Android Lollipop is rather power hungry on some phones

Android Lollipop has just been released and it seems, just like any other software that gets sent out into the world, that there are a few bugs to sort out because some the update is draining the power on some older phones.

This is according to Google’s issue tracker, which notes that the new OS might be causing faster battery depletion than it should be doing. One good example is the Nexus 5 where having the Wi-Fi active causes the phone to use up more power than it should.

Google Android Open Source Project Senior Developer Programs Engineer* Trevor Johns said this in a blog post:

Android Engineering is aware of an issue affecting Nexus 5 users running Android 5.0 which causes significant “Miscellaneous” battery usage while WiFi is enabled. This appears to be caused by an abnormally high number of IRQ wakeup events.

We are continuing to investigate this issue.

So if you are having trouble with your newly updated Lollipop-running device that’s the problem. Either try and keep Wi-Fi switched off, or look into downgrading your OS until a fix is found.