Does Cortana really kill the battery?

[duncan0622]

Cortana is one of big feature in WP8.1, I realize it's no sense to keep it shut. However, As you know, we need to turn on GPS for Cortana and Cortana will collect your location by anytime she want. The question - does Cortana really drain the battery life fast?

My phone doesn't have an impressive battery performance, so I am thinking Cortana and GPS maybe the culprit...

 

[troylytle]

I have never gotten more than an extra 30-60 minutes with location off.

 

[Talderon]

I am constantly using Cortana (especially since I am testing it) and this is typical for what I see in the Battery Saver:

 

[ReconVirus]

GPS is what kills the battery is it not?

 

[spicypadthai]

Seems to be different for different phones. I have an Icon and I noticed my per hour consumption went from around 2% per hour without Cortana running in the background to 3%+ with Cortana running in the background and wide tile pinned. This was over several days without any other change in apps running in the background, usages, etc. I would also occasionally get the frozen "resuming" start screen and rapid drain, too. I changed to the small tile and disabled her from running in the background and immediately got better battery life and no more frozen start screens. I have location turned on for other apps and I don't see any major drain from it alone. Only when Cortana was running in the background.

 

[cbreze]

Problem for me is killing Cortana in any way including background running kills the quiet hours feature which I use a heck of alot more than Cortana. Also GPS needs to be on for Cortana to work, then Cortana needs to be on for quiet hours to work and that is one f'd up system. Quiet hours needs to be completely separate. I have not heard word one about this issue being fixed with cyan. I can only hope it is, but not holding my breath.

 

[duncan0622]

Seems to be different for different phones. I have an Icon and I noticed my per hour consumption went from around 2% per hour without Cortana running in the background to 3%+ with Cortana running in the background and wide tile pinned. This was over several days without any other change in apps running in the background, usages, etc. I would also occasionally get the frozen "resuming" start screen and rapid drain, too. I changed to the small tile and disabled her from running in the background and immediately got better battery life and no more frozen start screens. I have location turned on for other apps and I don't see any major drain from it alone. Only when Cortana was running in the background.

With location on & Cortana off in background, my phone (lumia 930) still drains 10% over night. How is yours when idle at night?

Perhaps I will try to turn off the location as well.

 

[duncan0622]

Problem for me is killing Cortana in any way including background running kills the quiet hours feature which I use a heck of alot more than Cortana. Also GPS needs to be on for Cortana to work, then Cortana needs to be on for quiet hours to work and that is one f'd up system. Quiet hours needs to be completely separate. I have not heard word one about this issue being fixed with cyan. I can only hope it is, but not holding my breath.

Sad but true. We need an option to set the Quiet Hours ourselves without Cortana's help. Confirmed Cyan doesn't separate it.

 

[spicypadthai]

With location on & Cortana off in background, my phone (lumia 930) still drains 10% over night. How is yours when idle at night?

Perhaps I will try to turn off the location as well.

At night my Icon drains around 1% per hour.

 

[Carlos002]

I have to say no, remember that cortana is just the animation of bing, and bing in WP8 also worked with gps for the searches, so not be afraid!

 

[spicypadthai]

I have to say no, remember that cortana is just the animation of bing, and bing in WP8 also worked with gps for the searches, so not be afraid!

You're oversimplifying Cortana. Big time.

 

[JPDVM2014]

The only time I had any noticeable battery issues with Cortana was when I had the tile pinned. My phone would get stuck on the "Resuming" screen and would overheat and drain quick. Other than that, I don't notice a difference between having location and cortana running in the background or not. I can easily make it through a day with both running.

 

[duncan0622]

The only time I had any noticeable battery issues with Cortana was when I had the tile pinned. My phone would get stuck on the "Resuming" screen and would overheat and drain quick. Other than that, I don't notice a difference between having location and cortana running in the background or not. I can easily make it through a day with both running.

Today I have expenienced this issue - The start screen is buffering and noticeable battery drainning / heat unleashing.

I will unpin the Cortana tile, hopefully the start screen won't buffer. :-(