FP2 battery saving challenge

I … give up. 7 Days passed, 56% left xD
I want to use my FP2 now and the battery shows astounding stamina

Total estimated battery time:

16 days.

Statistics show no relevant jumps, thus I think the estimation is reliable.
This is … impressive I think, although only used as passive mobilephone (“being in my pocket waiting for call”). Of course the time will be way shorter when using wlan, mobile data etc, its ok for me to charge it every or every second day in this case. But I need a phone that is usable after a weekend forgetting it in my backpack while still being able to recieve a call in this time. It seems I got a phone that I still can use after forgetting it for whole 2 weeks. Nice one.

5 Likes

Thanks, thats a good number. So we can calculate a value for
##pure Single-SIM-Standby of 0.26%/h
I find this value not outstanding in general, but also not bad.
It is slightly lower than I observed for Dual-SIM-Standby…(will post values later).

I also would be really interested in the used CPU states during this 7 days, but I guess you dont have any suited app installed (like BetterBatteryStat, KernelTuner,…)?

So let us see later, how it behaves in your “normal usage life” :wink:

I manage to get this by using the aeroplane mode combined with a nifty little app called PowerPRO (available on Google Play and 1Mobile market). Starting from a full charge at 6am I use my phone for about 30 minutes to read, or watch a video or listen to a podcast. Then it is on aeroplane mode + ultra mode (PowerPRO) most of the day between 8am and 4pm - apart from a few message checks throughout the day. after work I cycle back home for over an hour, using mobile data, GPS and the Strava exercise tracking app. When I arrive home around 5.30pm the battery is still at about 60%…

1 Like

How u be able to set the CPU ?

I use https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdfilter=Kernel&fdid=com.grarak.kerneladiutor this app for this purpose.

Ok thx. Just need root for ^^

Hi,

Having upgraded my FP2 to FPOSOS I also avoided to re-install LibreSignal and BatteryFu. So I’m not polling internet 2 minutes every 3h anymone, but still locking the phone in 2G-only mode. And, surprise, the phone announce 7 days of battery life if the phone is not used.

I still have to confirm this “long-term” testing but it’s a hope.

Also, I noticed that I can’t switch the light on using Torchie (from F-Droid) anymore when phone is locked and screen is on. I only works when screen is on (wether phone is locked or not).

(and as a sided topic, I’m hoping for something to set notification LED blinking frequency)

1 Like

But it is not in flightmode but with activated 2G, right?
7 days WITHOUT using it still seems not very much, doesn’t it?
With FP1 I was used to 5 days WITH using it a little each day …

But please report back with some values after a longer testing period, also under your average using behaviour (and in comparison to your “before” state).

Just for a crosslink to another topic again recently discussed:
https://forum.fairphone.com/t/fp2-research-on-power-consumption-in-idle-and-stand-by-to-prolong-battery-duration/12947
Cheers, Robert

Hard to gather meaningfull measurments. Currently, with phone usage (300 SMS a month, 5min of call by day) I experience 4 days of battery lasting.

I was using WaveUp, BatteryFu and some plugins to show CPU and Battery states. Removing all this allows the machine to be really idle when I’m not using it.

My normal state is : data disabled, and 2G only. Battery consumption curve shows that being idle is now energy-cheap, while turning screen on eats a lot and using 4G or WiFi or the main camera eats a lot more !

But I gained a safety feeling as I know it’s now not prone anymore to turn off when I’m not using it, so when I’m not noticing it for instance.

4 days, it’s enough not to have to plug the thing during w-e for instance…

Oh, that sounds good, I admit. (I have similar usage, but only 2 days with FPOS 1.2.8). Do you have “rough” numbers from before? Would you claim definitively an improvement in terms of battery life?

Just to be sure: you “just” went from officially FP-OS → FPOpenSource-OS (without any GoogleServices? And not re-installed all the same apps) and encountered an increase in battery lifte time, correct?

Do you attribute the improvmente of battery life to…

  • the missing google services in the OpenSource version or
  • other improvementes of the OpenSource-version (which?) or
  • some Apps you not re-installed or
  • just any different usage/user behaviour (lowering WiFi/4G usage…)

I would call this “very promising”…and would be more happy to read any official line from FP team (I wrote the support team already regarding this topic).

Just to be sure: you “just” went from officially FP-OS → FPOpenSource-OS (without any GoogleServices? And not re-installed all the same apps) and encountered an increase in battery lifte time, correct?

Exactly. And I was experiencing a 2 days (max) battery lifetime before.

Mainly some apps that I did not re-installed :

  • WaveUp as it creates a wakelock (to keep the the proximity sensor active) ;
  • monitoring applets (for CPU/Battery) as they poll resources, waking the CPU from idle state phone ;
  • BatteryFu as it’s meant to switch data on regularly for poll purpose…

But I would count also fewer background Google services.

To continue on this matter, 2 days after I cleant the IR sensor, and with a user-interface showing the service as disabled, WaveUp started working again (after a reboot operation).

As I like this service, I did set the UI in working mode and went with it. It’s not killing my battery life, so truth is elsewhere… and I’m saving both my power-button (mechanical stuff) and my battery lasting time \o/

Wow, just found this thread and got jealous. My FP2 now lasts for only 2 days. I’ve figured out some sources of battery usage:

  • “K9” is top at 20% because I had background syn enabled, so basically push notifications for email. But this is more annoying than helpful, so I turn that off (Settings->Global Settings->Network->Background Sync to “Never”). I’ll turn that back on should I ever desperately wait for an email, but otherwise not being instantly notified is a QoL win these days :wink:
  • “Google Services” also drained 19% battery. Well, I kind of want my calendar app to be up-to-date and photos to be uploaded when I take them, but I don’t want my phone to check every 2 minutes for a change, once a day would be enough. Does anyone know if there’s a chance to tell Google to actually use a sane amount of battery? One sync per day would be fine… well, for now just turned background changes off because this is ridiculous. Although it means that I have no idea how Agenda Widget (which I use as calendar widget) will get updated Google Calendar events, so I guess I have to manually update the Calendar from time to time…
  • Wi-fi: This one is strange. I have not turned on wi-fi in a few days now, and under battery usage it does not show wi-fi. However, if I click on “use since last full charge”, wi-fi has a full bar as if it was always on. But I just checked - wi-fi is indeed off! Does anyone have an idea what that is? Is it similar to the “Location” bug that people have (and I experienced as well) that if you turn off the service it’s still on until you reboot? However, in that case you see the location icon at the top of the screen, which is not the case for wi-fi…

I’d really love to get more out of my battery. The one app I’m fine with draining battery is Whatsapp (that’s where friends know they can get an immediate response if they need anything, but I also don’t have a dozen active channels so this won’t consume as much battery, I guess). But other than that I’d love to limit every other service as much as possible (and be fine with updating apps and backups and so on manually once a week) if only I could get more than 2 measly days of battery time. Not sure I’m ready for abandoning Google completely and reinstalling, but it might be the best choice judging by this thread…

I have written some days ago:

Thanks, nice catch! However, it was turned off already - yeah…

A reboot seems to have fixed it; just turned it on and off again to see if I can reproduce this error, similar to what people report about the location issue. Although long-term this is not a solution, rebooting every time after turning wi-fi or location off…

Okay, same thing happened again. Yesterday charged my phone, turned wi-fi on and off. Checked this morning and wi-fi appeared to be off (no icon visible, off in settings) but under battery the module appeared to have been on. Just rebooted and since then it seems to be off.

Also, I disabled background sync for all Google services, but still the “Google Services” app consumed most battery over night. I’m getting annoyed/frustrated to a point where I’m considering the FP OS (though I kind of don’t want to tinker too much right now with setting up everything, just want a working phone with long battery lifetime). I wonder if there’s a connection between Google Services being a battery hog and the wi-fi error or if those are separate issues?

Pictures here: http://imgur.com/a/Vg8pD - thanks for any help. @Mods: In case this should be split up into a different thread let me know or feel free to split this from the discussion, wasn’t sure if this is just a showcase or also discussion thread about increasing battery lifetime.

Link in broken! Where can I find it? Thanks

Apparently it disappeared from FDroid :frowning:

It is still available on Google play or on github https://github.com/Grarak/KernelAdiutor.

1 Like

Hi, just wanted to tell about my way of prolonging the battery-life of my Fairphone. I always was dissatisfied with the battery-life and how the battery went down quick without much usage. Before the FP my only “smart device” was a Nexus Tablet, which has a battery life of 14 days with CyanogenMod (but only Wifi).

With some tweaks now i can use my phone two days without charging with medium usage. I use Gravity Box and Greenify.

Greenify sends all apps to sleep that arent needed to prevent useless activity.

More important is the Battery Saver which is built in but not very handy to use.
With Gravity Box you can set a battery icon in the quick settings of the Statusbar. With on click you can turn on the battery saver. In the Powertweaks-section of Gravity Box you can turn off the orange battery saver indication, so the saving is less distracting.

So now i can turn on the battery saver each night or for longer times when i dont use the phone and the effect is quite goog, i lose only 2 percent during the night, which withoot is a lot more (around 7-10 percent).

This is of course only helpful for people that are noz permenentally on data connection cause syncing and such stuff are turned off during battery saver.

2 Likes