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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

HHGTTG

I live in the UK in the outskirts of the capital city and unlike my previous phone, an HTC Desire S, my Cell standby consumption seem to be much higher, with the same network provider. This time my Cell Standby consumption is top of the list at ca 30% and thats' followed by Phone Idle at 25% and Screen at 16%.

As stated proviously my mobile data, WiFi, GPS and Bluetooth are all OFF and only turned on if and when needed.. However with such use I get over 5 days between charges, now with Stamina and Low Battery modes activated.

MyAliasIsGary

@anastasios912 wrote:
@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.

@anastasios912

hi there...

sorry to hear that you're having these problems. Must be perplexing and frustrating.

It does sound to me (not being an expert or anything) that your battery is underperforming. The fact you've tried a factory reset is a reasonable start... but, for example, if it's an application that is misbehaving, you may well have reinstalled it after resetting phone, so you're back in the same predicament as previously.

One thing that occurred to me, since sportify seems to be hammering your battery - is it possible to use the spotify service NOT via their app? Just try accessing it via your browser? Just as a test...

The other thing that I believe you can do is run the phone in safe mode. That runs the phone with only core apps. You could monitor the phone's endurance in this mode and it would give you some tangible evidence (I hope) if you decided to return your phone. Your phone could well be defective (that's not a pop at Sony btw) e.g. bad battery.

Here's how to activate safe mode:

http://talk.sonymobile.com/t5/FAQ/How-to-boot-your-phone-into-safe-mode/m-p/348008

(source: http://talk.sonymobile.com/t5/Xperia-Z3-Compact/Xperia-Z3-compact-camera-issue-s/td-p/840919)

There are of course other bits of software which could be draining the battery - widgets for example.

There's a free app called greenify. This is designed to allow you to hibernate (basically forcestop) applications that are active when you don't need them to be.

You don't have to use the hibernate functionality but it will tell you what's currently 'active'. Since you've got data on (for spotify) other apps might be running too and adding to the drain?

Another thing I'd review is your data usage (near top of settings), since you'll be able to see what's using your data connection.

Let us know how you get on.

Regards,

Gary

sn29

My battery has drained 16% in 30 mins while on standby and in Stamina mode.

This seems to have started happening in the last few days.

Can anyone help?

Thanks

MyAliasIsGary

@sn29 wrote:
My battery has drained 16% in 30 mins while on standby and in Stamina mode.
This seems to have started happening in the last few days.
Can anyone help?
Thanks

@hi @sn29

Sounds like an app is misbehaving.

Check for recently updated apps. If there's an app that could match up, check for any reported issues.

If you've not done a full power down and power up, since the problems started, try that too.

If that doesn't help, try running in safe mode to see if battery drain continues.

Just a thought - could it be an app that needs an internet connection and hasn't got one (and is freaking out)? In stamina mode, you can have "extended standby", where data and wifi switches off, when screen is off.

Let us know what happens. If you're not sure how to do any of the above, just ask

Regards,

Gary

MyAliasIsGary

@sn29 wrote:
My battery has drained 16% in 30 mins while on standby and in Stamina mode.
This seems to have started happening in the last few days.
Can anyone help?
Thanks

PS if it is a naughty app (and you've not switched your phone off), it could just be a question of force stopping the app.

If you've updated an app recently and there are no reported issues (but you have a good reason for suspecting that app), try clearing data. You might even have to do a full uninstall and reinstall.

Also, if you've identified a suspect app, have you added that app to the stamina mode exception list ("apps active in standby")?

Final thought - have you put any new widgets recently on your home screens?