[davede]

Hi,

I am thinking about new Windows 10 Mobile phone, Lumia 950 XL. I have read many reviews about the phone but all of them created after release so many people say that battery is really poor. Now after some updates does it work good? Could you please tell me guys if battery is still weak? Any improvements after updates?

[Indistinguishable]

Hi,

I am thinking about new Windows 10 Mobile phone, Lumia 950 XL. I have read many reviews about the phone but all of them created after release so many people say that battery is really poor. Now after some updates does it work good? Could you please tell me guys if battery is still weak? Any improvements after updates?

I've used both the 950 and the 950 XL. I found the 950 XL to be 2x better than the 950. I'd often struggle to get through the day without charging the 950. The 950 XL hasn't run out of juice on me yet. I do have a qi charging dock in my car, so that probably helps. But i've never had an unexpected drop in battery life on the 950 XL like I did on the 950.

But if battery really is a huge deal for you, i may recommend looking at the Idol 4s or the Elite x3. They both seem to have better battery metrics than the Lumia line.

[davede]

I have had Lumia 950 but I moved to Huawei P9 because of poor battery. Now I miss Windows 10 Mobile so I would like to back. I think about Lumia because of camera :)

[Grodelj]

I have my 950XL since december 2016, battery was crap from the beginning. Changed the battery for a new one last week but sadly it's still crap:)

[petvas72]

Battery life is mediocre. If you are a power user then you will have to charge the device in the afternoon. Apart from that the Lumia works mostly well.

[davede]

I have my 950XL since december 2016, battery was crap from the beginning. Changed the battery for a new one last week but sadly it's still crap:)

Do you play any games? I don't. I don't even use Facebook apps, just web browser, but I heard that MS Edge likes to eat a lot of energy. :(

[dov1978]

It's not the best but certainly not bad either. I've had phones with awful batteries - Samsung Galaxy s6, LG G5, Lumia 950 most notably over the past few years and my iPhone 7 plus before this 950xl I'm using now had fantastic battery life so I wasn't expecting much from this especially after my 950 but I was pleasantly surprised.

[petvas72]

It's not the best but certainly not bad either. I've had phones with awful batteries - Samsung Galaxy s6, LG G5, Lumia 950 most notably over the past few years and my iPhone 7 plus before this 950xl I'm using now had fantastic battery life so I wasn't expecting much from this especially after my 950 but I was pleasantly surprised.

The iPhone 7 Plus has much much much better battery life compared to the Lumia 950XL. Especially on stand by, you can leave the iPhone on the desk for hours and it will not lose 1% battery. There is no way this can happen with the Lumia 950XL.
For example, today I removed my Lumia from the plug at 6am. Now it is 10:35 here in Germany and I have 76%. I have used my device maybe for 3-4 minutes, not more! This is just unacceptable.

[Exup]

One word of notice/tip:

- the standby battery consumption was affecting me too, somehow some apps should be drawing current from the battery.

A reset made the problem gone away for good. 2 or 3 hours in standby, maybe it lower 6% (maybe 2% per hour).

- Please check the background apps and disable the ones that are not needed (there are plenty unnecessary apps that are able to run in background)
- Email sync (remove the option of "when mail arrives" to other option like every 15min). this makes an huge difference.

I hope it helps.

[petvas72]

I want push mail. On my htc 10 this does not cause any better drain. As Steve Jobs said, if the OS requires a task manager, it already failed. I don't want all the time to look what apps are open. The OS should be intelligent enough to handle this for me. Of course I have disabled edge running in the background. Facebook beta is also disabled to run in the background. All these things do not really help. Only battery saver mode helps, but then what is the point of having a smartphone that isn't really that smart?

[TgeekB]

I want push mail. On my htc 10 this does not cause any better drain. As Steve Jobs said, if the OS requires a task manager, it already failed. I don't want all the time to look what apps are open. The OS should be intelligent enough to handle this for me. Of course I have disabled edge running in the background. Facebook beta is also disabled to run in the background. All these things do not really help. Only battery saver mode helps, but then what is the point of having a smartphone that isn't really that smart?

I don't think it's the OS as much as the phone. My 950 had mediocre battery life but my Alcatel Idol4s has excellent battery life.

Sent from my Alcatel Idol 4S

[Exup]

I want push mail. On my htc 10 this does not cause any better drain. As Steve Jobs said, if the OS requires a task manager, it already failed. I don't want all the time to look what apps are open. The OS should be intelligent enough to handle this for me. Of course I have disabled edge running in the background. Facebook beta is also disabled to run in the background. All these things do not really help. Only battery saver mode helps, but then what is the point of having a smartphone that isn't really that smart?

I understand your point of view (and I have the same), my point is:
- there ar a ton of apps when installed, put themselves as a background app (ex: games, photo apps etc..) and don't make sense to have it there.
- regarding the email: if you really need the email to be received immediately, then ok... you will have a increased drain of the battery. example: I have 3 email accounts... 2 of them are not priority, so the email sync is hourly.. 3 email accounts checking the server all the time is not good.

I assume you have automatic backups enabled, so you can reset the phone (settings, about, reset) and restore from the backup. it takes 30 min.
After all apps are installed again, give it one day or two...you will see the battery will be better.

Also, as another tip, due to the high resolution of the phone (1440x2560) which can have as much as almost 3700million pixels (much more than an iPhone 7 2000million pixels for example), and because it's an OLED screen, you can greatly improve the battery using dark themes.
When black the pixels are not lit and not consuming battery.

Also the OS has a great feature: battery app. You can check which apps are demanding more battery and see if it makes sense or not.

The battery on a moderate use (no games) of internet, emails, some pics, should last a day (12h) on the 950xl 3340MaH battery.

Best of luck.

[petvas72]

I don't think it's the OS as much as the phone. My 950 had mediocre battery life but my Alcatel Idol4s has excellent battery life.

Sent from my Alcatel Idol 4S

I think you are right. The Snapdragon 810 is not efficient enough, but still I had devices running Android with the same cpu and battery was not so bad. Maybe it's the way the OS works, together with a non efficient cpu..

[petvas72]

I understand your point of view (and I have the same), my point is:
- there ar a ton of apps when installed, put themselves as a background app (ex: games, photo apps etc..) and don't make sense to have it there.
- regarding the email: if you really need the email to be received immediately, then ok... you will have a increased drain of the battery. example: I have 3 email accounts... 2 of them are not priority, so the email sync is hourly.. 3 email accounts checking the server all the time is not good.

I assume you have automatic backups enabled, so you can reset the phone (settings, about, reset) and restore from the backup. it takes 30 min.
After all apps are installed again, give it one day or two...you will see the battery will be better.

Also, as another tip, due to the high resolution of the phone (1440x2560) which can have as much as almost 3700million pixels (much more than an iPhone 7 2000million pixels for example), and because it's an OLED screen, you can greatly improve the battery using dark themes.
When black the pixels are not lit and not consuming battery.

Also the OS has a great feature: battery app. You can check which apps are demanding more battery and see if it makes sense or not.

The battery on a moderate use (no games) of internet, emails, some pics, should last a day (12h) on the 950xl 3340MaH battery.

Best of luck.

I am using a dark theme and I do not play games at all. 12 hours seems realistic to me, but it is not enough. I begin my day around 6:30 and I want my phone to last at least until 22:00. Unfortunately, I have to charge it around 16-17:00 if I want to be absolutely sure that it will last until late.

[TgeekB]

I think you are right. The Snapdragon 810 is not efficient enough, but still I had devices running Android with the same cpu and battery was not so bad. Maybe it's the way the OS works, together with a non efficient cpu..

Yup. It's usually more than one thing, combined, that causes problems like this.

Sent from my Alcatel Idol 4S

[Ryujingt3]

For me, on my 950XL, I start my day at 5:30am, use the phone all day at work to listen to music, and, by the time I get home, between 6pm - 8pm, I still have enough battery life left. The battery life used to be poor at first on production builds, and it can vary on insider builds too, but, right now, on the latest fast ring build, the battery life is not bad at all. I also don't play games.

[ninetenduh]

I can't complain about the Battery life, I am not a heavy user of the phone so i get through 2 days without charging sometimes 3 but on the other hand even playing games or watching videos you can easily manage to get through a day and charge while sleeping.

[petvas72]

For me, on my 950XL, I start my day at 5:30am, use the phone all day at work to listen to music, and, by the time I get home, between 6pm - 8pm, I still have enough battery life left. The battery life used to be poor at first on production builds, and it can vary on insider builds too, but, right now, on the latest fast ring build, the battery life is not bad at all. I also don't play games.

What is exactly "enough" battery? How much percent do you have available when you return home?

[najgori]

I use my 950xl since Feb 2016 and never had battery drain or any kind of strange behavior . I'm sorry to hear that someone have that kind of problems.But if you use it frequently without gaming half a day ,there is no chance to drain your battery for one day.

[anon(3463402)]

On latest RP build 14393.726 battery life is bad. Without touching my phone in one hour it goes from 100% to 95%, which is ridiculous.

I may switch to Fast Ring to see if it's any better.

Everything else is perfect and I like this phone a lot.

PS: I've disabled some apps from running in background, also Mail is set to check for new messages every 15 minutes.

[Jaripi]

On latest RP build 14393.726 battery life is bad. Without touching my phone in one hour it goes from 100% to 95%, which is ridiculous.

I may switch to Fast Ring to see if it's any better.

Everything else is perfect and I like this phone a lot.

PS: I've disabled some apps from running in background, also Mail is set to check for new messages every 15 minutes.

Lumia 950 XL DS (Europe one), all enabled, but only 1 SIM (4G) in use, with the latest insider build. Full charged (100 %) and check after 1 hour (not using during that time, but all enabled), still 100 % ... and a new check after 2 hours, battery 99 %

By the way, I like that phone a lot too, but for a reason, as it seems that I have not a such battery problem :) ... honestly, a bad 4G signal might be a key issue in some cases.

[raiderfan247365]

The battery isn't "excellent" but it is not "bad" either. I came from a Lumia 1520 which had an amazing battery, even with W10. I take my phone off the charger at 6:30am and when I get home around 6pm I have ~30% remaining. I listen to Pandora throughout the day, moderate web browsing, no games, minimal video watching. I also work in a building with bad reception, my phone is often searching for a signal a good chunk of the day. Without this, I bet I could get home with ~50% battery remaining.

[Hildr]

9 to 10h before charging. Some physic gaming, like 1 hours, but mostly Edge browsing.
I don't have drain while not using the phone, but hell, using edge can go as far as -15%/hour!
Overall not a really good battery, luckily I have enought wireless charging pad to not be bothered by this. And quick charge help a lot. But it's far the time where we could look down to other plateform with the excellent wp8 battery life.

[anon(3463402)]

It seems better now. Is it possible that new device needs some time to settle things down before we get optimized battery life? This morning it was 100% > 98% in one hour, same build.

[Jaripi]

It seems better now. Is it possible that new device needs some time to settle things down before we get optimized battery life? This morning it was 100% > 98% in one hour, same build.

Yes, of course ... it consumes more power during first days.

By the way, my idle consumption was only 2 % in 7 hours (over night, all enabled), so idle consumption is fine with build 15031. I will check it again after few days, as I just downloaded the latest insider build 15043.