Phone Battery Life Is Getting Worse

Megalith

24-bit/48kHz
Staff member
Joined
Aug 20, 2006
Messages
13,000
The Washington Post has found that the latest flagship smartphones have worse battery life than older models: in particular, the iPhone XS dies “21 minutes earlier than last year’s iPhone X,” while “Google’s Pixel 3 lasted nearly an hour and a half less than the Pixel 2.” The author believes that lithium-ion batteries are being outpaced: one insider claims that technology is improving only “5 percent per year,” which designers don’t seem to be accounting for.

My results made me do a double take, so I called up a squad of other tech journalists also obsessed with testing at CNET, Tom's Guide and Consumer Reports. "Our overall average battery life is coming down," says Mark Spoonauer, the editor in chief of Tom's Guide, who also found the iPhone XS battery died sooner than the iPhone X. Many of the phones with the longest battery life, he adds, are a year old.
 
Removing headphones jacks to give battery space 1mm thinner talking point for the marketing folks sure is paying off eh!
What an absolute joke.
Considering a 6kmah battery for my v10. Stock is enough but next lot of travel 6k would be good. There even are 9k models lol.
 
It's probably some useless feature! For example, making a battery that is less likely to explode shortens its life... Certainly, a feature most phone users don't want.

I forgot the sarcasm tags!
 
So running the bluetooth radio to xmit data to the BT earphones uses more power then the old style audio jack? Who would have thought?

It was my understanding that bluetooth consumes less power than a phone having a built in DAC does.
 
I'm still rocking my iPhone 6s Plus with no real reason to upgrade any time soon though I can barely go a full day without draining the battery—who knew a device you always carry with you is the one you use the most? Hearing that newer phones have even less longevity does not make me inclined to consider upgrading.
 
Too many services, apps with too many permissions doing god knows what in the background will do that. Increasing limitations to control and configure your own phone isn't helping; neither is a glued together phone making replacement of a battery past its prime a chore.
 
My phone has 1440p, yet it will last two weeks on idle.

It was my understanding that bluetooth consumes less power than a phone having a built in DAC does.
It does't matter since wireless earphones will die faster than the phone anyway :p
 
Phones are one place where power consumption and performance need balance. It needs to be a selling point. "X performance maintained over Y battery life.". Raw speed matters not at all outside of gaming phones. My Honor 8 is still more than fast enough for anything I could want to do on a phone... And it has fantastic battery life and power consumption management. It's going to take a major tech change like new wireless standard or something for me to feel a need to change. And yeah, there are almost no use cases for more than 1080p on a 5"-6" phone screen.
 
  • Like
Reactions: PaulP
like this
Battery technology for phones also currently sucks. We really need an advancement in battery tech. I keep reading about all these amazing new discoveries by scientists, but nothing ever seems to see the light of day.

There's a huge difference between creating something in a lab and mass production. Lithium batteries were in the works for many years before we started using them.

Most of the articles we read are researchers looking for grant money.
 
  • Like
Reactions: HoffY
like this
I don't really have any complaints with the battery life on my Huawei Mate 9. I've ordered the new OnePlus 6T and hope it has a similar battery.

Screenshot_20181104-164125.jpg
 
I'm still rocking my iPhone 6s Plus with no real reason to upgrade any time soon though I can barely go a full day without draining the battery—who knew a device you always carry with you is the one you use the most? Hearing that newer phones have even less longevity does not make me inclined to consider upgrading.

I just upgraded to the XR, my iPhone 6S Plus had a horrible battery. The original one lasted 2 years iirc but the replacement battery in Jan 18 seemed to help but by this past month it would die by lunchtime.

The original battery started doing the same thing. I’ll admit I wasn’t the best with the phone. When I was stationed at Fort Carson, CO I’d leave it in the car during PT or in the field on the ground where it would go from extreme heat to extreme cold but the replacement should’ve been fine.

The phones screen started bulging out of the case like the battery was fixing to explode.

Lasted just long enough for the XR release. Tmobile traded it in for 225 which I thought was a miracle.

TLDR: I cant feel a difference from my old iPhone 6S Plus and this XR. It has gestures and a bigger screen but for my use I wished it had lasted longer.
 
It was my understanding that bluetooth consumes less power than a phone having a built in DAC does.

Both are pretty negligible, but I would think Bluetooth consumes more power. Not directly, because the Tx power of BT is in the low milliwatt range, but Bluetooth is far more complicated and requires all the parts that other RF interfaces do. It is a lot more software and has more CPU impact.

The DAC / codec also consume very little power, still in the low mW range when driving small headphones.

Both of these are swamped by the display and CPU basically.
 
Provided I don't use it too much and have the back light down I can get nearly 3 days on my moto x4.

I'll provide a screen cap this week as proof.
 
The battery in my note 8 has been incredible usually by now I'm on youtube trying to figure out how hard it's going to be to replace the battery...
 
It was my understanding that bluetooth consumes less power than a phone having a built in DAC does.

Think you are missing a /s tag. At least I hope you are instead of missing a brain capable of logical thought.

Though just in case my fears are actually founded, you realize that BT also requires a DAC, right?
 
Last edited:
Gotta say my el Cheap Samsung Galaxy Avant I could wait almost a week between charging, yet my Galaxy S8+ I've had go from 40% to absolutely dead overnight while I was asleep, like seriously miscalculating the percentage? I'm sorry but location, wifi, etc, shouldn't drain that much battery when it's fucking in use much less overnight.
 
I use a $50 Moto e4 plus, it has a 5000mAh battery. I can record 4 hours of video with it as a dash cam and I still have 30% battery life left. iPhones are garbage.
 
  • Like
Reactions: rudy
like this
I just upgraded to the XR, my iPhone 6S Plus had a horrible battery. The original one lasted 2 years iirc but the replacement battery in Jan 18 seemed to help but by this past month it would die by lunchtime.

I noticed one of the iOS 11 updates would drain my phone in four hours or less. I ended up going into the Siri manager and disabled Siri (which I never use anyway) in every app. Suddenly my battery was now lasting 8 hours instead of 4. I also have my screen set to just bright enough to see and I can go about 12 hours on a charge. It doesn't help that I'm a news junkie and the power usage monitor shows it (easily 35+% power usage).
 
Well, there is evidence that the Snapdragon 845 has worse battery life vs the 835. But the 835 is probably better than the 820 and 821. As others have said it is really a matter of managing the trade-offs of performance vs battery for mobile devices. Much different vs, say, desktop PC's which do not have to worry as much about power consumption and mostly can focus on raw power.
 
Cliff notes from the article:

6259134D-968A-4911-BAA7-788E3EF458C0.png


I just got an XR this weekend, particularly for the price and battery life.
 
And yet we still end up putting the phone in a case so the thinness doesn't even matter. Also doesn't help that many of the phones have 1440P or higher resolution. 1080P is plenty for a phone.

Far better than putting a case on a physically thicker phone like the 2007-2011 era.
 
Removing headphones jacks to give battery space 1mm thinner talking point for the marketing folks sure is paying off eh!
Of course it is paying off... every retard still keeps buying them at an ever increasing price every damn year!

Just like with everything it seems these days... (vidya games is another prime example)... ppl are super willing to spend far more for far less and smile with the a$$ reeming they are given and pucker up ready for it all again in 12 months!
 
  • Like
Reactions: N4CR
like this
But we gotta have higher Geek Bench numbers!

Quick overclock when an app is detected and then shut down 1/2 the cores.

Oh but if it's not thinner with notches and 7 cameras people will call me names :(

I just turn a lot of background garbage off and I'm only down to 70% when I get home.
 
Of course it is paying off... every retard still keeps buying them at an ever increasing price every damn year!

Just like with everything it seems these days... (vidya games is another prime example)... ppl are super willing to spend far more for far less and smile with the a$$ reeming they are given and pucker up ready for it all again in 12 months!
Best part is when they come and complain about the prices later while sporting Iphone Ti lmao
 
I'm sick of this style over substance trend. It's been going on for far too long.

I want decent battery life.

I want an easily replaceable battery.

I want one of these as a backup to my battery on my phone: https://www.marineapproved.com/wind-up-flashlight/

Yeah, baby! I want a friggin' spin me up handle! No wall warts, no sunlight and solar panels, no battery packs overheating, just a little backup generator built right into the phone. Hell, the handle could even double as an antenna. Better reception and infinite power!

Make it foldup and tuck along the side of the phone. A 1/4" thickness would be fine. That's about 6mm for you Euro types.
 
Part of this is apps doing whatever the fuck they want in the background
I've started limiting my notifications, like turning off FB, Insta etc etc as I don't really give a shit about those.
At the end of my day on my Pixel 2 XL i average about 50% battery remaining
 
Part of this is apps doing whatever the fuck they want in the background
I've started limiting my notifications, like turning off FB, Insta etc etc as I don't really give a shit about those.
At the end of my day on my Pixel 2 XL i average about 50% battery remaining

Try turning off location. Location basically means take a huge look inside my phone and where/what I'm doing. It has different T&Cs for a reason and uses a shitload of resources for a reason, it's not just a simple GPS lol.
I do use mine offline where possible e.g. navigation and it's less intensive but still noticeable drain on every phone i've owned. I don't have faceberg either.
 
Cliff notes from the article:



I just got an XR this weekend, particularly for the price and battery life.

I really hope they refresh the XR next year when I need to upgrade. It seems like the best phone right now for the money. Maybe increase the resolution a little bit while they are at it :D
 
Cut your apps to the minimum you need.

Quit leaving your phone on charge overnight.
 
Actually the flagships have all had atrocious battery efficiency for years now. They have simply masked that fact by shoving in giant batteries. In reality my 2011 Galaxy Nexus, a phone that was panned for it's abysmal battery life has better battery efficiency per milliamp hour than most flagships have had for 5+ years.
 
Back
Top