5G drains battery

As previously stated: This is not purely a Fairphone problem but some compatibility issue that probably requires all parties to work together. But you can contact FP support to help move it along as already suggested.

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@mde, ,this is a good suggestion. I just sent a request

@sonohgong I am on android 12, but I am not sure this is the problem. I have fair or good reception (I live in town and there are plenty towers around). From what I could ascertain by asking to friends and colleagues, other 5G phones do not have this problem. It looks like a bad match between the FP4 and Sunrise.

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I just wanted to add my experience which mirrors the ones already described. I have digitec (esim, sunrise as carrier) and salt (physical Sim). On both networks the same. Probably a bit less drain on salt 5g than on sunrise 5g (subjective no hard evidence). All back to normal, almost 2 day, batterylife when using 4g.

I work at Technopark in Zurich on 2nd floor. So 5g coverage should be no problem but still only 0.5 day batterylife on 5g.

Boy was I searching for the culprit for a long time…

PM if I can help narrowing it down with my dual Sim config.

I think this is interesting, how choosing an APN can influence battery live:

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Today I triggered a Google Carrier Service update (release date 12.9.2023). When I saw the update, I suddenly remembered that there were better times with 5G and that after an update of this “app” (along with others though) it got really bad. (Strange I did not remember that until had this trigger for my memory… .) I will turn on 5G again and let you know.

nope still bad battery life :frowning:

I made the same experience. My phone was migrated from UPC to Sunrise (Switzerland), unfortunately at the same day as I got a System-Update for my FP4. Up to this day, my battery needed charging every third day, after that, I needed to charge it every day. Then I realized, that I was now on 5G, so I changed to 4G (or LTE), and now the battery lasts again most of the time for three days (I don’t use it that much).

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Is there anybody with an FP5 that also observes this or does it only concern the FP4?

Same here, Galaxus Mobile and FP4

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Same for me, on galaxus mobile, which use sunrise network, my battery last half a day on 5g, and the normal 1.5 day on 2/3/4g

My FP4 battery consistently lasted for 1.5 days, until I switched network providers. I am now with Sunrise (Switzerland) with excellent 5G coverage both at home and at work. My FP4 battery only lasted 0.5 days, until I set the “preferred network type” to “4G/3G/2G”. Upon doing this, it immediately gave me back the expected 1.5 days battery life without a noticeable slowdown in data transfer.

Let me know if I can provide any specific debugging information for developers.

Hmmm. :thinking:
Apparently people experiencing battery drain due to 5G since A13 are on “Sunrise”? This is probably something to check. It would mean it’s carrier-related (some configuration).

Welcome to you two newcomers, and please note that the issue is most likely a composite one, since many users have a battery drain issue which is independent from 5G. I for instance am experiencing battery drain since A13, but it’s clearly independent of 5G (Orange FR), since disabling 5G doesn’t change anything.

This means you “5G-drain” people probable have two independent yet cumulative issues, which will most likely increase the difficulty of fixing the problem. :slightly_frowning_face:

The 5G drain with Sunrise is not related to A13! This topic here started long before A13.

Sure, but those people are most likely on A13 by now, so they still experience the Sunrise + the A13 battery drain, don’t they.

Yes same with the FP5…

Thats not what you stated, you stated its since A13.

Please contact FP support and Sunrise as overall it seems Sunrise is still not properly supporting FPs as FP4 and FP5 are affected

After reading that these issues seem to be Sunrise-specific I wanted to find out if they are Fairphone-specific, too. Reading this thread (and a few more) it looks like this is purely a Sunrise-issue that affects all phones of all brands:

Whatever they have done in their network, by fixing it, it seems, they could remarkably reduce the energy consumption in Switzerland…

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I can confirm this. The FP no longer has increased battery consumption with Sunrise.

It’s better but still not as low as with 4G.
5G: 5% per hour with display off
4G: 2-3% per hour

Before it was about 10% per hour.

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