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anastasios912

Hey there, Been using the Xperia Z3 Compact for about a week now and unfortunately the battery has not met my expectations, or Sony's claims for the "2 day battery". Now, I realize that in order to last 2 days you'd have to only moderately use your phone, but I'm not coming anywhere close to their claim before needing a recharge. For example, right now my phone has been on for 9 hours 17m and 21s, I have 1h 44m of screen on time and 3 hours of Spotify usage and I'm at 58%. This is 'good' battery life yes, but not nearly good as my friend's Z3v, and the compact is supposed to have superior battery life.

He's been getting over 6 or 7 hours screen on time (he's even claimed 8 before), playing games for about an hour, music for an hour or so, and web browsing too. To give you an idea of some troubleshooting steps I've already taken I have:

-Done a factory reset as well as used Sony's safe mode

-Uninstalled battery draining apps including Facebook, messenger, etc.

*Right now Spotify is probably the only battery draining app I have on my phone

-Usage stats are as follows: Screen 34%, Spotify 22%, cell standby 9%, mediaserver 8%, Android System 7%, Phone idle 6%, Android OS 5%, Google services 3%, com.tinder 2% (I uninstalled tinder as it was using a lot of battery life, I think due to location settings), and Swiftkey 2%.

-I installed CPU spy to confirm that my device is entering deep sleep:

*Right now it's almost split half and half between 300 Mhz and Deep sleep (40% and 46% respectively), probably due to my spotify usage today

-I do not have NFC or LTE on, I'm currently in Philadelphia so mobile network is not an issue (Straight Talk on AT&T)

-I do not have Wifi searching on

-Never use bluetooth

-I do have double tap to wake on -I do have a 64gb micro sd card, however I erased it a day or two ago to see if bad formatting was an issue

-I have been using the standard charger with an Xperia magnetic charging cable, but last night I used the standard cable to see if that was an issue

-I have google now on, but not "ok google"

-I do not use any widgets other than the weather one

Honestly are my stats normal? If not, I have no idea what the issue is as I feel I've tried just about everything. Is my battery faulty? I love the phone but I'm not nearly as impressed with the battery as I was expecting. The best I've gotten is about 4 or 5 hours screen on time before my phone died. I've also let it die completely and recharged it entirely turned off.

-Ed

Uliwooly

I think the issue here is network coverage, he has Verizon (Xperia Z3v) and you have AT&T, go to settings > about phone > status > signal strength, check both phones, also how many other apps and/or services are you syncing, there are myriad reasons as to why your phone will be draining faster than your friend's

anastasios912

Currently my signal strength is: -89 dBm 12 asu, is that good or bad? And I'm not sure what my friends is as he's not with me. As far as bars go, I have full reception, and I thought I eliminated mobile network as the issue when I disabled LTE (it was hopping on and off before, now I'm on HPSA). Do you really think it's a service issue? I would be inclined to agree if I lived in a fringe area but I'm currently in Philadelphia...big city.

Uliwooly

Don't worry about the bars, they don't quite accurately represent the real signal strength. What you describe its a similar issue here in LA, there are certain areas that just drain my battery like crazy, and it is AT&T network coverage

anastasios912

Then how did all of the reviewers fare better? AT&T is the best gsm carrier in the US...

Uliwooly

It is the best GSM carrier in the US but network coverage may vary, or it could be towers that are down

Wordfool

I found there are two things that will drain the battery faster than expected -- a bright screen setting and a weak cell signal. That, and of course background processes. I noticed you had spotify running, which combined with a weak signal would drain any battery pretty fast. In my bedroom the signal is 1-2 bars and overnight I will lose 4-5%. In my living room the signal is 3-4 bars and I lose only 1-2% overnight.

I've turned LTE off (the signal is too weak in my area, but 3G signal is much stronger), have screen set to auto (and I use indoors most of the time, so it's always fairly dim). I've stopped apps from doing background updates, phoning home with stats etc. (there are a lot of them in Xperia phones, and I don't care having to wait a second for a news update or something when opening an app or waking the phone). These and a few other optimizations (no sync at night, wifi off on sleep, no active widgets etc.) have given me remarkable battery life.

My first full-drain test gave me 3d 20h with just over 8h of screen time, 1h 30m of voice calls, bluetooth sync in the car (for calls only) and assorted other usual activities (photos, texts, web browsing, 3 email accounts, music etc.). I don't always get that much out of a charge, but 6+ hours of screen time and well over 2 days standby are usual for me.

HHGTTG

I last charged my phone up on Tuesday evening. It is only left on during the day and so spends about 7 hours per day OFF, the rest of the time it is on Standby when not being used. Today is Sunday and the battery is showing 53% remaining.

I never leave WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth or Mobile Data (LTE) ON unless I need them. I use 'Adaptive Brightness' for the screen thus keeping screen brightness to the minimum.

anastasios912

@HHGTTG wrote:
I last charged my phone up on Tuesday evening. It is only left on during the day and so spends about 7 hours per day OFF, the rest of the time it is on Standby when not being used. Today is Sunday and the battery is showing 53% remaining.
I never leave WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth or Mobile Data (LTE) ON unless I need them. I use 'Adaptive Brightness' for the screen thus keeping screen brightness to the minimum.

Yea there's just absolutely no way I would get anywhere close to those stats as of now...

Again, the battery life is 'good' but nowhere near Sony's claim. I think it's draining too much battery on idle; it appears that my phone randomly drops signal while it's asleep...which could account for the battery drain.

As I said, this is all in Center City Philadelphia with excellent signal, so I have a very hard time believing it's due to my network coverage. But, it could be a problem with my phone's attena, or software.

Does anyone have any rixes or recommendations for my phone dropping signal sporadically? I really don't want to return the phone but I'd rather do it sooner than later.

-Ed

anastasios912

@Wordfool wrote:
I found there are two things that will drain the battery faster than expected -- a bright screen setting and a weak cell signal. That, and of course background processes. I noticed you had spotify running, which combined with a weak signal would drain any battery pretty fast. In my bedroom the signal is 1-2 bars and overnight I will lose 4-5%. In my living room the signal is 3-4 bars and I lose only 1-2% overnight.
I've turned LTE off (the signal is too weak in my area, but 3G signal is much stronger), have screen set to auto (and I use indoors most of the time, so it's always fairly dim). I've stopped apps from doing background updates, phoning home with stats etc. (there are a lot of them in Xperia phones, and I don't care having to wait a second for a news update or something when opening an app or waking the phone). These and a few other optimizations (no sync at night, wifi off on sleep, no active widgets etc.) have given me remarkable battery life.
My first full-drain test gave me 3d 20h with just over 8h of screen time, 1h 30m of voice calls, bluetooth sync in the car (for calls only) and assorted other usual activities (photos, texts, web browsing, 3 email accounts, music etc.). I don't always get that much out of a charge, but 6+ hours of screen time and well over 2 days standby are usual for me.

Even when I'm not using spotify extensively my battery drains quickly while on idle...and as I've said I have very good cellphone reception here in Philadelphia.

6+ hours of SOT is out of my reach... Best I've been able to do is about 4, maybe 5 on one day. The battery drains too quickly on standby to be able to do this in two days, which is more of my concern.