Disappointing battery life - Samsung Galaxy S8+ Questions & Answers

My battery life with this phone has been bad since day 1, even before this update. Tried 2 factory resets on the phone and another using Smart Switch. I went from 100% to 80% on my 1 hour commute home. Listening to downloaded podcasts and downloaded YouTube videos.
I've already had one replacement for a scratch on the screen. Would really prefer to not have another swapped out.
Is it really possible to get a unit with a defective battery? Especially with all the tests being done on these batteries now.

Related

Samsung Captivate on the Quest for the Greatest Battery Life!

I'd love to hear how people are finding the battery life on the Captivate, and what their usage patterns are. I don't have many apps on the phone to begin with, but on the train to work I can easily knock out a third of the battery just listening to music. While using the phone for five or ten minutes, I'll sometimes see the battery dop 2-3 percent!
For tomorrow, I'm going to try using the stock launcher instead of LauncherPro, no widgets. I got rid of the Android Central app just in case it was fetching data in the background. But my hopes aren't terribly high, I'm afraid.
I have rooted the phone, but the battery life was bad before rooting. Once rooted, I tried some apps like JuiceDefender, and there seemed to be no change.
If I continue having these problems, I may unroot and bring the phone to an AT&T store to see what they say. I've heard it mentioned that Samsung is sending out new batteries that are better than some current ones, but I don't know if that's true.
I'd love to hear any suggestions. I want to use my new phone, not worry about it all day!
I too have been getting very poor results. I have talked on the phone for less than 3 minutes, went to maybe 15 different website pages, one 3:00 youtube video, 10 minutes of GBC emulation gaming, and regular texting, and I'm at 10% with 8 hours. I've probably only used the phone for 30 minutes total today.
Smartphones always drain battery, if you want a phone that can be heavily used for like 4 or more days on one charge cycle, get a feature phone....the samsung captivate has given me the best battery time overall, against all my past smartphones.
I don't think it makes sense, though, that it should run out halfway through the day like mine is. My former devices were a feature phone and an iPod Touch. The feature phone lasted a week or so, and the iPod Touch with heavy heavy use lasted three days at least. So even if I had both pulling from the same battery source, and with light usage, shouldn't it last at least a full day?
Weird, I had wireless on almost all day, with push mail and doing tons of market downloading and I was only down to about 50% by early afternoon.
Seems about the same as my two year old HTC Touch Pro to me.
My battery is running fine too, even after streaming music from my house with subsonic, testing out a couple videos, messing with the gps, push email a bunch of app downloading, and a live wallpaper and i was still at 33% by the time I got home, even seems to be getting better.
"On the train to work..."
There's a bit of your problem, methinks. The 3G radio is burning a lot of power trying to connect to towers inside a metal box that moves to a new tower on a regular basis. Unless you need to get calls on the train, put it in Airplane mode during your commute.
Have you actually let the battery die completely yet?
My first battery burn-down, (starting with the charge on the battery as it was unboxed) I was showing zero percent battery for almost two hours before it actually shut itself off, moderate usage with WiFi on.
The next charge-up burn-down, it was showing zero percent about fifteen minutes before the end.
And the charge-up burn-down after that, it showed 0% about twenty seconds before it died.
See where I'm going here? The software needs to be calibrated at zero and 100, and it can't do that if you don't let it reach zero a few times. Once you're sure the meter is accurate, then you can start making informed conclusions about battery life.
And like I've posted elsewhere, you've got 'Newshiny-itus', which is proven to suck extra life out of a smartphone battery. And it's hard forcing your new toy to die...for one thing, if it's dead, you can't play with it. Tough it out, kill it. At least twice.
Well if you want to find truly terrible battery life try the EVO.
I had one for a month and that thing really ate the battery fast. The capti is stellar in comparison.
smitty1 said:
Well if you want to find truly terrible battery life try the EVO.
I had one for a month and that thing really ate the battery fast. The capti is stellar in comparison.
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Click to collapse
Yea I had one for two weeks and it was horrid. I would lose 6% just in standby time in between waking up and getting out the door to work in the morning!
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
I've had great results with the battery and I find it to be much better than my HD2. I watch quite a bit of youtube, text message a lot, and browse the web and the market on and off, not to mention all the time my wife plays solitaire, and I still have 30% battery at an uptime of 41:46. I don't use gps or live wallpapers, and I keep my display as low as possible, since it is still bright.
Bit better by the end of the day. 13 hours and 15 minutes
Croak said:
The software needs to be calibrated at zero and 100, and it can't do that if you don't let it reach zero a few times. Once you're sure the meter is accurate, then you can start making informed conclusions about battery life.
And like I've posted elsewhere, you've got 'Newshiny-itus', which is proven to suck extra life out of a smartphone battery. And it's hard forcing your new toy to die...for one thing, if it's dead, you can't play with it. Tough it out, kill it. At least twice.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1
Definitely agree with the last part. I've been doing my best to kill it, but I don't want it to be dead. Been noticing the inaccuracy of the meter quite a bit, especially when it's charging, but I'm sure it'll get better over time.
Thanks for the informative replies! It hadn't occurred to me that the battery meter might be uncalibrated - I've been charging once it reached 10% or so. I'll try letting it die fully today.
One thing that seems to have helped, too, is the brightness settings. Turning OFF the "power saving" auto adjust ing brightness option allows the brightness to stay low, and a brightness control widget lets me set it lower than stock controls allow. I've seen some definite improbement from this alone!
These are Li-ion batteries, DO NOT let them die completely before charging.
Ok, so...is there a safer way to make sure the battery gets calibrated? I'm reading in a lot of places that Android phones fairly often misreport battery info unless calibrated.
The lowest I can get on battery status is 60% after a full days use. Admittedly I'm not a power user but I had my phone unplugged for 16 hrs and still had 95% I'd like to know what you have to do to get such low battery levels , start your car
All I've done today is listen to music for an hour (used 25%) and texted/browsed the web for perhaps two hours (another 5/% down.)
I read that LIons can be occasiomally discharged, since they have undercurrent protection circuits. One guide for Android phones suggested leaving the phone on until it shuts itself down, turning it on again, and then letting it shut itself down again. Then, with the phone off, charge fully. The guide said once a month or do is safe and beneficial. How does it sound?
Battery is good today. Been sending a few texts, checked email, facebook, and surfed these forums a bit. I'm at 2 hours with 98% battery left.
i hope the battery doesnt suck, i plan on getting this phone soon and want good batt life!!!
tysj said:
These are Li-ion batteries, DO NOT let them die completely before charging.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with you, however, the phone's hardware will NOT let the battery completely die.
So I wouldn't worry about that all to much.
Basically though, Li-ion batteries are 'memory' free so they can be recharged on a whim partially.
They also prefer partial charges vs deep charges.
There are questions about this that I don't have answers for such as: When the phone displays 0% or shuts off due to low battery, how LOW is the battery?
Obviously the phone battery can't be dead dead, but it is low enough for the hardware to take precautions.
Anyway Li-ions will at max last 500 charges.. If you want it more than that, You're going to have to buy a new battery anyway. =)

Over 48 hours on a single charge w/ BT and WiFi

To make a long story short, my mom and I both got G2x phones on launch day. Two weeks to the day after our purchase, her battery died and refused to boot even while plugged into the wall charger (which I now know can be fixed by simply pulling the battery). I was busy at work and couldn't help her, and since it was the last day to return the phone within the 14 day period, I just told her to go ahead and return the phone for a replacement.
Prior to her replacement, we had pretty similar battery lives. I used mine more during the day, but she kept Bluetooth and other services running because she was used to an EDGE-only iPhone 3G where she never had to turn Bluetooth off. Our phones lasted between 10 and 12 hours depending on usage. Not great, but not terrible either.
Since she swapped hers out, her battery life is insane. I've attached a screenshot that shows 70% battery life after almost 24 hours. She had Bluetooth running 24/7 (notice it has the exact same usage percentage as Cell Standby) and WiFi running for a good portion of the time (though WiFi slept while screen was off). She had 4G running the whole time. While I know people might balk at the bad LG battery drivers, after 48 hours, she still had 17% battery life left. I apologize for not taking a screenshot--I didn't think about it until later that day. Though if anyone wants me to, I'll take one the next time her phone gets that far along.
I should mention that this is with no optimization at all. She did fully discharge the battery the first time she used it and charged it completely afterward, but that's it. The phone was unrooted and running stock everything with no special tweaks.
I'm very much considering going back to T-Mobile and seeing if they will swap it out. While mine doesn't seem to have the bleeding or other issues that other people have described, if I can trade mine out for a replacement that will quadruple my battery life, why not?
Wow that's amazing. I personally feel the G2x has excellent battery life. It has been way better than other Android phones I've had in the past (except for the original myTouch, I would get like 3 days out of that thing).
I wonder if the crazy battery life from your mom's phone is from the phone itself or the battery. I doubt T-Mobile will switch out your phone passed the exchange period (I'm a Tmo employee) but if they have any return G2x phones in stock, they should be cool to switch the battery out with you. I'm interested to see if it is indeed the phone or the battery.
hukkguai said:
Wow that's amazing. I personally feel the G2x has excellent battery life. It has been way better than other Android phones I've had in the past (except for the original myTouch, I would get like 3 days out of that thing).
I wonder if the crazy battery life from your mom's phone is from the phone itself or the battery. I doubt T-Mobile will switch out your phone passed the exchange period (I'm a Tmo employee) but if they have any return G2x phones in stock, they should be cool to switch the battery out with you. I'm interested to see if it is indeed the phone or the battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's a good suggestion. I'll experiment by swapping batteries with her to determine if it's her phone or her battery. I am inclined to think it's something different with the phone, but we'll see!
this would REALLY suck if it's true... because I got mine at Radioshack.. and I really loathe going to that store... ugh.
I also have amazing battery life. I can go 12 hours at work and still have 80% left. Got mine from the store on launch day.
((LG Tegra G2x)) @FiberOpticRLD
Could you please post the manufactured date (back of the G2x Box) for the second phone? Saw some posts which said phones on or after 4/29 are really good without any of the previous issues.
Curious to see what the verdicts are. If we can get that kind battery life out of our phones, that'd be incredible!
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA App
Yesterday I pulled my phone off the charger at 8AM. Went all day. I leave Wifi and Bluetooth on. Made about an hour of phone calls. Occasional checking of a website here or there. Did not charge phone at night. when I went to bed around midnight it was at 25% or so. Did not put it on charger. This morning it was at about 20%.
Not to rain on your parade. But from your screenshot, it shows no voice calls at all and little to no display use. 24 hrs on a charge without every really using the phone isn't really an accomplishment. Now if she can get 24 hours on a charge and have actually used the phone at least moderately then that would be different. I'd like to see how long her battery lasts with actual use of the phone. That would be a more true indicator of the battery life.
I was going to state that... based on that... her screen was only on for a total of 30 minutes out of 1440 minutes... not a major accomplishment. These phones are meant to be used not just carried around like a flip phone from 2001.
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA App
kangxi said:
I was going to state that... based on that... her screen was only on for a total of 30 minutes out of 1440 minutes... not a major accomplishment. These phones are meant to be used not just carried around like a flip phone from 2001.
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA App
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Click to collapse
Exactly! She could have pretty much accomplished the same thing by just leaving the phone turned off or just leaving it at home. Some of us would like to actually use our phones, not just have them around for decoration lol. Now if someone gets 24 hours on a single charge with actual use, then I'd love to see that thread as that would be useful information.
What's the date on your phone.
What's the date on your phone.
Mine is in my signature

[Q] Severe battery drain, have viperS 530 ROM

Hi, I installed the viperS 530 ROM on my Sensation 4G almost 2 months ago, and I basically like the ROM. Battery life was never great on this phone, but now seems twice as bad. From a full 100% charge, 1 short less than 5 minute call will make it go down to 90 to 95%. If I connect to T-Mobile data and use the browser, I actually see the battery level drop 2-3% every *minute*! I tried watching a Youtube video, from 100%, dropped down to 3% within less than 2 minutes, and shut itself off! I rebooted, and it then said 27%. I pit it on charge and it took more than 12 hours to get back to 100%. I have the original battery that came with it, and a different brand battery that I ordered, both around 1500 mah. But they are about 3.5 years old, and when I'm home the phone is almost always on charge. I have GPS, location, sync, bluetooth and data normally turned off when I'm out somewhere, unless I need the data or wifi to connect. Seems to drain just as fast whether wifi or data. I keep my phone at 30 or 45 seconds for the display. If nou used at all, will seem to stay at or near 100% for a few hours, then start dropping.
Is it worth me ordering a new battery, or is there something in the settings I'm overlooking? Like I said, seemed to get worse with the new ROM. Thanks much.
i think your battery is dying since it is 3.5 years old
Thanks rzr86, gonna look fora new battery on ebay or Amazon, prolly one of the higher mah ones. Strange that both my present batteries are at the same level of weakness, for example on each, when online, battery level drops 2-3% per minute, you would one would be somewhat better or worse than the other.
In the meantime I just installed Wakelock Detector and Greenify that I was reading about at another site, so hopefully those will help somewhat.
its battery issue
dannykewl said:
.........
Is it worth me ordering a new battery, or is there something in the settings I'm overlooking? Like I said, seemed to get worse with the new ROM. Thanks much.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll go ahead and chime in on this as well.
I picked up this Sensation as my friends wife got a new Sammy after the Sensation suffered horrible battery life, just as you described. She even got a new factory authorized battery, and still the exact same issue after a month or so. Needing a decent backup phone, I took it off her hands. S-off, new viper ROM.
Never had this model before, but I knew battery wasn't the greatest to begin with.
So after messing with it for a few days, I realized the battery was crapped out. Same as you wrote, loss of percentage just looking at it! :laugh::laugh: Reboot, different percentages every time. At the most, maybe one hour usage. Did the usual, flush battery stats, full charging, wipe stats again, etc. No help.
Finally bought a new battery couple days ago. Did a halfway charge, and the difference was seen immediately. Still discharged rather fast, but at least the percentage readout was consistent. Better but not acceptable.
So today, I tried "bump charging" about 4 times. First full charging resulted in about 5hrs (and a couple minutes) straight mp4 video via MX Player till battery shutdown. Now fully charged and bump charged and testing the second go around, only this time with normal usage and you tube playback.
Question (as being unfamiliar with this device). Is 5 hours Mp4 playback about normal for this device?
One thing I notice immediately, is that Youtube requires more battery power than standard video via MX Player. 8% in 15 minutes playback. This equates to roughly half available playback time compared to normal video. I suppose this can be attributed to the usage of constant wifi streaming using more CPU and GPU. Just a guess anyhow.
Will hope a couple more "full charges" will extend the usage some.
BTW, Running Sultan's CM11 with Sultan kernel at mostly default settings. Testing done with mostly only default apps running in memory.

Verizon's latest update (battry drain)

So has anyone else noticed a severe drop in battery life after Verizon's latest update? I went from 3 days to I'd be lucky if i get one. I haven't changed anything, added new apps, or used it more/less.
It's the update that just came out for Verizon vith the new desplay settings
Build number: NRD90M.G955USQU1AQDF
Yeah I have noticed this is well. When I seen there was an update I was skeptical about taking it but I bit the bullet and now I'm getting the crappiest battery life.. too bad there's not a way to revert. Maybe there is, I have no idea. What I do know is the last build we were on battery was fantastic. I was amazed. Now, all I want is my nexus back lmao.
Right!? I need fix my Nexus 6 already. And idk if we can revert but that'd be nice. Glad I'm not the only one but it still sux
Sent from my Samsung SM-G955U using XDA Labs
My battery life with this phone has been bad since day 1, even before this update. Tried 2 factory resets on the phone and another using Smart Switch. I went from 100% to 80% on my 1 hour commute home. Listening to downloaded podcasts and downloaded YouTube videos.
I've already had one replacement for a scratch on the screen. Would really prefer to not have another swapped out.
Is it really possible to get a unit with a defective battery? Especially with all the tests being done on these batteries now.
ericdmiller said:
My battery life with this phone has been bad since day 1, even before this update. Tried 2 factory resets on the phone and another using Smart Switch. I went from 100% to 80% on my 1 hour commute home. Listening to downloaded podcasts and downloaded YouTube videos.
I've already had one replacement for a scratch on the screen. Would really prefer to not have another swapped out.
Is it really possible to get a unit with a defective battery? Especially with all the tests being done on these batteries now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also lose drastic battery life during my commute. But, the same was true on my S6. i think it's because my phone keeps going in an out of cell coverage, while stuck in a metal tube with hundreds of other people trying to connect. But, since you posted, I presume you are having uncharacteristic battery life on your commute that you didn't have on your prior phone, right?
To isolate the issue, is it feasible for you to turn off mobile data on your next commute, especially since you're listening/watching downloaded content? That way, you'll know if it's the mobile data polling that's creating your issue.
eyc said:
I also lose drastic battery life during my commute. But, the same was true on my S6. i think it's because my phone keeps going in an out of cell coverage, while stuck in a metal tube with hundreds of other people trying to connect. But, since you posted, I presume you are having uncharacteristic battery life on your commute that you didn't have on your prior phone, right?
To isolate the issue, is it feasible for you to turn off mobile data on your next commute, especially since you're listening/watching downloaded content? That way, you'll know if it's the mobile data polling that's creating your issue.
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Click to collapse
That's a good suggestion and I'll try it. I had a Nexus 6p prior to this and S7 Edge before that, both had mediocre battery but still better than this. Lots of my friends have this phone and get great battery life.

Gear S3 reading wrong battery percentage

So I'm having the same fast battery drain that a lot of people are having where I can lose 30-40% in 1 to 2 hours and be completely dead in 6hrs. But here over the past couple of days my watch will shut down like the battery is dead but when I put it on the charger it will read anywhere between 28 and 32% so I will turn it back on and it will last about a minute and then shut down again and when I place it on the charger it still reads the same thing. Has anyone had this issue? Used to go all the way down to 3% and when I would put it on the charger it would read 3% but not now.
Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
My wife's did this the other day. She just turned it off and left it on the charger for 24 hours. Seems to be working well today.
mattman86 said:
My wife's did this the other day. She just turned it off and left it on the charger for 24 hours. Seems to be working well today.
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Click to collapse
Dis the percent reset?
Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
Bump
Is there a way to reset the battery status and percentage reading. Having the same issue.
Mine has been doing this for a few weeks now. It would power down as if the battery were depleted. When I put it on the charger, it would show 80%. I just bit the bullet and installed a new battery this morning (after trying everything else) and now it is working fine.
@Illusive Man
1.
Your Model Name... + Firmwareversion?
Example...
SM-R760 DSA1 (Tizen 4)
2.
Own risk!
Code:
*#0228#
You could try this "Quick Button"...
I will try to add Screenshot...
Best Regards
Edit 1.
Screenshots from my SM-R760 with Tizen 4 DSA1 Firmware...
adfree said:
@Illusive Man
1.
Your Model Name... + Firmwareversion?
Example...
SM-R760 DSA1 (Tizen 4)
2.
Own risk!
Code:
*#0228#
You could try this "Quick Button"...
I will try to add Screenshot...
Best Regards
Edit 1.
Screenshots from my SM-R760 with Tizen 4 DSA1 Firmware...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't post any screens because after checking, my battery quick check is exactly like yours except L15 instead of L16
I too am having the same battery rapidly draining. I pulled it off the charger today at 1 after letting it fully drain last night. I had to place the watch twice because initially it was charging at a rate of 25/hr. It's 2:30 and I'm down to 76%.
The odd thing is, I got the watch for Christmas, purchased Monday of black Friday week. It was perfect until the first week of January. Then it slugged up. The the following day I started getting the battery drain issue, 10 - 15% an hr. After countless times of rebooting, factory restoring, letting the watch drain entirely and recharging, and messing with notifications and permissions, it started to act normally again. Then I got the Tizen 4 update and I decided to go through the update. I'm back to square one again...
I have no idea what really set it back to normal the first time. Figured I'd reach out again while I mess with it.
Also, I tried flashing the watch, but every time I went too, the software on my laptop would just crash when I hit start.
SM-R798T running Tizen 4. The upgrade to Tizen 4 wasn't done until after the new battery was installed. Now I can easily get 2 days life out of it. The battery was $24 and took about 25 minutes to install (I was being VERY careful since I had never done this before). The watch ran like a champ with good battery life (this was Saturday), Sunday afternoon, I got the notification to update to Tizen 4.
Watch shuts down quickly
I have had similar issues to all here. My watch is fully charged to 100% and removed from the dock and lasts probably an hour and a half, then shuts down without warning, no low battery signal or anything of the sort.
When it is placed back on the dock it reads anywhere between 80 - 90%.
This must be a software problem. I just upgraded to one UI and the issue has recurred.
Has anyone solved this??
vaughnq said:
I have had similar issues to all here. My watch is fully charged to 100% and removed from the dock and lasts probably an hour and a half, then shuts down without warning, no low battery signal or anything of the sort.
When it is placed back on the dock it reads anywhere between 80 - 90%.
This must be a software problem. I just upgraded to one UI and the issue has recurred.
Has anyone solved this??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
same exact thing happening to my watch since updated One UI, did not have any problem before this update.
so far I could not able to solve the issue, not matter what I tried.
@Illusive Man
can you provide more detail how to get that?
Solved: Watch shuts down quickly
vaughnq said:
I have had similar issues to all here. My watch is fully charged to 100% and removed from the dock and lasts probably an hour and a half, then shuts down without warning, no low battery signal or anything of the sort.
When it is placed back on the dock it reads anywhere between 80 - 90%.
This must be a software problem. I just upgraded to one UI and the issue has recurred.
Has anyone solved this??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have bit the bullet and changed the battery. Samsung repair shop did the install. On pick up at 15:50, the watch reconnected with my phone, did the update and synchronised at which point the battery went to 84%, from startup at 86%.
It then lasted overnight and for the next day, until the morning of the third day on which it died.
Since then it has lasted 2.5 to three days on one single charge.
I will only be charging it once it dies, not preemptively.
I will continue to monitor and update if any negative changes occur.
See people are still trying to insist it's a battery problem. Not true, most of the issues are software problems.
Still have the original battery in mine and two days is not a problem now. Meanwhile a year ago it didn't last 8 hours.
Charging the watch is a pain because the percentage is way out of whack and doesn't work right but once it's charged it works...
Still absolutely unacceptable for a $350 product that has only worked properly for about a year of the 2.5 years I've owned it due to glitchy software.
nascar48 said:
See people are still trying to insist it's a battery problem. Not true, most of the issues are software problems.
Still have the original battery in mine and two days is not a problem now. Meanwhile a year ago it didn't last 8 hours.
Charging the watch is a pain because the percentage is way out of whack and doesn't work right but once it's charged it works...
Still absolutely unacceptable for a $350 product that has only worked properly for about a year of the 2.5 years I've owned it due to glitchy software.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My watch now depletes its battery in less than 4 hours. Sometimes if I put it on a charger, the watch would instantly say 64%. I agree with you that it's a software problem. Does it help if I reset the watch? Do I have to replace the battery to solve this problem? Thanks.
I wonder if its a bit of both, battery degrading and the watch failing to reclibrate around it. I actually had a new battery in mine recently (GW42 but some of the same problems) as it was under warranty but if it wasn't I would be tempted to just disconnect the battery for a period of time and then reconnect and see if that is enough to reset the battery usage. Intrigued if anyone has tried this.

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