Poor battery life.

Billboy5690 · 26 Feb 2022, 00:08

Re: Pixel 3a XL experience
I have pixel 3a .I do not get near runtime others are .I replaced the battery.Its a little better but get about a day before need recharge with light use.
have a second 3a which is about the same. Both these devices had much better battery performance on stock android .I have all the latest updates. Anyone have any Ideas.

MrT10001 · 26 Feb 2022, 05:02

Flohak is working on battery life on the Pixel 2. It is a difficult issue to resolve as hardware configuration and power saving methods in software an apps comes into play. I get around 3 day out of my pixel 3a. My pixel 2 lasts less than a day unless I switch on aeroplane mode. I would though say well done for changing the battery on the pixel (any pixel phone) without breaking the screen. Not an easy task!

Billboy5690 · 26 Feb 2022, 12:34

@mrt10001 Yes ,changing the 3a battery was no picnic.The you tube video says job takes about 30 minutes.In actuality it was 90 minutes for me.Only get about a day out of it so its disappointing after all the work.

dizzy · 27 Feb 2022, 06:36

@billboy5690 Strange. My Pixel 3a XL is in pair with my Android Samsung A70.

Billboy5690 · 27 Feb 2022, 13:49

I have some more info too add here .Hope this can shed some light on the issue.
I have noticed that with the sim card removed (no network) battery life is much improved (as one would expect.) It did make me curious to take a closer look at the settings there. I noticed NFC enabled by default. I disabled this as I do not want or need to use this feature.This has helped a bit with battery performance.

MrT10001 · 27 Feb 2022, 15:41

I tested the battery life and got a massive improvement switching aeroplane mode on, but that kind of defeats the purpose of the device.

Billboy5690 · 27 Feb 2022, 16:48

@mrt10001 I have heard that the smart guys who due all the code crunching are aware of this .
I hope that they will figure this out.

flohack · 27 Feb 2022, 19:59

@mrt10001 try to find the source of the drain: Is it network? Is it WiFi? Bluetooth? Try to go to airplane mode ut turn WiFi back on. Does it stay on almost 1-2%/hr ? Do you have more than that? etc.

We need more evidence where the drain is coming from. For Pixel 2 its definitely WiFi AND a chatty AP in combination.

Billboy5690 · 28 Feb 2022, 12:00

@flohack I do believe wifi is part of the drain but not all. I am going to try some of your suggestions to see if I can get provide more info. I may also try to disable some of the apps tweaker etc. Maybe the GPS location weather app also.
I will do more testing and report back.Thank you for responding.

MrT10001 · 28 Feb 2022, 13:24

@flohack On it now, 56% on aeroplane mode. I will see how it degrades over the next hour (oddly I have afternoon off work with an unexpected dental visit so I have time to test).

On the Pixel 2 I have left that on plane mode and battery life is OK. I will switch over to just Wi-Fi off and see how it goes. 74% at the start.

Edit 1hour later:

Pixel 3a No degradation, still on 56%
Pixel 2 Dropped 2% with no Wi-Fi, but data on.

Edit 2 hour later

Pixel 3a no degradation, still on 56%
Pixel 2 Dropped to 71%

Edit approx 3hours later:
Pixel 3a dropped to 55%
Pixel 2 dropped to 70%

flohack · 28 Feb 2022, 16:37

@mrt10001 In my opinion that looks good, in terms of the battery drop is contained to the WiFi.

MrT10001 · 28 Feb 2022, 19:29

@flohack Yes that is what I was thinking

The Pixel 3a is down to 55%
The pixel 2 is down to 68%

That is not bad, so WiFi could be the culprit.

Billboy5690 · 1 Mar 2022, 00:18

@flohack Ok I have more info to report back.My pixel lost 10% charge in just under 2 hours. Wifi and network on. I tried your suggestion and turned on airplane mode and left wifi on. Running now 5 + hours with NO drop on battery level. So its definitely related to network being active. Hope this can shed some light on the issue .Of course cannot make calls.

Billboy5690 · 1 Mar 2022, 00:44

@flohack Correction on my last message. I miss spoke .With airplane mode active wifi is also turned off .I did not know that. So my battery runtime tests are with no data and no wifi.
Going to test again this time with only wifi turned off. Sorry for the confusion.

flohack · 1 Mar 2022, 10:53

@billboy5690 Yes no problem. In general network should consume LESS energy than WiFi but not in all cases. Difficult thing.

Billboy5690 · 1 Mar 2022, 12:09

@flohack Did some more testing and it does look like wifi is the issue.Had it turned off overnight and drain is greatly reduced.Hoping a fix can be found for this problem. Dont know if this problem is unique to the 3a .

dizzy · 1 Mar 2022, 15:24

@billboy5690 Is it a 3a you have? I dont see this problem with my 3a XL. Great battery life on mine.

Billboy5690 · 1 Mar 2022, 18:57

@dizzy Yes .From what I understand this problem is unique to the 3a and UT. With the stock firmware the problem does not occur. Hope one of the smart guys figure this out.

fredldotme · 3 Jan 2022, 22:09

Strikes me as odd because the P3a XL should have worse battery life due to driving a bigger display.

I'm able to keep my phone running 1,5 to 2 days (granted, only for calls and occasional music, but still). So I'm surprised the battery life is worse for you.

EDIT: What I can tell you is: the battery life is better with WIFI as the 4G driver is waking up the device much more on mobile data, causing much higher battery drain.

Billboy5690 · 2 Mar 2022, 03:45

@dizzy Yes It is a Pixel 3a