Background: Ever since I switched from AT$T to T-Mobile last month, my iPhone 5's battery life has taken a huge nosedive for the worst, to where it can easily lose 1% every 2-3 minutes, Wi-Fi on or off, and even if airplane mode is on but Wi-Fi is on (Apple Store won't replace it since it's 60 days out of warranty, and a new battery honestly probably won't help since the capacity and other diagnostic readings are showing signs of a normal battery). Popping my AT$T SIM back in, I immediately get much better numbers. Either T-Mobile's network sucks the crap out of batteries, or the phone has yet to be optimized for the network. I'm thinking it's the latter, because I've used other T-Mobile phones, such as the LG Optimus L9, and battery life was really good. Since the Nexus 5 is a very affordable off-contract device, I decided to give it a try.
I understand that the battery life is itself questionable for the Nexus 5, but it supposedly gets better as time goes on.
My white 16GB Nexus 5 arrived yesterday (ordered it on the 6th when it said it'll ship between 3-4 weeks). Using a ghetto paper-based mold for my nano-SIM, it worked just fine in the N5's micro-SIM slot.
It took a number of hours to eventually get things the way I like it, but here's my current setup (the icon and folder setups are nearly identical to how I had them on my iPhone 5, and every third-party (App Store) app I had there was also available on Android, or at least a good alternative was available):
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Overall, I'm very happy with Android 4.4 and its general performance on the N5.
So, some complaints.
First, LTE. On my morning commute, I noticed it completely lost a signal (no bars, just an outline) three times in areas where my iPhone 5 would have at least 2 bars (dots) of LTE. I would at least expect it to drop to HSPA+, but it didn't do that... In the building I'm in, I always got at least 3 bars of LTE on my iPhone 5. My Nexus 5 can't seem to hook onto it, even after flicking airplane mode on and off a few times. It's instead connected to HSPA+ (fluctuating between that and 3G when idling, as expected). Yes, HSPA+ works, but I want LTE if I have access to it, which I do. EDIT: Changing the data network from LTE to 2G, then back to LTE brought LTE back. EDIT 2: Well, where I've been at for the past 10 minutes, I get a full signal of LTE. It randomly decided to drop to full HSPA+/3G.
I always also hoping that general compatibility with T-Mobile was better. The raw decibel signal readings do seem to be in my favor, but the LTE problems and prior signal drops are hopefully things that won't happen again.
Next, battery life. Yes, as mentioned, I know that it's supposed to get better. To be honest, my initial battery life numbers don't seem too bad. Here are some of my initial numbers (N5 came out of the box at around 80% battery, used it down to 5% before charging it all night):
At that screen on rate, I'd estimate about 5.75 hours of total screen on usage, and 9 hours of total standby. That's much better than some of my recent iPhone 5 numbers, and I hope that they can increase. Battery life is really the deciding factor if I keep the N5 and sell my iPhone 5 or not.
I've already gone through all of the battery saving tips (turning Wi-Fi auto search off, battery saving location mode, disabling OK Google, etc.). My usage isn't too heavy, but I do leave Wi-fi OFF (yes, off), get hundreds of texts, checking and replying to them, using Twitter (Tweetings), listening to music through headphones (PowerAmp), checking email automatically every 15 minutes via K9, dealing with those from time to time, and opening some pages with Chrome.
Next, the speaker. I was expecting it to be loud, louder than my iPhone 5, but it's noticeably quieter. I guess there's a hardware hack for it, but I'd rather avoid that, should I end up returning the thing. It sounds clear, and seems louder in certain apps than others (even if the volume is up all the way). Not sure if it needs to be broken in first.
I just noticed that music through headphones doesn't get very loud either, even with things turned up to their maximum values in PowerAmp.
I've yet to take a picture with the camera, and I heard it could be better (and probably will with a software update).
Speaking of software updates, I imagine Google could easily improve on almost all of these areas, including battery life?
One of my concerns was whether or not I can deal with the larger phone for one-handed operation. And really, I haven't had any complaints there.
Overall, I'm very satisfied with it. Just anxious to see what my battery life numbers will be as time goes on.
Battery life probably won't get drastically better. You just need to see what kills your battery the most. If there are things on in the background that your not using such as an app that would save battery life. But most likely is just the screen
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk
If you can live with Google Play Music for listening to your music, it should use less battery then poweramp by using the special kitkat dsp audio engine.
If you don't have stable LTE, it will really suck the life out of your battery. I just run HSPA+ most of the time and my battery life is ridiculous now.
Dr Tone said:
If you can live with Google Play Music for listening to your music, it should use less battery then poweramp by using the special kitkat dsp audio engine.
If you don't have stable LTE, it will really suck the life out of your battery. I just run HSPA+ most of the time and my battery life is ridiculous now.
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One big thing I really like is when songs crossfade between each other, which the Google Play Music app doesn't do. PowerAmp's equalizer and other audio adjustment settings are things I can't really go without anymore. Battery life when using it seems fine (for now).
LTE where I am is generally pretty stable. I'll do some tests with LTE off since that will probably help a bit (didn't matter on my iPhone 5, since the battery life would decrease at the same rate regardless of which type of data connection I'm on). Think a software or radio update would help?
You are complaining about nearly 6 hours of battery life?!!? If I get a Nexus 5 and get that much screen on just browsing, I'd freaking celebrate!
Let's not forget that you started at 80%!! EIGHTY PERCENT!!
darkgoon3r96 said:
You are complaining about nearly 6 hours of battery life?!!? If I get a Nexus 5 and get that much screen on just browsing, I'd freaking celebrate!
Let's not forget that you started at 80%!! EIGHTY PERCENT!!
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Well, my iPhone USED to get really good usage numbers under similar usage scenarios.
I've got to admit, I was expecting another "iPhone 5 is way better than Nexus 5" rant...
Kudos to you sir, I thought you made a pretty good review and fair comparison between the two.
I've been having similar issues on T-Mobile as of late, so I understand where you're coming from. The battery and network connectivity issues are most likely on their side.
As for software issues, the sound output being drastically different per app will likely be fixed in an OTA soon. The camera actually exceeded my expectations on a recent family outing to a Texans game last weekend, with HDR+ it takes amazing pictures! The autofocus could be faster, but I'm sure that'll be addressed in an OTA as well.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts bud, it's not often we get unbiased opinions here... It's refreshing to see a review by someone who isn't an iOS fanboy or Nexus apologist.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
besweeet said:
Well, my iPhone USED to get really good usage numbers under similar usage scenarios.
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Its not similar conditions with a 4" screen.
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Battery life is incredibly subjective and can vary wildly from user to user. Location, carrier, usage patterns, etc. are different for everyone so it's hard to definitively predict battery life on the N5.
My experience? My first week I was incredibly worried because battery life was significantly worse than my GS3. Granted, I was playing with it a lot and testing out different things, but I was averaging about 3 hours of screen time and scraping about 12 hours of total life. Pretty terrible for what I was used to. I will say that when I was testing out the Moves app, to test the movement tracker, this absolutely slaughtered my battery.
I lived with mediocre battery life for a few days, then when Franco came out with his kernel (I believe I started at r10) I flashed it and then started getting insane battery results. Each kernel update has gotten better (now on r14) and I'm finally happy and able to easily make it through a full day.
For the past week, I usually take my phone off the charger at 7am and it goes back on at 11pm with around 25-35% remaining. During this time my screen on time is between 3-4 hours. So that's 16 hours with a quarter of the battery remaining and a decent amount of screen time on. I'm very happy.
I'm assuming a custom kernel requires a root, which then requires everything to be wiped? I wish I knew that prior to getting everything setup. Probably won't get into any of that for a while.
rootSU said:
Its not similar conditions with a 4" screen.
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It's also not similar conditions when the iPhone 5 has only a 1,440 mAh battery, that's something like ~63% smaller than the Nexus 5's battery (which many of us already find to be disappointingly small compared to other Android flagships).
I'm a hardcore Android user, always have been since I owned an OG Droid and Nexus One, but I concede that whatever Apple does with iOS and their SoCs to squeeze so much screen on time out of the tiny little batteries in the iPhones is pretty impressive.
besweeet said:
I'm assuming a custom kernel requires a root, which then requires everything to be wiped? I wish I knew that prior to getting everything setup. Probably won't get into any of that for a while.
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A custom kernel doesn't technically need root, but it does need the bootloader to be unlocked which is what wipes the device.
You can try to backup with an app called "helium" which apparently backs up a fair bit.
I also saw a thread to unlock bootloader without wipe. I didn't read it though. Possibly in themea and apps subforum. Try a search of xda at the root if the n5 forum
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Could you tell us more about your experience on Android vs iOS? I had an iPhone 4S prior to switching to Android, and aside from the consistency of the UI and fluidity, there isn't much else that I miss. Oh, maybe the excellent color accuracy of the iPhones (especially whites, which aren't too blue). The biggest thing that I was glad about dumping was iTunes, followed by iOS restrictions on what you can and can't do.
besweeet said:
I'm assuming a custom kernel requires a root, which then requires everything to be wiped? I wish I knew that prior to getting everything setup. Probably won't get into any of that for a while.
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Click to collapse
Rooting doesn't require a wipe, but unlocking your bootloader does. Step 1 when aquiring phone, unlock bootloader, optionally root if you want, then set up. Bootloader unlock is most important for custom kernel.
Did you try viper4android for general sound enhancement. Don't have mine n5 yet - but on other phones it is amazing.
You can find viper in the play store.
Greets...
Sent from my LG-P990 using xda app-developers app
ExodusC said:
It's also not similar conditions when the iPhone 5 has only a 1,440 mAh battery, that's something like ~63% smaller than the Nexus 5's battery (which many of us already find to be disappointingly small compared to other Android flagships).
I'm a hardcore Android user, always have been since I owned an OG Droid and Nexus One, but I concede that whatever Apple does with iOS and their SoCs to squeeze so much screen on time out of the tiny little batteries in the iPhones is pretty impressive.
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True. Completely different hardware and os makes any comparison pointless.
I actually think the N5 battery is great. Its bigger than my S3 my 200 mAh but it lasts much longer proportionally.
The best way to make the decision between the 2 is to see which is a better fit for "your" usage and habits, which you enjoy the most and whether the battery is "enough".
For me, an iPhone battery would last days,.but it doesn't suit me.
Best thing is to consider battery last. Let passion make the decision
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rootSU said:
I actually think the N5 battery is great. Its bigger than my S3 my 200 mAh but it lasts much longer proportionally.
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I'm actually relieved and excited to hear that. I had an S3 for many months and it was the first smartphone I've ever owned that I felt had really good battery life.
I'm on a Galaxy Nexus on Verizon right now, which is notorious for having insanely abysmal battery life, and it was like a slap in the face compared to my S3, which easily lasted all day.
So I figure just about anything will be better than what I'm on now.
Gorgenapper said:
Could you tell us more about your experience on Android vs iOS? I had an iPhone 4S prior to switching to Android, and aside from the consistency of the UI and fluidity, there isn't much else that I miss. Oh, maybe the excellent color accuracy of the iPhones (especially whites, which aren't too blue). The biggest thing that I was glad about dumping was iTunes, followed by iOS restrictions on what you can and can't do.
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While even Android 4.4 on the Nexus 5 could be smoother in terms of frame rate. I thought I'd get annoyed by it, but it doesn't bother me much. I kinda miss iTunes, keeping syncing things organized within one central program, but I rarely used it.
rootSU said:
True. Completely different hardware and os makes any comparison pointless.
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I'll have to disagree there. They're both phones that can do similar things, and both have similar hardware features (although they obviously differ). When usage scenarios and network conditions are as close as possible, only then can the battery life really be compared. So, I think that it's appropriate in my particular case.
ExodusC said:
I'm actually relieved and excited to hear that. I had an S3 for many months and it was the first smartphone I've ever owned that I felt had really good battery life.
I'm on a Galaxy Nexus on Verizon right now, which is notorious for having insanely abysmal battery life, and it was like a slap in the face compared to my S3, which easily lasted all day.
So I figure just about anything will be better than what I'm on now.
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My comparison is like for like here. My network doesn't yet offer lte and my s3 was not the lte version. Bear in mind my s3 was quad core 1.4Ghz so im not sure how my S3 compared to yours.
But my N5 I am doing 16 hour days (8 hrs low signal area) with 4.5 hrs+ screen on. I could get that on my s3 if I didn't leave the house but a normal day would be 3 hrs on s3.
I am undervolted by 50 and using greenify though
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---------- Post added at 07:04 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:55 PM ----------
besweeet said:
I'll have to disagree there. They're both phones that can do similar things, and both have similar hardware features (although they obviously differ). When usage scenarios and network conditions are as close as possible, only then can the battery life really be compared. So, I think that it's appropriate in my particular case.
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Fair enough I respect your disagreement. Although for me I disagree that they do similar things too. On the face of it they do, but for the hardcore of us I don't feel that's true. Not to spark an iPhone / android debate here (so this will be my last word on ios) but I see ios more as a "feature phone" than a "smart phone".
If the iPhone does all you need and you can get better battery, its a no brainer. Its just the os work completely different. The n5 is much more powerful and bigger screened and the architecture is incomparable.
On the face of it they do the same "calls, emails, web and some apps" but the comparison stops there I feel. It depends how involved you wish to become.
As I say, go with your heart on which you prefer. Take battery into consideration but don't let it rule the decision. Go for what suits you, not what anyone else says
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So I've convinced myself to wipe & root later, backing up with Helium and the normal Google backup (for system settings and such). That should get me mostly setup the way I had pre-wipe, right? I should have some time this weekend to just start from scratch again, but would definitely like to avoid most of it if possible, which it seems like it is.
I bought a Z1 at launch last September. A little later I sold it because I wasn't impressed with the camera, and the weak viewing angles didn't help much either.
However I have some "seller's remorse" as I somehow really liked the phone and its looks. Also the waterproof part was a major pro.
Since I sold my phone, the z1 has been updated to 4.3 and has perhaps also had other updates. My question now is, what has been improved since launch? Camera, battery life, general smoothness (project butter?) etc?
Any updates that makes the phone significant better now than it was at launch?
b-bert said:
I bought a Z1 at launch last September. A little later I sold it because I wasn't impressed with the camera, and the weak viewing angles didn't help much either.
However I have some "seller's remorse" as I somehow really liked the phone and its looks. Also the waterproof part was a major pro.
Since I sold my phone, the z1 has been updated to 4.3 and has perhaps also had other updates. My question now is, what has been improved since launch? Camera, battery life, general smoothness (project butter?) etc?
Any updates that makes the phone significant better now than it was at launch?
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You may have had a crappy screen, some have had a distinctly more limit viewing angle than intended. Go look for the thread on screens for more info there.
4.3 has been a bit of a pain for some - there's a known memory leak (that doesn't affect everyone) and some issues with the Bluetooth stack (again, not affecting everyone).
Personally, I have had no problems on 290 and am very happy with the battery life. The camera works great if you're not Superior Auto mode (and I've heard there should be improvements to SA in the future).
For me the only one thing was really improved, battery life. All other stuff was close to the same, no big improvements with the camera. Phone still working good. To me that's all.
Thanks for your replies. Too bad it still sounds like a lottery wether you get a "good phone" or not.
Yet, you seem to agree that battery life has improved, which is a very good thing. I was surprised at the short battery life they managed to get out of such a big battery. Especially compared to what the LG g2 and Galaxy Note 3 managed.
My use is mainly Facebook, web browsing, texting (SMS and Messenger), snapchat and taking pictures. And occasionally a game of Candy Crush or Angry Birds GO. You think it he battery will last me through the day?
Also, if anybody else has something to comment about improvements from 4.2.2 to 4.3, please let me know. I keep browsing through the different threads in the general section, but it's hard to find posts covering this subject.
b-bert said:
Thanks for your replies. Too bad it still sounds like a lottery wether you get a "good phone" or not.
Yet, you seem to agree that battery life has improved, which is a very good thing. I was surprised at the short battery life they managed to get out of such a big battery. Especially compared to what the LG g2 and Galaxy Note 3 managed.
My use is mainly Facebook, web browsing, texting (SMS and Messenger), snapchat and taking pictures. And occasionally a game of Candy Crush or Angry Birds GO. You think it he battery will last me through the day?
Also, if anybody else has something to comment about improvements from 4.2.2 to 4.3, please let me know. I keep browsing through the different threads in the general section, but it's hard to find posts covering this subject.
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going from 4.2.2 to 4.3 i noticed better battery life, way better camera(still not satisfied!).
battery life depends on usage and net signal strength. using stamina mode etc you can easy get over a day. on some days it even lasts 2 days for me.
b-bert said:
Thanks for your replies. Too bad it still sounds like a lottery wether you get a "good phone" or not.
Yet, you seem to agree that battery life has improved, which is a very good thing. I was surprised at the short battery life they managed to get out of such a big battery. Especially compared to what the LG g2 and Galaxy Note 3 managed.
My use is mainly Facebook, web browsing, texting (SMS and Messenger), snapchat and taking pictures. And occasionally a game of Candy Crush or Angry Birds GO. You think it he battery will last me through the day?
Also, if anybody else has something to comment about improvements from 4.2.2 to 4.3, please let me know. I keep browsing through the different threads in the general section, but it's hard to find posts covering this subject.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i didn't notice any improvement to camera, and i actually think battery life was better on 4.2.2, but mybe i had a good setup then that i don't now...
Z1 battery life is superb, don't listen to them, i've looked around G2 forums, most averege users get 4.5 to 5 hours of screen time on a charge, the ones who debloat the phone heavely gets 6-7 hours. Z1 can easely get to 6 hours with stamina mode, so i don't see how G2 is any better.
and yeah, i usually get home after 14 hours worth of daytime with 60%+ battery, after being on tapatalk facebook whatsapp etc all day. so i think you should be fine
i can squeeze 2 hours of asphalt 8 easly aswell