The app will use location services even when not running in the background. only way to foil this usurper's plan is to disable it in location services
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Google Employee Claims Google Now App Does Not Cause Significant Battery Impact
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After charging up my phone yesterday I ran the Google app with location services and no wifi. Got 6hrs1min of usage and 19 1/2hrs of standby. Seems pretty crappy to me. Charging up right now and I will do the same test without google and wifi. This is without playing any games, using navagation, any music streaming. Nothing that used location services besides the system ones and the Google Search app.
I was asking my buddy with a Lumia 920 about his battery life, and he last charged his phone on Thursday, and still has 11% left as of this morning. He uses his phone about as much as I use my 5. Gets over 20hrs of use on a single charge. I really wish Apple would take battery life more seriously. The 5 is a great looking and working phone but with this one I feel like I'm always looking for a time to charge. Get in the car, and immediately always hook it up to help get through the day and into the night. If I stream or use navigation at all it drops like a rock without being hooked up.
I was asking my buddy with a Lumia 920 about his battery life, and he last charged his phone on Thursday, and still has 11% left as of this morning. He uses his phone about as much as I use my 5. Gets over 20hrs of use on a single charge. I really wish Apple would take battery life more seriously. The 5 is a great looking and working phone but with this one I feel like I'm always looking for a time to charge. Get in the car, and immediately always hook it up to help get through the day and into the night. If I stream or use navigation at all it drops like a rock without being hooked up.
Usage or standby? If it's the latter, there's no way. I just looked it up, and about every phone on the market has an average usage time of about 6 hours, usually floating somewhere around 4 at the low end, and 8 at the highest. If the Lumia 920 lasted that long, it'd be a small miracle, and everyone would be talking about it.
My iPhone is currently sitting at 41% battery after 2 days 19 hours on standby, and 4 and a half hours of usage with Google Now on. That looks about on spec for the iPhones, which usually get about 7 1/2 hours of heavy usage out of a charge, give or take.
Here we go! I found a chart. These are all single usage scenarios, but imagine the hit if you mix and match. Like call someone, text someone, play around on the internet for half an hour. I'd say the iPhone lasts between 6-8 hours on a charge, depending on if you're using 3G/LTE or Wifi for web browsing. If you play a lot of heavier games (anything that leverages the GPU by a moderate amount, as in not Angry Birds), expect to get half that.
edit: one thing's for sure, GN doesn't use the battery nearly as much as a GPS or constantly tracking your location on the old Google based Maps. I remember seeing it knock a percent off a minute when I did that.
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Ill have to clarify what he said...I looked up both batteries, and the 920 has almost 600 more mah than the iphone 5 but still not enough to go 20hrs.
As a side note doing my test with same settings but deleted Google Search, and am on pace to get 7 1/2hrs of use with about 18-20hrs on standby. That will mean for me Google Search uses up about 20% more battery.
As a side note doing my test with same settings but deleted Google Search, and am on pace to get 7 1/2hrs of use with about 18-20hrs on standby. That will mean for me Google Search uses up about 20% more battery.
It's using more battery, but not too insane
It's using more battery, but not to an insane degree.
My phone has more-or-less been in standby for the last 12 hours. Save for PUSH being enabled to get my email, a couple of alarm clock ringing+vibrating, and maybe 10 minutes of browsing over WiFi.
So standby for 12 hours, plus Google Search and WiFi ON, plus some other minor stuff, it has drained about 18%.
That's a little bit more than I'm used to but it's not insanely bad. Just a couple of percentage points.
Now, I haven't done any testing with WiFi turned off... perhaps using GPS instead will make a huge difference. But I haven't checked that yet.
It's using more battery, but not to an insane degree.
My phone has more-or-less been in standby for the last 12 hours. Save for PUSH being enabled to get my email, a couple of alarm clock ringing+vibrating, and maybe 10 minutes of browsing over WiFi.
So standby for 12 hours, plus Google Search and WiFi ON, plus some other minor stuff, it has drained about 18%.
That's a little bit more than I'm used to but it's not insanely bad. Just a couple of percentage points.
Now, I haven't done any testing with WiFi turned off... perhaps using GPS instead will make a huge difference. But I haven't checked that yet.
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In the 15 minutes from when I unplugged my 4S this morning until I got to work, it had already dropped to 92%. I restarted the phone to make sure there weren't any other culprits. When I got back from lunch it was below 50% having just used it for a couple 4sq checkins. That's not an insignificant drain.
I believe the people claiming it's not causing a substantial impact on battery life, but for some of us it clearly is. What environmental causes are contributing to that, I can't say, but clearly there is a significant problem for some users. Just because it isn't affecting you, don't be so quick to dismiss everyone else's claims.
I believe the people claiming it's not causing a substantial impact on battery life, but for some of us it clearly is. What environmental causes are contributing to that, I can't say, but clearly there is a significant problem for some users. Just because it isn't affecting you, don't be so quick to dismiss everyone else's claims.