The way Android handles multi-tasking is a battery nightmare. I get random battery drain problems constantly and have had the same issue on all 4 of the Android phones I've owned so far. I don't care about 'real multitasking' so I wish Google would at least offer an option similar to Windows Phone where you can choose to maximize battery life at the expense of background services/apps. I can deal with consistently poor battery life but these random battery drains are not something I can plan ahead for. I can leave the house with 100% and 2 hours later have a dead battery or other days have no problems at all. It's infuriating how random it is.
For what it's worth, all android battery drain problems I've had have been solved by keeping wifi / mobile data off unless I'm actually using the internet. It's just easier (albeit possibly less satisfying) than identifying & fixing the dozen apps that are each waking the phone every few minutes to check something individually. (Additional benefit: I don't get distracted from work by email/im/facebook notifications).
Re:What’s in store for Google I/O?
by drzaiusapelord on Monday May 13, 2013 @05:16PM
(#5701460)
What phone? When I had a samsun and touchwiz this would happen all the time. On my Nexus and CM9 phones, never happens.
Do you mean from 4.1 to 4.2? I think that's the upgrade that caused some problems for most people.
That's certainly the upgrade that screwed up my Nexus 7: have it random pauses and terrible battery life.
No, in my case the 4.0.* to 4.1.* transition has a lot of impact in the battery life. I've not received the 4.2.* update yet.
Not an android user, but iOS has done this to me before (3.x to 4.0). The solution back then was (try each one successively), restart device, restore device from backup, reinstall and restore data. I'd never had to go to the last level except for whey using beta iOS builds.
I read about that in Android forums also, but some people don't notice changes.
In another note I am impressed with the iPad Mini battery: streaming an Internet radio all the night doesn't consume the battery.
It is incredible how the batteries issues are impacting mobile devices. This is an area where we need a breakthrough.