Database Info

Battery Life Claims vs. Reality

I stopped by an AT&T corporate store to get a hands on with the Captivate. The salesperson there tried to tell me that the standby time on the device was 15 days if you kept apps from running by downloading an app killer. I asked if he really meant 15 days if no radios were running. He said "nope, 15 days is pretty easy".
Really, folks... what is reality here? Is it similar to other smartphones, where a day with moderate use is reasonable?

There is no way the phone will last 15 days in standby even with a good task killer. How can the sales rep tell you this if he only had the phone in store for 2 days?

That's a very good point... but he was very sure of his claim. I pulled out the "I'm very skeptical" response and walked away. Oh well, looks like once again, truth is in the internets somewhere, not in someone who should know such things.
Another element to this is whether an upgrade to 2.2 will increase battery life. I work away from any ability to charge and really need a phone to hold up all day.

ekruse said:
That's a very good point... but he was very sure of his claim. I pulled out the "I'm very skeptical" response and walked away. Oh well, looks like once again, truth is in the internets somewhere, not in someone who should know such things.
Another element to this is whether an upgrade to 2.2 will increase battery life. I work away from any ability to charge and really need a phone to hold up all day.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, my N1 holds charge for about 1 day with moderate use. As soon as I play with the GPS and google's built in nav system I get maybe 4 hours worth of usage. Another issue I have with my N1 is that my car charger cannot keep up with the drain, so even plugged into the charger the battery percentage is decreasing. Sure hope the Captivate is better in that respect.
Froyo did increase battery life a bit but it is not earth shattering. The advantage of this phone is the larger capacity battery and hopefully a less power hungry samsung processor than the qualcom snapdragon.
I am sure within the next few days we will have some folks with more concrete consumption estimates.

i don't know... while the 15 day claim is a bit much, mine was fine with heavy usage all day yesterday on the half charge that it came with from AT&T... given that, i think that it should last 2-4 days easily with only light-moderate usage.

My battery lasts me all day. It's just marginally worse than my 3GS I think... My 3GS always had extra at the end whereas my Captivate seems to run out when I'm going to bed.
So... It lasts all day. That's really all that matters to me.

My battery has not been able to make it through the day. Don't know why yet. I have my email accounts set to 30 minute sync schedule, have Wi-Fi and bluetooth off. Don't know what is going on. Still researching. Will see how it goes for a week. Might be a bad battery.

i find that dark backgrounds help. Also keep unecessary things off and dl an app killa. I had a new captivate today at 10am and with its half charge and heavy usage it lasted me till 6

by heavy usage i mean constant surfing and dling shiz. I didnt use gps wifi or play a movie. also played that free mario game for bout an hour.

After about 11.5 - 12 hours of very light browsing (maybe like 1/2 hour 3g surfing, no calls, all apps killed with task killer every once in awhile) with Bluetooth and Wifi off I am at 68% left. This is with auto brightness.
I'd say if you don't do anything you might be able to get 3-4 days out of it. According to my battery stats 78% of all my battery usage has been the screen. Keep that thing off / or low brightness and you are going in the right direction.

i bet by standby att means the phone being not used and turned off for like 4 days lol

systoxity said:
i find that dark backgrounds help. Also keep unecessary things off and dl an app killa. I had a new captivate today at 10am and with its half charge and heavy usage it lasted me till 6
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks systoxity, I will try that

systoxity said:
i find that dark backgrounds help. Also keep unecessary things off and dl an app killa. I had a new captivate today at 10am and with its half charge and heavy usage it lasted me till 6
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
By dark, he means a background that has a lot of black in it. This is really helpful because the Super AMOLED screen on this phone turns off power to pixels that are black, so basically that part of the screen isn't using any power. A black background is almost like turning the screen off.

magicman0 said:
By dark, he means a background that has a lot of black in it. This is really helpful because the Super AMOLED screen on this phone turns off power to pixels that are black, so basically that part of the screen isn't using any power. A black background is almost like turning the screen off.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this, thanks for clarifying.
note: it further helps if you apply a static one.

I was able to listen to music for 6 hours at work, show off my phone (I only showed it directly to one co-worker - I had 5 other guys come to check it out after he told them about it lol!), did some light surfing, downloaded a few apps and generally fiddled around with the phone and ended up at 43% battery. Not great, but not terrible either. Screen was the big killer here. GPS and WiFi off except to test Layar.
We'll see if battery life improves, but it enough to make it through one day easily for me. Forget to charge it and it'll be flat early into the next day though. I'm a bit disappointed, considering benchmarks on the Galaxy S came up with nearly 8 hours of constant video playback. I think they had brightness at 50% and I kept setting mine to max to show off the screen and then forgetting to set it back, so that could be part of it. I was definitely expecting more though. I'm clearly not the most demanding user here, so I was hoping to potentially eek out two days of usage (just in case I forget to charge it).
One of the reasons I went with the Captivate instead of waiting for the Epic is that the form factor seems to be a bit more amenable to adding an extended battery. Hopefully we'll start to see some 2500mAh or even 3Ah batteries show up - even if it means getting a new backcover. THAT should just about do it

anosis said:
Well, my N1 holds charge for about 1 day with moderate use. As soon as I play with the GPS and google's built in nav system I get maybe 4 hours worth of usage. Another issue I have with my N1 is that my car charger cannot keep up with the drain, so even plugged into the charger the battery percentage is decreasing. Sure hope the Captivate is better in that respect.
Froyo did increase battery life a bit but it is not earth shattering. The advantage of this phone is the larger capacity battery and hopefully a less power hungry samsung processor than the qualcom snapdragon.
I am sure within the next few days we will have some folks with more concrete consumption estimates.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Also the Super AMOLED Screen sucks alot less Juice as well...
My friend has the Vibrant and has had it for about 4 days. He is a power-user like me, and he said with his task killer, he can run the phone for 2 days on a full charge. This is outstanding for a smart phone... I ordered my Captivate today, should be here on Wednesday so I'll also put this to the test!

better battery life is coming once devs hop aboard. Also, your phone will need training over the next few days so it can only get better from here for you. I also recommend just leaving brightness on auto detect. You wont have to play with it as much and forget it on super bright.
Some more tips:
idk if you guys like haptic feedback but i think its annoying as all hell. Turn it off to save an iota of battery.
Also tone responses for menu clicks? ANNOYINNGG turn that shiz off for a squirt of juice.
Lastly, unless you live by your email, turn sync off and only sync manually when ur curious about it.

I wonder about some of the widgets. I have Weather And Toggle Widget (which I prefer over Beautiful Widget), and have it set to update the weather every 30 minutes. Wonder if that's too often. The weather in Iowa can be very unpredictable and change quickly, but I'm inside all day so it doesn't really matter. I guess it's just eye-candy mostly.
I also wonder how WATW compares to BW in terms of battery consumption.
I turned haptic off (I agree, it was annoying). I turned the tones off, though I doubt that will affect battery life. I wish I could keep the tones for dialer and kill it for the keyboard.
EDIT: I keep reading about this idea that you train your battery (or device) to your usage, but I'm not sure that I understand/buy it. I could see perhaps something to do with the memory effect if these batteries are susceptible to it, but this idea of "training" it strikes me as very odd. Does Android have some kind of battery optimization algorithm that adjusts services based on your usage or something?

from what i understand, calculating battery life is like a guessing game. calibrating your device by letting it drain out and then fully charging it and draining it out again completely gives your phone an idea of just how long it can last on a single charge. Until you do a few cycles like this it will incorrectly display batter life percentage giving the user a false sense of security or panic. There may be more to it that has to do with the actual battery itself but idk the rest of the details.
and 30 min updates is a bit much lol. u should update like once a day and manually refresh if you need to know b4 u go out.

I'm getting very good battery life on my phone. As good as any iphone I've had and better than any of my windows mobile phones before that. I don't have any widgets constantly pulling down data though and only have my google account syncing contacts and calendars and an exchange account running.

TBH very disappointed

Hi
Have had this phone for just a day.
Been struggling to make up my mind whether I want to get it because of the limited memory.
But finally decided to go ahead because it has good reviews on its performance and battery life.
No complain about the performance, but the battery life?....
Played Tripple Town for just about one hour and 30 mins and the battery goes down from 66% to 35%, the majority of which is comsumed by the screen.
So here is where I am. 5 h 47 m on batter, 32% left, 69% of the power drain is because of the god damned screen.
Seriously HTC, how can you manage to get so screwed up with such a decent processor.
you get rid of the removable battery, ok, nowadays the battery lasts reasonably long.
you get rid of the Micro SD card and force us to use the rubbish dropbox. 50GB 1 Yr cost $99. Why don't spend that money to get us a decent bigger memory? But ok I want the performance, I am willing to give up a bit of space for that.
But Finally SUPER AMOLED. Seriously, what kind of dump decision is this to fit a more-than-a-year old technology to such a decent new processor?? when we know all the bad thing about this screen.
It alone kills all the power efficiency the 28nm processor can offer us.
So now this phone's battery cannot out perform (when you are actually using it) neither of my previous phones: Dell Streak and Atrix. Don't tell me I have to compare the battery life by switching off the screen and just let them sit there.
I am very disappointed. very disappointed.
This will be the last phone I buy from HTC.

It sounds like you don't know about how to manage phones.
You prob was running lots of applications at once and brightness all the way up it still won't go from 66% to 35% sounds like a bad unit you have.

no... the brightness is at it's lowest level.
I use anrdoid assistant to kill process once an hour.
There is very unlikely this is a bad unit. Nowadays these manufacturers control the production quality very good that the chance I get a bad unit is probably as low as winning some lotto.

For starters, your device is BRAND NEW so battery will take about a week or so to break it in, just be patient. Also, killing tasks will only end up using more resources since Android will most likely just start them back up once it gets the chance. Run your battery down the first couple of days and charge it overnight and you will start to notice it getting much better.

unclespoon said:
For starters, your device is BRAND NEW so battery will take about a week or so to break it in, just be patient. Also, killing tasks will only end up using more resources since Android will most likely just start them back up once it gets the chance. Run your battery down the first couple of days and charge it overnight and you will start to notice it getting much better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Kill Process runs only once an hour. So during the time I was playing, it probably just ran once. I doubt it will cost much power at all.
I understand it needs time for the battery to warm up. But even with that taken into account. it is not looking good. It reminds me the suffer that Desire caused my friend.

Hopefully this doesn't turn into a bigger issue; keep us posted!

yuan_1202 said:
Hi
Have had this phone for just a day.
[...]
I am very disappointed. very disappointed.
This will be the last phone I buy from HTC.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sorry mate but this is just stupid. first of all the battery meter is not calibrated in a new phone meaning the reported battery state is not accurate. you have at least to charge the phone once to 100% and discharge it fully to calibrate the 2 extrem states. before that everything displayed is just a rough approximation. at the first discharge i had ~20% left and the phone was down to 0 in just some minutes of heavy use. after 2 cycles i get ~-10% for an hour of heavy use. so stop crying and give the phone some day's to adjust

yuan_1202 said:
no... the brightness is at it's lowest level.
I use anrdoid assistant to kill process once an hour.
There is very unlikely this is a bad unit. Nowadays these manufacturers control the production quality very good that the chance I get a bad unit is probably as low as winning some lotto.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you have a bad unit.
Android Assistance/Android Task Killers only mess up your battery more.

jodue said:
sorry mate but this is just stupid. first of all the battery meter is not calibrated in a new phone meaning the reported battery state is not accurate. you have at least to charge the phone once to 100% and discharge it fully to calibrate the 2 extrem states. before that everything displayed is just a rough approximation. at the first discharge i had ~20% left and the phone was down to 0 in just some minutes of heavy use. after 2 cycles i get ~-10% for an hour of heavy use. so stop crying and give the phone some day's to adjust
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I sincerely hope you are right. Because I will be much happier. Let's see in a week time.

Adjust said:
I think you have a bad unit.
Android Assistance/Android Task Killers only mess up your battery more.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I hope jodue is right: the battery needs time to fix itself.
I will give it a week to see whether things will improve. If not I will go to store to get a new one.
I have been using Android Assistant for my Streak and Atrix. It turned out to be just alright.
Anyway I will remove it and see how it goes.
Ppl have wrong idea that AMOLED is more power efficient. I remember reading a review some time ago on battery life of smart phones. It tested a number of phones and the outcome is that actually on average the AMOLED (at that time there wasn't SUPER AMOLED yet) devices last less than others.
But anyway...

yuan_1202 said:
I use anrdoid assistant to kill process once an hour.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is the most stupid thing one can do. The processes will likely be restarted by the OS and you consume more power than you would have consumed by letting android do his things as designed.
Google itself suggests not to do it. Even the most honest task manager apps suggest not to do it. (e.g., http://android.nextapp.com/site/systempanel/doc/autokill ).
Anyway, before judging battery life wait few days. I own a One X, and battery life improved suddenly after few recharging cycles. ;-)

About the display. I readed somewhere in this or X forum, that:
1. LCD does consume less power, but for X version, since its bigger screen, it takes more
2. AMOLED screen power consume depends on what it have to display (colors). Black/dark colors need less power to be shown while white takes the most power...

You get 25GB free on dropbox with all one series phones plus a further 25 per referal
Mod or Die

Stiflerlv said:
2. AMOLED screen power consume depends on what it have to display (colors). Black/dark colors need less power to be shown while white takes the most power...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This. Many people don't know/forget about this. Using a dark theme on apps you use most on an AMOLED phone can save a lot of juice, much more than all those stupid Juice Defender/task killer/manager apps can ever hope to.

snowwhite007 said:
...plus a further 25 per referal
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
250MB per referral

Leviathan2k said:
This. Many people don't know/forget about this. Using a dark theme on apps you use most on an AMOLED phone can save a lot of juice, much more than all those stupid Juice Defender/task killer/manager apps can ever hope to.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You cannot ask all the website to go dark background can you?
Ppl use the phone to do different things. Games, Browing internet... thats the whole point, the phone should perform consistantly for all tasks, not just looking at dark home screen. HTC hasn't even figure this out yet??

yuan_1202 said:
You cannot ask all the website to go dark background can you?
Ppl use the phone to do different things. Games, Browing internet... thats the whole point, the phone should perform consistantly for all tasks, not just looking at dark home screen. HTC hasn't even figure this out yet??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
in browser-setting you can invert white background/black background

no battery issues here
No battery issues, with slightly higher than average use (downloading loads of apps, playing some games, using google maps and a half hour driving nav and some music lsitening) over the first few days I've averaged 24-36 hours which I'm pretty happy with.
There are a few software things I don't like though
First, I miss having settings in the notification tray, it's one less tap of the screen. Also, the tweaked recent apps list seems pointless, you have to flick from one to another... the Stock android 4 recent apps scroll is much better, it let's you see/do more with less interaction. I also noticed a bug where the wireless signal will appear as null in the notification bar but if you view the the details in settings it says that the wireless signal strength is excellent!
Don't let any of this put you off though it really is a great phone and feels great in the hand... CM9 may rescue all!

Have the One S now, arrived a short while ago. The most annoying thing is that a stock device only has 9GB of that 16GB free when you get it.
This is nuts, I will not be using dropbox, there are many nefarious reasons why HTC want people to use dropbox or any cloud storage, this does not work well while I am roaming folks. This is not good for a business phone, I maybe sticking with my DesireHD.

Its sad, that many ppl who consider themselves technophiles do not even understand the battery of their devices.
ANY device with a modern battery should be initially charged overnight or 7-8hrs at least even of the little green light tells you it is all OK after 4 hrs. Do that, and give it a week to break in and I assume there won't be anything to complain about anymore.
Somy link to a decent site discussing these battery care tips and characteristics should be auto-pinned to each new device subforum cause the first complaints are ALWAYS about the battery life it seems...

[Q] Disappointing battery life.

I heard good reviews about battery life of Moto G but mine's battery life is disappointing, could you please see my stats and tell me if its normal or something is wrong.

There can be many factors why battery life is that worse. Bad programmed apps, Wifi always on, screen time, call duration, running background processes and so on. Most times i switch my data connection off if i don't need it. I run my phone since 2 days and 8 hours and my battery is on 9% at the moment. As i see your wifi was always on. Try switching it off.

mokkami said:
There can be many factors why battery life is that worse. Bad programmed apps, Wifi always on, screen time, call duration, running background processes and so on. Most times i switch my data connection off if i don't need it. I run my phone since 2 days and 8 hours and my battery is on 9% at the moment. As i see your wifi was always on. Try switching it off.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Screen on time is around 4 hours, I haven't called even for a second or used my data connection yet, but I keep wifi always on because I thought it causes lesser battery drain.

How can always wifi on cause lesser battery drain?
Don't know, sounds unlogical to me.
4 hours screen on? Phuu........did not try it but i guess it is normal if you have your screen 4 hours on.
What are you expecting? Switching everyting on and then have a two days battery life?
See yourself on your graph how battery got better when screen was off. Now switch off wifi and try again.
In my opinion i don't see any problem with your phone.
Maybe someone might correct me if someone feels that i am .....

mokkami said:
How can always wifi on cause lesser battery drain?
Don't know, sounds unlogical to me.
4 hours screen on? Phuu........did not try it but i guess it is normal if you have your screen 4 hours on.
What are you expecting? Switching everyting on and then have a two days battery life?
See yourself on your graph how battery got better when screen was off. Now switch off wifi and try again.
In my opinion i don't see any problem with your phone.
Maybe someone might correct me if someone feels that i am .....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought Wifi uses lesser battery than 3G and I expected 20 hours battery atleast.

I see your Wifi is working all the time. Are you aware of this?
In some JB Android version google implemented automatic Wifi networks scanning (probably for their purposes), even when Wifi switch swhows "disabled".
You can disable it, maybe it can save some battery: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2422689,00.asp
Cheers.

Install BetterBatteryStats and see if there's any wakelocks that are eating your battery at the moment.
Also, about your on screen time - what's the settings for brightness that you use? You might want to consider dropping the "auto" and go for a reasonable low level of brightness that fits your indoor or outdoor activities.
Your assumption of WiFi eating less batter than data connection is correct in most of the cases.
Anyway, if you have any doubts about this... an average NOTE3 user can't get to those 3h 30minutes with on screen time

darkeingel said:
Install BetterBatteryStats and see if there's any wakelocks that are eating your battery at the moment.
Also, about your on screen time - what's the settings for brightness that you use? You might want to consider dropping the "auto" and go for a reasonable low level of brightness that fits your indoor or outdoor activities.
Your assumption of WiFi eating less batter than data connection is correct in most of the cases.
Anyway, if you have any doubts about this... an average NOTE3 user can't get to those 3h 30minutes with on screen time
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2538691
Your battery is normal with so much screen on time.

It does look disappointing,i get a lot more than that but mine is rooted and greenified and set up how i like it.
Im currently on 1d 18h and have 39% left with 4 hour screen time and that's with a mixture of wifi and 3G.
i enable airplane mode overnight though which only uses 1% in 8 hours.

I'd say that's normal battery life for this phone here's mine for today.

I'd agree with the previous post.
I've been on a WiFi network for the past 7 hours.
Sent from my XT1032 using Tapatalk

Battery life has been disappointing ever since smart phones got on the market... Oh good old Nokia 3310 how I miss your battery performance
Seriously something needs to be invented, this cannot be tolerated any longer.
Sent from my Grand X In using Tapatalk

svetievboris said:
Battery life has been disappointing ever since smart phones got on the market... Oh good old Nokia 3310 how I miss your battery performance
Seriously something needs to be invented, this cannot be tolerated any longer.
Sent from my Grand X In using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LOL. I miss my old Nokia too but face it. That old Nokia had a tiny screen and did little more than phone calls and texts.
I've had a few androids and The G is by far the best in terms of battery life.
I miss my indistructable Nokia but I wouldn't go back
Sent from my XT1032 using Tapatalk

Motorola is advertising this phone as all day battery phone so shouldn't it last more than 12/14 hours.

A car manufacturer also advertises his car with 500 km per full fuel tank. But if you drive all the time with 170 km/h per hour over the highway then this statement can also not be applyed anymore. As i said, i switch on wifi only when i need it and thats the same with data. I had a battery life for nearly 72 hours. Ok i made also less calls in that time. But it is all about your usage. I for my opinion can not find any problem as i said already. Motorola advertised nowhere that you can use your phone under "full load" for a whole day. This is called marketing in todays world. If you be believe everything what advertisement says then you seem for me very naive....... you should think about that

mokkami said:
A car manufacturer also advertises his car with 500 km per full fuel tank. But if you drive all the time with 170 km/h per hour over the highway then this statement can also not be applyed anymore. As i said, i switch on wifi only when i need it and thats the same with data. I had a battery life for nearly 72 hours. Ok i made also less calls in that time. But it is all about your usage. I for my opinion can not find any problem as i said already. Motorola advertised nowhere that you can use your phone under "full load" for a whole day. This is called marketing in todays world. If you be believe everything what advertisement says then you seem for me very naive....... you should think about that
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Atleast the reviews said it last more than a day and I didn't used the phone under full load, just the Wifi was on all the time which uses lesser battery than 3G and I did 0 calls.

It might be true that 3G uses lesser than WI-FI, but what is that for a comparison? You can not compare WIFI and 3G because it is a completly different technology for different purposes. 3G Data uses a lot of Battery that's true. But WIFI also but less than 3G. But this statement doesn't mean that WiFi uses nearly no Battery. It uses only less. If 3G uses 100 parts energy and WiFi uses 85 parts energy out of 100 then it is less. But 85 is still a lot out of hundred. I quoted full load, just as a general statement. I know you had not switched on Bluetooth and so on. But anyway, Dataconnections are a expensive feature in relation to battery life.
Did your review tell you the exact conditions they tested it under? Or did they just say that without any proove? Also Tests and reviews are often copy and paste bull****. If i see an Antivirus test and the Userinterface is tested bad but the userinterface has a 45% weight in the all over test then i would say this is a crap test.

mokkami said:
It might be true that 3G uses lesser than WI-FI, but what is that for a comparison? You can not compare WIFI and 3G because it is a completly different technology for differnet purposes. 3G Data uses a lot of Battery that's true. But WIFI also but less than 3G. But this statement doesn't mean that WiFi uses nearly no Battery. It uses unly less. If 3G uses 100 parts energy and WiFi uses 85 Parts energy out of 100 then it is less. But 85 is still a lot out of hundred. I quoted full load, just as a general statement. I know you had not switched on Bluetooth and so on. But anyway, Dataconnections are a expensive feature in relation Battery life.
Did your review tell you the exact conditions they tested it under? Or did they just say that without any proove? Also Tests and reviews are often copy and paste bull****. If i see an Antivirus test and the Userinterface is tested bad but the userinterface has a 45% weight in the all over test then i would say this is a crap test.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes see the gsmarena battery test I've attached, my phone doesn't even come near to its battery life

Unfortunately I can't take a screenshot but I have a stock (not rooted) Moto G that loses excessive amounts of battery with Aeroplane mode on!
What can possibly be causing such excessive battery drain - 50% -> 7% in 6 hours with no screen on or data or wifi.
Thanks

fatboyslimerr said:
Unfortunately I can't take a screenshot but I have a stock (not rooted) Moto G that loses excessive amounts of battery with Aeroplane mode on!
What can possibly be causing such excessive battery drain - 50% -> 7% in 6 hours with no screen on or data or wifi.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi that's a lot of drain i'd say theres some rogue process that runs even in airplane mode with no internet killing the battery i'll attach a screenshot of mine from last night this is with network on but WiFi and data off.

Thoughts on the Verizon G5 so far?

I took advantage of the BOGO offer from Verizon and got two LG G5 at Costco. I've been using my phone lightly, but I can't help but complain about the major issues that gets everyone else talking: Battery life.
I see other people have screenshots of achieving 6-7 hours of SOT, but I'm seeing nowhere near that. The most SOT I can see is having 3 hours before hitting to a depleted battery. Occasionally as well, the phone feels pretty hot to touch when it idles or have some fair amount of usage. Even right now I have it inside a thick, bulky protective case, and i can feel the heat from the back. Is it the SD820 or is there something off?
Just to make a comparison, I have been using the Sony Xperia Z3v for a year and a half with Verizon since its release and it's a great all around phone. I usually achieve 5 hours of screen on time or even more depending on how heavy I've used it. Waterproof, dual front facing speakers, 20.7 MP camera (although very outmatched by the G5's), and the power saver absolutely works. What I mean by that is that when the power saver is on in the G5, nothing seems to load at all.
So the overall question is, how is this phone for everyone? I absolutely love the camera, but the battery drainage and overheating is an issue for me. I've had thoughts about exchanging for the S7 Edge since it's pretty much a direct upgrade of my Xperia, but I'd like to see what the G5 can really offer. Oh and, how long is it until I get the extra G5 accessories from doing that bundle deal? Thanks.

You know I've noticed peoples complaints about that but to be honest I think its just certain phones that had these issues. I don't know how but mine hasn't been hot since I first set it up. My battery life lasts me a full 8 to 10 hours depending on if I do too much gaming or YouTube. Those are my biggest battery abusers. But I made sure to deactivate the bloatware Verizon wanted to install. I've had a good experience with mine. The only time I've been mind boggled was when out of the blue chrome would cause the phone to freeze up till I reset chrome. Other than that my device has been running so smooth.
Sent from my VS987 using XDA-Developers mobile app

I've been one of the people complaining about battery life. In the first week or so that I had my phone, battery life was miserable. I need to be completely honest here though. After getting into my second week of using this phone, my battery life has greatly improved. In my honest opinion, I think it needs about a good week to 'settle' or 'break in'. I've done nothing different done I set my phone up and I have deleted any apps or anything. I don't know if this is the case for anyone else or not.

I like the phone a lot. It is fast and everything works well.
The only things that I want improved are
1) Screen brightness adjustment. Too dark in dimly lit areas and too bright in normal room lighting.
2) Battery Life. This is a strange one. Some days I have really good life, but sometimes the standby use it high. Google Play Services sometimes eats a lot of battery. I have to reboot to get it to stop. There are also people saying that being on wifi causes more drain. I thought this was not true for me, but I am rethinking. It may be higher when I am at home and on wifi.

djsbad said:
I've been one of the people complaining about battery life. In the first week or so that I had my phone, battery life was miserable. I need to be completely honest here though. After getting into my second week of using this phone, my battery life has greatly improved. In my honest opinion, I think it needs about a good week to 'settle' or 'break in'. I've done nothing different done I set my phone up and I have deleted any apps or anything. I don't know if this is the case for anyone else or not.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Smithfolk4 said:
I like the phone a lot. It is fast and everything works well.
The only things that I want improved are
1) Screen brightness adjustment. Too dark in dimly lit areas and too bright in normal room lighting.
2) Battery Life. This is a strange one. Some days I have really good life, but sometimes the standby use it high. Google Play Services sometimes eats a lot of battery. I have to reboot to get it to stop. There are also people saying that being on wifi causes more drain. I thought this was not true for me, but I am rethinking. It may be higher when I am at home and on wifi.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So far, I've yet to achieve substantial screen on time. It's really strange, I was having my phone used from 330 to 830 tonight, and it went from 100% to 45% with only 50 minutes of screen on time. WiFi and mobile data off, and I wasn't taking a lot of pictures.
One thing strikes me is the Held Awake/Doze clarified by GSam. That's eating the most battery, what exactly is it?

GigaSPX said:
So far, I've yet to achieve substantial screen on time. It's really strange, I was having my phone used from 330 to 830 tonight, and it went from 100% to 45% with only 50 minutes of screen on time. WiFi and mobile data off, and I wasn't taking a lot of pictures.
One thing strikes me is the Held Awake/Doze clarified by GSam. That's eating the most battery, what exactly is it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Honestly, I'm not positive. Make sure in your display settings, though, that you have 'screen always on' turned off.

GigaSPX said:
So far, I've yet to achieve substantial screen on time. It's really strange, I was having my phone used from 330 to 830 tonight, and it went from 100% to 45% with only 50 minutes of screen on time. WiFi and mobile data off, and I wasn't taking a lot of pictures.
One thing strikes me is the Held Awake/Doze clarified by GSam. That's eating the most battery, what exactly is it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't been able to figure out why sometimes GSAM shows very little held awake with the phone deep sleep for a majority of the time and sometimes the held awake is almost the entire time since the phone has been unplugged. It seems that if the phone gets into the held awake state that you can get out of it by rebooting, at least it seems like that to me. I have not had enough time to come to firm conclusions on this. I am pretty sure that the held awake has something to do with Google Services or Play Services. It would be great if we can get root and limit the wakelocks from these. Just have to wait on that.

Pretty solid compared to the G4. No heating issues, battery lasts longer as well. I'm at 25%, 11h 7 min on battery 2hr 53min screen on time.

I average 14.5 hours total, 3.5 screen on time. I have noticed turning wifi off when I'm not using it saves a pretty decent amount of battery, which is odd.
I'm not upset with the battery life or anything, it's better than my S4 and G4 were, but if the S7 really lasts 7 hrs with screen on.... i don't know. I have another week to decide on restocking. I do love how quick it is, it's beautiful, feels great in the hand, and the option of removable battery.
I like this phone, and while it is better than the G4 in every way (very buggy, lag, missed taps, etc), I now get paranoid about any tiny bug on this thing and wonder if a Galaxy would be more reliable.

My first full charge I got 45 hours of battery life with 4 hours of screen on time. However that was before I had all my apps reinstalled and that 48 hours with 4 hours SOT included reinstalling all of my apps. Screen brightness on auto the entire time.
Since then I've only been getting 4 hours of SOT with 24 hours battery life. That's only 4 - 6 hours more of total time on an no more SOT than what my 2 year old LG G3 was getting.
LG skimping on the battery was a mistake.

Worth rooting? Can it improve my battery life?

Hey guys! Been getting around 4h SOT as highest on my device, AOD turned off, 30-50 % brightness, fhd+ and dark theme.
Can get through the day but can't get a minute more than 4h sot which seems weird.
It's not that I think the battery life is absolute ****, I'm okay with it, the thing that sort of "bothers" me is that i see people getting like 6-10h SOT on like 2 days of charge which seems unbelievable to me.
Now on to the question,
is my utterly **** 4g signal preventing me from reaching 6-7 h SOT or is it just that I'm "unlucky" with the battery lottery.
Is it fair to expect a 6-7h SOT if i do decide to root and flash something like a notorious kernel and a rom?
Which I know will permanently void my warranty.
Or should I return the device and swap it out for either another s8+ or something like a g6?
I hope I don't seem too much of a brat ****face but I did lay out tons of cash for this phone, which other than the battery I am incredibly impressed by.
Thank you guys for keeping this forum running, it's been a lifesaver!

Del

underdog_656 said:
Most of these 6-10 hours of sot is nonsense as most of these people don't even use the phone properly only leaving the screen on so that sot would increase rather than using it properly like watching YouTube having a decent brightness etc... Just use your phone as much as you like stop thinking about battery life if it's really a problem get a powerbank. Me my self if I'm at work I use a lot of GPS as I need to travel and I have my screen turned of as I listen to Google maps rather look this will put me at around 3 to 4 hours of SOT or more sometimes depending how much I use the screen. But when I'm at home I use the phone non stop and I get around 5 -7 I always use full brightest all the time full res gaming sometimes youtube etc as you can see the people who get 6 to 10 they don't even use the phone that much so is there a point for them to have this phone if they don't use it to full potential no they might as well get a cheap phone.
Edit:
The only reason I would suggest rooting is if you want to play around with the phone like having a different kernel that allows to change voltage, speed etc
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This, i can get 20hr sot on my mate 9 if i leave it with screen on, take in account SOT means NOTHING, it just one measure that can be easily manipulated.
I use my phone the way i use and i only judge by the end of the day, how much perfect left and what took the most of my battery life, without caring about SOT at all.
Just now i was traveling to Budapest and made ton of photos and videos with my DSLR and the Mate 9, on sunny days your brightness will be up, shooting 4K videos and taking pictures, using GPS google maps, will make your SOT low, does that mean your battery life is bad? NOT AT ALL
Stop caring about sot and use GSAM monitoring up to understand if there is a rogue app.

I have the S8+ and I see that they have figured out how to root the Snapdragon version. I am not really pressed to root my phone.
The 1st time I used the phone, which was a weekend and mostly WiFi, I got over 6 hours of screen time. However on my work days where I use mostly LTE service and I'm inside an office building, I may only have 3-4 hours of screen time but I will make it home with almost 50% of battery life.
I'm no longer concerned with screen time. If my phone can get me through a full day, then I'm happy with it.
Sent from my SM-G955U1 using XDA-Developers Legacy app

alldino said:
Hey guys! Been getting around 4h SOT as highest on my device, AOD turned off, 30-50 % brightness, fhd+ and dark theme.
Can get through the day but can't get a minute more than 4h sot which seems weird.
It's not that I think the battery life is absolute ****, I'm okay with it, the thing that sort of "bothers" me is that i see people getting like 6-10h SOT on like 2 days of charge which seems unbelievable to me.
Now on to the question,
is my utterly **** 4g signal preventing me from reaching 6-7 h SOT or is it just that I'm "unlucky" with the battery lottery.
Is it fair to expect a 6-7h SOT if i do decide to root and flash something like a notorious kernel and a rom?
Which I know will permanently void my warranty.
Or should I return the device and swap it out for either another s8+ or something like a g6?
I hope I don't seem too much of a brat ****face but I did lay out tons of cash for this phone, which other than the battery I am incredibly impressed by.
Thank you guys for keeping this forum running, it's been a lifesaver!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Firstly,
I fully agree with @Derpling post above .( His last paragraph..)
Also SOT, now days, means nothing to me.!
Many years back, i used to be obsessed
with benchmark, battery usage, performance etc.
I also use to root all my device's.
However, presently i have stop been " obsessed"
and accept what is reasonable/acceptable.
eg. battery usage including SOT.
prefomance and stop rooting.
There is plenty work arounds available.
Presently, what i do
is i have a few good battery
apps... Betterbattery, Wakelock detector,
Gsam, I enabled these apps with ADB, to get them working. No root. (Very straightforward one or two liner commands, that's all.)
If i have a rogue app, and my battery use " suffers" i use these apps to id the app. and sort app out accordingly.
eg clear cache /data or uninstall.
Lastly i read online that presently,
more devs are
using " other alternatives" than root.
eg ADB...
to give you similar end results.
Bottom line... I found that in most cases
rooting a device just
creates other/more issues.!.. to fix.!
Now days, for me to root my device ( if ever again)
i must have a very, very good reason to root.
Good luck

willcor said:
Firstly,
I fully agree with @Derpling post above .( His last paragraph..)
Also SOT, now days, means nothing to me.!
Many years back, i used to be obsessed
with benchmark, battery usage, performance etc.
I also use to root all my device's.
However, presently i have stop been " obsessed"
and accept what is reasonable/acceptable.
eg. battery usage including SOT.
prefomance and stop rooting.
There is plenty work arounds available.
Presently, what i do
is i have a few good battery
apps... Betterbattery, Wakelock detector,
Gsam, I enabled these apps with ADB, to get them working. No root. (Very straightforward one or two liner commands, that's all.)
If i have a rogue app, and my battery use " suffers" i use these apps to id the app. and sort app out accordingly.
eg clear cache /data or uninstall.
Lastly i read online that presently,
more devs are
using " other alternatives" than root.
eg ADB...
to give you similar end results.
Bottom line... I found that in most cases
rooting a device just
creates other/more issues.!.. to fix.!
Now days, for me to root my device ( if ever again)
i must have a very, very good reason to root.
Good luck
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You so right about root, there is a workaround to everything tbh, i use the Mate 9 without root and it's the closest phone in my opinion to perfection, no tweaks needed.
Geekbench SOT all of it are just numbers as it means nothing.

alldino said:
Now on to the question,
is my utterly **** 4g signal preventing me from reaching 6-7 h SOT or is it just that I'm "unlucky" with the battery lottery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think this is your problem, not the battery. One of the biggest battery killers on any device is a weak signal as the phone will push more power to the radio to try and find a better one (not exactly what happens, but there or thereabouts). Rotting won't change that.
Have you tried switching to 3G only, does that make a difference? Does it differ when you spend time in an area with a better signal?

El Presidente81 said:
I think this is your problem, not the battery. One of the biggest battery killers on any device is a weak signal as the phone will push more power to the radio to try and find a better one (not exactly what happens, but there or thereabouts). Rotting won't change that.
Have you tried switching to 3G only, does that make a difference? Does it differ when you spend time in an area with a better signal?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The problem with my service signal is just temporary, I've been working for the summer but I'm moving back to the university tonight, there I have full 4g and 3g signal so hopefully this will change, however I have settled down a bit with the phone and I'm pretty happy with the battery now, 4h sot is not bad

yea rooting aint the solution
try gsam, wakelock detector, etc to detect the rogue app

imho you don't need root to improve your battery life, i'm achieving 5hr SOT easily with brightness 50%, AOD on and resolution WQHD+, all you need is to disable some of the preinstalled packages, do a bit of research to find out which ones can be disabled without a risk, then you will be good to go pm me if you need an assistance

I think your battery preformance is most likely to some apps or how you use it, I can say from expariance and experemanting with my S8+ that SOT and battery over all can shift.
I haven't rooted since im using samsung pay and haven't had a real need for root yet. but have tried a couple of diff apps and tests to max my battery but found that non off it really saves battery, quite the opposite.
I have tried substrantium to go all black in the phone (cus we have Amoled) but my battery life got worse
tried nova launcer to get some preformance boost and also black down the theme, but nova still suffers from battey drain issues (had same problem with my HTC10)
have disabled alot of services like bixby etc with BK Plugin. but made no big diff.
So after having the phone since launch and mixing and matching stuff to see if I could squeese a little more life out of an already good phone, I got to conclution that Samsung has done a good job in optimizing the S8+.
The stock launcher is fast and efficent, the built in "cleaning" program works well in shuting down unused apps etc. and running the phone with no extras and not tweking anything special or trying to get the phone as black as possible, I can go about 2 full days with normal use.

If you have the Snapdragon, battery life will decrease, by 20%.

I switched from a Verizon S8 to an unlocked S8+ and imo not having any of the added bloatware makes a difference. On my S8 I could make it through a whole day but my battery would be down under 10%. I know the S8 plus has a bigger battery but I go to bed with 30-40% of battery life.
I run my phone starting at 4:45am with a gym work out and I'm in bed by 11pm. My usage is mostly lte except for when I'm home. My SOT is always 5 hours or more.
Sent from my SM-G955U1 using XDA-Developers Legacy app