West Coast Labs recently investigated how Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) impact mobile device battery longevity. Their findings suggest that smartphone battery monitors significantly misrepresent the energy consumed by apps like NordVPN.
The 49% reporting error in mobile battery monitors
Smartphone operating systems often misattribute all network-related power consumption to the active VPN application. According to a report from West Coast Labs, this leads to massive discrepancies where a user might see a 49% battery drain attributed to a VPN, while the actual energy impact is negligible.
The West Coast Labs study utilized a range of high-end devices to measure these discrepancies, including the Samsung Galaxy S24, Galaxy S25 Ultra, Google Pixel 9, iPhone 15, iPhone 16, and the latest iPad. During tasks such as video streaming, the researchers found that VPNs like NordVPN only added between 1.6% and 2.1% to the total battery consumption.
NordLynx's 31% efficiency boost on Android devices
Modern VPN protocols like NordLynx offer significantly better energy efficiency than the older OpenVPN standards used in previous years. The report highlights that NordLynx uses 31% less battery per unit of data on Android devices and 24% less on iOS compared to the OpenVPN protocol.
CPU overhead remains remarkably low during these high-speed data transfers.. As the study noted, CPU usage stayed below 6% while the NordLynx protocol was active, suggesting that the processing power required for encryption is no longer a primary driver of battery depletion for modern smartphones.
A 6.8% maximum overhead during network transitions
Network transitions during commutes do not significantly impact battery life, despite common user fears. The West Coast Labs study simulated frequent switches between network types and found that VPNs added only 5.1% to 6.8% of battery overhead per transition.
This recorded overhead is significantly lower than the 15% threshold many users assume exsits when moving between Wi-Fi and cellular data.. Consequently, the findings suggest that users do not need to disable their VPNs while traveling to preserve their device's charge.
The question of bias in NordVPN-funded testing
The NordVPN-funded nature of the West Coast Labs report raises questions about the potential for industry bias. While the technical data regarding protocol efficiency appears robust, it is unclear if these findings regarding battery reporting errors would be identical if conducted by an independent third party or a different VPN provider.
It remains unclear whether Apple or Google will address the fundamental way their operating systems attribute network power usage to specific applications. until the developers of Android and iOS correct these reporting inaccuracies,users may continue to make misguided decisions about their digital security based on faulty battery statistics.
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