I am new to Sailfish OS (pre-ordered for September) and wonder how long the new Jolla Phone battery could be expected to last between two charges.
My current phone with LineageOS, after four years of using it daily, usually lasts about 3-4 days with 2 SIM cards, data/bluetooth/nfc off, wifi usually off, and moderate use (notes/writing, sms, calls, photo, gallery, web browsing, no games/videos, no social media).
Can I expect similar or even better battery life for the same usage with the new Jolla Phone (with Android AppSupport enabled)?
I know this is quite speculative as the phone is not there yet, but since Sailfish OS has been around for so long and running on various devices maybe someone has an idea.
You really can’t estimate how long the battery will last for different people.
Back in the day we had just talk time (2g) and people would still compare with days of standby, even though you could kill the battery with 2-3 hours of phonecalls.
Can you imagine now that smartphones can be used as media consumption devices, for work, productivity, chatting, or anything else? There are just too many variables.
Your Internet connection alone (wifi 4g 5g) and your network reception in general already play a huge part in battery life!
The only reference point for battery life should be your previous devices, and only assuming that habits, usage, location etc didn’t change drastically.
All that being said, Xperia 10 III has 4500mah battery if I remember correctly and this is the first sfos device that has amazing battery life for me compared to the rest of sfos devices I had. With 5500 in the new phone, we can assume that it will be great as well.
Bur again, we have to get the device in our hands first!
I’m actually curious what device this is that after 4 years still can power through 3-4 days? My freshly bought xperia 10V managed only a week on flight mode on android, so with 2 sims getting 66% of an fully idling device is impressive to say the least. As to J2 I would assume you should be able to get 1 day of active usage at least (just like all xperias), 2 days with light usage, maybe 3 with no email/im etc accounts waking it up regularly, doubtful though
Yes you are right about the usage. Except for Netcloud sync and occasional web searches I actually don’t use Internet much on smartphone (rather on computer) so the battery will certainly last longer than average use.
What I was also wondering (and could have better formulated) was how Sailfish OS compares to Android or Lineage OS regarding battery consumption?
Out of curiosity, how long last the battery of the Xperia 10 III for you?
The “services” side of OS is probably better, the hardware adaptation probably isn’t. It will depend from model to model what that comes out to. Basically; it can be better, but probably isn’t due to several magnitudes less development budget. Only Jolla can have anything concrete on the specific phone, and that too is probably too early to say.
My current phone is a Moto X4, it was released in 2017 but I bought mine beginning of 2022.
Not sure how long it lasts with stock Android as I bought it specifically to flash Lineage OS on it, but yeah at the beginning I could easily do a week with the same usage (to be fair I don’t use Internet much on smartphone, mostly Nextlcoud sync and occasional web searches, so I always disable data for both SIMs and Wi-Fi when not actively using it).
Thank you for the Xperia estimations!
With the +1000mAh that Kanthal mentioned, maybe it could be on the upper hand around 2-3 days (again it’s theoritical waiting for the new phone, but still good to know that I should expect to charge more often).
Hopefully there will be a 60hz switch to save some power vs the 90hz, but yeah, it’s impossible to tell right now, but if it’s anything like xperias 2 days with light usage should be the norm (though that’s me with multiple email/im accounts waking up the phone every x minutes, with 0 of such maybe 3 days is doable, we’ll see)
Ok thanks, so if I understand well, Sailfish OS itself works probably better but as it is ported on hardware not designed for it (designed for Android) the result is not always optimal.
The new phone will still be made with parts designed for Android (due to budget) but choosen by Jolla, so they should have some more control on the hardware and the adaptation than when porting on Sony devices. If this is the case, the result will surely be really great!
For me, on a 10III, I get two days’ battery life with basic use – i.e. mobile data and Wi-Fi switched on, plus AAS enabled half the time.
I mainly use it for calls, texts, emails, and a tiny bit of web browsing (along with playing a really good native puzzle game regularly)
I also have a Moto G73, and it’s true that the battery life is quite impressive! (5–6 days) with light use, but with mobile data and Wi-Fi switched on all the time
I’m getting 2-2.5 days on 10 III with moderate to light use or a full day with heavy use (like every other smartphone I have).
Each device I had tested with Android first was about 20% better in battery life than sfos for me, but that stopped being a problem with 10 III as the OS progressed and of course battery capacity grew to the point it’s irrelevant anymore.
I’m curious about that as well.
Because what we know so far is that the first devices were running at 60hz, even if the panel is 90hz.
When estimating the battery runtime of the new Jolla Phone 2026 with its 5500 mAh battery, I compare it to my daily driver, the Jolla C2, which has a 4000 mAh battery. I have automatic display brightness enabled (set to the lowest on the left slider), IMAP email always up to date, weekly backups, Fernschreiber (native Telegram client), Whisperfish (native Signal client) and CalDAV syncing twice a day. Under heavy use during a workweek I get about 1–1.5 days in summer and 1.5–2 days in winter. By “workweek” I mean mostly using mobile data and Bluetooth, and streaming music to Bluetooth (car audio or in‑ears) for roughly eight hours a day, surfing the web and this forum for 1-2 hours. I therefore expect the Jolla 2026 to provide at least the same runtime or a bit more in my case.
I am beginning to suspect apps for high battery drain. I am currently working on an app, and I have a version of it on my phone, when it is in the background, I notice the battery draining faster than normal. I don’t have any measurements, so it is just a matter of feeling and I can be mistaken about that. I’ll have to investigate and solve this issue if needed.
Point of the story, I used to have very, very good experiences with battery life on SFOS, but also very mediocre experiences. Or, compared to your 3-4 days, 1 full day could be labelled as awful. On my C2 I’ve had 3 days, but also less than 1 day of use. It depends on use, and on the apps you are running. The J2 has a larger battery, and I expect it to use less energy.
For reference, I normally have wifi, mobile data, and bluetooth, and running app support, and maybe 10 apps running in the background, both native and android apps. On a day with heavy use, I am listening about 80% of the day to podcasts. So, pretty much the worst use case for energy efficiency. I do take care of the battery though. I charge until 80% (SFOS has a limiter in the settings), and I consider my battery to be depleted at 10%.
It seems that even heavy use from me would actually be moderate use for many people.
From your feedbacks I feel on the Xperia 10 III or the C2 I could get around 2-3 days, and maybe the increased capacity of the J2 would even make that 3-3.5 days.
I am also thinking that, as a (rather heavy this time) Linux desktop computer user, I will surely spent quite some time in SSH exploring the device, customizing and testing stuff in QML files, setting up rsync backups, etc.
Over USB that should extend the time between actual power plug charges, unless maybe the screen has to stay unlocked during the whole SSH session, I see in the docs that it has to be unlocked for the session to be established but not sure after.
Indeed a setting for 60Hz would be great!
Looking on Internet such settings exist on recent Android phones so screen panels seem to support running at a lower rate than their default.
Regarding battery care, I usually charge before it reaches 20% but never really pay attention to the upper limit (I prefer not to charge overnight, so I just check the phone from time to time and unplug it when it reaches about 95% or more ; the limiter setting would be interesting, I don’t have that on my current phone).
Works great for my C2 like all previous ones. Over WiFi to RPi. No interaction at all unlike USB which needs wired connection. The script tries every hour for daily backup.
I often have to wake the phone for SSH to be accepted, but then i can turn the screen off again most of the time. It varies a bit from phone model to another how eager they are to sleep how deeply.
Search for a thread “First Impressions”. There you can find a review of pre-production models (rather: prototypes) and a statement that after a day of heavy use there was still plenty of charge left.
For concrete numbers we’ll have to wait until the actual devices are out but it looks like with a bit of sensible connection toggling you can get a week on a full charge.
[edit] Here it is: First Impressions of the new Jolla Phone
I am sort of a more or less heavy user. Today I loaded my 10 III to 98% and left home at 8:00 for a rather boring security conference. I did some shopping afterwards and read news while dining at a restaurant. So my 10 III was used more or less permanently for 12hrs with active AAS .
Edit: I came home pretty empty at about 10 or 12%.
My iPhone 14 started at 100% came home with 50%. It was active from 8 am to half past 4 pm.
If I turn AAS and networt off over night, my 10 III loses a few % over night. With network and AAS it might loose 20-30% over night.
Thank you for the link, very interesting!
I wouldn’t say that 12% was “plenty” of charge left, but indeed the phone can last a day under heavy use.
