observations on battery life - please share your experiences:

I've replicated what follows from the Telegram Supergroup, as that's no place to collect observations from people using a variety of phones. Hopefully some patterns will emerge that inspire improvements.

I have a Nexus5 and, since 16.04, regularly get over 24hrs from the battery. OTOH I have noticed that there are (still) issues:

Sometimes it gets to a state that "eats" battery very quickly when not in use. Shutting down (which, in this state often need two tries before the screen goes fully black) and rebooting seems to fix this.

Glad you brought this up. N5 just eats the battery in idle state. Wifi, Data, LTE etc are all off. I tested this matter on Android (stock rom and Pie 9 rom) and the battery didn't drain at all. So, it should be an OS problem. I wrote about that here, https://forums.ubports.com/topic/1958/n5-battery-usage-in-ut-and-in-android

Hope something can be done about this problem. Some apps don't go to sleep correctly, I suppose.

Stefano

I also have Nexus 5 and battery life was awful, BUT, after switch to Xenial, things improved.
I still have an issue with wifi not remember the passwords after reboots, but apart from that it's ok.

Nexus 5 has a design flaw with the battery, should be at least 3000mAh due the processor(not the most power efficient)

Anyone that has a problem with the battery life, should wipe it clean, format data, reinstall latest Android Nexus firmware and then install Ubuntu Touch.
There might be an issue, if the phone was not on latest firmware and/or was not properly wiped/formated.

No other magic is possible.
Even on Android, the battery life is not stellar ( actually really poor)

alan_g

@alan_g said in Observations on battery life - please share your experiences:

Sometimes it gets to a state that "eats" battery very quickly when not in use. Shutting down (which, in this state often need two tries before the screen goes fully black) and rebooting seems to fix this.

@chdslv said in Observations on battery life - please share your experiences:

Glad you brought this up. N5 just eats the battery in idle state.

Clearly our experiences differ here: if you always see what I see sometimes then figuring out why there's a difference could provide the clue needed to fix it. Either your phone is different to mine, the way you use it is different to me, or something else (the cell network?) is different. I've tried to explain how I use it in the top post - are you doing something different?

I see from the linked thread that you've tried some experimentation. Would you be up to trying some more?

First, to get a baseline that we can both reproduce:

put into flight mode
power off
charge fully
switch on
immediately, without starting any apps, leave idle overnight (8hrs say)
Check the battery level in system settings

If we get wildly different results, then something is different in the phone. If not, something is different in how (or where) we use it.

chdslv

@alan_g
I explained how I tried to use the N5 in the other thread. The phone was left without use for more than 8 hours. WiFi, LTE was off. Was not on flight mode. Battery level was shown on the notification bar.

Then, I moved the phone over to Android to check the battery usage in idle mode, otherwise there's no way to compare. I wrote what I found out. Then I moved the phone back to UT, and the battery started draining again very fast.

Keeping the phone at this stage on UT would put it and the battery on strain, so I moved it back to Android (Pie 9). Someone said that there's bug of not putting some apps to sleep in UT. Normally a mobile phone goes to sleep when left alone.

The only way to check the difference is by moving the phone back to Android to compare. And, it should be the same phone with the same battery.

jezek

Maybe it would be useful wo write some scenarios, to measure battery consumption. Like:

scenario: #1 - flight mode, no usage

put phone to flightmode (initial settings)
write down battery state (initial state log)
reboot (start test)
wait some time without interaction (1h, 2h, ....)
write down battery state (result state log)
post results somewhere in some format (post log - e.g. add line to csv on github "jezek-FP2 [OTA3],#1,99%,1h,97%", note: this is just an example, no real observation)

Note: if something interferes with scenario (phone call, user manipulation, ...) test is not valid, needs to be repeated (until someone figures out, how to log these events).

Or some script with steps above could be done... later

Mic_

I am using a BQ E5 and a Nexus 5, both with UT 16.04 RC

The BQ E5 has really a phantastic energy management which was even improved after updating from 15.04 to 16.04. After 24h in standy it is loosing 2-3% of charge state.

The Nexus 5 has a very poor energy management and even in standby the shown percentage is sinking all the time. Maybe 50% in 10 hours.

I had since yesterday on the Nexus 5 16.04 DC installed and after updating to DC-version 175 I had the feeling that energy management improved massively. Now I turned back to actual RC-version and the energy management is very poor again.

Sorry for beeing not very detailed here - I just want to mark out that in the development channel some energy management improvements for N5 are in progress.

@Stefano : Is there a way to "reinstall latest Android Nexus firmware" if I have Ubuntu Touch installed?

Stefano

@mic_ yes, just install latest Nexus image from Google , then reinstall UT.
But you loose everything, all data. There was a guide by flohack about flashing latest firmware over UT, but not sure if that would solve anything.
Easier and better to wipe it clean, flash Nexus Android, then wipe it again and flash it with UT.

advocatux

There was a guide by flohack about flashing latest firmware over UT

@stefano just in case

https://forums.ubports.com/topic/815/howto-n5-update-baseband-firmware

htc_tattoo

For me the mobile data eats the battery. I use the N5 with RC images for 2 years, there were worse versions an better versions, but generally mobile data connection is the problem. With just mobile internet i don't survive the day, even if i don't use the phone at all.
Wifi consumes far less, bluetooth i turned off.
Gps, screen on and mobile data consume so much (navigation), that a 500mA recharger is not enough to prevent emptying the battery...

wgarcia

The Nexus 5 had poor battery life since when it was released with the manufacturer Android image, there are a lot of complaints and reports over the Internet about this.

In my case I think there must be some process or something involved, since sometimes it drains very fast and I notice the phone is hotter, sometimes it lasts a lot more, and I don't turn off mobile data or wifi (bluetooth yes).

chdslv

@wgarcia The question is, why the battery drains much faster in UT than in Android in the same N5 phone in idle state. And, if we are talking about a "faulty" phone, even for Android, why not go for a newer phone? (Of course, the 2nd question is not liked. )

alan_g

@wgarcia said in Observations on battery life - please share your experiences:

In my case I think there must be some process or something involved, since sometimes it drains very fast and I notice the phone is hotter, sometimes it lasts a lot more

Yes, that sounds like issue 1 in the initial post. If I don't notice the battery dropping I eventually notice the warm pocket. Of course, for me, it never happens when it's convenient to try to figure out what's happening on the phone. Have you tried the workaround I mentioned above?

Next time I see this I should open a terminal, run "top" and capture the screen. It might give an additional clue. (Other suggestions welcome.)

UBportsNews

This post is deleted!

Lakotaubp

"I've replicated what follows from the Telegram Supergroup, as that's no place to collect observations from people using a variety of phones. Hopefully some patterns will emerge that inspire improvements."

The above is a quote from @alan_g who started this thread. Please keep this in mind when makeing posts or observations. I've reposted it as this thread is getting quite long and may be missed by people new to the thread.
This thread is I believe to help find solutions to battery issues across all UBports Ubuntu Touch devices by finding common issues.
Repeating comments or issues already clearly known or stated is not going to help anybody. Comparing to Android will not help move this issue on . Old devices of whatever make and OS do not compare with what is available now or maybe coming shortly.
So let's be positive and move forward and find those common issues that can be rectified. Thank you for your understanding.

alan_g

@lakotaubp said in Observations on battery life - please share your experiences:

Repeating comments or issues already clearly known or stated is not going to help anybody.

There's a fine line here: Adding more information (even a few "me too"s - to indicates it is common) doesn't count as repeating. Seeing an issue on different devices, or software versions doesn't count as repeating.