Android General Discussion (all versions)

[3valatzy]

Android 14 is the worst Android version in history? Agree or is there another one even worse?

So. There are two devices:
1. Running Android 12 on a 3550 mAh battery with Qualcomm SM8150 Snapdragon 855 (7 nm)
2. Running Android 14 on a 5000 mAh battery with Qualcomm SM8550-AB Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 (4 nm)

The 1st can endure about 3 weeks of very light use / only phone calls / SMS.
The 2nd can endure about 1 week of same usage.

Is this normal?

General Android discussions are welcome here.

 

[3valatzy]

Comparison between:
1. Harmony OS (Huawei)
2. Android (Xiaomi)
3. iOS (Apple)

HarmonyOS​

Pros:

• Seamless Ecosystem: HarmonyOS is designed to integrate seamlessly with various devices, from smartphones to smart home appliances.
• Strong Performance: It offers smooth performance and efficient resource management.
• Privacy-Focused: HarmonyOS emphasizes user privacy and data security.
• Open-Source: Its open-source nature promotes innovation and community development.

Cons:

• Limited App Ecosystem: Currently, the app ecosystem for HarmonyOS is smaller compared to Android and iOS.
• Newer Operating System: As a relatively new OS, it may lack some of the mature features and stability of its competitors.

Android​

Pros:

• Vast App Ecosystem: Android offers a vast array of apps and games, catering to diverse user needs.
• Customization: Users can highly customize their Android devices to their preferences.
• Open-Source: Its open-source nature allows for flexibility and innovation.
• Wide Device Compatibility: Android is available on a wide range of devices, from budget-friendly phones to high-end flagships.

Cons:

• Fragmentation: Due to the diverse range of devices, Android can suffer from fragmentation issues, leading to inconsistent experiences.
• Security Concerns: Android devices can be more susceptible to malware and security threats compared to iOS.
• Bloatware: Many Android devices come pre-installed with unnecessary apps and bloatware.

iOS​

Pros:

• Seamless User Experience: iOS offers a smooth and intuitive user experience.
• Strong Security: Apple prioritizes security and privacy, making iOS one of the most secure mobile operating systems.
• Regular Updates: Apple provides timely software updates, ensuring devices stay up-to-date with the latest features and security patches.
• High-Quality App Store: The App Store offers a curated selection of high-quality apps.

Cons:

• Limited Customization: iOS offers less customization options compared to Android.
• Higher Cost: Apple devices tend to be more expensive than Android alternatives.
• Closed Ecosystem: iOS is a closed ecosystem, limiting user freedom and flexibility.

A Comparative Analysis: HarmonyOS vs. Android vs. iOS

HarmonyOS Pros: Seamless Ecosystem: HarmonyOS is designed to integrate seamlessly with various devices, from smartphones to smart home appliances. Strong Performance: It offers smooth performance and efficient resource management.

www.linkedin.com

 

[TechBuyingHavoc]

Android 14 is the worst Android version in history? Agree or is there another one even worse?

So. There are two devices:
1. Running Android 12 on a 3550 mAh battery with Qualcomm SM8150 Snapdragon 855 (7 nm)
2. Running Android 14 on a 5000 mAh battery with Qualcomm SM8550-AB Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 (4 nm)

The 1st can endure about 3 weeks of very light use / only phone calls / SMS.
The 2nd can endure about 1 week of same usage.

Is this normal?

General Android discussions are welcome here.

You know that even small hardware changes can completely change your power usage profile, right? You have to test on the same hardware otherwise there is no way to tell if the software version is the cause of lower battery life.

My Pixel 6 came with Android 12, and I have not noticed a significant battery life change with Android 13 or 14. Recently I upgraded to Android 15 and I have not noticed a battery life change either.

The worst Android ever? That was probably all the way back in pre-Android 4.0 days when Google tried to optimize the OS for the 4.0 release version. Some versions are not as big of a upgrade as others but it hasn't gone backwards in my opinion to date.

 

[3valatzy]

You know that even small hardware changes can completely change your power usage profile, right? You have to test on the same hardware otherwise there is no way to tell if the software version is the cause of lower battery life.

A 4nm chip Qualcomm SM8550-AB Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 must be more energy-efficient than a 7nm chip Qualcomm SM8150 Snapdragon 855. Its peak power consumption could be higher, but it must have more modern power saving and idle states.

My Pixel 6 came with Android 12, and I have not noticed a significant battery life change with Android 13 or 14.

What battery life change have you noticed? Not significant but how much? 5% lower, 20% lower? 10% higher?

Recently I upgraded to Android 15 and I have not noticed a battery life change either.

My guess is that my new device is plagued with bloatware which sucks the life out of my battery.

 

[TechBuyingHavoc]

A 4nm chip Qualcomm SM8550-AB Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 must be more energy-efficient than a 7nm chip Qualcomm SM8150 Snapdragon 855. Its peak power consumption could be higher, but it must have more modern power saving and idle states.



What battery life change have you noticed? Not significant but how much? 5% lower, 20% lower? 10% higher?



My guess is that my new device is plagued with bloatware which sucks the life out of my battery.

It is not as simple as a new chip vs old chip. The screen could be worse, there could be other chips on the phone/device that are sucking up power, a bad modem could cause the phone to try to find the cell network more often or less efficiently, etc, etc. Bloat ware is definitely a possibility. Even the manufacturer could have enabled or disabled different modes on the chip and firmware for power or performance reasons and these companies don't always get it right.

It's why people still need to read phone reviews and not just rely on the list of specs.

Regarding my Pixel, the difference is probably below 10% as I don't notice it usually. The battery life is less than it was brand-new but ALL batteries show degradation behavior over time used and I have been bad about discharging the battery completely several times which is not ideal battery charging parameters. The amount of apps has also steadily grown over time and my storage is now completely full. So the phone is probably spending more time moving data around on NAND or not storing new data ideally in blank space NAND, and there are more apps phoning home and waking the phone up for updates or to push data in and out.

In my case, the OS version has had no practical effect and I attribute all of the change to the battery physically aging and being used/abused by me as well as having more software being used. In sleep mode (screen is off, phone is not touched and not charging), the battery life seems identical to how it was in launch.

 

[3valatzy]

It is not as simple as a new chip vs old chip. The screen could be worse, there could be other chips on the phone/device that are sucking up power, a bad modem could cause the phone to try to find the cell network more often or less efficiently, etc, etc. Bloat ware is definitely a possibility. Even the manufacturer could have enabled or disabled different modes on the chip and firmware for power or performance reasons and these companies don't always get it right.

It's why people still need to read phone reviews and not just rely on the list of specs.

The reviews are excellent. The device outperforms most of its direct competitors.
The thing is that it drains the battery in all use cases:
1. Idle
2. When the screen is on. Despite it being 120 Hz.
3. When using some of the apps - browsing, installing updates...

I suspect the OS is to blame because when I tap the settings icon, it doesn't respond immediately, but takes half a second or so to load its contents. There is something wrong.
I don't feel the responsiveness of the "quad-channel" LPDDR5X-4266...

 

[TechBuyingHavoc]

The reviews are excellent. The device outperforms most of its direct competitors.
The thing is that it drains the battery in all use cases:
1. Idle
2. When the screen is on. Despite it being 120 Hz.
3. When using some of the apps - browsing, installing updates...

I suspect the OS is to blame because when I tap the settings icon, it doesn't respond immediately, but takes half a second or so to load its contents. There is something wrong.
I don't feel the responsiveness of the "quad-channel" LPDDR5X-4266...

Have you tried a full factory wipe and reset (wipe all data, reinstall the OS, etc)?

 

[Calenhad]

2. When the screen is on. Despite it being 120 Hz.

Despite? Compared to what? Usually the alternatives are 60 or 90Hz. And both of them have lower power consumption than 120Hz. In this case it is a simple higher number = more power consumption, given that the display is otherwise identical. My phone can toggle between 60 and 120 (sadly not automatically based on app/usage), and you can really tell the difference in power usage when the screen is active. I guess if you are really into gaming phones there are versions with 144Hz and even 165Hz and then 120Hz would be better. Compared to 60Hz it is still a high power consumption setup though. So, pick one. Max battery life or smoother display. You can even switch either manually or some phones will do it for you.

I don't feel the responsiveness of the "quad-channel" LPDDR5X-4266

That is mostly marketing speak. DDR5 technically have more than one channel per chip, put two chips in and brag about quad-channel. And how do you really expect to "feel the responsiveness" of ram? Unless you bought your device to run benchmarks on, the ram speed is irrelevant most of the time (within reason). The main benefit of having LPDDR5 (over say DDR4) is better power savings while keeping good performance.

 

[TechBuyingHavoc]

Despite? Compared to what? Usually the alternatives are 60 or 90Hz. And both of them have lower power consumption than 120Hz. In this case it is a simple higher number = more power consumption, given that the display is otherwise identical. My phone can toggle between 60 and 120 (sadly not automatically based on app/usage), and you can really tell the difference in power usage when the screen is active. I guess if you are really into gaming phones there are versions with 144Hz and even 165Hz and then 120Hz would be better. Compared to 60Hz it is still a high power consumption setup though. So, pick one. Max battery life or smoother display. You can even switch either manually or some phones will do it for you.


That is mostly marketing speak. DDR5 technically have more than one channel per chip, put two chips in and brag about quad-channel. And how do you really expect to "feel the responsiveness" of ram? Unless you bought your device to run benchmarks on, the ram speed is irrelevant most of the time (within reason). The main benefit of having LPDDR5 (over say DDR4) is better power savings while keeping good performance.

That's a great point, my Pixel 6 is always on 60 Hz, battery saver mode is always on. Regardless of these options, the battery life has not changed much between Android versions as I described earlier.

OP, what does your battery usage chart show you? What is using up all that power according to Android itself?

 

[3valatzy]

OP, what does your battery usage chart show you? What is using up all that power according to Android itself?

App vault
POCO Launcher
Google Play Store
Viber

Android 12 used approximately 2.8-2.9 GB of RAM, Android 14 is much more - not less than 4 GB at all times, when more apps are open, it goes up to 4.5-5-6 GB of RAM.
It's obvious that Android 14 is much more hardware demanding.

And how do you really expect to "feel the responsiveness" of ram? Unless you bought your device to run benchmarks on, the ram speed is irrelevant most of the time (within reason).

When an app sits in the RAM, it opens instantly. The app response depends on the RAM speed.

Have you tried a full factory wipe and reset (wipe all data, reinstall the OS, etc)?

Probably I will do a full factory wipe and reset. Reinstall I don't know how. Waiting for the Android 15 now.

 

[TechBuyingHavoc]

App vault
POCO Launcher
Google Play Store
Viber

Android 12 used approximately 2.8-2.9 GB of RAM, Android 14 is much more - not less than 4 GB at all times, when more apps are open, it goes up to 4.5-5-6 GB of RAM.
It's obvious that Android 14 is much more hardware demanding.



When an app sits in the RAM, it opens instantly. The app response depends on the RAM speed.



Probably I will do a full factory wipe and reset. Reinstall I don't know how. Waiting for the Android 15 now.

It looks like other users of POCO Launcher have reported an increase in battery drain, and the same is true of Viber and App Vault. I am not sure if this is the normal edge case of a few users experiencing battery drain that no one else experiences or if it is a real problem for these apps.

The only way you will know if it is these apps or not is to uninstall them and see how your battery life changes or doesn't change.

No reinstall needed, just do the factory wipe if you are going down that path. I would also wait for Android 15.

 

[3valatzy]

It looks like other users of POCO Launcher have reported an increase in battery drain, and the same is true of Viber and App Vault. I am not sure if this is the normal edge case of a few users experiencing battery drain that no one else experiences or if it is a real problem for these apps.

There is a battery drain during idle.

The only way you will know if it is these apps or not is to uninstall them and see how your battery life changes or doesn't change.

It's ok to uninstall all of them, but POCO Launcher and App vault are critical system apps and without them the phone becomes non-functional / broken.

No reinstall needed, just do the factory wipe if you are going down that path. I would also wait for Android 15.

Let's hope Android 15 will fix it, otherwise there will be "bye-bye POCO, you won't be missed"

 

[TechBuyingHavoc]

There is a battery drain during idle.

It's ok to uninstall all of them, but POCO Launcher and App vault are critical system apps and without them the phone becomes non-functional / broken.
Let's hope Android 15 will fix it, otherwise there will be "bye-bye POCO, you won't be missed"

Yes, there is a drain during idle but it is a lot lower than any active use. It depends on if you are on battery saver mode or not and which apps are running.

See, this is why I like the Pixel phones. Zero third-party apps by default and you can uninstall a lot of Google's optional apps if you want. The chips are not particularly efficient, Google kind of skimps on its hardware effort vs competitors which I wish was not the case, but the software side is pristine clean and updates are the quickest to appear for a Android device. The closest you can get to Apple's lack of cruft on the Android side IMO.

 

[3valatzy]

I measured the idle battery drain - 4% lower in 6 hours. This means 16% per 24 hours, and less than a week for the full battery.
This obviously means something is wrong with the phone, its firmware, or OS version.

I would prefer Huawei and its Harmony OS. Don't want the american/british things.

 

[TechBuyingHavoc]

I measured the idle battery drain - 4% lower in 6 hours. This means 16% per 24 hours, and less than a week for the full battery.
This obviously means something is wrong with the phone, its firmware, or OS version.

I would prefer Huawei and its Harmony OS. Don't want the american/british things.

That is not a crazy battery drain. I expect a drain of 0.5-2% per hour when left alone overnight on battery saving mode (no screen activation, no unlocks, no movement of the phone triggering other Android functions). 4% in 6 hours is exactly in this zone for Pixel phones.

I am looking at this whole thread and I have yet to see a mention from you if battery saving mode is on or not. Can you confirm this?

 

[3valatzy]

No, it's the Performance setting, I have tried Balanced, but there is no noticeable difference. If I apply the Battery saving mode, the phone becomes quite slow and laggy.

 

[TechBuyingHavoc]

No, it's the Performance setting, I have tried Balanced, but there is no noticeable difference. If I apply the Battery saving mode, the phone becomes quite slow and laggy.

Ok well, I have nothing more to add to this thread. 4% drain in 6 hours idle time is perfectly reasonable to me and you are doing this on the Performance setting instead of Battery Saving mode which sounds like your phone is performing better than my own Pixel is! You may be unsatisfied with the battery life but it sounds good to me.

I say you should relax about this, buy a good charger and USB charging cable (Anker is always a good choice), and go enjoy your life. Good luck!

 

[3valatzy]

My old LG G8s ThinQ drained 1% in 6 hours. And it was with a 3550 mAh battery, not like this POCO with 5000 mAh.

I wouldn't relax, I will simply get rid of it, as soon as I understand that there is no hope with it.

 

[AusWolf]

You know that even small hardware changes can completely change your power usage profile, right? You have to test on the same hardware otherwise there is no way to tell if the software version is the cause of lower battery life.

This.

The missus and I both have Blackview phones, both with a MediaTek Helio G99. Mine has a 3880 mAh battery and a tiny LCD screen, the missus has a foldable with a 4000 mAh battery and a gigantic OLED screen. Mine has a much better battery life as a result.

As for software, I'm on Android 13, the missus is on 14. I honestly can't see any difference except for the fact that the "close all apps" button closes all apps on my phone, but it lets some run in the background on the missus's.

 

[3valatzy]

The missus and I both have Blackview phones, both with a MediaTek Helio G99. Mine has a 3880 mAh battery and a tiny LCD screen, the missus has a foldable with a 4000 mAh battery and a gigantic OLED screen. Mine has a much better battery life as a result.

The display doesn't draw anything during idle. Irrelevant point.

It's all about the software - in how deep idle low clocks state the software turns the phone down.

 

[theFOoL]

I'm on 14 with my SAMSUNG A53 5G but I have my battery set to stop charging at 80% and I have my Apps on the "Restricted" background meaning more Battery Saver

 

[Macro Device]

I rock this bad boy. Battery life isn't impressive even at 720p60 so I use it 1080p120 (not really an active user anyway).

Can't say that it differs from my former Honor 8X soft-wise. Yes, sure, looks a wee fancier and has a whopping +2 features but all in all, I just got a phone that doesn't feel painfully slow. At 93 USD, fairly worth it.

Feels like Android never actually improved since like Lollipop days.

 

[3valatzy]

Is that EMUI 13.0.0 an Android without Google Play Store actually?

BTW, on my Poco device the POCO Launcher version is 4.39, while the latest and greatest is 5.39.
When I search in Google Play Store for POCO Launcher 2.0, I get that it won't run on my device.

How to install the newer POCO Launcher 2.0 (or 5.39) ?

 

[Macro Device]

Android without Google Play Store actually

Yup. Can't say I miss it, everything I care for is available as standalone .apk and on the Huawei Store.

 

[Bomby569]

my phone came with 12, updated to 13 and 14, i didn't notice anything strange. These last android versions are very similar, unlike versions in the past.