While the Nexus 5 is a great handset, some people have been complaining about the battery life. People have said that it can be ok one day and then next day it is rubbish. So it seems that even at its best it is mediocre. Over at the product forums people have been complaining about battery life. I own the Nexus 5 and I can get anywhere from 12 to 14 hours from a charge to just 8 hours on a bad day.
Various things have been tried, such as the DU Battery Life Saver. This battery case for the Nexus 4 gives you another 2250mAh, however it adds onto the weight of the phone. Mugen said that they will be offering a battery case for the handset too.
PowerSkin have their own solution for this and it doesn’t add on bulk, however you will need to buy an accessory flex cable if you want to use this with the Nexus 5. You will then get around twice the amount of battery from the Nexus 5.
There are some things you can do if your battery is running down.
You could make sure that you have the latest operating system installed and you can restart the device.
Go to Settings – System – About Phone – System Updates and restart your handset.
You could also try changing the Settings of your device.
a) Restart your device.
– Hold the power button until a menu appears prompting you to power down the device.
b) Update to the latest OS.
– Available update will be in your notification bar.
c) Close all apps running in the background.
– Press the Recent apps key and slide the open app to the right to close.
d) Disable application notifications.
– Settings > Apps > Uncheck “Show notifications”
e) Minimize use of features not used (location services, GPS, bluetooth).
– Settings > Location access > Turn off access to your location
f) Use airplane mode in low/no coverage areas or if you don’t plan to use data.
– Hold the power button for 1 second, then click Airplane mode.
g) Enable auto brightness.
– Settings > Display > Brightness > Enable Auto
h) Enable WiFi rather than cellular data.
– Settings > Enable Wi-Fi
i) Minimize use of graphic or memory intensive apps when you need to conserve battery.
j) Enable sound notifications instead of vibrate, when possible.
k) Plug in your charge cable while using GPS navigation, if possible.
l) Enable rapid auto-lock.
– Settings > Display > Sleep > Set small time frame
m) Use a dark background if your device has an AMOLED screen.
If after making these adjustments the battery still drains abnormally quickly, try Steps 3-5.
You can make use of the recent button and close off all apps that you are not using.
The recent button will show you all of the open apps.
This is the third button on the bottom of your handset and when you touch it, it lists open apps, which you can then swipe to the left or the right to close them off.
You can run the Nexus 5 in safe mode to find out if your battery is draining down fast.
You can also reset your device but bear in mind that this is the last resort and so you do have to back up first.
Head into Settings – Backup and reset.
Choose factory data reset.
Select reset
If your handset has been password protected you will have to put in your PIN or password.
Then confirm that you want to erase the handset.
So do you own the Nexus 5 and do you think the device has poor battery life?
