[ce71]

Regarding poor battery life with the Priv, there is something I have noticed on two separate Priv handsets - seemingly too much CPU time is spent on the higher clock cycle.

To provide context, I made the following diagram depicting two different Privs and two different Samsung devices. It does not take long to see how the Priv CPU runs higher than Samsung devices during regular use (browsing online, text messages, etc). Whereas the Samsung devices spend most of their time in the lower 200-300MHz range, the Priv seems to stay in the 1440MHz a bit too much.

Given that I know very little about hardware/CPU functionality, I would love to get input from someone who understands this "stuff". Basically, is it possible that the Priv's battery is being consumed so quickly... and the phone seems to get hot quite often... because there's too much processing happening at 1440MHz? If this is true, can this type of problem be resolved?

Any input would be appreciated!

[westcoastguy604]

thank you for asking this. I have noticed this issue on 3 separate devices. I returned one because of the green camera and the battery dying while plugged in and using Skype. The issue occurs on the replacement handset also. My other Priv also behaves this way.
I suspect you're on to something here and hope it can be resolved via software update. The battery life is bloody awful and i can randomly call up the battery life and it will say things like 77% remaining approx 3 hours. THREE HOURS!! >-<
My gut tells me this will be resolved, and I otherwise LOVE THIS PHONE and get comments on it every day.

[chalx]

CPU behavior can be fine tuned in linux kernel. I'm guessing that BlackBerry engineers took conservative CPU timing approach which is battery hungry.

Posted via CB10

[gvs1341]

...
I'm guessing that BlackBerry engineers took conservative CPU timing approach which is battery hungry.

Wouldn't these be inversely related? Or am I missing something?

 Q5 / Z30

[weezul]

yeah all this stuff can be tweaked in the kernel, at least it was on my old S3, S5. Custom roms, custom CPU stepping, the works. Hopefully BB engineers take another look at their settings which will sort out the phone running hot.

[artemis-kun]

It depends. CPU governors vary wildly in functionality, and there are many counter intuitive processes that can help to reduce CPU loads that conservative governors wouldn't make use of. By default on Samsung, and indeed, most Android devices, the governor is called "Interactive" which allows for a much better managed race to idle time, and also manages events so that you're always doling out the right amount of CPU to the right processes. Depending on what you are doing, it has the potential to be more battery hungry in some cases, but in the majority of standard use cases, Interactive seems to offer the best balance. More simplistic, conservative seeming governors might not necessarily offer the same kinds of robust CPU management, and will simply ramp up the CPU to max on demand, and drop it immediately to lower speeds until more demand is required, which may not provide the most efficient path for race to idle.

The real question is what governor BB decided to make use of in their kernel, or did they try to make their own? Without root, we have no real way of knowing (unless an insider with that info can fill in the blank) but I suspected from day one just by looking at the CPU times with system tuner that they tried to come up with their own flavour of governor, and this being their first stab at the concept, I imagine they were not overly successful in the venture.

[ce71]

It depends. CPU governors vary wildly in functionality, and there are many counter intuitive processes that can help to reduce CPU loads that conservative governors wouldn't make use of. By default on Samsung, and indeed, most Android devices, the governor is called "Interactive" which allows for a much better managed race to idle time, and also manages events so that you're always doling out the right amount of CPU to the right processes. Depending on what you are doing, it has the potential to be more battery hungry in some cases, but in the majority of standard use cases, Interactive seems to offer the best balance. More simplistic, conservative seeming governors might not necessarily offer the same kinds of robust CPU management, and will simply ramp up the CPU to max on demand, and drop it immediately to lower speeds until more demand is required, which may not provide the most efficient path for race to idle.

The real question is what governor BB decided to make use of in their kernel, or did they try to make their own? Without root, we have no real way of knowing (unless an insider with that info can fill in the blank) but I suspected from day one just by looking at the CPU times with system tuner that they tried to come up with their own flavour of governor, and this being their first stab at the concept, I imagine they were not overly successful in the venture.

Thank you for the response! Very informative!

So, here's my question... suppose there is a CPU issue that is causing the battery to be expended too quickly. Is that something that can be resolved through an update? Or... is it more serious and needs "hands-on" treatment? Any idea? Also... any chance this extra CPU power is because of all the encryption "stuff" that the phone deals with?

For what it's worth... if you look at the CPU info of the Priv on the bottom left of the original screenshot, you'll see "Governor: interactive".

[ce71]

thank you for asking this. I have noticed this issue on 3 separate devices. I returned one because of the green camera and the battery dying while plugged in and using Skype. The issue occurs on the replacement handset also. My other Priv also behaves this way.
I suspect you're on to something here and hope it can be resolved via software update. The battery life is bloody awful and i can randomly call up the battery life and it will say things like 77% remaining approx 3 hours. THREE HOURS!! >-<
My gut tells me this will be resolved, and I otherwise LOVE THIS PHONE and get comments on it every day.

I just wish we had confirmation from Blackberry that they are looking into it. That would really put me at ease about this issue.

Posted via the CrackBerry App for Android

[artemis-kun]

Thank you for the response! Very informative!

So, here's my question... suppose there is a CPU issue that is causing the battery to be expended too quickly. Is that something that can be resolved through an update? Or... is it more serious and needs "hands-on" treatment? Any idea? Also... any chance this extra CPU power is because of all the encryption "stuff" that the phone deals with?

For what it's worth... if you look at the CPU info of the Priv on the bottom left of the original screenshot, you'll see "Governor: interactive".

Ah, I didn't happen to have a closer look at the screenshot itself, since I'm at work at the moment, I just know that system tuner won't even show whatever the governor is, when it normally does on other Android devices. In that case, if they are using a stock version of the Interactive profile, it may be that there's some kind of optimizations to be made for the Snapdragon 808 CPU that isn't being taken advantage of. Or, and this is where I'd probably hedge my bet, they customized the Interactive profile (which is possible to be done), and these customizations are where the issues are coming from.

At any rate, it's entirely software, and totally within their realm to fine tune via software updates over time. Or, failing that, if we can manage to achieve root access eventually, it'll be something we can fix ourselves.

[ce71]

Ah, I didn't happen to have a closer look at the screenshot itself, since I'm at work at the moment, I just know that system tuner won't even show whatever the governor is, when it normally does on other Android devices. In that case, if they are using a stock version of the Interactive profile, it may be that there's some kind of optimizations to be made for the Snapdragon 808 CPU that isn't being taken advantage of. Or, and this is where I'd probably hedge my bet, they customized the Interactive profile (which is possible to be done), and these customizations are where the issues are coming from.

At any rate, it's entirely software, and totally within their realm to fine tune via software updates over time. Or, failing that, if we can manage to achieve root access eventually, it'll be something we can fix ourselves.

I really appreciate the input. Very interesting. For what it's worth... I passed the CPU graph on to tech support. Not sure if it will get lost in the shuffle or if it will get someone's attention. I also installed the System Tuner app you speak of. I'm very impressed... the amount of information it provides is overwhelming.

Thanks!

[chalx]

And, of course, there is even bigger possibility of some overlooked bad code that pushes CPU load preventing it to go to idle. I'm leaning to this theory right now. There is also a possibility of intentional engineering decision to go with high CPU clock in idle state to prevent a possibility of device not being able to wake up (less possible but it happens with bleeding edge custom kernels). In any case, there is a really great possibility that new software upgrade fix this issue.

[Ment]

Encryption in Lollipop is inefficient and uses too much CPU time. Its for this reason that Android enthusiasts will often turn it off if the phone comes with it turned on by default as it saves battery and overall device response is faster. Are the Samsung devices encrypted?

[ce71]

And, of course, there is even bigger possibility of some overlooked bad code that pushes CPU load preventing it to go to idle. I'm leaning to this theory right now. There is also a possibility of intentional engineering decision to go with high CPU clock in idle state to prevent a possibility of device not being able to wake up (less possible but it happens with bleeding edge custom kernels). In any case, there is a really great possibility that new software upgrade fix this issue.

Well... I'm just not sure how confident that Blackberry is aware of this issue. I imagine they have their hands full with other things... and if you call tech support and try to discuss battery issues... they give you the standard and expected speech about tips to save your battery - close running apps, turn off syncing, etc. I would feel better if we knew for a fact that someone at Blackberry was considering a potential CPU problem and looking into it.