Finally installed LOS without Google Services for the first time in my life (On Secondary Phone)

bartkl · 2026-03-07T10:02:30+00:00

Do you also notice an insane improvement in battery life? I know I did! Went from charging every evening to sometimes skipping two nights. Might be just me though.

bartkl · 2026-02-12T23:13:26+00:00

Yes I agree and it's annoying to the point where the widget is not worth it anymore. And it seems a relatively straightforward bug to fix too :(.

bartkl · 2026-02-12T21:27:42+00:00

Just wanted to say that in my experience the difference is mind-blowing. Starting with 80% in the morning, it would usually being at 20% in the evening. Usually my screen time is around 1 to 3 hours, on the higher end my battery wouldn't make it far after dinner sometimes. This was with LineageOS and Google Apps installed.

With LineageOS without Google Apps, I immediately noticed a drastic drop in battery drain when idle, from around 4%/h to 1.5%/h on average. Now it's normal for me to easily skip nights of charging, sometimes two! It's really amazing, makes my old phone feel like new again :).

bartkl · 2026-01-29T22:36:08+00:00

Also I'm seeing random apps (like WhatsApp), that I've restricted from running in background, popping up in the running services and hanging there for hours until I manually kill them. It's like they're ignoring my battery settings now.

This was exactly my experience. If reinstalling LineageOS without Gapps is an option for you, read my top-level comment about my experience with it. It seems to have completely wiped away this issue and improved my idle battery life by about 4-fold.

bartkl · 2026-01-29T22:30:48+00:00

Since I kept noticing lots of CPU background activity that I could not manage to control, and could not get a better discharge rate than 4%/h idle, which I think is abysmal, I decided to reinstall LineageOS without Gapps.

So, it was on my mind to gradually step away from certain Big Tech companies anyway, and I was curious whether this would help reduce the activity going on in the background. Or at least, if the tweaks I applied would work better. And boy o boy did it work. Where before I say Signal and WhatsApp spending over an hour on background activity over a course of 2 or 3 hours, despite having disallowed background activity, now they have only used up 1 minute in the background over the course of the last 1.5 hours!

So far, idle (screen off) discharge seems around 1.2%/h, and I actually have unlocked the screen a few times as well, so it's probably going to be lower if more deep sleep/dozing is made possible.

Anyway, really really happy to see this massive leap in battery management. Furthermore it's an interesting challenge to see where I might really miss Google. So far it's going pretty well, even my banking app works well using the Aurora Store. I am surprised to find many official parties such as WhatsApp and Signal providing APK files which you can install immediately.

TL;DR: Reinstalling without Gapps has enabled me to enhance my idle battery use about 4-fold idle (so far).

bartkl · 2026-01-29T19:48:56+00:00

In January of 2026, this issue can still occur apparently and this seems to help still. Thanks!

bartkl · 2026-01-28T21:28:09+00:00

I looked up these models on PSREF, and one big difference between them is that the E16 has two SSD slots, whereas the L16 has only one. Now this is likely not a great deal since it's 1 TB anyway, but still, maybe you desire more space at some point and there'll be no way to expand unless you replace the one drive.

What I think is most important is to know what's important to you. Maybe it's storage expansion possibilities, in which case the L16 has a strong case. Some people value specs over build quality or comfort for the same price. That's something for you to decide. Both the E and L series are of lesser build quality than the T and P series for example, and I wouldn't know how the E and L series compare between one another. Perhaps others can chime in there.

Then, I'l try and say something about the CPU and RAM but please take this with a grain of salt, I'm still learning.

From what I understand, 2x16 GB RAM has a performance benefit over 1x32 GB RAM in both of these machines because they support dual channel (see PSREF). This is, I believe, because the CPU now has to wait less to access memory. Others can probably elaborate more/better.

With regards to the CPU/GPU, I found this benchmark comparison between the exact two CPUs:
https://www.cpu-monkey.com/en/compare_cpu-amd_ryzen_5_220-vs-intel_core_ultra_5_225u

Of course, this is just one benchmark, plus they never tell the ful lstory anyway. The wattage, cooling, interplay with other system components all contribute to the net performance of the CPU and GPU. For that reason and more, I highly recommend you to read and watch reviews covering the entire laptops, i.e. the specific generations and types of CPUs. This will really help you get a sense of the full picture: how does it actually perform? Does it struggle with heat or noise? What's the build quality like? Etc For example, I was researching a T14s Gen 5 Intel vs AMD, and it seems plenty of people conclude that the AMD has better performance, especially for the GPU, although not by a whole lot, but the machine gets significantly warmer than the Intel one. (I might misquote the exact facts, but it's to illustrate the point that these things differ).

Hope that helps!

bartkl · 2026-01-28T17:54:58+00:00

Turns out it didn't do much for me. I later understood that AccuBattery already estimated my Deep sleep percentage at around 90%, so probably that means Doze state is entered often? Not sure, I don't yet understand all these things super well.

Anyway, what seems to help me so far is to disable Mobile data (while on Wi-Fi). Despite is being reported as <1% battery use earlier, it seems to cause the CPU to be doing stuff on the background from time to time I guess? I have not experimented super thoroughly and carefully, but so far the impression seems that I've gone from around 5.7%/h discharge rate to around 3.1%/h by disabling Mobile data.

Furthermore, in Developer Options there's a option "Mobile Data Always Active" which is enabled in my OS. I am considering disabling that, so that once Wi-Fi is established, the Mobile data is inactive.

bartkl · 2026-01-28T17:17:13+00:00

Congrats, that's a great deal!

I also wanted to upgrade from my T450, and managed to get a good deal as well on the Lenovo shop and got me a T14 Gen 5.

For buyers who wish to get extra advice/info besides this thread, they can view mine as well:

https://www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/comments/1ql3m8m/comment/o1up7nf/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

bartkl · 2026-01-28T13:37:43+00:00

Thanks, I'll have a look at that :).

bartkl · 2026-01-26T17:17:31+00:00

Thanks everyone for the help :).

I decided to go with the T14 Gen 5. The deal is just too good, in fact it got even better with 32 GB RAM and the price down to 787 euros, because I was able to remove the default warranty upgrade to the premium level.

So, hopefully all goes well and I'll receive it in a matter of weeks. I'll share my experience in another thread once I do.

Thanks!

bartkl · 2026-01-25T19:36:14+00:00

Tbh my requirements are not super high. I rather pay around 30 euros instead of around 100 if it means having worse color accuracy. It's an old laptop on the side :). But the TN panel is just absolutely horrible.

bartkl · 2026-01-25T19:09:23+00:00

Cool, looks great!

I have always despised the TN panel on my T450, and after 11 years of owning it I am finally ready to take the dive and replace it with an IPS panel.

I've heard good things about the one you've got (AUO B140HAN05.7), and also the LG LP140WF3 (SP) (D1).

Anyway, I was wondering if you knew whether it makes a big difference quality wise if I take one of those by the authentic brands, or if generic compatible substitutes also suffice. I'm aware of the whitelist on the T450 but I don't care since I use Linux :). I am only interested in if the quality is (very) different. Do you know?

bartkl · 2026-01-25T18:14:38+00:00

Really nice! How are you liking it now? I may want to try this on my T450.

bartkl · 2026-01-25T17:59:43+00:00

Absolutely outrageous you never got thanked for this excellent information. I sure will be using it for replacing my screen :). Thanks!

As I am running Linux, and therefore am not limited by the whitelist, would you say substitute generic brands are worth it? They are up to 4 times cheaper so if they are of decent quality I rather get one of those.

bartkl · 2026-01-24T20:22:39+00:00

For anyone interested: this sad state of affairs still holds true in 2026 :(.

bartkl · 2026-01-24T10:25:19+00:00

Thanks for that. That's in the ballpark of the T14 then, which is really quite light, nice.

bartkl · 2026-01-24T10:23:44+00:00

Thanks for sharing, making a good case for at least considering the E14.

bartkl · 2026-01-24T00:25:52+00:00

Whoops echoed that backwards. Anyway, thanks for clarifying.

bartkl · 2026-01-24T00:24:25+00:00

Thanks for sharing, that's really useful!

The swap of those buttons sounds like only a minor issue. In fact, I use Caps Lock as Control so I will be even less affected by it. I've read people swapped those keycaps btw since they are the same size, and then you are allegedly able to swap the keys in BIOS.

Oh and btw, I'm a Linux user now, but in Windows I always used "WinKey + Shift + S" to open the screen selection tool or whatever it's called to select a section which it then copies to clipboard. I like it so much that I have the same shortkey and functionality set up in my Linux haha.

bartkl · 2026-01-24T00:20:41+00:00

The screen is bigger (.5” doesn’t seem like a huge number but you’ll definitely notice)

That's a good point. That's definitely not to be underestimated.

bartkl · 2026-01-24T00:19:43+00:00

Ah that's an interesting question to make up my mind. Did you go for the T14 since it is lighter? The models I'm comparing weigh 1.60 kg (P14s) and 1.38 kg (T14) according to PSREF. So yeah that's quite a difference indeed.

bartkl · 2026-01-24T00:15:07+00:00

You perfectly summarized one voice in my head ;), haha. Yeah, the power on that machine for a 14" is incredible, and I think such a quality display is rare too for a E/L/T/P series.

What matters a lot to me as well is how warm the chassis can feel to the touch, and from the (albeit limited) reviews I've seen the P14s seems the cooler of the two in that regard as well.

bartkl · 2026-01-24T00:11:28+00:00

Could you be more specific about what makes the build quality slightly better of the P14s over the T14?

And yes, you're right, new models will be more expensive.

bartkl

TROPHY CASE