Turning off Fast Charging

[LukeJM93]

After the lollipop update I was experiencing I bit of battery drain, even when I wasn't using the phone it would still manage to use up a fair bit.

So the a couple of days I go I switched off fast charging before putting the phone on charge overnight (yesterday being my first day of using the phone having charged it with fast charging off). The difference was INCREDIBLE. With fast charging off I got 14 hours of battery with 5 hours screen time and the majority of that was at full brightness. Sorry I didn't take a screenshot, but I thought that this was info worth sharing.

 

[SpookDroid]

Mmmm... Interesting. There really shouldn't be any difference on activating or deactivating this unless there's a serious bug in the software or the charging-sensing hardware has an issue. I'll try it myself and see if I see any difference.

Thanks for the tip!

 

[Ott3rMan]

I do not have any dubt in OP's measurements, but I feel it time to address the elephant in the room in all these battery, charging and upgrading posts. The truth is that there is no standard, no common ground, no absolutes to measure. Here is just a list of things that CAN have an impact on battery:
1. Position. Cell coverage, WIFI use, data use and so on are relying on radio waves. These elusive waves will differ from meter to meter if measured. This means that to make a comparison you have to leave your phone stationary the whole test. And that is not factoring inn outer interference such as weather.
2. Your friends. In order to make a true test you will have to eighter tell some friends to send x sms, status updates, pictures, snaps etc. You might not feel like having used your phone much, but your friends may have.
3. Technology. And this is where is gets interesting, cuz 99% out there who are EXPERTS can not tell a Lithium cell from a jail cell. Here are facts, check them if you want:
lithium cells do not like to be full or empty. TRUE. That is why they all come with protection against just that. The battery will never drain to true zero, and will stop accepting charge when it sended it is full. Easy peasy. Abuse it all you want, charge with insane currents, it will take it. Cuz if it is out of the safe range, the battery will not accept it.
Litium cells must be fully emptied and recharged in cyles to make it last longer. WRONG. See last point
4. Tolerance. Every singe piece of home electronics has a tolerance. Thus means for instance when the bulb says 50w it may be within 49-51w for instance. Now take batteries that even react to temperature. I do not have the data, but there is a tolerance here. Some get the top part, some the lower part of the curve. Sad, but that is life.
5. Placebo. Yes I said it. Placebo, there i said it again. You get an idea, you switch off the heater before you charge it. And what do you know? The next day it is muuuuch better. Exept from the fact that now you are in BATTERY SAVE MODE in your mind cuz you want it so bad to work.
6. Breaking in a Lithium battery. Every single person on this planet uses the crap out of a nice new gadget the first days. This is to be expected. What is so hard for me to understand is the total lack of seeing the connection between extreme usage and battery drain...
7.And this is my favourite. Ask yourself if your gadget lasts from you take it of the charger through the day and till you get back to plug it in said charger? This under normal use, that is NOT waking it every 30sec to check battery level. Cuz if it does, then what is really the problem? We expect all the electronics inside gadgets to use NO power, but here is a news flash: THEY DO! The more fancy, the more power. So if you do not like it, get a simpler gadget.
8. Common sense. Why would Samsung devout a mountain of R&D on the quick charge feature if it is in some way dangerous? My car has a switch to turn off passenger airbag. I do not take that as a sign that my wife is better off without airbag...

This is not meant to offend, hurt or otherwise **** anyone off. I just state some simple fact. Shoot me if I am wrong, add something if I forgot something.

Otterman out

 

[SpookDroid]

Well that was a lengthy post hehe

I agree with a lot of the things you say, but also give the benefit of the doubt to all posters. Yes, there's no universal truth to battery life since we all use our devices in different ways, but even if it's a placebo effect, the best way to tell if your phone is better or not is yourself. And in this case, at least for the OP, turning off quick charging seems to make enough of a difference for him to notice! And that's good! Might work for others, might not... Samsung's team is not the only one (unfortunately) that handles the code on these phones, so bugs might happen. It can also be a combination of things happening specifically in the OP's phone that might not be present in mine and that won't make my phone see any difference with Quick Charging... Who knows?!

Truth is, we're all here to try and give our best tips. And turning a switch on and off (especially if you charge at night, where fast charging doesn't really matter that much) is worth the try for some extra battery life, don't you think?

 

[SpookDroid]

Well that was a lengthy post hehe

I agree with a lot of the things you say, but also give the benefit of the doubt to all posters. Yes, there's no universal truth to battery life since we all use our devices in different ways, but even if it's a placebo effect, the best way to tell if your phone is better or not is yourself. And in this case, at least for the OP, turning off quick charging seems to make enough of a difference for him to notice! And that's good! Might work for others, might not... Samsung's team is not the only one (unfortunately) that handles the code on these phones, so bugs might happen. It can also be a combination of things happening specifically in the OP's phone that might not be present in mine and that won't make my phone see any difference with Quick Charging... Who knows?!

Truth is, we're all here to try and give our best tips. And turning a switch on and off (especially if you charge at night, where fast charging doesn't really matter that much) is worth the try for some extra battery life, don't you think?

 

[LukeJM93]

Out of curiosity, for others who have tried it has it made a difference?
It has been working consistently for me.

As has been said that could come down to something to do with my phone.

 

[SpookDroid]

I haven't tried it because I'm in 'unusual usage situation' right now (traveling in China, and with so many things blocked here, I hardly use my phone as much as I do back home). But I'll give it a try when I'm back to normal and post my findings here. Although I have to say, if this was after the LP Update, it does take a couple days for battery consumption to 'normalize' itself. Have you tried re-enabling it and seeing if it impacts your battery life noticeably?

 

[Ott3rMan]

Well that was a lengthy post hehe

I agree with a lot of the things you say, but also give the benefit of the doubt to all posters. Yes, there's no universal truth to battery life since we all use our devices in different ways, but even if it's a placebo effect, the best way to tell if your phone is better or not is yourself. And in this case, at least for the OP, turning off quick charging seems to make enough of a difference for him to notice! And that's good! Might work for others, might not... Samsung's team is not the only one (unfortunately) that handles the code on these phones, so bugs might happen. It can also be a combination of things happening specifically in the OP's phone that might not be present in mine and that won't make my phone see any difference with Quick Charging... Who knows?!

Truth is, we're all here to try and give our best tips. And turning a switch on and off (especially if you charge at night, where fast charging doesn't really matter that much) is worth the try for some extra battery life, don't you think?

It us spot on when you sat that Samsung is not the only ones poking their dirty hands into the Android book of codes. But never the less, where do one find facts that says fast charging shortens battery life? Look at electric cars. Many run on Li-Ion cells, like a phone. Bare in mind that a battery cell is a battery cell no matter how big it is. Like your phone has just a few cells (batteries are made up of cells with a finite voltage number to produce a battery with the right voltage). Anyway, back to the car, here they work really hard on charging speed. And as it turns out, the only thing stopping the manufacturer is the fact that (here in Norway) the average Joe only has 16A at home. When you pull up to a changing station on the other hang, you see the charging cord is like a fire hose compared to the spagetti you have at home. And after only a few minutes of charging the car it good to go, while as it may take 5hrs to get the same amount of juice at home. Point it, these batteries are incredibly though. And I stand by my word when I call that speed wharging (increased voltage, decreased amps but the same effect in W) is not any more dangerous to your battery than having it in your pocket on a hot day or better yet, in a holder in a car. It is heat that degrades these batteries the most.

That said, again, I belive the OP when he says his phone last longer. I have a Gear S that has it's own battery life will. Some days it use 80% during a day, others 45%. And I can not find out why. But as long as it has 1% left when I go to bed I am OK with it.

I wish I could confirm OP and help him check the battery lifetime, but as described above the only way to do it is having your phone in a strictly controlled state. And also you need more than one day to confirm it, like my Gear S has its own will and will behave as it pleases.

My biggest point is that nobody has shown any documented fact about what faster charging does to a battery in this case. Ergo there is nothing to suggest a shortened lifetime. I just wish ppl would spend more time loving and enjoying this piece of marvelous electronics than they do making up half fact so they can have something to worry about. Yes batteries are not for ever, yes they will die at some point, but so what? If you get a week more out of you battery by having it in a temperature controlled container (read cooling bag), is it worth it? Cuz we are not talking years degrading here. We are talking hours and days at best(my understanding out of all I have read of research on the topic).

Be happy, USE the Note 4. It has a hole in the bottom for a reason. It is so that when you have spent half the day playing with it you can continue to do so with just any USB micro cable. I love it !

Otterman gone fishing

 

[Hamza Mourad]

How you do it !!
Turn off fast charging?

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Ott3rMan]

How you do it !!
Turn off fast charging?

Posted via the Android Central App

On my phone with Lollipop it is:

Settings-System-Power Saving

You should find a check box there for disable or enable fast charging.

 

[Gunny94]

Anyone can share Battery stats with and without?

Planning on testing it out.