Show Your Homescreen II

[Red Storm]

Are you on your home screen enough to really see noticeable battery savings?

I haven't done in depth testing, but I definitely notice an improvement in battery life going with an all black wallpaper. Think of it this way, when I turn on my phone, only the top and bottom of the screen are actually using any power. Considering how often we turn on our phones, I think that makes a difference. My most used apps are on the homescreen, I see the homescreen every time I turn on my phone, and I always go back to the homescreen when I'm done with an app. I'd say I inadvertently spend a lot of time at my homescreen.

For what it's worth, I get anywhere between 3 and 4 hours of screen on time with my Moto X, and that's with another 10-20% of battery left (and with all location reporting and Google Now stuff enabled).

 

[Rdmkr]

are there battery savings from using a wallpaper that is just darker and not completely black? it's a bit too drastic for my tastes.

 

[Red Storm]

are there battery savings from using a wallpaper that is just darker and not completely black? it's a bit too drastic for my tastes.

Black means the pixels are "off", so no it has to be absolute black, I don't think darker shades would give you any savings.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

 

[jacktesterson]

What weather widget are you using?

 

[MrSquished]

Nexus 5, rooted with Gravity Box

 

[MrSquished]

Black means the pixels are "off", so no it has to be absolute black, I don't think darker shades would give you any savings.

i believe that's true only for amoled screens primarily?

 

[zerogear]

i believe that's true only for amoled screens primarily?

That's really not even true for AMOLED, as Samsung forces black pixel to be lit as well, at least when I still had a AMOLED device, on the S4.

 

[Megatomic]

On the Moto X, a black pixel is an off pixel.

 

[Yuriman]

I haven't done in depth testing, but I definitely notice an improvement in battery life going with an all black wallpaper. Think of it this way, when I turn on my phone, only the top and bottom of the screen are actually using any power. Considering how often we turn on our phones, I think that makes a difference. My most used apps are on the homescreen, I see the homescreen every time I turn on my phone, and I always go back to the homescreen when I'm done with an app. I'd say I inadvertently spend a lot of time at my homescreen.

For what it's worth, I get anywhere between 3 and 4 hours of screen on time with my Moto X, and that's with another 10-20% of battery left (and with all location reporting and Google Now stuff enabled).

I get between 6 and 9 hours of screen-on time with my Moto X and I use colorful backgrounds. Autobrightness, and most of what I'm looking at is white (like these forums).

Not that it means anything. You probably just have a lot of wakelocks.

 

[Red Storm]

I get between 6 and 9 hours of screen-on time with my Moto X and I use colorful backgrounds. Autobrightness, and most of what I'm looking at is white (like these forums).

Not that it means anything. You probably just have a lot of wakelocks.

Screens please? I wanna see 6-9 hours of screen on time.

 

[Chocu1a]

Screens please? I wanna see 6-9 hours of screen on time.

LMAO...I don't get 6-9 hours of screen time with my Note 3...Shens.

 

[dawheat]

LMAO...I don't get 6-9 hours of screen time with my Note 3...Shens.

I've gotten close to 7 hours screen on with my Note 3 on ideal wifi conditions all day. But yeah normal mixed conditions are more like 5-6.

 

[Yuriman]

Why so hard to beleive? Anandtech measured over 8 hours without any kind of special configuration. Note that the Galaxy Note 3 is showing close to 10 hours.

I didn't think it was that unusual (others on XDA have had similar) so I don't have any screenshots handy. Since it's a weekend, I'm not going to have my normal usage patterns (which is basically browsing the web in class all day) so the fastest way to show that is to put keep-awake on and continue to use it like I would on a weekend, and take a screenshot when it's near dead. Monday night I'll post another with real-world usage?

EDIT: I'm pretty aggressive about getting rid of wakelocks (note: without severely gimping my phone) though. My Galaxy S2 consistently delivered 4.5 hours of screen on time even after the battery was two years old, and my best idle time was close to a month. I can't get those kinds of idle times with my Moto X because the Republic Wireless app wakes it up a ton, I'm lucky if it'll lay around for 4 days before dying.

 

[WelshBloke]

 

[Red Storm]

Why so hard to beleive? Anandtech measured over 8 hours without any kind of special configuration. Note that the Galaxy Note 3 is showing close to 10 hours.

I didn't think it was that unusual (others on XDA have had similar) so I don't have any screenshots handy. Since it's a weekend, I'm not going to have my normal usage patterns (which is basically browsing the web in class all day) so the fastest way to show that is to put keep-awake on and continue to use it like I would on a weekend, and take a screenshot when it's near dead. Monday night I'll post another with real-world usage?

EDIT: I'm pretty aggressive about getting rid of wakelocks (note: without severely gimping my phone) though. My Galaxy S2 consistently delivered 4.5 hours of screen on time even after the battery was two years old, and my best idle time was close to a month. I can't get those kinds of idle times with my Moto X because the Republic Wireless app wakes it up a ton, I'm lucky if it'll lay around for 4 days before dying.

Yeah let's not get started on AT's "battery test" lol. Real world usage screenshots are all I truly believe.

 

[Yuriman]

Yeah let's not get started on AT's "battery test" lol. Real world usage screenshots are all I truly believe.

Five and a half hours later:

It's not "real world use", I'm using it lightly like I normally would on weekends, mostly texting and occasionally refreshing threads on various forums while I play DOTA2 but I have no timeout on the screen. I sent some files via email, but it's mostly sitting on my desk at around half brightness.

_____

I must apologize for the threadjack.

 

[Red Storm]

Five and a half hours later:

It's not "real world use", I'm using it lightly like I normally would on weekends, mostly texting and occasionally refreshing threads on various forums while I play DOTA2 but I have no timeout on the screen. I sent some files via email, but it's mostly sitting on my desk at around half brightness.

Thanks, could you post a screen of the main battery page though? That's what I'm more interested in seeing.

 

[Yuriman]

 

[Yuriman]

Here we go, 15 hours screen on time to 12% with a Moto X, autobrightness. I think you guys have some wakelock issues.

More info: http://imgur.com/a/U1zyZ#0

So yeah, I don't think it's necessary to run a black background to get good battery life.

 

[tsupersonic]

Here we go, 15 hours screen on time to 12% with a Moto X, autobrightness. I think you guys have some wakelock issues.

So yeah, I don't think it's necessary to run a black background to get good battery life.

What were you doing for 15 hours w/ screen on time? You left out that important detail. Obviously some apps are more taxing than others. If you were to play a game (let's say Temple Run 2/Dead Trigger 2/etc), you would not get 15 hours of S.O.T. If you are watching videos, then I could see easily see 10 hours+ of acheiveable S.O.T

 

[Rdmkr]

Autobrightness tends to be pretty dim in my experience. Dimmer than I can tolerate.

 

[sze5003]

Autobrightness tends to be pretty dim in my experience. Dimmer than I can tolerate.

It's because it adjusts too often sometimes. It also seems to use more battery on my phone as it's very active. I set mine manually to something that looks good indoors as well as outside and use that.

 

[dawheat]

Yuriman - I'm guessing the Moto X is counting some sort of active notification, like the time always being on with a black background, as 'screen on', not what most of us consider screen on.

First - you're time off battery = screen on time which would normally be impossible unless you're doing something on your phone 100% of the time. The lack of apps showing up in your battery usage list (wifi being second, Android OS next, Cell standby for goodness sakes) basically shows you're not actually doing anything on your phone - it's in what most of us would consider standby, but b/c of the active notification, it's being considered screen on.

Then, the nearly straight line of battery usage over 15 hours and again where off battery time = screen on time. 'Normal' battery usage is a series of slopes and horizontal lines as the phone is used and then put down. Your WLD screenshot actually shows only about 20 minutes of app usage.

So if I'm reading this right, your battery life isn't actually that impressive - 15 hours off battery with generously 30 minutes of actively using your phone is pretty bad. The Note 3 would easily last 2 days under the same working conditions of barely being used and 6 hours of actively using the phone on calls/apps/etc.

 

[gorcorps]

Autobrightness tends to be pretty dim in my experience. Dimmer than I can tolerate.

Eh, the only phone where I turned off auto brightness was the gs2. The auto brightness on the s3 and s4 works great for me. It's all preference though.