Librem 5 Daily Driver

Hello All,

As my Librem 14 is on the way, I am looking at supporting Purism with Librem 5 USA purchase. The question I have is for Evergreen users.

How many hours will the battery last with 3G and WiFi off and only modem on?

I am currently on Volla Phone running Ubuntu Touch where the battery can last 2-3 days with the equivalent setup.

Thanks

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Can you clarify what you mean by:

and:

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I mean to keep only regular cellular calls and switch off all data to preserve the battery as much as possible.

Now I see.
I’ll defer to other owners to answer this, as I only use WiFi withOUT the cellular network.
But I know it will be measured in hours, not days. At least until more improvements get implemented. :wink:

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How do you receive incoming calls while only on WiFi?

I’m not using it as my main mobile phone yet…more like a computer at the moment, testing apps, applying updates, etc. It stays at home.

I will say, though, the answer to your original question will also depend on how actively you’re using the phone during the day.

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Though I have never completely run it dry. I’d say between 14-16 hours. I use it in that mode frequently.

Biggest thing I worry about is it overheating when left in the car in this use case. (I live in a hotish climate though)

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That is pretty good! Thanks for sharing :slight_smile:

I’ve tested it from full charge to full drain once, with all three kill-switches off, and the screen mostly off except to check the charge every so often. It lasted about 14 hours. That was in the first days after shipping began (Nov 2020), and there might have been power management improvements since then.

On WiFi, I only get between 4 to 6 hours, maybe a bit more, before I get to about 35% charge, at which point I start a recharge so as not to drain it further.

And I can’t test on “2G only” for you, because my carrier has already shut down its 2G network.

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Official answer: New Post: Charging the Librem 5

I get about 8 hours with all switches in the “on” position (and WiFi on the 5 GHz band, and mobile on 4G), which is my normal configuration.

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That is fine for me.

My android is a couple of years old, I cannot get the battery replaced and its down to much much less now as a daily.

Can’t wait to get my L5 so I can get a bunch of spare batteries + charger and keep a few charged and ready to go.

Thanks for sharing.

Does anyone know what happens if the L5 is charging, and you remove the battery if the L5 stays on through the power supplied by the charger?

IE: Can you hot swap the battery?

If not, and you always have to shutdown that makes it rather impractical to carry extra batteries.

I just made the test , with the official charger, but the battery was fully charged (so I think only the charger was providing electricity to the phone)

I removed the battery and put it back, the phone stayed ON, nothing odd happened

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It is laying on my working desk with everything off. wifi goes on from time to time, and it is shocking how fast it drains the battery.

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Definitely yes.

Being able to run without a battery at all is required functionality.

I don’t think it’s that big a deal if you had to shutdown to change the battery. Shutdown and reboot are both quite quick - quicker than a current model iPhone.

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Good idea about buying extra batteries, but makes me wonder how long will spare batteries last? If stored in their original box in a drawer or closet? Will they deteriorate over time?

I prefer the much more ease-of-use power bank solution, you don’t have to open your phone every time you use it, and you can use it for everything else powered over usb

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I just found some comments on YT speaking about 24h uptime.

Nat Tuck:

With light usage (mostly as a pocket web browser) it’ll generally last through the day.

Matt Gregoire

I get over a day with light usage just over 24 hours.

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Interesting. I’m certainly not seeing that, even with light usage.

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I also never read/heard before, so I also would like to know more about it.