The previous versions of android had the battery indicator as a dynamic illustration along with a provision to view the battery in percentage in the status area of the phone.
Also in lollipop, we have to swipe down twice to see the battery percentage.
Android (till KitKat)
download bmml source – Wireframes created with Balsamiq Mockups
Wouldn't it be much better if they come up with a design which provides both battery icon and the percentage as a single icon,
My Design:
there by saving the space of one icon in the already crowded status area?
Also the bottom rectangle can illustrate the health of the battery using different colors.
Also plugged status can be provided like the the lightning symbol behind the charge percentage. [I couldn't create that mock-up of that in the online editor :) ]
EDIT: For few who feel that it will take more space, I suggest we either use slim font or remove the percentage symbol like,