German website Computer Base installed the developer preview version of Android M into a Google Nexus 5, which led to amazing improvement in the smartphone's standby time.
Android M, the next major version of Google's mobile operating system, will add some exciting new features, one of which is called Doze.
Doze is a battery saving function that detects if a phone has been left unattended by the user for a long period of time through the motion detection capabilities of the smartphone. Once the feature detects that the smartphone is not being used, it will fall into a deeper sleep compared to the default sleep status. Doze will turn off real-time updates while in this mode, along with temporarily shutting down unnecessary and battery-draining apps and functions.
Google claims that Doze will save the battery life of smartphones better by twice compared to the regular standby mode of Android M smartphones.
Android M also packs the new App Standby feature, which kicks in when the smartphone is detected to be unplugged. Upon the activation of this feature, apps that are seen as inactive are prevented from receiving network support, with open jobs and pending syncs automatically suspended. Once the user plugs in their smartphone, however, the apps affected by the feature will resume normal operations. App Standby will be beneficial to users that only want certain apps and services to run when their smartphone is plugged in to save battery life.
Computer Base tested if these new features in Android M will deliver as promised, installing the developer preview version of the operating system to the Nexus 5. The Android M Nexus 5 was then compared to the current Android 5.1.1 Lollipop Nexus 5.
The result showed that, after being on standby for 8 hours, the Android 5.1.1 Lollipop Nexus 5 drained its battery by 4 percent, while the Android M Nexus 5 drained its battery by only 1.5 percent. After being on standby for 24 hours, the battery of the Android 5.1.1 Lollipop Nexus 5 has drained by 12 percent, while the battery of the Android M Nexus 5 has drained by only 4.5 percent. After double the time to 48 hours, drained batteries for the two smartphones also doubled, with 24 percent gone for the Android 5.1.1 Lollipop Nexus 5 and only 9 percent gone for the Android M Nexus 5.
The Android 5.1.1 Lollipop Nexus 5 therefore had an estimated standby time of up to 200 hours, while that of the Android M Nexus 5 was projected to have a standby time of an amazing 533 hours. This means that the Android M version has a standby time of 2.7 times more compared to the Android 5.1.1 Lollipop version, showing that the new features that will be introduced into the next Android are making good on expectations.
