Credit: David Imel / Android Authority
- Pixel 5 owners say the phone still has problems with high battery consumption when the phone is idle.
- This happens regardless of the number of applications running.
- It is not certain if and when Google will have a solution.
Do you wake up to find that the Pixel 5’s battery has lost most of its charge, even though it was doing little more than sitting on the nightstand? You are not alone. Pulak reader reports (and Android Authority can corroborate) that Google’s latest flagship still loses a significant amount of battery when idle, despite promises of a fix.
In our experience, a Pixel 5 came out with 70% of the battery charge before bed, dropped to 52% in the morning, seven and a half hours later. This despite clearing all applications and keeping activity to a minimum. Even the new phones seem to have the same problem.
Related: Pixel 5 shooting against the best Android camera phones
Google promised in December that a fix for the battery consumption of the Pixel 5 would come “soon” through an Android software update, but that does not appear to have appeared in monthly updates or out-of-schedule releases. We asked Google for a comment.
Although the battery problem doesn’t necessarily affect all Pixel 5 smartphones, it can be frustrating if yours has this problem. As long as the Pixel 5 normally lasts, it doesn’t matter much if you have to spend the day on much less than a full charge.
The Pixel 5 is not the only modern Google phone with problems, we add. Pixel 4a 5G owners reported touchscreen problems after the December 2020 security update. Even though these problems aren’t necessarily excessive, they suggest that Google’s Pixel software may need further polishing.