Out of the many Android L features Google announced at Google I/O, Project Volta stood out as a welcome and overdue new feature. Project Volta is an attempt to boost the battery life of Android devices through various under the hood tweaks, and it looks like it actually does what Google promises, as a test conducted by ArsTechnica saw the Nexus 5 gain almost two extra hours of battery life with Android L, as compared to KitKat.
The battery test involved reloading webpages on a Wi-Fi connection every 15 seconds with the screen on, first on Android 4.4.4 and subsequently on the Android L preview, with all of its battery saving features disabled. The end result was a 36 percent increase in battery life, an impressive improvement over what the Nexus 5 achieved on KitKat, especially when you consider the test was done on a non-final preview version of the OS.
Of course, the gains in battery life because of Project Volta in real-life scenarios might not be as pronounced, but it’s still a good sign of how the changes implemented by Google are making a difference and could fix one of the long-standing inherent weaknesses of Android, especially once app developers get on-board and start making use of everything Project Volta has to offer.
