One of the changes that Google will be making with Android L will go beyond just the material design language that they keep talking about, but they will also be making changes under the hood, such as Project Volta. For those missed out on Google’s presentation during Googe I/O, Project Volta is one of the features of Android L that will help boost battery life in Android phones.
Now we’ve all seen such features and claims made by smartphone OEMs about how they can improve the battery life on our phones, but exactly how effective are they? Well it turns out that Google could be pretty spot on with their claims, thanks to a series of tests that the folks at Ars Technica performed using a Google Nexus 5 handset.
According to their findings, it seems that Android L’s Project Volta managed to boost the Nexus 5’s battery life by as much as 36%. The test they conducted involved the screen of the phone being kept on at 200 nits and then have a page reload every 15 seconds while connected to a WiFi network.
Without Android L, the phone lasted a total of 345 minutes, but with Android L, the phone managed to last 471 minutes, which is mighty impressive. It should also be noted that the Android L they used was the developer preview, meaning that it’s not even the final version yet, so who knows what kind of improvements they could be making to Project Volta by then.
However we should point out that your mileage might vary. Everyone uses their phones differently and everyone has different apps running on their phone. A hardcore gamer might find their battery barely lasting half a day, while a user who only checks emails and makes phone calls might find their phones lasting a little over a day, but either way it’s still a huge improvement and is definitely one of the features we’re looking forward to.
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