Pixel 3 Battery Life after Last Update?

Zarathustra[H]

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Just got an update on my Pixel 3 a couple of days ago, ever since battery life seems significantly shorter.

Anyone else experience the same?
 
Maybe the battery circuitry need to be recalibrated. Let it drain all the way, then charge it up all the way. Drain it again and then charge it up again.

See if that helps.

I've got a Pixel 3 as well and haven't noticed any change in the battery life. Latest update for me was on March 5th.
 
My 3XL's battery life has deteriorated significantly over the past 3-4 months. No idea why. :(
 
My 2 XL's is still solid; 4-5 hours SoT over 24 hours or so (5-6 hours if I use it constantly). In standby it drops about 1%/hour still. This seems comparable to the Pixel 4 XL still, hah.
 
My Pixel 2's battery fell off a cliff starting last November. I'd typically spend 15-20 minutes each morning screwing around on my phone (news, Facebook, etc.) before work. Last summer that would put my battery around 93-94%. After November it would be in the mid 80's. By the end of the day it would be around 10-15% not counting days when I used maps or something power-hungry. I did a factory reset and only installed the most barebones apps yet nothing changed. Either that battery hit some kind of weird milestone or one of the Fall updates did something.
 
My Pixel 2's battery fell off a cliff starting last November. I'd typically spend 15-20 minutes each morning screwing around on my phone (news, Facebook, etc.) before work. Last summer that would put my battery around 93-94%. After November it would be in the mid 80's. By the end of the day it would be around 10-15% not counting days when I used maps or something power-hungry. I did a factory reset and only installed the most barebones apps yet nothing changed. Either that battery hit some kind of weird milestone or one of the Fall updates did something.

I've made a concious effort in minimizing battery wear on my 2 XL since I got it by limiiting most charges to 80% or so unless I know I'm going to be away from home all day and it'll be a heavy day (taking lots of pics/vids) as well. Because all of my previous phones needed batteries around the 18 month mark presumably because I always kept them at 100% either charging overnight or on my desk charger at work. Seems to have paid off for the most part, as perceivable battery wear has been pretty negligible and Accubattery says I still have 90% of my original battery capacity left, though for some reason when I first got it, it started at 93% capacity, so I'm not sure how accurate that is. It was definitely accurate after I replaced my previous Nexus 6P's battery going from 70%ish capacity up to 102% or so after I replaced it.
 
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I've made a concious effort in minimizing battery wear on my 2 XL since I got it by limiiting most charges to 80%


You can do this another way. I have decided not to charge my Pixel 2 when I go to bed unless it's under 40%.

Even when I'm heavily using my phone, I never burn through more than 40% battery life in a single day, so that's my cutoff.

This way it spends most of it's time min the "golden zone" of 20-80% charged. But I still get an extra day (low usage) or an extra 12 hours (high usage) from my phone by charging to 100.

This method also means I'm minimizing wear on that port. You can forgoe charges as well, if you can analyze your typical usage.

But if you burn through way more charge than I do in a single day, I can see why you would want to do this.

OP: did you start storing your phone in a not perectly flat surface? I've sometimes notied my phone not auto going to speep when I forget to lay it down flat (burns thrioough 20% overnight). Otherwise, it burns through just 5% overnmight.
 
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Too bad Google hasn't implement battery care into Android like a lot of manufacturers and even Apple has done.

My Asus ROG2 has a feature where during my specified period of the day it will pause charging at 80% until an hour before the end of that period whereupon it'll charge up to 100%. You set the endtime to be when you wake up and then it's basically seamless.

I mean, I could just plug it in only once every two days too since it's a girnormous battery but it's nice to have options.
 
You can do this another way. I have decided not to charge my Pixel 2 when I go to bed unless it's under 40%.

Even when I'm heavily using my phone, I never burn through more than 40% battery life in a single day, so that's my cutoff.

This way it spends most of it's time min the "golden zone" of 20-80% charged. But I still get an extra day (low usage) or an extra 12 hours (high usage) from my phone by charging to 100.

This method also means I'm minimizing wear on that port. You can forgoe charges as well, if you can analyze your typical usage.

But if you burn through way more charge than I do in a single day, I can see why you would want to do this.

OP: did you start storing your phone in a not perectly flat surface? I've sometimes notied my phone not auto going to speep when I forget to lay it down flat (burns thrioough 20% overnight). Otherwise, it burns through just 5% overnmight.

That's pretty much exactly what I've been doing as well. Not sure what you mean by "another way" then? I don't charge my phone overnight regardless (I'll bump it up to 30%+ if need be before bed, but don't think I've ever had to) and will just put in on a standard 10W (5V, 2A) charger as soon as I get up and in 20-30 mins it's always up to the 80% or so I want it at and ready to go.

Also, why does it matter if your phone is laid flat or not overnight in terms of standby battery usage?

Too bad Google hasn't implement battery care into Android like a lot of manufacturers and even Apple has done.

My Asus ROG2 has a feature where during my specified period of the day it will pause charging at 80% until an hour before the end of that period whereupon it'll charge up to 100%. You set the endtime to be when you wake up and then it's basically seamless.

I mean, I could just plug it in only once every two days too since it's a girnormous battery but it's nice to have options.

Apple has had that same feature on iPhones as well, though I'm not sure you can set it manually on them, I've read that they "learn" your usage pattern and will slowly charge up to 80-90% overnight, then time it to hit 100% right before you wake up or start using your phone.

Google and other OEMs definitely need to implement some sort of battery wear countermeasures into the phones for sure though if they're sealing the batteries in and making it a PITA to replace/repair them (that hasn't stopped me so far though since I replaced my One M8 and Nexus 6P's battery). I remember Samsung boasting only 5-10% battery wear after a year or two when the S8s came out, but not sure how they implemented that. If they're smart, they would just soft-cap the batteries at 80-90% or so internally while reporting 100% charges to the user, which is pretty much how EVs vehicles do it now like in Teslas or basically any other hybrid car.
 
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I’m thinking some folks had used them nickel battery cellphones for a long time that they developed the habit of not charging until the battery is mostly used up or just outright refuse to recognize that the properties of the lithium ion batteries are totally different and that plugging in the phone all the time is actually better for the lithium battery’s longevity.
 
I’m thinking some folks had used them nickel battery cellphones for a long time that they developed the habit of not charging until the battery is mostly used up or just outright refuse to recognize that the properties of the lithium ion batteries are totally different and that plugging in the phone all the time is actually better for the lithium battery’s longevity.
This isn't strictly true though. While the memory effect hasn't been a factor even when NiMH's were released, holding a lithium ion battery's charge at 100% all the time represents greater wear than holding at a lower percentage.

For example, Tesla's actually let you charge to near 100% (unlike most other EVs) but lets you set a maximum threshold for every day usage. They recommend you only let it charge to max when you're about to take a long trip.
 
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Just got an update on my Pixel 3 a couple of days ago, ever since battery life seems significantly shorter.

Anyone else experience the same?
For me, it's been like this since the Android 10 update (Pixel 3, btw). I can't say I notice a significant difference strictly due to the last update though. But I'm definitely in the camp that sees a pattern of "obvious" degradation.

I'm losing about 15% charge every day while basically not even using it. I'm sitting at 67% right now, down from a full recharge Sunday. Again, basically not using it the past 48 hours. I do have the cellular and WiFi enabled (BT disabled). Don't have anything running other than the stock apps (some even manually killed).

Granted, my phone is almost a year old. Batteries do degrade, but they don't fall down a slippery slope overnight.

Planned obsolescence conspiracy theories?

Off topic, I did get a $150 check from the Nexus 6P class action settlement the other day.
 
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That's pretty much exactly what I've been doing as well. Not sure what you mean by "another way" then? I don't charge my phone overnight regardless (I'll bump it up to 30%+ if need be before bed, but don't think I've ever had to) and will just put in on a standard 10W (5V, 2A) charger as soon as I get up and in 20-30 mins it's always up to the 80% or so I want it at and ready to go.

Also, why does it matter if your phone is laid flat or not overnight in terms of standby battery usage?

The phone auto-wakes/sleeps when you lift it or place it on a surface.

Just once, I didn't leave mine lying flat, and somehow it stayed awake overnight (burned through four times the battery life it normally does). Just wondering if this could contribute to your suddenly lower battery life? I had this happen about a month ago (hasn't happened since, I've made sure my phone was flat)
 
I'm not necessarily into the conspiracy theories about planned obsolescence. At least not most of the time since we have seen it happen. I do think there was something in one of the monthly Pixel updates (or even just normal app updates for calendar, clock, contacts, etc.) that made my Pixel 2 use a lot more battery. Probably an accident more than intent, but it was annoying nonetheless. Luckily, I'm usually on a 2-3 year buying cycle so it wasn't the end of the world. On the other hand, I didn't buy another Pixel, so Google lost out there.
 
I'm not necessarily into the conspiracy theories about planned obsolescence. At least not most of the time since we have seen it happen. I do think there was something in one of the monthly Pixel updates (or even just normal app updates for calendar, clock, contacts, etc.) that made my Pixel 2 use a lot more battery. Probably an accident more than intent, but it was annoying nonetheless. Luckily, I'm usually on a 2-3 year buying cycle so it wasn't the end of the world. On the other hand, I didn't buy another Pixel, so Google lost out there.

Yeah, this is my theory as well.

An inadvertent bug.

Question is how much time and effort will be dedicated to fixing that bug unless users make a lot of noise.
 
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