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Help "Enjoy over 10 hours battery life" - really?

B

boulton

Lurker
I am 'tortured' about my Nexus 7 battery life! I see ads saying "Enjoy over 10 hours battery life" and read forums where many owners say they get easily over 10 hours.

I understand there are a lot of variables to battery life and I'd like to understand whether what I get corresponds to others or seems low. So here is as much information as I can assemble:

  • I typically get 6 hours of screen-on life (when I extrapolate percent battery left versus reported screen-on time in the battery screen)
  • I use the tablet mainly for web surfing and reading emails. Typically it's on (i.e. screen on) for a few minutes, maybe up to 20 say, and then back to sleep.
  • I recharge every 2-3 days when the percent left drops below 50%. So that's 3 hours wifi on surfing, 50% battery used and 2-3 days asleep
  • I have wifi OFF while asleep. GPS, NFC or bluetooth are never on. I've switched all the Google synchs off.
  • I use a utility called 'DS Battery Saver' in 'Slumberer' mode, which puts the device to deep sleep immediately the screen is switched off. From other utilities I can see that this is working - i.e. putting the device to sleep immediately.
  • I have screen brightness on automatic.
  • As far as I can see I have no cpu hogging apps. The device is not rooted and all the apps are mainstream ones from the AppStore - mainly news apps like SkyNews / BBC News etc..

Simple question - how does 6 hours (extrapolated) seem? Acceptable or well below what's claimed for this device?

Many thanks!

Pete
 
Much depends on how bright your screen is; mine is rarely above minimum (I use it mainly indoors) and I get well in excess of your guestimated 6 hours in typical use.

That said I have no idea what my theoretical maximum is, nor do I really care since I've never been effected by it in real life. From what you wrote ("I recharge every 2-3 days") it looks like it doesn't effect you either, so why agonize about it? Just use it, enjoy it :-)
 
John Bean said:
... From what you wrote ("I recharge every 2-3 days") it looks like it doesn't effect you either, so why agonize about it? Just use it, enjoy it :-)
Click to expand...

Hi John, I'm not agonising really.:)

It's just that if it's advertised with "over 10 hours" and I'm getting 6 hours, albeit with 2-3 days sleep mode too (but with all battery-saving settings applied, as per my original quote) then it would be nice if the device delivered closer to the advertised level.

That's why I posted - because I realise that there are a lot of variables and maybe experienced users in this forum could assess better than me whether what I'm getting is 'normal' or below normal.

Thanks for taking the time to respond!

Cheers.

Pete
 
There isn't really a "normal" Pete; too many user variables. I don't think the "10 hours use" claim is unrealistic although it is (of course) at the top end of the use spectrum.

A few weeks ago just as a test I didn't charge my Nexus 7 at all for well over a week (nearly 9 days!) with minimal occasional use - just email checking and a little web use, plus a couple of app updates. I wanted to see how reliable it was away from power but decided after nine days that my test was pointless unless I actually used it normally; it still showed 78% charge when I gave up. I know I can also kill it in a few hours if I really try, that's why I said that "normal use" has no real meaning.

One final point is worth making though - I got a dramatic improvement in battery life after a few charge/discharge cycles; I was quite disappointed in the first few weeks I had the Nexus 7 but this got better and better with use. So if you are a new owner (and I suspect you are) then give it a bit of time to get the battery into optimum condition and you may match that "10 hour" claim one day :-)
 
I could see it getting 10 hours, but only with Wifi disabled. The longest I've gotten with Wifi is 7 hours continuous. If you used it as an ebook reader or watched movies from the onboard storage, I could probably see 10 hours being realistically possible.
 
only thing that seems to drastically eat battery life on mine is watching movies. Other than that I check email, use hangouts, some surfing and charge once a week. ;)
 
The screen brightness has a big effect on battery life. Turning off automatic brightness and turning the brightness down to minimum will greatly extend battery life, though that isn't much use unless you can still see the screen on minimum brightness :-)

As with John Bean I mostly use my N7 indoors (for reading ebooks) and I have the brightness set to only slightly above minimum. When reading books the battery falls by around 8 - 10% per hour, so the battery life would exceed 10 hours.
 
Technicality. What they're advertising is DEVICE ON time, not SCREEN ON time. See, there's a difference between "device on" battery life and "screen on" battery life. My own Nexus under typical usage (web browsing, news apps, YouTube, some gaming, always on wifi) gets WELL over 10 hours of battery life from the time I take it off the charger in the morning to the time I plug it back in at night on low battery. But continuous screen on time is generally around the 6 hour mark, maxing out at 7 on occasion.

Nobody ever said you could ACTIVELY USE the device for 10 hours straight (how many people have that much free time in their day anyway?), but the device CAN be "powered on" for about 10 hours with moderate usage throughout the day. You just have to pick your spots to make it actually last that long.
 
My battery performed excellently when I first got the device. I managed to lose my charger shortly after and ever since I've been forced to trickle charge with my phone charger. It's not a pleasant way to do it and I know it's taken a toll on my battery life.

Also, from what you posted I noted that you have wifi set to turn off while asleep. It's a bit controversial but if you're using your tablet often it sometimes drains more power to be turning wifi on and off again rather than maintaining a connection. I'd try it with WiFi always on and see what results you get for a standard charge cycle.
 
To get 10 hours on a single battery charge you will probably have to turn off everything (Wi-fi, GPS, Bluethooth...), set the brightness to minimum, use earphone instead of speaker if you are watching movies...

7 hours is a very correct battery life with Wi-fi on, it could vary with the type of website, websites with mainly videos or images as content will require more Wi-fi activity => heavier usage on the battery.
 
I don't think setting wi-fi to never sleep is a problem unless some app is constantly using it to update or sync. I keep mine set to never sleep and only lose 3% overnight. I sync manually and am very careful with location settings. Not sure how long my battery actually lasts, but I have never used a full charge in a single day.
 
If you play some 3D games that require a lot of CPU power, the battery won't last more than 3-4 hours, and it's really hot inside.
 
I don't take my Nexus 7 on the road anymore, but WiFi is on all the time, but getting a lot more than ten hours out of it.

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How long the battery lasts is probably the same question as 'how long is a strong'.
 
When I am playing The Simpsons tapped out,i get around 2 and a half hours,cos the screen is constantly on...
 
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