Anniversary Update Massively improved battery life

[Zhenren Zhou]

My phone (950xl) is usually on a wireless charger on my desk or overnight on my bedstand. It gets warm during charge but when charge is finished, it's cool.

I put my 950 on a wireless charger before and it felt like it just came out of an oven just after about 15 mins, never used a wireless charger again since.

Discharge rate when not in use was 5%+ per hour. When in airplane mode and playing very non-graphic intense games (e.g. solitaire), I was discharging at 40%+ per hour. I went from a full charge to under 20% in a 2 hour flight, and even took a couple of 10 minute breaks.

This certainly feels like my experiences prior to the AU. About 35 mins navigations drained the battery from 90% to 49% and it felt like a sweet potato just taken out of the cooker. Looking forward to seeing your results.

 

[anthonyng]

I put my 950 on a wireless charger before and it felt like it just came out of an oven just after about 15 mins, never used a wireless charger again since.

My wife has a 950 but doesn't complain about wireless charging.... just says it gets super hot easily when playing games and what not.

 

[Ariel Takom]

Hey guys! A brand new lumia 950 owner here (Been using it for a week now. Won the phone from the recent giveaway xD). It's an International Unlocked, Dual-Sim version 950 from the US (I'm from Malaysia). Just wanna share something to all of you regarding my experience with the 950's battery and overall performance.

Anyway, as most of the people here, I too faced the battery drain problem. Battery went down 40% with light usage in about 45 minutes (that's 1% discharge per minute!). What I did to solve the problem temporarily was to update the phone to the latest Insider build (RS2 build 14915.100 from TH2 build 10586) WITHOUT updating the apps (there was a firmware update as well), then performed a hard reset WITH NO BACKUP. Then I updated all the app, registered my mail accounts (set to sync as items arrive), set up WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, OneFootball, AppRaisin, MangaBlaze (apps that I would allow to run on background normally). Location set to off, no 'Hey Cortana', Iris Scanner is on, no glance screen, and Find My Phone set to On, with the frequent option off.

With all of these settings, the battery life was sub-par, about the same as my previous 830. A full charge with my normal usage (receive and reply about 20-40 WhatsApp messages, receive 2-4 e-mails, casual Instagram/FB/Twitter/OneFootball/Win Central/AppRaisin browsing), and my phone lasted from about 7am until 3pm (phone is at 5% by 3pm). Granted, all the background apps were running as well, and that my casual browsing for Instagram alone is about 5 minutes average. So if I assume I used those respective apps I mentioned above for 5 minutes each, and browsed it around 3 session during the entire 7am-3pm observation, that means I had been actively using the phone for 2 hours and 15 minutes. I would say it's quite a medium-heavy use for me (for a more heavy use, I'd watch YouTube vids or play my music via earphones, along with doing all of the stuff above).

Also of note, my Iris Scan was blazing fast for the first few times I've used it, but gradually it got slower and slower. Also, the camera is a bit bugged, in a sense that the resulting pictures weren't nice, not up to par as what I'd seen from other users/reviewers result. It was way oversharpened, colours not vivid at all, and a bit blurry I might say (not sure how to explain the contradiction where it's sharpened yet blurry. I guess it's like some part of the pictures were oversharpened, and the other part were blurry. And no, this is not a bokeh effect as I'm taking a picture of my classroom's whiteboard). General performance while navigating through the phone were alright, I guess.

Still, I'm not satisfied with my 950's battery life and performance. As per suggested somewhere on the Internet, I did a WDRT to my phone, updated to 14915 again and then updated my apps afterwards, set up all my account the same way. This time, however, I set my mail to sync 30 minutes, disabled background activity for Instagram. My battery lasted from 12.15am, 100% fully charged, until about 7.45pm. Same usage as above except that I actually played music via earphone for about an hour as well as streaming a 1080p video for 5 minutes via cellular data. That's 19 hours 30 minutes of battery life. I'm not sure about you, but with heavy usage my phone actually lasted me throughout my day of heavy use ^_^

Now, I plan to sync my e-mails hourly instead of every 30 minutes, as well as turning off the save my location under Find My Phone. Hopefully this would gain more usage out of my phone! ^_^

P/S: Most of the time, my phone was connected to WiFi. I'm guessing that using cellular data / mobile data would drain the battery faster, and I estimate my phone to last about 14 hours with data constantly on. Just my prediction tho.

tl;dr: WDRT for better battery life, as well as turning off some background apps and sync e-mails every 30 minutes.

 

[agaskew]

Its all very mysterious...my 950 sits on a wireless charger and gets a little bit warm, but no hotter.

My basic usage pattern:

• Wifi and cellular at home
• Wifi off when out and about
• no gaming
• some FB/Twitter
• one Exchange email - constantly updating
• one Gmail - constantly updating
• Skype - work based chats going all day

The Battery app I use reports about 3% per hour discharge on average, but its been as high as 5% & as low as 1.5%. I can get from 6am to 10pm on a charge if required.

If you ignore the variable of running different windows builds, then the differences reported in heat and battery life could be due to either hardware differences, or apps. While there are certainly going to be some lemons out there, its unknown (to me) if the hardware has had any refresh during production.
In software terms, when setting up the phone I always go through the options and never send things like diagnostic info to Microsoft. I also do not ever install FB messenger or enable motion data. Background apps allowed are a bit of a mish mash - Office apps are allowed, but things like Money or VLC or Xbox aren't.

 

[Travis Flenker]

This certainly feels like my experiences prior to the AU. About 35 mins navigations drained the battery from 90% to 49% and it felt like a sweet potato just taken out of the cooker. Looking forward to seeing your results.

After a week of using my phone after the reset, I can say it is much better... but still not great. Over the weekend, I was able to get 27 hours off of one charge during light use (the last ~10 hours of that was idling). I played zero games, did not stream music, and browsed the internet for maybe an hour.

When not in use, I'm losing about 2.5% per hour - definitely a huge improvement and beyond acceptable. Very pleased with this.

When in use, though, it's still eating a lot of battery. Gets a little warm during times that don't make a lot of sense (e.g. using the News app or playing what should be non CPU demanding games).

I'm on AT&T so still using the old firmware - that may play into it.

Overall I find it acceptable, but just. Was hoping for a much larger improvement.

 

[Ariel Takom]

Its all very mysterious...my 950 sits on a wireless charger and gets a little bit warm, but no hotter.

My basic usage pattern:

• Wifi and cellular at home
• Wifi off when out and about
• no gaming
• some FB/Twitter
• one Exchange email - constantly updating
• one Gmail - constantly updating
• Skype - work based chats going all day

The Battery app I use reports about 3% per hour discharge on average, but its been as high as 5% & as low as 1.5%. I can get from 6am to 10pm on a charge if required.

If you ignore the variable of running different windows builds, then the differences reported in heat and battery life could be due to either hardware differences, or apps. While there are certainly going to be some lemons out there, its unknown (to me) if the hardware has had any refresh during production.
In software terms, when setting up the phone I always go through the options and never send things like diagnostic info to Microsoft. I also do not ever install FB messenger or enable motion data. Background apps allowed are a bit of a mish mash - Office apps are allowed, but things like Money or VLC or Xbox aren't.

Phone getting warm during charging is actually a common thing from what I read from an article. Apparently when the battery's temperature reaches a certain range, the battery would charge faster. But that is only true for quick charging tho. Wireless charging? Well, movement of electrons with a medium in between (the phone's case and cover, air, etc.) would produce heat, so I guess that's normal too? Not that sure tho.

Anyway, you said that your phone was discharging at 5% per hour? That's about the same as mine, actually. I did a re-run from my original post which you could see above, and my phone lasted from 12am @ 100% charge to 10.30pm @ 8% charge. And I actually used the phone quite a lot (especially since it's a new phone, so I kept on using it even when I don't want to do anything on my phone, simply turning it on, unlock it, then lock it back again rofl).

Anyway, try changing your e-mail sync setting. Syncing e-mails as it arrive isn't actually that much of a difference compared to syncing it every half an hour (or in my case, hourly). This may give you an extra hour to your battery life.

Also, are you using Glance?

 

[Ariel Takom]

After a week of using my phone after the reset, I can say it is much better... but still not great. Over the weekend, I was able to get 27 hours off of one charge during light use (the last ~10 hours of that was idling). I played zero games, did not stream music, and browsed the internet for maybe an hour.

When not in use, I'm losing about 2.5% per hour - definitely a huge improvement and beyond acceptable. Very pleased with this.

When in use, though, it's still eating a lot of battery. Gets a little warm during times that don't make a lot of sense (e.g. using the News app or playing what should be non CPU demanding games).

I'm on AT&T so still using the old firmware - that may play into it.

Overall I find it acceptable, but just. Was hoping for a much larger improvement.

I think the new firmware would improve the battery life further, but I'm not that sure. Anyway, if you ever unlock your phone, try to reset it via WDRT. Did miracle to my phone's battery life.

 

[Zhenren Zhou]

If I do heavily use my phone, which happens a lot during weekdays, I receive approximately 50 emails from 4 different accounts (set to based on my usage, emails still show up instantly). Whether or not I would read and reply to those emails depends entirely on what they are about. Normally I reply to 10 of them. Send & receive 200+ text messages, 100+ Facebook messenger messages, about 40 on other chat apps messages. 30+ mins talking. 40+ mins social media (Twitter, FB, etc). Research maps before going to somewhere unfamiliar, about 10 mins navigation. 80% on both cellular data and WiFi, 20% on cellular data only.

If I only lightly use my 950, on the weekends for example, about 50+ texts, 120+ FB messenger massages, 1+ hour of talking, 1+ hour of social media, no nav or other chat apps. About 90% on both cellular data and WiFi, 10% on cellular data only.

Hey Cortana only reacts to my voice, everything else is left untouched, I disable no apps for background. AT&T locked 950.

Before the AU, I'd be lucky if I get over 12 hours for heavy usage, and 17 hours for light usage, before hitting 20%. After the AU however, the phone lasted 17.5 hours before hitting 20% only once because I had to get a lot of work done that day, otherwise it can last 24 hours before hitting 20%. For light usage, I throw the phone back to a charger after 27 to 29 hours regardless of battery level..

 

[Stanleywinston]

for me I find it is related to how much travelling around I'm doing in the day. the 950 (and my 930 before it) seem to have an issue moving from signal to signal and get all worked up when they are struggling to maintain a connection. I travel to work on the London underground which has wifi on the platforms but no signal at all on the trains themselves. Many times I have felt my phone in my suit pocket getting warm on the way to work. and if it's getting warm then it's draining the battery.
I get that I could save battery by disabling Bluetooth and wifi and data connection when I think the phone is going to be out of signal and then I could turn it all on only when I want to use it, but I shouldn't have to. This has been a very long standing issue with Windows and either none of their engineers ever take their phones out of the lab or it's an issue that they are struggling to do anything about.

 

[agaskew]

I need email syncing and Skype on all the time for work Glance is also on.

I think the battery life is pretty good, though I do sympathise with those that have problems because there is nothing worse than your phone just chewing battery for no reason. I also have a Note 4 and remember when it was new and not tweaked, it down from 75% to flat overnight. If you think its hard to tweak a Lumia for good battery, try it on an android phone :shocked:

 

[Ariel Takom]

If I do heavily use my phone, which happens a lot during weekdays, I receive approximately 50 emails from 4 different accounts (set to based on my usage, emails still show up instantly). Whether or not I would read and reply to those emails depends entirely on what they are about. Normally I reply to 10 of them. Send & receive 200+ text messages, 100+ Facebook messenger messages, about 40 on other chat apps messages. 30+ mins talking. 40+ mins social media (Twitter, FB, etc). Research maps before going to somewhere unfamiliar, about 10 mins navigation. 80% on both cellular data and WiFi, 20% on cellular data only.

If I only lightly use my 950, on the weekends for example, about 50+ texts, 120+ FB messenger massages, 1+ hour of talking, 1+ hour of social media, no nav or other chat apps. About 90% on both cellular data and WiFi, 10% on cellular data only.

Hey Cortana only reacts to my voice, everything else is left untouched, I disable no apps for background. AT&T locked 950.

Before the AU, I'd be lucky if I get over 12 hours for heavy usage, and 17 hours for light usage, before hitting 20%. After the AU however, the phone lasted 17.5 hours before hitting 20% only once because I had to get a lot of work done that day, otherwise it can last 24 hours before hitting 20%. For light usage, I throw the phone back to a charger after 27 to 29 hours regardless of battery level..

Wow, that battery level is crazy! May I ask, are you using the single sim variant or the double sim variant of the 950?

 

[Zhenren Zhou]

for me I find it is related to how much travelling around I'm doing in the day.

I hope you get your AU soon. For me, travelling a lot or not, after the AU, battery life is very consistent.

try it on an android phone

lol! those Android phones are pain in the ***.

May I ask, are you using the single sim variant or the double sim variant of the 950?

It's an AT&T branded Lumia 950. These carrier branded phones with commitments rarely come with dual sim version.

 

[Stanleywinston]

Thanks but I've been on au for ages. Was on the inside preview since the beginning. Did a hard reset after getting the official version and the firmware update. Never noticed any improvements with battery that hung around consistently. In fact my wife has had to start carrying around one of those travel battery packs since getting the update

 

[patters98]

Thanks for your detailed observations Zhenren. I had tried a L950 a while back and found its battery consistently only lasted half a day so I returned it. I bought another one just recently when they reduced the price, in large part encouraged by your post here. I can confirm that since Anniversary Update it does now last a full day on my usage pattern. It doesn't stand up to quite the same punishment as the L735, but lower battery life is kind of "the new normal" these days across iOS and Android too. As long as I can get through a day then I'm content.

I have noticed it occasionally getting hot, and it seems to me that this may be happening if I leave the camera app backgrounded. I have also noticed that the Gadgets app is broken. It seems the fixed version is only available to Insiders.

 

[abhishek singh21]

Battery life on anniversary update is now stable, its the perception of long battery life with each new build that is released is what creating the confusion here. If you are on AU build wiht a clean install and the latest production build, you should just stop worrying about your battery and focus on your daily tasks.

 

[Zhenren Zhou]

Thanks but I've been on au for ages. Was on the inside preview since the beginning. Did a hard reset after getting the official version and the firmware update. Never noticed any improvements with battery that hung around consistently. In fact my wife has had to start carrying around one of those travel battery packs since getting the update

Had to put my phone on cellular data more than 50% of the time in a day several times in the past two weeks. I indeed have noticed the phone couldn't last as long as it does my "heavy usage" pattern. I got about 14 to 15 hours before hitting 20%. But still, the phone could last until I got my tasks of that day done, which was impossible prior to the AU. I hope this can help you a bit.

I have also noticed that the Gadgets app is broken. It seems the fixed version is only available to Insiders.

The Gadgets app is still a Windows Phone 8.1 app, which I have always considered broken..

Battery life on anniversary update is now stable, its the perception of long battery life with each new build that is released is what creating the confusion here. If you are on AU build wiht a clean install and the latest production build, you should just stop worrying about your battery and focus on your daily tasks.

Yes. True. I can absolutely focus on my daily tasks now post AU. What I wanted to emphasize in this thread was that the phone couldn't even last more than half way of my daily tasks, which was a nuisance for both my work and myself.