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Battery consumption

Added by Mzee Mzee over 9 years ago

Hello guys,
I'm using Replicant on a Samsung Galaxy S3 and just realized that it has a very high battery consumption as I have to re-charge the phone roughly every day. Are there any hints or ideas to decrease the amount of energy needed? Thanks a lot in advance!


Replies (10)

RE: Battery consumption - Added by My Self over 9 years ago

IMHO battery drainings are strongly dependent on the individual usecase in combination with you specific hard-/software environment.
So I can't give you a general advice.

In the past, I've read a lot of times, that the app (BetterBatteryStats):
https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdfilter=Battery&fdid=com.asksven.betterbatterystats
should be really good in helping you to find out, what exactly drains your battery.

You could also give a slightly newer alternative (BatteryBot Pro):
https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdfilter=Battery&fdid=com.darshancomputing.BatteryIndicatorPro
a try, if you want.

If you find out which points exactly are the problem, then you also can find out a solution for your situation; for example:

Finally, I've found a nice looking URL at this second, which explains the benefit of basic power saving options, but could probably help you further anyway: http://www.androidauthority.com/android-battery-saver-tips-tricks-189882/

[Edit]
And if you're looking for a more powerful battery, just try to search for "Genuine Samsung Galaxy S3 i9300 Extended Battery Kit" (for your device).
This "Extended Battery" is also available for Samsung Galaxy S2 i9100 and propably for some more models. I'm using one and it's definitely an enrichment.

Hope this helps...

RE: Battery consumption - Added by My Self over 9 years ago

I've analyzed my device (with Genuine Samsung Galaxy S2 Extended Battery Kit, by the way) for ~28 hours and I'm a little bit surprised that:
  • I have a battery draining "problem", too, and
  • the source of that seems to be the "mobile network"


I've just made round about 5 Minutes phone telephony this day (PhoneApp). The "flatline" in the middle of the graphic was the night, where I've set my device into "flight mode", (which disables "mobile network"). The two little "nose-dives" within the graphic were two (á ~10 minutes) train rides, (which lets the "mobile network" excessively search for alternate broadcast transmitters and drains the battery noticeable)...

Summarized, this "mobile network" topic could be the possible target of (my personally) extreme battery draining.

Hope that helps somebody else.

RE: Battery consumption - Added by Mzee Mzee over 9 years ago

Thank you very much for your summary and the screenshots. I have the feeling that I'm affected by the same problem. "Mobile data" and some apps like "ChatSecure" in particular seem to consume a lot of power. Well, I guess there is not much we can do for now about it.

RE: Battery consumption - Added by Paul Kocialkowski over 9 years ago

Why do you think it's a problem though? The modem drains a lot of power (remember that it's sending EM signals all the time) and if you have mobile data enabled, it's even worse. So generally good advice is to enable airplane mode when telephony is not needed (e.g. during the night) and to disable mobile data when not using it!

Note that the screen backlight usually also takes a good amount of power, so dimming brightness can make a difference too.

RE: Battery consumption - Added by My Self over 9 years ago

Why do you think it's a problem though?

'Mzee Mzee' probably has made the same experience like me, and probably others(?) I've use the same device with another custom ROM (OMNI v4.4.4, used with ART instead of Dalvik) before. With this software combination my device was running some days, (sometimes round about a week) without loading it, on normal usage and with my battery extension back installed. On Replicant 4.2 this seems to be reduced to round about one day.
So no offense, and I have put the word "problem" into quotation marks, because it's not a real problem for me, because I know I'm using a open source RIL, and that's more important for me, than leaving my power supply at home.
If there are some power saving features (inside Samsung-RIL for example), which could be implemented in the future, I would be very happy. If not, I'm dealing with it as usual.

So generally good advice is to enable airplane mode when telephony is not needed (e.g. during the night) and to disable mobile data when not using it!

In my case, I do so. Helpful to automate this could be, the (often mentioned) app BatteryFu.

Note that the screen backlight usually also takes a good amount of power, so dimming brightness can make a difference too.

In my case it's set to 'Automatic brightness' (with medium adjustment sesivity), because I've read that should be a good compromise between power saving and readable display brightness (on moving lighting conditions). I don't know if this is true, but it works for me.

RE: Battery consumption - Added by Paul Kocialkowski over 9 years ago

So no offense, and I have put the word "problem" into quotation marks, because it's not a real problem for me, because I know I'm using a open source RIL, and that's more important for me, than leaving my power supply at home.
If there are some power saving features (inside Samsung-RIL for example), which could be implemented in the future, I would be very happy. If not, I'm dealing with it as usual.

Alright then, I suppose I just lack the overall view to have a clear idea of all this. Power consumption with Replicant always felt quite normal to me, I never put it in question. And it's significantly better than the Openmoko and the GTA04, which are my references for devices with bad PM.

I don't think this has much to do with Samsung-RIL though, which is not directly related to PM at all, but most likely to the intensive use of the CPU for anything graphical. Note that the stats shown on Settings are really just a static rough estimation and don't reflect any precise reality.

RE: Battery consumption - Added by My Self over 9 years ago

I've seached for explicit battery improvements until Android v4.4.4 and just found this one:
https://android.googlesource.com/platform/frameworks/base/+/a40cfeb
So I merged this patch to Replicant, recompiled it and made another ~28 hours test, (while trying to use the phone as much the same as on the first test). This is the result:

It seems to be a question of interpretation if this patch is that necessary.
I'll open a bug report and provide this patch, so the Replicant team could decide if it makes sense.

RE: Battery consumption - Added by Paul Kocialkowski over 9 years ago

Well, I'm not sure this qualifies as a bug, but if you provide comprehensive information regarding why we might want this patch (that is, what it fixes exactly and the actual effects on a device's charge), I would consider it.

RE: Battery consumption - Added by My Self over 9 years ago

Well, I'm not sure this qualifies as a bug, but if you provide comprehensive information regarding why we might want this patch (that is, what it fixes exactly and the actual effects on a device's charge), I would consider it.

I hope this will fulfill your expectations:
http://redmine.replicant.us/issues/1245
http://lists.osuosl.org/pipermail/replicant/Week-of-Mon-20150330/000665.html

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