GoKawiilJoe Maring / Android Authority
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TL;DR Some Pixel 11 owners are reporting excessive idle battery drain, with Wi-Fi showing unusually high battery usage.
A detailed test found that certain routers repeatedly woke the phone, preventing it from sleeping properly.
Switching to Wi-Fi 5 or another router dramatically improved battery life, but the exact cause remains unconfirmed.
Pixel owners are no strangers to battery-life complaints, and Google’s Tensor era has had its share of heat, modem, and efficiency problems. The Pixel 11 series looked like a step forward, especially with its new MediaTek modem, but some owners are now chasing a different kind of drain. A detailed Reddit investigation suggests certain Wi-Fi routers may be keeping Pixel 11 phones awake far more often than they should.
Reddit user Albamen13 noticed their Pixel 11 Pro XL losing roughly 2.5% to 3% battery per hour while sitting idle on Wi-Fi. Using BetterBatteryStats, they found that Wi-Fi activity was waking the phone about 135 times per minute, preventing it from properly going to sleep for 59% to 67% of the test.
Are you experiencing excessive idle battery drain on your Pixel 11? 39 votes Yes, and Wi-Fi usage is unusually high 21 % Yes, but Wi-Fi usage looks normal 13 % No, my battery life seems normal 36 % I don’t own a Pixel 11 31 %
Initially, Wi-Fi 6 looked guilty. Switching the same Tenda Wi-Fi 6 mesh system from Wi-Fi 6 to Wi-Fi 5 cut those Wi-Fi wakeups from about 135 per minute to 2.4, while the time the phone failed to sleep properly fell to around 1%. An overnight test produced similar results, with idle drain dropping to about 1% per hour.
However, further testing complicated that theory. Connecting the same Pixel to a HUAWEI Wi-Fi 6 router produced only 5.4 wakeups per minute and 0.8% failed suspend time. Other commenters also reported normal behavior on some ASUS Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 7 setups. That points less to Wi-Fi 6 itself and more toward a possible compatibility problem between Pixels and certain router firmware or settings. Reports in the thread mention Tenda, TP-Link Omada, and Fritz!Box hardware, although the sample is far too small for firm conclusions.
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