Battery life on Stock vs GOS (Pixel 8a) - observation

pandul

Hi,

I had to switch back to stock ROM after my banking app stopped working because of Play Integrity API... I won't even start on how I feel about that but I did notice one (and only) positive thing that happened several days after the change:

my SOT time was noticeably better.

I would say around 25% better than on GOS where I had Play Services installed on my Owner profile with all the necessary apps. To be honest, I have no idea why the difference is that huge because I always though that I would have better battery life on GOS. Any ideas?

Brothe3r_max

pandul I felt it differently, I switched to GOS due to Google AI feature made my pixel hot all day. It is constantly running in the background and also the telemetry.

Don't get me wrong, I don't hate AI, I just feel safe with using local AI

The root caused of the problem, Tensor very poor in term of power efficiency due to Samsung foundry (YouTube :Geekerwan)

Brothe3r_max

pandul And ofc GOS security feature also drained the battery like secure app spawning, memory tagging extension, etc

Personally, I always turn on dark mode, battery saver and data saver in oder to avoid peak performance, then I only unrestricted for certain necessary apps like messaging apps, etc

I installed battery app for monitoring battery temp in order to avoid high temp

Avoid other user profile running in the background except for primary profile.

Only using wireguard apps for vpn

pandul

Brothe3r_max
True. I did however debloat all the unnecessary stuff (including AI, telemetry, etc) from the stock ROM otherwise it would be unusable to me.

It's as minimal as it can be, to be honest.

Brothe3r_max
Same here. I only have two apps that can run in the background and everything else is restricted and minimal. Dark mode and battery saver are always on.

I was surprised how good SOT I have had on GOS because my previous phone was a Pixel 7a (also with GOS). But I'm really shocked on how much more stock ROM can last now.

other8026

Brothe3r_max And ofc GOS security feature also drained the battery like secure app spawning, memory tagging extension, etc

Where are you getting this information? As far as I know, the impact would be minimal and probably not even something you would notice. Most people report having much better battery life on GrapheneOS when compared to the stock OS, especially people who haven't installed Google Play.

Brothe3r_max

other8026 Please read again, l never said GOS battery life worst than Google Pixel. The root caused of the problem, Tensor is very poor in term of power efficiency due to Samsung foundry.
And every extra security feature consume more energy, you should read how it work impact to your device

other8026

Brothe3r_max The title Battery life on Stock vs GOS (Pixel 8a) - observation, which is the topic of the thread, along what you wrote makes it sound like GrapheneOS's security features somehow make battery life worse than the stock OS. Having reread what was said, I believe that other people on this forum might read it that way.

Brothe3r_max you should read how it work impact to your device

I do have an idea of how things work, that's why I said

other8026 As far as I know, the impact would be minimal and probably not even something you would notice.

You can see here that I didn't write there's no impact.

Brothe3r_max every extra security feature consume more energy

This is totally not true. If you read through the features listed here, you'll see that not "every" security feature will consume more energy. Some probably do, but again the impact seems to be minimal.

I don't know of anyone doing any testing in an attempt to get an idea of GrapheneOS's security features' effect on battery life. However, considering most people report that they get better battery life on GrapheneOS compared to the stock OS, even slightly better battery life even with Sandboxed Google Play installed and running in the background to get timely notifications, I think "minimal" can be an accurate word to use.

pandul

Google just reinstalled several apps that I have deleted and one app that I have disabled... to hell with it. They are really trying to grow iOS marketshare with all these non-transparent, anti-user and anti-FOSS actions they've been doing lately.

I'm switching back to GrapheneOS. If needed, I'll just have a backup phone to run the apps that won't support GOS.

Brothe3r_max

other8026 You are correct, just misunderstanding, as I literally said above, I switched to GOS due to Google AI and telemetry always contant running in the background that made my pixel hot all day. In common sense, if your device always hot it will drained fast your battery.

Again in common sense, if you have additional apps ( security apps in that case ) running in the backgound it will consume more battery.
And you' re absolutely right, not every security apps have big impact to your battery life.

But again there is a reason why GOS running only in the tensor (flag ship SOC) one of criteria because security and privacy need extra power to run cyrptograpy and encryption apps like VPN, etc

Brothe3r_max

Brothe3r_max and again I also never recommended to turn off GOS security feature as above, I only gave advice to use dark mode, battery saver, data saver, and so on

New2MeOS

Don't get me wrong, I hate AI being sold on every new phone and that's a big reason why I came over to Graphene OS. So far, much better battery life even with multiple profiles, but then again it's a brand new Pixel 8, so will see how it goes.