Battery life...please....someone get on that...

[sentinelsx]

Sort of a rant post, but i just wanted to let it out i guess.

Been using a nexus 4 (giving it a second chance) for a while lately. Been loving it. But the love stops when it dies. Ugh.

Now on wifi and in idle state it is quite resilient. But anytime we I am running a browser for an hour on wifi there is a 22-24% drop in battery and with 3G it goes to almost 30%. Nothing is syncing except for gmail push. That's it! No other background service. Most google services also blocked or disabled. No root/custom ROM either.

I am pissed because i cannot go back to the iPhone anymore. I mean i did try for a couple hours, but gave up. Now that i have all my daily and some extra apps on the N4, combined with jellybean it is just not possible to like iOS 6 for me.

But i really wish someone takes battery life serious for once. I have contemplated a GS3 since it seems to have better battery life, but i would end up loading AOSP on it since i am in love with how fluid, beautiful, and functional it is on the N4 and as a result lose a good 1-2 hours of screen on easily, especially on 3G/LTE.

My only choice is a Note 2. Tried hard to use one, just can't get comfortable with the size.

So here i am, charging the N4, with my iPhone 5 in the drawer underneath but i do not have any temptation to whip it out EXCEPT for battery life. That's it!

I really hope GS4 nails it somehow or has toned down touchwiz

 

[strausd]

I'm in the same boat. Nexus 4 battery is awful.

I am expecting to get the GS4 as I am hoping the battery life will be better. Plus, getting a custom ROM and kernel on the S4 shouldn't be too hard since I am thinking the developer community for that will be pretty active.

 

[jrswizzle]

Sort of a rant post, but i just wanted to let it out i guess.

Been using a nexus 4 (giving it a second chance) for a while lately. Been loving it. But the love stops when it dies. Ugh.

Now on wifi and in idle state it is quite resilient. But anytime we I am running a browser for an hour on wifi there is a 22-24% drop in battery and with 3G it goes to almost 30%. Nothing is syncing except for gmail push. That's it! No other background service. Most google services also blocked or disabled. No root/custom ROM either.

I am pissed because i cannot go back to the iPhone anymore. I mean i did try for a couple hours, but gave up. Now that i have all my daily and some extra apps on the N4, combined with jellybean it is just not possible to like iOS 6 for me.

But i really wish someone takes battery life serious for once. I have contemplated a GS3 since it seems to have better battery life, but i would end up loading AOSP on it since i am in love with how fluid, beautiful, and functional it is on the N4 and as a result lose a good 1-2 hours of screen on easily, especially on 3G/LTE.

My only choice is a Note 2. Tried hard to use one, just can't get comfortable with the size.

So here i am, charging the N4, with my iPhone 5 in the drawer underneath but i do not have any temptation to whip it out EXCEPT for battery life. That's it!

I really hope GS4 nails it somehow or has toned down touchwiz

I purchased JuiceDefender Plus and consistently get around 15-18 hours w/ 3-5 hours on screen time per charge....this is enough to get me through a day, though I'm not sure if it would work for you.

JDP says its doubling my battery life, though I don't know if that's entirely true....I do know I tried some others (even after 4.2.2 was released) and did not find the same results.....

Generally, with similar usage patterns my Nexus 4 now only lags behind my iPhone 5 by about 8-10%....which in my mind is pretty good. I generally have everything on on my iPhone 5 (BT, WiFi etc..) while JuiceDefender monitors that for me on the N4 (turns WiFi on when I get home, turns it off when I leave, turns data off when I don't have it etc...)

Moral: try out JuiceDefender....they have a free version that will do some basic things to get you about 1.5x the norm. Plus is $1.99 and gets about 2.0x.....they have a $4.99 version called ultimate which allows a lot of customization....

 

[strausd]

I purchased JuiceDefender Plus and consistently get around 15-18 hours w/ 3-5 hours on screen time per charge....this is enough to get me through a day, though I'm not sure if it would work for you.

JDP says its doubling my battery life, though I don't know if that's entirely true....I do know I tried some others (even after 4.2.2 was released) and did not find the same results.....

Generally, with similar usage patterns my Nexus 4 now only lags behind my iPhone 5 by about 8-10%....which in my mind is pretty good.

I have heard good things about juice defender. But I don't like having to turn off features to get good battery life. I want my phone to always be able to handle what I do. That means being able to keep those features on and being able to get through a heavy day on a single charge. Otherwise you are limiting the phone to fit your usage or limiting your usage to fit your phone. A good user experience for a phone won't limit either.

 

[sentinelsx]

I purchased JuiceDefender Plus and consistently get around 15-18 hours w/ 3-5 hours on screen time per charge....this is enough to get me through a day, though I'm not sure if it would work for you.

JDP says its doubling my battery life, though I don't know if that's entirely true....I do know I tried some others (even after 4.2.2 was released) and did not find the same results.....

Generally, with similar usage patterns my Nexus 4 now only lags behind my iPhone 5 by about 8-10%....which in my mind is pretty good.

I get 6 hours screen on time on iPhone 5 with auto brightness (but LTE off, everything else on all the time)...

Used to get 5 hours easily on non hacked GS3 with LTE off and every thing else on all the time. In fact i found it to be the first android phone on which i never bothered to micromanage any of my connections, and it still served me well, that was on stock touchwiz however.

But i seem to be getting at most 3 or may be 3.5 hrs on N4 and that is with mobile data and wifi turned off for maximum savings here and there. The micromanagement is back. That pisses me.

Thing is though, stock android is beautiful and i am in love with its fluidity, while touchwiz on S3 has lag elements. I can load AOSP on S3 and get rid of the lag, but then i lose about 30 mins - 1 hour of usable battery life easily.

And when i did have juice defender on the S3, it actually cut about 30 mins of battery life than when i did not have it. It probably helps on the nexus, but on the S3 i did not find much of a difference.


I just want a 4.6 - 4.8 inch AOSP phone with 5-6 hours battery life. Every thing about the nexus is great (well, minus the camera and slightly lower audio output with headphones), but the battery life alone makes me go nuts.

And as good as my iPhone 5 has been in terms of the battery life, i do not see myself being happy with it.

So stuck between a rock and a hard place. Talk about first world problems!

 

[jrswizzle]

I have heard good things about juice defender. But I don't like having to turn off features to get good battery life. I want my phone to always be able to handle what I do. That means being able to keep those features on and being able to get through a heavy day on a single charge. Otherwise you are limiting the phone to fit your usage or limiting your usage to fit your phone. A good user experience for a phone won't limit either.

Well, I don't personally turn anything on or off. I always have sync and GPS on and JD manages my Wifi and BT....

Since I never use BT I don't have the need to turn it on.

And since there's no available WiFi for me at work (where I am a majority of my day), JD turns that off....it will search for networks in the background every so often if I'm not near a preferred one, but if I'm, say, at home it will automatically turn on and connect....

I thought the whole point of easily accessible toggles was to be able to turn these things on and off at will....The fact I don't have to do that on my iPhone is my argument against such toggles in iOS lol

 

[VulchR]

Without getting into the whole iOS versus Android debate, I wish mobile phone manufacturers would stop focusing on thinner as the expense of a larger capacity battery. Once a certain threshold for thinness has been reached, then any additional spaced freed up by reducing the number of chips etc. should be used for more battery.

Right now I have a iP 4S. I love it but I use a Mophie battery case to get me through my long (annoyingly long) working day. I never have to turn features off and I never run out of battery provided I charge nightly, but I'd prefer not to have a case.

 

[cynics]

Without getting into the whole iOS versus Android debate, I wish mobile phone manufacturers would stop focusing on thinner as the expense of a larger capacity battery. Once a certain threshold for thinness has been reached, then any additional spaced freed up by reducing the number of chips etc. should be used for more battery.

Right now I have a iP 4S. I love it but I use a Mophie battery case to get me through my long (annoyingly long) working day. I never have to turn features off and I never run out of battery provided I charge nightly, but I'd prefer not to have a case.

I agree. Who was complaining about how thick a device was? Now how many people complain about battery life?

Why oh why are manufactures addressing a issue no one has a problem with and ignoring an issue everyone has an issue with? And if you don't have a problem with battery I'm sure you would mind if it lasted longer.

I doubt the iPhone will get fatter at this point so there is like no hope.

 

[KentuckyHouse]

But i really wish someone takes battery life serious for once. I have contemplated a GS3 since it seems to have better battery life, but i would end up loading AOSP on it since i am in love with how fluid, beautiful, and functional it is on the N4 and as a result lose a good 1-2 hours of screen on easily, especially on 3G/LTE.

Where did you hear that running AOSP/AOKP would cost you 1-2 hours of screen-on time? I'm currently running the latest build of Task's AOKP and I can EASILY get 4.5-5 hours of screen-on time on my S3. If anything, you're gonna get BETTER battery life running a custom ROM, not worse.

Seriously, root that N4 and install a custom ROM or two from XDA. It's not going to magically give you 2-3 hours of extra juice, but I promise you, with the right ROM/kernel combination, you're going to see a big difference.

 

[sentinelsx]

Where did you hear that running AOSP/AOKP would cost you 1-2 hours of screen-on time? I'm currently running the latest build of Task's AOKP and I can EASILY get 4.5-5 hours of screen-on time on my S3. If anything, you're gonna get BETTER battery life running a custom ROM, not worse.

Seriously, root that N4 and install a custom ROM or two from XDA. It's not going to magically give you 2-3 hours of extra juice, but I promise you, with the right ROM/kernel combination, you're going to see a big difference.

Because I did install aokp back in October on my old s3 and ended up getting a hit instead. I also made sure to trouble shoot it to no avail.

And even XDA developers agree that a non Samsung ROM cannot beat a Samsung based ROM when it comes to battery life. I remember task or ktoonez posting a post in reply to a member who complained about it and they said the exact same thing.

 

[bmac4]

Sort of a rant post, but i just wanted to let it out i guess.

Been using a nexus 4 (giving it a second chance) for a while lately. Been loving it. But the love stops when it dies. Ugh.

Now on wifi and in idle state it is quite resilient. But anytime we I am running a browser for an hour on wifi there is a 22-24% drop in battery and with 3G it goes to almost 30%. Nothing is syncing except for gmail push. That's it! No other background service. Most google services also blocked or disabled. No root/custom ROM either.

I am pissed because i cannot go back to the iPhone anymore. I mean i did try for a couple hours, but gave up. Now that i have all my daily and some extra apps on the N4, combined with jellybean it is just not possible to like iOS 6 for me.

But i really wish someone takes battery life serious for once. I have contemplated a GS3 since it seems to have better battery life, but i would end up loading AOSP on it since i am in love with how fluid, beautiful, and functional it is on the N4 and as a result lose a good 1-2 hours of screen on easily, especially on 3G/LTE.

My only choice is a Note 2. Tried hard to use one, just can't get comfortable with the size.

So here i am, charging the N4, with my iPhone 5 in the drawer underneath but i do not have any temptation to whip it out EXCEPT for battery life. That's it!

I really hope GS4 nails it somehow or has toned down touchwiz

I know you said you have tried the note 2, but if you just give it some time the size becomes a non issue. I thought the same thing, but after using the note 2 for a week it just seems like another phone. Also you can't beat the battery life on note 2 I promise you.

 

[sentinelsx]

I know you said you have tried the note 2, but if you just give it some time the size becomes a non issue. I thought the same thing, but after using the note 2 for a week it just seems like another phone. Also you can't beat the battery life on note 2 I promise you.

I have no doubts about the battery life for sure.

It is a bit hard to fit in my comfortable fit jeans (not hugging my legs, but not baggy either). And having to hold it in my hands all the time while sitting is not so great either.

 

[bmac4]

I have no doubts about the battery life for sure.

It is a bit hard to fit in my comfortable fit jeans (not hugging my legs, but not baggy either). And having to hold it in my hands all the time while sitting is not so great either.

How long did you try it for? I thought all the same things when I first got it, but now if just feels like the right size. I really don't have big hands and I can still use the phone. It can be used with one hand, but for most things it is a two handed device.

 

[Tig Bitties]

I returned the Note 2 after three weeks, great device, just too large for my daily phone.

Been on my Nexus 4 almost four weeks now. I get 5h On Screen Time every day, with approx 14h to 16h total battery life.

I see the Nexus 4, as my best battery life, second to the Note 2, which went 20+ hours with ease, and still had juice left. But the Nexus 4 is actually very good, its no Note 2, but for a small phone the N4 lasts pretty long.

The Nexus phones are meant to be rooted, a good ROM, and kernel, make the world of difference for battery life. Most importantly is the kernel to help extend battery. I am on Matrix v7.5, this kernel is renowned for amazing battery life.

 

[bmac4]

I returned the Note 2 after three weeks, great device, just too large for my daily phone.

Been on my Nexus 4 almost four weeks now. I get 5h On Screen Time every day, with approx 14h to 16h total battery life.

I see the Nexus 4, as my best battery life, second to the Note 2, which went 20+ hours with ease, and still had juice left. But the Nexus 4 is actually very good, its no Note 2, but for a small phone the N4 lasts pretty long.

The Nexus phones are meant to be rooted, a good ROM, and kernel, make the world of difference for battery life. Most importantly is the kernel to help extend battery. I am on Matrix v7.5, this kernel is renowned for amazing battery life.

I was going to get the nexus 4, but I had heard so many bad things about the battery I just could not pull the trigger. I love to have pure android, but one of the reasons I stop using my iPhone 5 was the bad battery life. I have another week to return my note 2 without a penalty. I am fighting myself about it. I want to try the nexus 4, but I just have a feeling it the battery life cut it for me. I have never done the rooting thing and putting custom ROM's on android phones, so I am not sure if that would be an option for me. I really do like the note 2 just not a big fan of touchwiz.

 

[Tig Bitties]

Right now my Nexus 4 is @ 15% battery left, total use = 14h 47m so far today, with 4h 8m On Screen time, and 2h 39m Voice calls, I know the phone calls suck up a lot of juice too.

On average I am getting roughly 15h - 17h per day total battery time, with roughly 4.5h to 5h On Screen time. That's pretty darn good for this little phone in my opinion.

Yeah it is not as good as the Note 2, when I had the N2, I was getting like 7h to 8h On Screen time, and total battery 18h - 20h easily per day. But the Nexus 4 is my second best battery phone next to the Note 2. Way better than my previous phones; HTC One X, Galaxy Nexus, and Nexus-S.

I love the Nexus phones, nothing beats stock Android, and the size is just right, not so large and borderline unusable like the Note 2, but not wristwatch tiny like the iPhone 5. The N4 is right in the middle of those two size phones, @ 4.7" just right for me.

 

[onthecouchagain]

If the Nexus 4 had LTE, I couldn't imagine what sort of battery life it would have.

I would assume abysmal.

 

[strausd]

I am running CM 10.1 nightly with Faux Kernel. I get 2 hours on screen on time and my battery is at 40% with over 11 hours on battery. That's not that great in my opinion.

 

[sentinelsx]

How long did you try it for? I thought all the same things when I first got it, but now if just feels like the right size. I really don't have big hands and I can still use the phone. It can be used with one hand, but for most things it is a two handed device.

I can slowly get used to the two handed use, but carrying it around is still a bit bothersome because of what I stated above.

 

[bmac4]

I can slowly get used to the two handed use, but carrying it around is still a bit bothersome because of what I stated above.

Yea I understand. I looked at my iPhone 5 and my note 2, and with a case on each my iPhone 5 was thicker. I know the note 2 is a lot wider and longer, but that kind of surprised me. I have smaller cases on each phones so they were about equal in that regard. If you can use the note 2 comfortable I would not get it. I just thought I would share my thoughts on how it took me some time before I was comfortable.

 

[MRU]

Inconsistent battery life rather than awful...

Actually in my own experience with Android and the many different handsets I've had battery life has always been something thats almost 'mysterious'...

One day you could be using the device and have no trouble battery life wise, then next using it in exactly the same way your battery can tank. There has always been some kind of inconsistency in battery life irrespective of handset and manufacturer.

Whereas at least with iOS battery life remains consistent, (whether than be poor or good dependent on your usage etc..) whereas Android has always been a bit of gamble.

This has been the same for me from Gingerbread to ICS and Jellybean, irrespective of handset and manufacturer.

 

[KentuckyHouse]

I have never done the rooting thing and putting custom ROM's on android phones, so I am not sure if that would be an option for me. I really do like the note 2 just not a big fan of touchwiz.

Rooting a Nexus device is one of the easiest things you can do. It's nearly impossible to brick one. If something does go wrong, you can easily flash back to stock or flash another custom ROM. So if you decided to give the N4 a try, you shouldn't worry too much about the complexity of rooting.

I've had the S3 since it was released and I don't think I've run TouchWiz for a single day in all those months. I installed Nova Prime (launcher) and you can do pretty much anything you want using it. You do lose a few of the TouchWiz widgets, but I wasn't using any of them anyway (and there are replacements readily available on the Play Store). Maybe give Nova or Apex a try and see how you like it then?

Right now my Nexus 4 is @ 15% battery left, total use = 14h 47m so far today, with 4h 8m On Screen time, and 2h 39m Voice calls, I know the phone calls suck up a lot of juice too.

On average I am getting roughly 15h - 17h per day total battery time, with roughly 4.5h to 5h On Screen time. That's pretty darn good for this little phone in my opinion.

Wow, that's REALLY good battery life for the N4. What ROM/kernel combination are you running?

----------

I am running CM 10.1 nightly with Faux Kernel. I get 2 hours on screen on time and my battery is at 40% with over 11 hours on battery. That's not that great in my opinion.

And this is absolutely atrocious battery life. I'd try another ROM/kernel combination for sure. Maybe AOKP/AOSP with one of the tons of other kernels?

 

[Fuchal]

I've got an LG Optimus G, which is similar to the Nexus 4, and I'm able to go for about 36 hours on a single charge (when I need to). That's with wi-fi and gps enabled.

 

[mattopotamus]

I've got an LG Optimus G, which is similar to the Nexus 4, and I'm able to go for about 36 hours on a single charge (when I need to). That's with wi-fi and gps enabled.

how are you getting 36 hours with a 2100 mah battery

 

[Tig Bitties]

Wow, that's REALLY good battery life for the N4. What ROM/kernel combination are you running?

ROM; JellyBeer
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2072201

KERNEL; Matr1x v7.5
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2007231

Really is the kernel that makes the difference for battery life. Everyone in that thread says Matr1x gives them amazing battery.