I upgraded to the Pixel 10 Professional XL for higher battery life, and it failed me once more

Placing apart the superb Pixel 5, battery life was by no means one of many Pixel line-up’s sturdy fits. The Pixel, Pixel 2, and Pixel 3 had common battery life; the Pixel 4 and 6 sequence have been fairly dangerous, whereas the Pixel 7 and eight have been very common. Final 12 months’s Pixel 9 telephones put the sequence on a greater trajectory, regardless of the nonetheless questionable modem and Tensor G4 processor. With the Pixel 10 sequence, nonetheless, Google promised its greatest battery life but — 30+ hours on a cost! — due to an optimized Tensor G5 and bigger batteries on all fashions.

This declare is without doubt one of the causes I selected to improve from my Pixel 9 Professional XL. My expertise had been fairly common for a complete 12 months, beginning fairly decently, however then getting to a degree the place the battery would die by mid-afternoon on busy journey days, the place I’d be utilizing the digital camera and maps incessantly all through the day on 4G or 5G. I hoped the Pixel 10 Professional XL would repair this, however thus far, I’m simply left scratching my head.

I don’t assume I’m a typical Pixel consumer. On most days, there are hours once I barely contact my telephone whereas I’m working, and hours once I’m continuously utilizing it, often in the course of the morning or once I’m testing some new app or function. However I additionally go on quick daytrips or quick journeys fairly usually, which is once I depend on Google Maps’ transit instructions to information me all through the day, and in addition once I take 100+ pictures on common daily.

On high of this, my telephone is consistently paired to my Pixel Watch 4 and Oura Ring 4. I’ve been testing a number of Bluetooth trackers with their very own apps (Pebblebee, Moto, Chipolo) that require a continuing connection, too. Plus, I exploit just a few good house apps that depend on geolocation (Nuki good lock, Tado thermostat, House Assistant) to set off particular notifications or automations. All of it clearly creates a mishmash of standards that may considerably affect the battery lifetime of my telephone.

Nonetheless, I can’t shake the sensation that my Pixel 10 Professional XL’s battery life is a little bit of a crapshoot. Even on days that really feel fairly related, the place I’m house, on Wi-Fi, and utilizing related apps, I get extensively various battery drain. Someday, it’s right down to 50% with three hours of screen-on-time, the opposite, it’s right down to 42% whereas eking a formidable five-plus hours of display screen time.

There are days once I go to mattress with greater than 40% of battery life remaining, and days when the telephone goes into battery-saving mode at 8 PM, regardless of being at house for the entire of the day. There are days once I’m touring and get again to my lodge on the finish of the day without having an influence financial institution top-up, and days when I’ve to seize my Qi2 energy financial institution in a rush as a result of the battery plummeted to 30% mid-afternoon.

My colleague Rob has already theorized and proved that the Pixel 10 Professional XL’s battery utilization goes up on information networks, most likely as a result of inefficient Exynos 5400 modem. However my expertise is extra erratic than only a matter of utilizing 4G or Wi-Fi, or being in areas with dangerous reception or not. Certain, I discover extra drain once I’m out of my house and particularly once I’m roaming, however as I mentioned, there are days once I’m simply house, and the Pixel 10 Professional XL rolls a cube and chooses common or nice battery life.

For instance, right here, it managed practically seven hours of display screen time earlier than going to battery saver mode at 19%, whereas retaining the full Wi-Fi and cellular community use underneath 15% regardless of this in depth use. It might’ve simply lasted eight and a half hours if I’d continued utilizing my telephone till the battery died.

Whereas right here, it dropped to 26% in lower than 5 hours, which means it will’ve solely lasted round six hours whole on a full cost if I continued. Certain, there are variations in how I used the telephone with much less streaming on Canal+ and extra WhatsApp chatting, however the remainder is fairly related with Pictures, Digicam, Google, and the Pixel Watch. The primary distinction? Wi-Fi and cellular community use have been each as much as greater than 50% whole. Why? I don’t know.

The discrepancy is irritating

What annoys me probably the most about that is that I don’t actually know what to anticipate from my telephone. Typically, I stream a whole lot of video, and it lasts perpetually; different days, I see it dropping in entrance of my eyes. Some days, I’m out and use the GPS rather a lot, however it lasts all day; different days, it simply plummets after just a few hours.

Right here’s an unlucky however foolish story: I couldn’t kill the Pixel 10 Professional XL once I was testing a bunch of chargers and needed to actively work to empty the battery to 0% to begin my take a look at, however I might simply kill it in just a few hours by doing random issues on my telephone. I preserve complaining to my Android Authority colleagues that this battery received’t die once I want it to, however it dies on a regular basis once I don’t need it to.

The Pixel 10 Professional XL might give me six hours of display screen time, or it might give me 10 hours. After I see greater than three hours of display screen time with 32% of battery use (resembling within the rightmost screenshot above), the “Don’t introduce me to a vibe you may’t preserve” quote involves my thoughts. The day may proceed to be epic, or the battery may drop drastically quickly after this promising begin. With the telephone promised seven years of updates, I concern for what battery life shall be like in just a few months as soon as I attain the 200 charging cycles magical quantity and Google begins throttling it within the identify of Battery Well being Help.

At this level, I’m simply flipping a coin and hoping it’ll be an ideal day, however there are nonetheless as many poor days as there are glorious ones. Regardless of how inconsistent this appears to me, I understand it’s nonetheless extra constant than many on-line experiences of people that have seen their telephone’s battery go anyplace between three hours and 9 hours, relying on particular software program updates. Yikes.

On common, I’m within the six- to seven-hour vary, however I actually can’t predict what sort of day it’ll be, irrespective of whether or not I’m staying house or going out. I simply be certain that I’ve a charger with me always, and hope I don’t want it. No less than the Pixel 9 Professional XL was reliably dangerous for me.