How to get better battery life on the Moto X Pure Edition

By last updated

The Moto X line of phones has never had stellar battery life, but for most users these phones will last the day with no problem. This is especially true of the Moto X Pure Edition and its 3,000mAh battery. You're trading battery life for features with this phone, and that means it's not hard to stretch your battery beyond your initial experience if you know where to look.

Here's a few quick tips on getting more battery out of the Moto X Pure Edition.

Set Adaptive Brightness Low

Adaptive Brightness

Google's internal brightness controls are nice and fast, but are ultimately designed to only work within a segment of your brightness gauge. Adaptive brightness will never go from lowest possible setting to highest possible setting on your brightness bar on its own, so if you want your screen to use less power you need to reach in and control the brightness yourself. The easiest way to do that is sliding the brightness bar in quick settings down to a more manageable level. This way your phone still changes brightness a little in environments where that is important, but you're never reaching the max brightness and consuming all that extra power.

You could also disable Adaptive Brightness entirely in Settings>Display, and set the brightness to an exact point whenever you want. This isn't going to get to too much more battery, but if every bit matters this won't hurt.

Battery Saver Mode

Battery Saver

Like most phones, the Moto X Pure Edition flips into a power saving mode when you get below 15% battery remaining. This Battery Saver mode slows things down on your phone and dims the brightness, as well as limits the activity of apps in the background. It's a great way to stretch that last 15% out for a while, but it's also something you can enable on your own whenever you like.

Head to Settings>Battery and tap the menu button in the top right. The only option there, Battery Saver Mode, will take you to a page where you can enable this low power mode whenever you want. This can be disabled whenever you want, but will be disabled automatically when you connect the phone to power.

Disable Moto Features

Moto X Pure Edition

Motorola's sweet list of unique features is a big part of what sets a Moto X apart from the rest of the phones out there, but they also use a decent amount of battery. Moto Display, Moto Voice, and Moto Actions are all very cool on their own, but together the battery drain is noticeable. If you absolutely must get the most out of your battery, you should consider disabling some or all of these features for a little while.

Head to the Moto App, and under each category you'll find check boxes for everything Motorola does to make your phone awesome. Turning these features back on doesn't take anything other than re-checking these same boxes, so head back to the Moto app when you're finished and you can have your features back.

Russell Holly
Russell Holly

Russell is a Contributing Editor at Android Central. He's a former server admin who has been using Android since the HTC G1, and quite literally wrote the book on Android tablets. You can usually find him chasing the next tech trend, much to the pain of his wallet. Find him on Facebook and Twitter
91 Comments
  • Or look forward to getting 6.0 in a month or so. I think now android even beats out iOS in how little power is used during standby.
  • My Nexus 6 only lost 6% in 14 hours on standby after installing 6.0 on it. That's less than 1/2% per hour. Very impressive. And it's about time, really. Idle drain has been Android's Achilles heel for some time.
  • "Wow, my phone gets great battery life if I don't use it!"
  • Awe, somebody's butthurt that they can't have android's latest software until Samsung butchers it months from now.
  • Wow, try not to be a dense jerk. Idle drain has a huge impact on overall battery life. Since you seem to be intellectually challenged, I'll spell it out for you: Every hour the phone is in your pocket, whether you're using it or not, it's draining a certain amount of battery. iOS devices usually keep this minimal, which is why they last longer overall. Android devices generally drain 5-7%/hr when they're not even being used, and that amount just increases when they are. The idle drain is fixed. It happens whether the phone is used or not. The less it drains at idle, the more you can actually use the phone (what a concept, I know). Did I explain that slowly enough for you? Are you able to see how idle drain impacts your overall usage time? Because I don't know very many people who use their phones nonstop all day with no break whatsoever.
  • @gravage - VERY well said. Idle drain has clearly been the Achilles Heel of Android. I love Android but couldn't handle the enormous battery drain in Standby in my Samsung S6. Went back to using my iPhone which, although admittedly more limited in its feature set, at least regularly keeps Standby drain to generally 1/2% per hour which lets me use the phone MUCH more during the day when I need it. If 6.0 fixes Standby drain, I'll come running back to Android!
  • Correction: "Wow, my phone doesn't drain my battery while I'm not using it!" Think, Rogue, think!
  • Well, Doze is probably a great thing for a phone like the Moto X Pure or the Nexus 6, both of which suck battery like a 4 year old sucks a juice box. I'm a light user, anyway, and even without Doze, my phone doesn't drain the battery much while I'm not using it. If my phone is at 40% when I go to bed, that's an atypically "bad" day for me. Whether my phone is at 60%, 40% or 15% at night, that's when I put it on the wireless charger, anyway. But i still find it amusing, because it does amount to "Wow, my phone doesn't drain my battery when I'm not using it!" Well, duh.
  • Doze benefits everyone. Posted from my Nexus 6/Nexus 7 2013/Surface Pro 3
  • Because it's not supposed to drain when you're not using it, but the sad fact is that most Android phones do. 6.0 may change that. Do you really not get that?
  • Sorry. Maybe if I had a battery sucking Nexus/Moto, I'd appreciate it more.
  • You really have never used a nexus 6. Unfortunately I agree about Moto battery. Posted from my Nexus 6/Nexus 7 2013/Surface Pro 3
  • Okay, I'll bite. What do you have? Because I have owned just about every flagship for the last two years and if you tell me it's one of the ones I had, I can pretty much guarantee I'll be calling BS on you. Most android phones, with a few rare exceptions, have always had high idle drain. It's just the way it is with Android. Anyone claiming otherwise is in denial or puts their phone in Airplane mode when they aren't using it.
  • My Sony z3 only drops 1% while sleeping for approximately 8 hours...and it is on 5.0.2 with stamina mode turned off. Posted via the Android Central App
  • The Z3 was awesome on battery! The benchmark I use for all my phones now.
  • Hell yeah. My Z3 can get about 7 hours screen on, out of about 30 hours total. It's fantastic. Posted via the Android Central App
  • I bet he won't respond now. Posted from my Nexus 6/Nexus 7 2013/Surface Pro 3
  • You'll call BS on me no matter what I say. That's what Nexus fanboys do. But here's the truth, whether or not you want to accept it. I have a Note 4. With unrooted stock, I get perfectly fine battery life. After taking the phone off the charger at 7 AM, my light usage leaves me with about 60% when I go to bed at about 11 or 12. Like I said, on bad days (more usage), it's about 40%. On REALLY bad days (heavy usage), I've seen it drop to about 15%, but never below that. When it was rooted with the AEL 5.1 kernel, I got phenomenal battery life. I've seen 85% battery at 11 PM on days it would normally be at about 60% or below. I think the AEL kernel lets the phone go into deep sleep. At least that's what i read on their developer site. Sort of like, you know, Doze. I just re-rooted my phone and installed AEL 6.0. I'll see how well that does. But regardless, I've never had to charge my phone except at night when I go to bed. Maybe if I was obsessed with it all day, it would be a lot worse.
  • Well, I definitely had the Note 4. It does do pretty good with idle drain, but it's not one of the best. Samsung's kernels are a little better than stock with respect to idle efficiency.
  • Blah blah blah.
    Be quiet Richard Posted via the Android Central App
  • Hehehe...can't stand that dude
  • @gravage - HTC One M8: 2.5 to 3% per hour in use. 0.2 to 0.7% per hour in standby, or less. I've gone 6 hours on standby before dropping from a full charge to 99%.
    These are documented and screenshots have been posted in the forums here. Posted via the Android Central App
  • Out of all the phones I have tried, the LG G4 had the best stand by time. At night I always turn off data and sync, the G4 would go down less than 5% in 7.5hrs.
  • Battery life on my Moto X Pure Edition (2015) is the best of any phone I have owned. Better than my OnePlus One that had a smaller screen and bigger battery.
  • Turn it on once in a while. Nobody else seems to be getting great battery life on the Moto X Pure.
  • You think Nexus 6P will be as bad? Even with the bigger battery? Posted via the Android Central App
  • No, not with 6.0. Not if my Nexus 6 is any indication. Bigger battery with a more efficient screen and Doze. Seems like it'll be a battery champ to me.
  • No kidding the Nexus 6 battery sucks on Lollipop even on 5.1.1. Posted via My Nexus 6
  • Love this comment. Posted via the Android Central App
  • Hahaha Posted via the Android Central App on my Nexus 7
  • Its better than your phone getting shitty battery life when you don't use it. Right? Right? Do you even know what standby means?
  • Bruh, every phone is going to sip power the same way a fine gentleman sips tea when it's on standby. My G4 sips about 2% of power for 8 hours on standby. The display drains the battery significantly when in use, however.
  • "Wow, my phone gets great battery life if I don't use it!" Mr. Tomato, that's a good thing, isn't it?
  • My nexus 7 only lost 3% in standby for 10 hours. Posted via the Android Central App
  • No it's still far from it.
    First your phone has to sit super still fit extended period of time to get into that "Doze" mode.
    And more importantly, all these reports of "only X % per hour", are still not matching iPhones especially when you calculate mAh per hour. Don't forget that iPhone 6 has a battery below 2000 mAh and still drops less % than 3000+ Android while idling. via AC App on
    VZW Moto X DE/N7
  • Yes, Apple phones have awesome stand by time. But oh how quickly it drains once you actually start using the phone. So it still winds up pretty even Imo. Posted via the Android Central App
  • They actually don't. Their SOT is equal if not better than most of the most
    Android phones. Again, if you consider the battery size. via AC App on
    VZW Moto X DE/N7
  • I hope Verizon doesn't take too long to upgrade its Motorola phones to 6.0
  • I certainly hope it can. The iPhone whoops Android and seems to easily last a day with a mere 1750mAh battery. Consistently.
  • So, why all you Apple guys hanging out here tonight? Already bored with the 6S?
    Anyway, not many of you have several devices of both OS's active for side by side testing. I do. The iPhone 6 (which I own) made it through the day ok. For the first two weeks. Then battery performance decreased. It's been the same with all nine iPhones I've had, including the four which I have now. No news there. The iPhones do better in standby as long as the signal is good. They do not do as good when being used. Under light use, they may have a slight edge. With moderate use, a good Android may have a slight edge. Make it a heavy day, and the iPhone will need an early charge while the Android just keeps on going. I keep my iPhone in my left pocket and my Android in my right pocket, so I have hundreds of days of real life examples, and that's just the way it is. Posted via the Android Central App
  • For a good while I had note 4 and 6plus to compare. 6plus had consistently better battery life. via AC App on
    VZW Moto X DE/N7
  • The 6 Plus definitely has very good battery life (I had one for a short time). The deal breaker was choosing between the iPhone 6, which was the right size for me but has an inadequate battery, or choosing the 6 Plus which is way bigger than I like, but has good battery life. It was this quandary that caused me to end up with the HTC M8: it's about the same size as the 6, but has about the same battery life as the 6 Plus.
  • I have Moto X Pure Edition. Not really impressed with the battery life. It barely makes it 6pm before it has to go into Battery Saver mode. That means in about 8-10 hours the phone is almost dead. I'm not heavy user either, this is just normal drain throughout the day. I usually get text messages and it says my screen is the main battery suck. If I return it, which android phone should i get that has impressive battery life?
  • Yes, better battery life, when android m is released on it. Other than that no other way.
  • Moto Voice was the biggest battery hog for me. I disabled it and literally doubled battery life for my type of usage. I also disabled Moto Display. I use Dynamic Notifications app for screen off notifications. Posted via the Android Central App
  • As I understand it, Google incorporated Moto Display's Active Notifications into Android and called it Dynamic Notifications. You imply that they improved it in the process. So, do Dynamic Notifications use less power?
  • Wouldn't it be lovely, if Android reached the point where we don't have to see these type of articles? Would someone please come up with better battery tech and then stop making phones too damn thin (not this one though). Posted via Nexus 6
  • Moto X Play Posted via the Android Central App
  • or better battery / ram / task management on the software level. There's too many wakelocks and other things going on with Android. It seems M is heading in the right direction and may help a lot!
  • Manufacturer insecurity is preventing this utopia. MXPE would never need this article (as badly as it is written and useless in quantifying anything) if Motorola had used a 1080P display instead of 2K that was 0.1"-0.2" smaller with that same battery. Motorola phones are already champions in standby-battery life and this change would have probably given us a 30%-40% increase in LTE web browsing SoT to 5-6 real-world usage hours from 100%-to-flat [IMO].
  • Glad that is just an opinion because you estimated gain is exaggerated and dependant on too many outside factors to come from anything but the 'pulling numbers out of your ass' Institute +++ Insert witty signature, watch as others not get it, profit +++
  • I have to admit why not just put in a slightly thicker battery. I love the Razr Maxx I had and my wife loves her Droid Turbo because the battery life is great no matter what you do. Why have one special edition that has a large battery that not everyone can get?
  • Because, for some reason, *thin* is *in*. I don't personally know anyone that wishes their phone felt like a 3x5 flash card, but apparently that's what manf. believe.
  • If you try to top up above 15%, Battery Saver won't come on if you have a power bank or charger plugged in.
    Well I didn't know for a long while !....
  • Carry around a car battery?
  • Nah save that for gs6 ppl Posted from my Nexus 6/Nexus 7 2013/Surface Pro 3
  • Don't have one, but I do hear they drain batteries like crazy.
  • I have my MXPE set up exactly the same way I had my Nexus 6 pre-Marshmallow. The MXPE has Moto Display off, but Moto Voice is on. And the MXPE is paired with a Samsung Gear Live. Usually, I end the day with about 50% battery life still left on my MXPE, compared to about 25% when my Nexus 6 was my daily driver. I also briefly used a Moto X 2nd Gen as my primary phone, and with that phone, I rarely got through a day without needing a late-afternoon or early-evening recharge. The MX2G sucked battery like there was no tomorrow, especially when paired with Android Wear. On all three of these phones, the apps that caused the biggest changes in battery life for me were Android Wear and everything Amazon. My battery life would go up by maybe 25% or more with Android Wear off, and maybe 10%-ish with Amazon App Store and Amazon Shopping uninstalled.
  • If I'm traveling across the desert on a horse with no name then yeah I'll turn features off in order to save battery. Otherwise under normal circumstances I run my device 100% full throttle. Dam It's Feels Good To Be A Google Gangster
  • As you should. Hail Putrid Pile
  • Yeah, I don't use any battery saving features at all. But I don't use my phone constantly, either. So I get perfectly fine battery life, even without Doze.
  • Me neither. I've never never never ever used any kind of battery saving mode. 100% full throttle!! Dam It's Feels Good To Be A Google Gangster
  • ". . . . after three days, in the desert fun, I was lookin' at a river bed . . . ." I can't get that song out of my head now. :)
  • Good thing you are out of the rain, in case the device is only water resistant! :) ;)
  • So, don't use your phone the way it's advertised or sold to you?
    Great "article". Posted via the Android Central App
  • Russell is still confused as to how Adaptive Brightness works also. That whole section of the article is wrong. Adaptive Brightness is exactly like automatic brightness except you have the ability to set the minimum threshold. So if you set the slider all the way to the left, the system will control brightness from minimum to maximum based on lighting conditions. This is the optimal setting to save battery with adaptive brightness. The difference with Adaptive Brightness is that you can define the minimum value yourself. So if the phone's minimum brightness setting is too low for you, you can move the slider to the right to increase this minimum value. It will still vary between that level and 100%, contrary to what that whole brightness section above explains. Why do they let this guy still write for them? Most of what he produces is filled with errors and flat out wrong information, untagged op-ed pieces, and once in a while some useful info. But mostly it makes the site feel like I'm reading International Business Times or some other content mill.
  • Too bad Google does not partner with BlackBerry and run Android on top of QNX rather than Linux. I get two full days with heavy usage (300-400 emails per day on 5 email accounts) on my Passport and Z30. Disappointed the new BlackBerry Priv running Android will be on the hardened Linux kernel. I do like this Moto X. It will be really interesting when the BlackBerry experience apks are available for purchase on the Google Play Store. Those not familiar with the BlackBerry HUB for messaging are going to love it. That and the security keep me on BlackBerry for my phones. I have 4 Samsung Tab Pro tablets that I would really like to see on Marshmallow and the BlackBerry apps. Posted via Android Central App
  • Man that doesn't look good for Moto :/ actually the whole back year doesn't look good for Moto. Posted from my Nexus 6/Nexus 7 2013/Surface Pro 3
  • Yeah, I hate to say I told you so, but I told you so. Back when people were saying the Note 5 would suck its 3000 mAh battery but the Moto X Pure would sip the same size, I was pretty sure it would be the reverse. And that's how it turned out.
  • Well it wasn't a bad guess that the note 5 would suck battery without some optimizations. Posted from my Nexus 6/Nexus 7 2013/Surface Pro 3
  • It wasn't a guess. It was a knee-jerk anti-Touchwiz response, because that's what they all based their predictions on. People just love to hate on Touchwiz, even those who don't really have a clue what it is. It's Samsung, so it must be bad. It's the same way with Knox. I bet 99% of people who want a Knox-free ROM don't even know what Knox is for. But it must be bad, because it's a Samsung thing.
  • People call me a fanboy but imma just say this and I believe jerry said this, I'm a fanboy of good hardware and good software. I had a gs5 and people will lay into me for this I liked the gs5 hardware but lollipop ruined it. Posted from my Nexus 6/Nexus 7 2013/Surface Pro 3
  • Richard glad to have you back. We've missed you and I'm glad your reincarnation has returned. Still love your ironic posts that make no sense. Posted via the Android Central App
  • Well many android enthusiasts including myself do have a clue as to what it is, and its a piece of shit. Whatcha think about that rotten tomato?
  • Case in point. Posted via the Android Central App
  • I found the best battery extender solution for Moto X PE (it might work for many other phone models)
    - Don't use the phone or power it off...it will last for days :P
  • You could also get better battery life by trading it in for a Note5.... Posted via the Android Central App on my Nexus 7
  • Off to the misinformation again... It seems that someone is still confused as to how Adaptive Brightness works. That whole section of the article is wrong. Adaptive Brightness is EXACTLY like automatic brightness except you have the ability to set the minimum threshold. So if you set the slider all the way to the left, the system will control brightness from minimum to maximum based on lighting conditions. It doesn't stay within some arbitrary range of brightness. It's always variable between the slider position and 100%. The only difference with Adaptive Brightness compared to the pre-lollipop "automatic brightness" is that you can define the minimum value yourself. So if the phone's minimum brightness setting is too low for you, you can move the slider to the right to increase this minimum value. It will still vary between that level and 100%, contrary to what that whole brightness section above explains.
  • But then, you wouldn't have the Moto features, stereo speakers and a slick 21 MP camera.
  • How come we always talk about the Moto X and not the similar Droid Turbo, which is a little bit better?
  • Because the Droid turbo will have lollipop for the rest of its life. Posted from my Nexus 6/Nexus 7 2013/Surface Pro 3
  • How to get better battery life? Don't use it.
  • My MOTO X Pure battery get all day without any problems, without turning any these features off with normal to medium use.
  • How to get better battery life? Turn off LTE, make the screen dim, blah blah blah. I'm just waiting for a battery breakthrough. My G4 has similar specs to the XPE and the battery life on it isn't all that great. It's alright and can last a day but it's only marginally better than my old M7.
  • Here's a EVEN better way to avoid battery drain. If you know you ain't using your phone for several hours. Just turn it off!!!!!
  • please, can we stop posting these articles about how to get better battery life by basically turning a smartphone into a Nokia 5110?
    i know at least you didn't suggest turning data connectivity off when not using the phone or things like that but, seriously, these posts are useless...
  • Nowt wrong with battery life on my moto x, I like using it... use it a lot charge it a lot..... Posted via the Android Central App
  • Its a shame that such a good phone has such a small battery (compared with much less speced x play). For me the battery was the dealbreaker. Posted via the Android Central App
  • I really wish moto had put same large battery from the play in the style.... Posted via the Android Central App
  • I learned a really neat trick to save battery life. Don't EVER play ANY games on it because the GPU demolishes your battery. My phone died 50% from a little over an hour of playing a SNES rom (at ~15% brightness nonetheless). That shouldn't even be close to a taxing app, but phone gets hot and dies super quick. Wish I knew this before my two weeks were up...
  • I looking forward to Android 6.0 Marshmallow when it finally lands on my Nexus 6 OTA next week. Still if the stand by time is a good as or better than iOS I'll be a happy chappy because on 5.1.1 it's no where near as good as iOS. Posted via My Nexus 6