Is battery life more based on hardware or software?

[redraptor]

I know that to a certain extent, the battery can only hold so much juice, but is the big reason for the horrible battery drain hardware (Battery, screen ect) or software related? If its software related it can be fixed by way of update correct? I know a lot of the drain has to do with 4G. Is it the radio itself that kills the battery so badly or the 4G network? So theoretically, if it is the network, verizon may be able to optimize it and result in better battery for everyone, correct? I have yet to root and flash anything on my phone so Im unsure weather the tweaking rom builders do actually enhances battery life that much. But if it doubles it (like I have heard a few other people say) than I may root tommorow!!

 

[hurricane630]

Well, clearly some battery life is based on hardware Ex: 100% screen brightness drains battery fast!

But for me, before I rooted(went about 2 weeks without root) I would get 10-15 hours. I rooted and found a good rom I like and a good Kernel that works for my phone(AOKP rom Build 25 and Franco Kernel 13.1) and I am now getting 30+ hours with about 2 hours of screen time. Right now my phone is at 62% at 13.5 hours with 1 hour screen time. I'm on extended battery, but that is still CRAZY good battery life imo.

I would strongly recommend rooting and finding a rom and kernel you like, if you find a good one it can definitely help battery life!

 

[AntimonyER]

It is almost certainly hardware. The screen is a big,beautiful screen, with a massive amount of pixels. That alone will kill the battery when it is on. 4G radio can also get bad, especially in marginal signal areas.

The kernels can help, but in exchange for better battery life, you are sacrificing performance, although the best are barely noticeable. But again it is slowing down the battery drain of the hardware which allows the better battery life.

 

[Tim K]

Its a bit of everything.
Hardware wise:
The ginormous screen for one. If its on it drains battery. If its bright it REALLY drains battery.
Voice calls drain battery.
4G usage really drains battery - eventually 'they' say that 4G will be more efficient, but for the time being devices have separate radios for 3g and 4g and they are not that efficient as a result.

Those 3 things are the biggest battery draining factors. Everything else adds to the drain but those 3 things can kill the battery in hours. If you had screen on running 4G for 3-4 hours you could drain the whole battery. Throw in an hour of voice calls and you are done for sure.

That said, software issues can contribute a lot of drain. Constantly syncing multiple (unnecessary) services especially things like Google+ and Photos can be quite a drain. Throw in issues with 3G and 4G signals, switching, etc. and there's another piece. There are even apps that cause partial wakelocks.

So, in the end, there are some things that Google / devs can 'fix' with updates that will improve battery life somewhat, but in reality YOU can have the biggest impact on battery life based on the way you use the hardware.

 

[Yellow Snowman]

all of the above....but let me add in carelessness and cost. the fact that this phone doesnt have a bigger battery is just careless and a company cutting corners telling us to just accept it.

almost all manufacturers do this and its sad.

 

[syntrix]

all of the above....but let me add in carelessness and cost. the fact that this phone doesnt have a bigger battery is just careless and a company cutting corners telling us to just accept it.

almost all manufacturers do this and its sad.

maxx comparison?

I've been following here with my own VZW SGN and have decided to NOT do anything until the next OTA (VZW gave me a $200 credit on that song + 1 outage last tuesday)... anyway... there's kernel development with the hardware.

Hardware = you aren't changing
Software = there's a lot of tweaks like ondemand scaling, and undervolting.

I'm not so sure where the OP is going with this question, but I'll TRY:
------

Yes, 4G towers can be updated and that could give better battery life, even more towers....but...

That comes down to the radio, and yes, there's updates for the radio, so there's promise here... but they are software updates.

Again, what I said above, you are looking at software again.

So software, software, software... maybe firmware is a keyword, but that's still software.