Does Bluetooth cause your battery to drain away? Although power is required for all wireless technologies, the assertions that they consume a lot of power may be exaggerated some. It is still a fairly prevalent idea that you can get a lot more life out of your phone by turning off Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, NFC, and a variety of other capabilities when you are not using them. This is despite the fact that Bluetooth technology has advanced significantly.
I have a hard time breaking these habitual patterns. To answer your question, yes, I still switch off the Wi-Fi when I leave the house and disable Bluetooth till I am listening to music. On the other hand, in this day and age of “smart” technology, is that really necessary? In the event that I leave Bluetooth on while I am not using it, how much battery life will I lose? What should I do if I am currently utilising Bluetooth to stream music? Is there a greater drain on the battery as compared to utilizing wired headphones or speakers? We took a number of mobile devices and put them through a series of tests in order to obtain the answers to these questions.
The manner in which we tested
Using five different cellphones from the year 2020, we were able to have a better understanding of how the use of Bluetooth affects the battery life. Within the scope of this evaluation, we have included the Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus, the Huawei P40 Pro, the ZTE Axon 11, the Xiaomi POCO F2 Pro, and the realme X3 Superzoom. We subjected them to two distinct scenarios and observed the outcomes using the testing software that we developed in-house.
The first test is a typical daily battery drain scenario that is aimed to establish whether or not turning off Bluetooth actually extends the amount of time that an Android device’s battery can last. For this purpose, we carried out two different sets of tests. In the first experiment, Bluetooth was turned off, and in the second experiment, Bluetooth was turned on but idle, meaning it was not connected to anything. After that, we compared the outcomes of both experiments. The actual test is broken up into three cycles: the first cycle consists of 90 minutes of web browsing, followed by 90 minutes of sleep, and then another 90 minutes of web browsing. After that, the phones are put to sleep for sixteen hours during the second cycle so that we can get a better look at the power draw that occurs while they are not being used. Repetition of the first cycle occurs in the third cycle.
To what extent does Bluetooth consume the battery?
When Bluetooth is turned off but not being used, it does not have a significant impact on the battery. However, what happens when you are actively using Bluetooth on your mobile device? In any case, our four-hour movie playback test reveals that all five devices have a comparable difference in the amount of battery loss they experience.
Over the course of four hours, the difference between Bluetooth being turned off and Bluetooth being turned on but not connected indicates an average of only 1.6% additional battery depletion. This suggests a greater power drain than our earlier test, despite the fact that it is still extremely tiny. The reason for this is probably due to the fact that our electronic devices are used continuously for an extended period of time, and Bluetooth radios spend less time sleeping.
The average increase in power consumption that occurred as a result of watching video while leaving Bluetooth on but not connected was approximately 6.6%. This was extrapolated to a full charge cycle. That’s still not all that big, but it’s not nothing at all. On the other hand, this situation of continuous video playback is probably not going to happen in the actual world.
It is interesting to note that there is a significant amount of difference between the various smartphones. Whether Bluetooth was turned on or off, the Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus recorded the same result the entire time. The realme X3 Superzoom, on the other hand, is the most severely affected, with an additional 4% of battery life being consumed over the course of four hours.
This disparity is most likely attributable to the modifications that have been made to the hardware and software of smartphones. The Exynos CPUs found in the Galaxy S20 Plus and the Kirin chips found in the HUAWEI P40 Pro will employ different radios compared to the Snapdragon SoCs found in the other phones. In a similar vein, it is highly probable that every edition of Android software comprises a different set of algorithms for Bluetooth wake-up and pairing scan intervals. It is impossible for two devices to experience the same amount of battery drain; nonetheless, the results can range from zero to negligible in any given circumstance.
Does the use of Bluetooth headphones cause the battery to drain?
In light of the fact that many modern smartphones do not come equipped with a headphone jack, the utilization of Bluetooth audio has become increasingly common. This is the reason why we carried out these second tests with audio playback serving as the control case.
According to the findings, the amount of power that is consumed while playing back audio over Bluetooth is not significantly different from the amount of power that is consumed when playing back audio over speakers or headphones with Bluetooth turned off. The amount of power that our gadgets consumed increased by only 0.2% on average when they were playing back audio over Bluetooth. So, we are now far into the realm of the margin of error. After a period of four hours of listening, the Galaxy S20 Plus and POCO F2 Pro did not show any discernible differences in the amount of battery depletion they experienced.
It is due to the fact that Bluetooth audio encoding techniques are able to operate well on digital signal processors (DSP) that are present within modern smartphone system-on-chips, hence utilizing a minimal amount of power. During the process of playing back audio over Bluetooth, the circuits that are responsible for audio amplifiers are turned off. The amount of power that is drawn from the Bluetooth wireless chip is balanced out by this. When you listen at a higher volume, the amount of money you save increases.
What we have comprehended
Our test is only as exact as it can be, and it does not take into account every possible Bluetooth application. Having said that, it provides us with a comprehensive view of how Bluetooth and battery life interact with one another from a broad perspective. It is true that there are slight differences in the amount of battery drain that occurs while a smartphone is idle as opposed to when the screen is on, but the difference between on and off is only a few minutes.
Importantly, it does not appear that Bluetooth has any impact on the battery life of phones while they are not in use. Therefore, it will not drain your battery even if you leave it on for an extended amount of time without using it or if you leave it on by accident overnight.
The vast majority of users will not see any discernible increase in the amount of battery drain on their smartphone if they fail to turn off Bluetooth. It is still a good idea to turn it off in order to prevent connecting to devices that you do not want to connect to, and if you are extremely concerned about security.
Disclaimer:
This page’s content is just intended to provide visitors with general knowledge and to educate them of various topics. The battery performance tests, use observations, and percentage comparisons that were provided may not correctly represent real-world usage for all users because they were carried out under controlled testing settings. This is because the tests were conducted under controlled conditions.
For the sake of testing and discussing things, examples like as the Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus, Huawei P40 Pro, ZTE Axon 11, Xiaomi POCO F2 Pro, and realme X3 Superzoom are all utilized. With the exception of instances where it is made abundantly obvious, this article does not intend to demonstrate support, sponsorship, or an official link with any particular brand, chipset, operating system, or manufacturer.
In addition to the age of the device, the battery’s health, the programs that are installed, the processes that are running in the background, the strength of the network, the Bluetooth version, the accessories that are attached, and any software upgrades, the battery usage may vary. It is possible for the outcomes of testing to vary depending on factors such as the region, the version of the operating system, and the configuration of the hardware.