One of Android M’s cool new features is meant to improve the overall user experience concerns battery life. Announced on stage last week during the opening keynote of Google I/O 2015, Doze will put apps in a deep sleep status and will supposedly have a significant impact on battery life.
Now, a first round of early testing shows that the feature already works, even though Android M is only available in an early beta version of Google’s latest mobile software.
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Doze will activate when a phone or tablet is unplugged, stationary and has the screen off to conserve battery life. The feature basically forces apps to stay asleep, as Android M will prevent them from accessing the network and sync functionality, among other things. Apps can then resume normal activity when the device is awake again.
To test Doze, German tech blog ComputerBase.de installed Android 5.1.1 Lollipop and Android M on two Nexus 5 units, loading the same set of apps on both devices, and fully charging their batteries. Both devices were also connected to the same wireless network, and both had the same settings.
Neither device had a SIM card installed, and Bluetooth, NFC, Android Beam, status LED and tones were disabled on both of them as well.
The Nexus 5 running Android 5.1.1, lost 4% of battery life after 8 hours, 12% after 24 hours and 24% after 48 hours. Meanwhile, the Nexus 5 running Android M lost 1.5% of its charge after 8 hours, 4.5% after 24 hours and 9.0% after 48 hours.
With Doze enabled, the Nexus 5 running Android M would last 533 hours on standby, while the Android Lollipop Nexus 5 would only last for about 200 hours, the publication concluded.
