Why does the Pixel XL battery drain extremely fast?

[Michael B Peterson]

Hello all! I've recently purchased the Pixel XL and have had it since Tuesday. It was purchased brand new from the official Google online store. Everything about this phone I love except for the battery. I've been with Apple since iPhone 4 all the way to the current 7 Plus but after all this time I got bored and decided to turn to Android and I ended up getting the Galaxy S8 Plus which I absolutely love! However, I got a little bored and wanted a Pixel XL after playing with one at the Verizon store. I love the size, shape and everything else about it. Thing is though, the battery dies way too fast. In one day alone I charged it three times and yesterday I charged it twice. The day it was three times was when I got it because of course it was a new toy and I had to mess with it, BUT, when on stand by it will drain from 100% to 70 - 80 % within a couple of hours. Why? I've never had this problem with the S8 Plus and sorry to bring this up on an Android forum, but even with the 7 Plus having a smaller battery, the battery will stay at 100% over night on stand by. This is a HUGE issue for me and I'd hate to send it back for a refund. Please tell me there's some magic fix to this. Thanks in advance!

 

[Clementine_3]

It could be any number of things really. Go into settings/battery and see what's listed there, you can also click on the graph part and it will show what's keeping the phone awake. Take a screenshot of those and post it.

Also, how's your cell signal? A weak signal is a battery drainer...

 

[Michael B Peterson]

It could be any number of things really. Go into settings/battery and see what's listed there, you can also click on the graph part and it will show what's keeping the phone awake. Take a screenshot of those and post it.

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<br> Also, how's your cell signal? A weak signal is a battery drainer...

 

[Michael B Peterson]

It could be any number of things really. Go into settings/battery and see what's listed there, you can also click on the graph part and it will show what's keeping the phone awake. Take a screenshot of those and post it.

Also, how's your cell signal? A weak signal is a battery drainer...

 

[codesplice]

Do you have Facebook installed by chance? Many battery life problems can be traced back to the apps installed on the phone, and the Facebook app is notorious for abusing your phone's resources (and your privacy, but that's another thread...). Other less notorious apps may be misbehaving as well - due to improper configurations, corrupted data, or just a poor design.

Many manufacturers (including Samsung) may implement aggressive battery saving protocols which may actually interfere with how Android apps (and the OS itself) are designed to function and can cause a number of unintended side effects. Google's pure version of Android does not include such aggressive tactics - though there are features like Doze which should be helping out, particularly with standby/idle drain.

(On a related note, comparing battery life to an Apple device isn't really fair as the OSes take entirely different approaches to, well, everything. Android is generally less strict on what/how apps are able to run services and processes in the background; that can result in added drain, but also provides far greater capabilities. There are of course pros and cons to each approach - but the big con relevant to this topic is that a direct comparison just isn't possible.)

You might try booting into Safe Mode for a while, which temporarily disables all of your installed applications. You might see if there's a big difference in battery drain while using only the built-in apps. If so, your woes are definitely app-related.

Like @Clementine_3 pointed out, you might be able to review the charts and information at Settings > Battery to better determine the source of the drain. And, again, signal strength can also be a very strong factor in battery life; if the cell signal is weak, the phone (which takes its phone capability very seriously) will dump extra power into the cellular radio to try to maintain a connection - even while on standby. And different phones have different radios which may support different frequencies, all of which are important variables to consider.

 

[Dewalt Kotze]

I've noticed that since I updated my Pixel XL to Oreo the battery drains much quicker than before. I don't have as many apps installed as I had before and my phone would drain about 10% per hour without much use.