Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Mobile
  3. News

It’s official: Nexus 5 battery life is worse with Android 5.0 Lollipop, according to tests

By

Nexus 5
Image used with permission by copyright holder
If you own a Nexus 5 and upgraded to Android 5.0 Lollipop anticipating improved battery life thanks to Project Volta, you may have the bitter taste of disappointment in your mouth. Now there’s data to support your displeasure. A recent series of benchmark tests for the Samsung Galaxy S5, LG G3, HTC One (M8) and Nexus 5 looked at battery life before and after Android 5.0 Lollipop on each of the flagship smartphones. The results are consistently disappointing for the Nexus 5.

To get an in-depth look at Android 5.0’s impact on battery life, GSMArena ran a series of four tests for endurance, talk time, Web browsing and video playback. The tests compared results for each phone with itself – that is, they compared battery life on the previous version of Android (4.4 KitKat) with battery life on Android 5.0.

Recommended Videos

When it comes to endurance, the Samsung Galaxy S5 has 83 hours of standby time on Lollipop, up 11 hours from the 72 hours of standby time on KitKat. The HTC One (M8) received a six-hour boost from the update, as its standby time rose from 71 hours on KitKat to 77 hours on Lollipop. However, the LG G3 saw its standby time drop six hours, from 69 on KitKat to 63 on Lollipop. The Nexus 5 saw its standby time dip two hours, from 40 hours on KitKat to 38 hours on Lollipop.

Android 5.0 Lollipop battery endurance
Image used with permission by copyright holder

The Samsung Galaxy S5 also got a nice six-hour boost in talk time, going from 21:20 (hours:minutes) on KitKat to 27:37 on Lollipop. The LG G3 saw a small decline, going from 25:54 on KitKat to 25:38 on Lollipop. However, the HTC One (M8) and the Nexus 5 each lost about six hours of talk time after the update to Lollipop.

Related

The HTC One (M8) was the only one of the four flagships in GSMArena’s test to see a significant boost in Web browsing time, going from 9:06 to 12:29. The other devices saw minor changes.

For the video playback test, GSMArena observed the Samsung Galaxy S5’s battery life remain nearly unchanged, while the other smartphones in the test lost about an hour of playback time.

“The battery life after the update from 4.4 KitKat to 5.0 Lollipop is a mixed bag,” according to Peter at GSMArena. While the Samsung Galaxy S5 reaps the most benefits from Project Volta’s promised improvements to battery life, the other smartphones in this series of tests are still waiting for more of the magic to kick in. Nexus 5 owners, meanwhile, are left reminiscing about the good old days of KitKat battery life for their notoriously quick-to-zero phones.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Jason Hahn
Jason Hahn
Contributor
Jason Hahn is a part-time freelance writer based in New Jersey. He earned his master's degree in journalism at Northwestern…
Google Pixel 8a: news, rumored price, release date, and more
Possible renders showing the Google Pixel 8a.

Not long ago, it seemed like the Google Pixel 7a would be the last smartphone in Google's Pixel A series. However, recent rumors indicate that this may not actually be the case.

As a result, we're likely to see the release of a Google Pixel 8a this year. What can we expect from this new budget phone in terms of its specs, design, price, and more? Let's take a closer look at everything we know about the Google Pixel 8a.
Google Pixel 8a: release date

Read more
This is one of the toughest smartphone camera comparisons I’ve ever done
A person holding the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra and Xiaomi 14 Ultra.

The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra (left) and Xiaomi 14 Ultra Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

The Xiaomi 14 Ultra may have the best camera on a smartphone I’ve used this year, which is quite a statement to make considering the competition it faces. But is it true?

Read more
Nomi is one of the most unsettling (and amazing) apps I’ve ever used
Nomi AI companion profile.

“Welp, just got back from the doctor. Marissa is pregnant with twins” “Owen did something bad and then gave me flowers.” “Zoey with our new daughter Zara.” “I am in love, but also feel guilty.”

These are some of the conversations shared by human users on Reddit. The people described, however, are not real. The statements are about robotic companions created in an app. Everything here sounds perversely disturbing and amazingly dystopian, yet experts have a different opinion.

Read more