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Let me state obvious thing -- the easiest way to compare two phones would be to buy them and test them. However without such luxury, all I can do is estimating.

I listed such hardware factors -- in favor of battery longevity:

  • battery itself -- i.e. capacity
  • low screen resolution
  • little memory
  • slow CPU
  • update 1: this one I am not sure, but checking the integration scale of CPU/GPU could tell also a thing about power consumption -- e.g. CPU with 40nm scale should require less power than one with 60 nm
  • update 2: I forgot -- screen technology (OLED vs. TFT), AFAIK OLED is more power friendly however with very specific colors used (more on that when I found more info)

The above are hardware -- the only one non-hardware factor which is relevant in this question would be Android itself (I don't have any data what is power consumption of each version).

Did I list the factors correctly? Are there more hardware factors which affects battery directly?

QUESTION: what are the other (hardware) factors which help in battery endurance? Did I listed the above correctly?

REMARKS:

  • please stick only to the objective facts, which hardware elements make the battery run out faster in general (e.g. higher resolution; but I already listed it).

  • I am asking about HARDWARE factors, not about running apps, using the phone, user behaviour, etc. The only exception of non-hardware factor is just bare system version (because it has to maintain the hardware)

  • I am interested in "direction" -- i.e. more or less -- for comparing the phones, not in "this and that, and it will give 43.25 hours" (thank you Flow for pointing this out)

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That type of question is not ideally a good subject matter to discuss, to each and to their own, depending on what is it used for, is GPS running, Wifi on, surfing, talking on phone, texting, not to mention playing games on it, etc... TL:DR; You're not going to get a concrete answer out of this :) – t0mm13b Aug 16 '12 at 18:10
@t0mm13b, sometime giving background (story) is welcome, sometime it just adds confusion (and I cannot decide which way it will be). The question is pretty straightforward -- which elements in hardware make battery run out faster? That's all. Rationale: I don't believe GPS unit in phone X takes more juice than GPS unit in phone Y (it is probable though). – greenoldman Aug 16 '12 at 18:27
Your question basically borders on "what shopping recommendation would you have" and is too broad! – t0mm13b Aug 16 '12 at 18:31
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Snide comments remarking "If you don't know the answer then leave me alone" are both presumptuous and unnecessary. The comments are opinions regarding the appropriateness of your question, not the answer to it. Attacking these opinions on the basis of the author's (perceived) ability to answer your question is irrelevant. I've removed that portion from your question and I encourage you to keep your comments on-point. – eldarerathis♦ Aug 16 '12 at 18:58
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You may should have a look at android.stackexchange.com/questions/476/… . I would say that there is simply no way to estimate the battery endurance before purchase. Sorry you just have to try and find out. – Flow♦ Aug 16 '12 at 19:09
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closed as not constructive by Richard Borcsik, Zuul, Izzy, Al Everett, roxan Aug 22 '12 at 10:52

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1 Answer

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Other hardware factors include:

  • The amount of time the screen is on, as well as the brightness
  • The type of network you are connected to, as well as the signal strength of that network.
  • The KERNEL version can impact battery life- the newer the version, generally speaking, the better the battery life, which actually brings me to the fact that slower processors may not actually have better life.

i.e.: a 1.5ghz processor will actually have less battery than a dual core processor.

Likewise, a 1.5 dual core on 2.6.x kernel will have lower life than a dual core on 3.0.x kernel.... which, I guess someone will point out exceptions to-- the only exception I can think of is the Asus Transformer Prime- but that has a quad core, and I highly doubt the kernel will still be 2.6 after its Official JB update.

I'm not so sure Memory has anything to do with it, either... My cousin's Evo3D gets better battery life than my Sensation, although I even have an extended battery!

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What are the non-other other factors? – Richard Borcsik Aug 16 '12 at 20:19
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May I add regarding what you said about the kernel version, newer does not often equate to better battery life - in fact, vanilla stock kernel coming from CAF or straight from kernel.org would have adverse affect on battery - why do you think developers add in extras to tailor it for the chipset used, and bundle in appropriate CPU governors, over/under clocking to compensate? :) – t0mm13b Aug 16 '12 at 20:25
@Borcsik, edit, plz? OP explicitly asked for hardware factors. t0mm- Hmm, well, in my limited experience, a better kernel has always meant a better battery life- and its the misconfiguration of those modules- misconfiguration in the governors that saps battery life. OH NO, but that would be Apple-think corrupting truth, yet again. I hear exciting things about the 3.6 kernel, though, and about how it makes for less work for ARM devs. Don't know much else, but wouldn't you at least agree that the higher a kernel is along in its respective tree yields substantially better battery life? – rm-vanda Aug 16 '12 at 20:34
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In relation to the last question in your comment - not true! For instance, Sony Xperia Mini ST15i, is running ICS, with kernel 2.6.32.9! GB on Zte Blade, is running on 2.6.35.7, which shows some kernels are pretty much stuck and tried and tested! – t0mm13b Aug 16 '12 at 20:48
Yes, the Transformer Prime runs the 2.6. Which is somewhat baffling to me. I mean, obviously Asus had to install some custom modules to their kernel for the keyboard and what not- But I always thought these kernel improvements magically made everything more efficient! Good to know. Obviously, I need to learn a thing or two about kernels! – rm-vanda Aug 17 '12 at 1:34

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