Pixel phones to get ultra low power mode, new code suggests

Battery life is a huge consideration in the modern mobile world, but the latest Pixels haven’t exactly hit it out of the park this year, with the Pixel 4’s underwhelming endurance easily being the weakest part of the experience. The 4 XL fares better, but it couldn’t hurt to be even better, which is why Google is apparently prepping an ultra-low power mode for its devices.

As the folks over at XDA spotted, the public Android repository on AOSP was recently seen sporting a new bit of code hinting at an extreme power-saving mode to increase battery performance “at the cost of user experience”.

Of course, Pixel phones (and all recent Androids) already have Battery Saver modes built-in, which limits background usage, location, display brightness, and other factors to extend battery life. This new mode will evidently take things further.

It’s not clear what features will be cut for the sake of battery or which devices will get the feature when. The Pixel 4 seems to be the surest bet so far, but ultra-low power mode could make its debut on the Pixel 4a or even the Pixel 5 as well.

Given the fact that Samsung, Huawei, and other major OEMs already offer proprietary software hacks for getting the most out of your power cell, it’s also likely that this new feature may only be intended for Pixel phones, not the next version of Android in general.

Overall, battery saving techniques seem pretty robust in the industry already, so it's interesting to see the Pixel maker taking another shot at it. On the other hand, software optimization is very much Google’s forte, so this might signal some powerful advancements in this area. Hopefully so, because Pixels could really use another edge against everything else in the crowded market.