Both Google and Apple have new mobile operating systems rolling out later this year. In an effort to improve user experience, it is perhaps no surprise that both players have opted to focus on extending battery life as one of the key areas to improve on.

Google’s Android 6.0 Marshmallow features a new Doze mode to help extend battery life while Apple’s iOS 9 comes with a new Low Power mode and a few other tricks up its sleeve to make the most of a single battery charge.

Below we take a look at how Android 6.0 Marshmallow’s Doze mode compares to iOS 9’s Low Power mode and other power saving features:

Android 6.0 Marshmallow Doze mode

To conserve battery life, Android 6.0 Marshmallow’s new Doze mode intelligently manages background processes. Using the device’s motion sensor, Android intelligently shuts down unnecessary background processes when its senses the device has been stationary for a long period with the screen off.

With Doze mode active, apps will stop performing actions, such as checking or updates, in the background. This is perfect for when your device is sitting idle overnight or while you are not using it for extended periods of time. This does lead to a small sacrifice in app freshness when your Android device ‘wakes up’, but the extra battery life should be worth it.

According to Google, a Nexus 9 running Android 6.0 Marshmallow with Doze mode engaged achieved a standby-time almost two times longer than the same device running Android 5.0 Lollipop. German tech blog ComputerBase.de achieved similar results the Nexus 5.

Users shouldn’t worry about missing anything while their phone is in Doze mode; the phone will still wake up for alarms and other high-priority notifications.

Doze is not to be confused with Samsung’s own Power Saving mode and Android’s Battery Saver Google introduced with Android 5.0 Lollipop. Both let users choose when to activate battery saving tactics, including disabling Wi-Fi, GPS, account Sync, reduce screen brightness and screen timeout.

Battery Saver in Android 5.0 Lollipop boasted as much a 90-minutes extra battery life. Combined with Doze, Android users should see significant improvements in battery life for devices running Android 6.0 Marshmallow.

iOS 9 Low Power mode and more

iOS 9 is set to be Apple’s least battery-hungry OS to date. Apple claims to have improved efficiencies across the OS and key technologies alongside two new power management features never before seen in iOS.

First up – and perhaps more easily compared to Android 6.0 Marshmallow’s Doze feature – using an iPhone’s ambient light sensors and proximity sensors, iOS 9 is capable of sensing when the device is lying facedown and automatically prevents the screen from turning on when you receive a call or notification. Apple claims that preventing the screen from turning on unnecessarily will give users as much as an hour of extra battery life on a single charge. The biggest drawback over Android’s Doze mode is that you have to remember to put your iPhone facedown when you’re not using it.

The second power saving feature in iOS 9 is Low Power mode. When your iPhone’s battery hits 20 percent you’ll be presented with a popup prompting you to turn on Low Power mode. If you don’t turn it on at this point, you’ll be promoted again when the battery charge drops to 10 percent.

Low Power Mode disables battery-hungry tasks such as Mail Fetch, Background App Refresh, motion effects, and animated wallpapers, resulting in as many as three hours of extra battery life, claims Apple. Users can also enable low Power mode manually.

Image credit: Fu-tography.com via Flickr