Why is iOS battery life so consistent compared to android?

[jdayellow]

I switched from a Samsung galaxy note5 that was a really good phone until a few weeks after purchase it started having many problems especially with the battery. Everyday, something wrong would happen to the battery whether it was random power off or some apps draining in the background. On occasion random system services like LTE discovery or play store would drain my battery for no reason. I had enough of Samsung when the phone had a software update that failed to install properly resulting in the bricking of the phone. I had enough of Samsung so I switched to iPhone and got iPhone 6s Plus. 2 weeks in and I'm amazed that I've had zero battery issues so far. Everyday the battery is extremely consistent and there are never fluctuations or random drains. How is the battery management on iOS so stable compared to android Samsung? I love that I get consistent 7 hours sot every day.

 

[Freakonomics101]

Cause Android sucks. Lol.

 

[jdayellow]

Cause Android sucks. Lol.

It's not that Android sucks. Android is a really good OS. I love the amount of features and options that I could change. I loved personalizing my phone and showing people cool changes I made to my phone. I could download free apps from the internet and download hundreds of movies for free. The phone was very smooth and fast. It's just that it glitches out at times and has random bugs that warranted my switch. I could pick up an android phone if my iPhone runs out 5 years later but in short android doesn't suck it just has some issues at times.

 

[44267547]

I switched from a Samsung galaxy note5 that was a really good phone until a few weeks after purchase it started having many problems especially with the battery. Everyday, something wrong would happen to the battery whether it was random power off or some apps draining in the background. On occasion random system services like LTE discovery or play store would drain my battery for no reason. I had enough of Samsung when the phone had a software update that failed to install properly resulting in the bricking of the phone. I had enough of Samsung so I switched to iPhone and got iPhone 6s Plus. 2 weeks in and I'm amazed that I've had zero battery issues so far. Everyday the battery is extremely consistent and there are never fluctuations or random drains. How is the battery management on iOS so stable compared to android Samsung? I love that I get consistent 7 hours sot every day.

Honestly, that's a good question. My thoughts are iOS is calibrated efficient for the initial set up. Once you start downloading third party Applications, that's where changes and effects start to occur.

For example, Safari works well on iOS, where downloading Google Chrome consumes more battery and isn't necessarily specific to iOS.

 

[smacrumon]

I found that upgrading to iOS gave my iPad inconsistent battery life. I used to have really good battery, but iOS 10 has changed that. I'd say iOS drains 2x faster, so it's flat twice as fast.
[doublepost=1486017596][/doublepost]By the way, why does your phone reception in your images state "-92" and -"96" instead of the typical OOOOO indicator?

 

[anonymous guy]

Because Apple controls the software and the hardware.

Android isn't optimized for any one platform, it's up to each individual manufacturer to tweak it to work for their hardware. The closest you would get to an optimized software to hardware experience would be the Google Pixel since Google was hands on with that device.

Keep in mind, Apple does take quite some time to work out the kinks in battery life. Early versions of the latest incarnation of iOS software can suffer battery drain on previous generation devices. Also if you are in the beta-test program, you are advised not to use those builds for your daily driver since they tend to drain battery very quickly.

 

[Shirasaki]

I found that upgrading to iOS gave my iPad inconsistent battery life. I used to have really good battery, but iOS 10 has changed that. I'd say iOS drains 2x faster, so it's flat twice as fast.
[doublepost=1486017596][/doublepost]By the way, why does your phone reception in your images state "-92" and -"96" instead of the typical OOOOO indicator?

iOS 10, esp 10.2 drains battery way too fast in my opinion. I must plug the device whenever possible to prevent battery drain. This was not the case before iOS 10.

And the "-96" thing comes from Field Test app on iOS. To trigger it, run field test app by entering this string in phone app dial interface: *3001#12345#*, then dial it.

Once done, you could then press power button until "slide to power off " is on screen. Next, release power button, and press home button until you are back to your home screen. Now you can see the actual signal strength rather than five bar indicators.

http://www.ubersignal.com/field-test-mode

 

[smacrumon]

iOS 10, esp 10.2 drains battery way too fast in my opinion. I must plug the device whenever possible to prevent battery drain. This was not the case before iOS 10.

And the "-96" thing comes from Field Test app on iOS. To trigger it, run field test app by entering this string in phone app dial interface: *3001#12345#*, then dial it.

Once done, you could then press power button until "slide to power off " is on screen. Next, release power button, and press home button until you are back to your home screen. Now you can see the actual signal strength rather than five bar indicators.

http://www.ubersignal.com/field-test-mode

Love a good phone trick, thanks!
EDIT: this field test phone trick appears to be permanent until a full phone restore, fyi. More details for temporary test and more permanent test at: http://osxdaily.com/2012/08/20/field-test-mode-iphone-signal-strength-numbers/

 

[Will22]

It's not that Android sucks. Android is a really good OS. I love the amount of features and options that I could change. I loved personalizing my phone and showing people cool changes I made to my phone. I could download free apps from the internet and download hundreds of movies for free. The phone was very smooth and fast. It's just that it glitches out at times and has random bugs that warranted my switch. I could pick up an android phone if my iPhone runs out 5 years later but in short android doesn't suck it just has some issues at times.

Where did you download them from? Could they be the cause of the battery problems?

I have had 5 iphone 7's and two iphone 7+ because of problems with them. Both my 7&7+ are far from smooth with the 7+ the worst and with the same usage I get the same battery life. It is no bed of roses with iOS either.

 

[AndrewR23]

Love a good phone trick, thanks!
EDIT: this field test phone trick appears to be permanent until a full phone restore, fyi. More details for temporary test and more permanent test at: http://osxdaily.com/2012/08/20/field-test-mode-iphone-signal-strength-numbers/

full phone restore? well looks like its permanent for me then lol. I did it because I thought you could get rid of it by rebooting. Oh well


edit- redoing field test mode got rid of it.

 

[smacrumon]

full phone restore? well looks like its permanent for me then lol. I did it because I thought you could get rid of it by rebooting. Oh well


edit- redoing field test mode got rid of it.

Glad to hear!

 

[its Dale]

yeah i moved to android when i was looking for a bigger screen. had the galaxy s4 and HTC M8. They were okay phones, but the battery was horrible. I'd get random drains and my phone would turn off at night. It has to be the OS. I went back to the iPhone once the 6 came out and will probably never go back to android

 

[jdayellow]

Where did you download them from? Could they be the cause of the battery problems?

I have had 5 iphone 7's and two iphone 7+ because of problems with them. Both my 7&7+ are far from smooth with the 7+ the worst and with the same usage I get the same battery life. It is no bed of roses with iOS either.

Basically i google the name of the app plus apk and i could download pretty much every app for free. And I used an app called popcorn time to get free movies. I don't think these apps impacted my battery because they never showed up in the battery stats.

 

[BigMcGuire]

It's a big complaint I have about Android - even today. Apps have a lot more freedom (and often do) burn a lot of battery whenever they feel like it. When I tried the Nexus 6, the Google Services app got stuck at 100% cpu and burned the phone to 0% in a few hours. No resetting, rebooting, etc... would fix it. My Android tablet (Samsung) would quite often have 80% of it's battery missing when I come home after work for no good reason. My iPad can keep a charge for a week with regular use.

In all seriousness, Android has gotten a LOT BETTER at standby battery life from it's early days but it still isn't iOS yet.

 

[Freakonomics101]

It's not that Android sucks. Android is a really good OS. I love the amount of features and options that I could change. I loved personalizing my phone and showing people cool changes I made to my phone. I could download free apps from the internet and download hundreds of movies for free. The phone was very smooth and fast. It's just that it glitches out at times and has random bugs that warranted my switch. I could pick up an android phone if my iPhone runs out 5 years later but in short android doesn't suck it just has some issues at times.

I agree, Android does have a good OS. I guess it's just all about preference. I like that you can do more with an Android but I'm just so stuck on iOS, there is no way I can move away from that.

Another thing, Android phones don't get OS updates for that long. That's a huge drawback to me. While the iPhone 5 is several years old and was able to be updated to iOS 10, and it even runs pretty well on 10.

 

[noobinator]

Control. Apple has more control and thus the battery life is more stable.

 

[bufffilm]

Control. Apple has more control and thus the battery life is more stable.

This in a nutshell is why battery life is better with iOS.

To Google's credit, each Android release is better than the previous w/battery life. But there is a gap.

 

[avtella]

Depends on the models too, the LG G2 and Xperia Z3 had amazing battery life, but successive models from both brands made compromises either in battery or used 2K displays in case of the G3 ruining battery life. The horrible Snapdragon 810 didn't help either in the generation after that. In case of Samsung, OLED eats significantly more battery than LCDs when white backgrounds are used such as in web surfing, at least that was the case a year or two ago. But overall I never had a "consistency" issue. My Xperia Z3 had about the same if not slightly better battery life than the iPhone 7+ in my usage conditions, so not all Android devices are necessarily bad.

 

[Cakefish]

The screenshot in the OP shows that all the apps add up to 332 minutes (5.53 hours) of SOT, not 7 hours. The 'usage' stat in iOS battery settings is not analogous to the 'screen on time' in the Android settings.

 

[jdayellow]

The screenshot in the OP shows that all the apps add up to 332 minutes (5.53 hours) of SOT, not 7 hours. The 'usage' stat in iOS battery settings is not analogous to the 'screen on time' in the Android settings.

Oh I didn't know that. Well now I know lol thanks.

 

[jdayellow]

Depends on the models too, the LG G2 and Xperia Z3 had amazing battery life, but successive models from both brands made compromises either in battery or used 2K displays in case of the G3 ruining battery life. The horrible Snapdragon 810 didn't help either in the generation after that. In case of Samsung, OLED eats significantly more battery than LCDs when white backgrounds are used such as in web surfing, at least that was the case a year or two ago. But overall I never had a "consistency" issue. My Xperia Z3 had about the same if not slightly better battery life than the iPhone 7+ in my usage conditions, so not all Android devices are necessarily bad.

I had a galaxy s5 before the note5 and the battery on that phone was garbage. It worked fine for maybe a few weeks and I could get 4.5 to 5 hours of sot but after a month or two I could only get 2.5 to 3 hours sot. Not to mention the lollipop update which completely screwed the phone which forced me to get a new phone because the battery and performance were unusable. Every android phone I've used never has a stable and consistent battery for more than a few weeks. Someone always screws up the battery.

 

[avtella]

Yeah I stopped using Samsung after the original Galaxy, I wasn't a fan of AMOLED. As I said before web surfing was the bane of AMOLED devices with the white background. So low battery life is understandable.

 

[Cakefish]

Oh I didn't know that. Well now I know lol thanks.

Easy mistake to make, I did not know either until I read it on a forum post a while ago!

 

[DUIduckSAUCE]

I think a lot of it has to do with apples walled garden. With android you can put whatever you want on it. Android apps seem buggy in comparison to apples apps. Apple tightly controls what is allowed. I own an s7 and my battery life was not consistent. In a previous thread another poster pointed out how the s7 gets better on screen time but worse standby. This may be true. I like the all day consistency of my 7plus.

 

[macfacts]

.... How is the battery management on iOS so stable compared to android Samsung? I love that I get consistent 7 hours sot every day.

Simple, it isn't consistent. You just got lucky and won the Apple lottery. If you do a keyword search for battery on this forum, you'll see lots of people always complaining about battery life.

Example:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/7-plus-battery-after-10-2-1.2030892/