Android L battery life test reveals 36% improvement over KitKat

[Shawn Knight]

As you may or may not know, Google has a knack for focusing on one particular "project" during the development of each major Android release.

Jelly Bean had Project Butter, an initiative to improve the overall speed and performance of the mobile operating system through smoother animations. KitKat brought us Project Svelte which optimized the installation to run on just 512MB of RAM for entry-level hardware.

In Android L, the search-and-everything-else giant is focusing its attention on improved battery life through Project Volta. An entire session was spent on the subject during Google's recent I/O conference but how well does it actually work at this stage in the development process?

To answer that question, Ars Technica recently put Android L's Project Volta to the test. So how did it fare? According to the test results, pretty damn good actually.

In their Wi-Fi browsing test, Android L Developer Preview lasted 36 percent longer than Android 4.4 KitKat - good for about two additional hours of uptime. Testing was performed on what the article describes as a beat-up, daily-driver phone and as such, the final numbers aren't necessarily indicative of what you might get with a shiny new device. 

And since this is a developer preview of the OS, it's safe to assume that Google may squeeze even more performance out of Project Volta before the final consumer version arrives this fall.

Either way, the results are encouraging to say the least.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/57300-android-l-battery-life-test-reveals-36-improvement-over-kitkat.html

 

[Burty117]

A friend at work has this on his Nexus Tablet and so far has been nothing but impressed. Something that impressed me and wasn't mentioned in the article, Android L tells you how long until your battery is charged, such a little thing, made me very happy xD

 

[Kibaruk]

I have to say I'm hyper hyped over these news... to think a *smart*phone might actually live through the day and you don't end up beating yourself if you forgot to charge it overnight!

 

[Guest]

Finally , what the masses have been begging, f*ck the screen resolution, improve battery life

 

[VitalyT]

Something that impressed me and wasn't mentioned in the article, Android L tells you how long until your battery is charged, such a little thing, made me very happy xD

And how accurate was that? Many batteries today jump quickly up to about 80%, then slow down quite a bit, so unless the battery itself can calculate that based on the current input power and provide that back, the OS is not likely to know it. Socket chargers, car chargers, battery degrading, there is no way to predict the charge time unless the battery can calculate that.

 

[TadMSTR]

Something that impressed me and wasn't mentioned in the article, Android L tells you how long until your battery is charged, such a little thing, made me very happy xD

And how accurate was that? Many batteries today jump quickly up to about 80%, then slow down quite a bit, so unless the battery itself can calculate that based on the current input power and provide that back, the OS is not likely to know it. Socket chargers, car chargers, battery degrading, there is no way to predict the charge time unless the battery can calculate that.

JuicePlotter has a widget that can do this. It also gives an estimate of how many hours you have left of battery power. It takes several charge cycles to get 100% accuracy and tells you the current level of accuracy. It's based on your usage and history of charge times. So the more the feature is used, the more accurate it becomes at predicting times.

Edit: Just reread your post. The OS does the calculations, not the battery. The OS has access to battery stats, like current mV reading.

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

I have to say I'm hyper hyped over these news... to think a *smart*phone might actually live through the day and you don't end up beating yourself if you forgot to charge it overnight!

I agree... I always have to plug my phone in during the day. Looks like Google got sick of being beaten down by Apple in this category. I wonder if the battery improvement would still be noticeable from playing games. It's great if the OS uses less power, but games are what kills my battery the most.

From what I've read, the new generation of phones that run off the Snapdragon 800 or 801 do really well with battery. I think that'll include the Galaxy S5, HTC M8, LG G2 and G3, and the new Sony one... Z2 or something, I don't remember. Anandtech.com does good battery life tests in their reviews.

 

[misor]

Android L?
it just entered my mind. android kitkatl to L to M (M&M)?

Jelly Bean had Project Butter, an initiative to improve the overall speed and performance of the mobile operating system through smoother animations. KitKat brought us Project Svelte which optimized the installation to run on just 512MB of RAM for entry-level hardware.

Microsoft windows phone OS running smoothly on entry level windows phone.
now google is implementing it for its entry-level hardware. cool...very cool.

In their Wi-Fi browsing test, Android L Developer Preview lasted 36 percent longer than Android 4.4 KitKat - good for about two additional hours of uptime.

wow. a more efficient software delivering two additional hours on the same hardware spec. impressive.
if only laptop/tablet/smartphone battery manufacturers will upgrade their tech so we can now have devices running straight for a week or so without daily charging.

 

[Burty117]

And how accurate was that? Many batteries today jump quickly up to about 80%, then slow down quite a bit, so unless the battery itself can calculate that based on the current input power and provide that back, the OS is not likely to know it. Socket chargers, car chargers, battery degrading, there is no way to predict the charge time unless the battery can calculate that.

After a few charges the OS seems to get the hang of things and seems pretty accurate.

JuicePlotter has a widget that can do this. It also gives an estimate of how many hours you have left of battery power. It takes several charge cycles to get 100% accuracy and tells you the current level of accuracy. It's based on your usage and history of charge times. So the more the feature is used, the more accurate it becomes at predicting times.

Edit: Just reread your post. The OS does the calculations, not the battery. The OS has access to battery stats, like current mV reading.

Yeah, I still prefer things like that to be integrated into the OS though, it seemed pretty accurate after a few charges, gives you all the usual graphs and what was taking power at what time, In Android L it just kinda works and is on by default.

I'm even more tempted to get a One plus One now :/

 

[misor]

edit:
Android L?
it just entered my mind. android kitkat to L to M (M&M) to N to O (Oreo)?

@Burty117, is 'a one plus one' = htc one or another smartphone?

I'm even more tempted to get a One plus One now :/

 

[Capaill]

Wow, I never noticed the alphabetical versions before.
Alpha, Beta, Cupcake, Doughnut, Eclair, Froyo, Gingerbread, Honeycomb, IceCream Sandwich, Jelly Bean, Kitkat ...

I'd guess Liquorice but it's too hard to spell

 

[TrueBooleanFals]

Ladyfingers! I love tiramisu!

EDIT: Oh, and I love my Note 3. Much better life than my S3. I can go nearly two days before a recharge, with same usage as the S3; Can't wait for a lower powered version of Android.

 

[robertocarlus]

Cmon L Preview, you can get to 50%, lets go Devs keep up the good work. Hopefully by October we'll have 50% extra battery!!

 

[Camikazi]

edit:
Android L?
it just entered my mind. android kitkat to L to M (M&M) to N to O (Oreo)?

@Burty117, is 'a one plus one' = htc one or another smartphone?

I'm even more tempted to get a One plus One now :/

OnePlus One is a new phone that runs Cyanogenmod from factory, it is also rather low priced for the hardware and overall a great phone.