Galaxy S5: What battery life should I expect with low to moderate use?

Apr 17, 2014
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My battery life is way lower than I expected, but when I brought it in to the Verizon store today, the manager tried to convince me that KitKat sucks and it is normal to get less than 12 hours of battery life on even low usage with android phones loaded with KitKat....which does not match up with what I've been reading.

This is just the stock system, with no added loaders or crazy apps or widgets constantly running or updating stuff. I have wifi on, but GPS and Bluetooth are off and the screen is set to auto-brightness. I also have the background processes under Developer Settings limited to just 2.

The past several days since I got it my phone has been down to < 10% battery after about 11 hours. This is almost all standby time in my pocket. Maybe a dozen text messages, 10-15 minutes on the phone and about half an hour to an hour surfing the web or checking emails, but that is it. All total, hardly more than an hour of basic use a day. Which, coming from my Razor Maxx which would last well over two days with such activity, seems really bad.

So this morning when I unplugged the phone to kick off the day I made sure all apps were closed and I haven't used it all day other than to read a few texts and emails. So now, after 9.5 hours, I'm at 28% remaining. Better, but not by much. I've just looked under the battery setting and there are still no rogue apps listed there and practically all of the usage has come from Android OS & System (Screen has only used 3% for example.)

I also just noticed that it is currently in Power Savings mode, but I don't think I had that set before. My guess is that the Verizon guy did it when he was looking at the phone. Which means that even on Power Savings mode the phone has used up 23% of the battery in the last 4 hours of standby-only use (I was at 51% when I brought in the phone during lunch.)

I'm well within my two weeks so I can have Verizon swap it out, but that is such a headache I wanted to know what my expectations should be and if there is anything else I should look at trying first. Thanks!
 
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debdroid1a

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Apr 14, 2014
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Re: What battery life should I expect with low to moderate use?

I don't think it should be that bad. Yesterday after 12 hours I had 50% with minimal use.

Post a screen shot of your battery and screen usage. Maybe that can help determine what's using your battery.

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Apr 17, 2014
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Re: What battery life should I expect with low to moderate use?

Hi, not really sure how to do that yet :)

But basically I have a very linear line going straight as an arrow from 100% to 22% over 10h 22m 38s on battery (that's another 6% in the last 30 minutes of non-use). No dips at all, just a very steady decline with no drops.

The usage for apps are showing as:

Android OS: 34%
Android System: 19%
Google Services: 7%
Screen: 3%
Phone: 3%
Google Search: 3%
com.android.systemui: 2%
 

Xzibit3

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Feb 28, 2014
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Re: What battery life should I expect with low to moderate use?

about 3 hours of just using PowerAmp, and screen on auto brightness i had 93% left. Airplane mode wasn't on either. What type of apps do you have?
 

atg284

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Re: What battery life should I expect with low to moderate use?

Press and hold the power button and home button for a full second for a screen shot. You will hear it take the shot and it will be stored in the screen shot folder.
 
Apr 17, 2014
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Re: What battery life should I expect with low to moderate use?

No real apps other than what comes stock with the Verizon phone, certainly nothing else running in the background.

I can take screen shots :) just not sure how to get it uploaded to the forum yet since that doesn't appear to be an option with posting from the app.

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dad2noah

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Re: What battery life should I expect with low to moderate use?

I use the phone about as much as you, and after 12 hours, I'm at 30%, plus I have bluetooth on a good 4 solid hours per day.
I have all the *extras* off though. Like that smart stay, and that thing where you can hover your finger over the screen. There is a lot of *neat* things this phone has, but most aren't very practicable, and I just shut those settings to off.
Here are my settings
Wifi always on
bluetooth always on
Display brightness is set to 1/2 way on the slider and the auto adjust screen tone on
Smart stay OFF
Daydream OFF
Touch key light duration 1.5 sec
Increase touch sensitivity OFF
finger scanner OFF
Location on
Lock Screen is Swipe (My phone is never away from me)
Motions and gestures, EVERYTHING IS OFF
Air View is OFF
The only widget I have is a calendar widget. I believe the more widgets you have, the more your battery drains, but that's just a feeling.

Having 30% left at 8:30pm after a normal day is ok with me
 
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Re: What battery life should I expect with low to moderate use?

Those are all very similar settings to mine other than I leave the BT off. I have a few of the motions and gestures on, but they shouldn't really be a factor if the phone is not used all day. Like you, the only widget I have is the stock calendar one. If I could go through the day until time to go to bed without having to plug it in I'd be fine. But when it's 4 pm and I'm still at work and my phone is beeping to let me know I am at 15% and then I'm down to 5% by the time I get home, that just feels off. That is 12 hours of max life on almost no usage before my phone needs to be recharged.

I can try and go through all those settings and flip them off and see if there is any difference tomorrow.

Yours surprises me as well though as being under performing. I've read a number of the articles referencing battery life and every one of them says drainage tests having the screen always on and the cpu under constant use either with all video or mixed video/browsing last anywhere from 8-10 hours depending on the article. And the couple articles I found referencing just normal real-world usage put at at 1.5-2 days of use.

I do know that minimizing the number of background processes is supposed to help because by default there is no limitation and unless you close apps down they still hang around and can suck up power. But I have mine limited and it has made no difference.
 
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Chris Abbott

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Re: What battery life should I expect with low to moderate use?

I don't know guys, don't think that's normal. Right now I'm at 70% battery. That's 14.5 hours unplugged. 90 mins screen time. Location on, wifi on, air wake on, auto sync facebook, gmail, weather widgets.
 
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Re: What battery life should I expect with low to moderate use?

I don't know guys, don't think that's normal. Right now I'm at 70% battery. That's 14.5 hours unplugged. 90 mins screen time. Location on, wifi on, air wake on, auto sync facebook, gmail, weather widgets.

Ok, now you're just making me jealous. But that is more inline with what I was expecting to get.
 

JennieBee19

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Re: What battery life should I expect with low to moderate use?

Very, odd.
I did a battery drain the other day, my day finished with 20hrs, had 4 1/2 hrs screen time, most of the time I was in a bad reception area. I would share the pic, but can't figure out how to send it through the app either!

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sirmaru

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Apr 11, 2014
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Re: What battery life should I expect with low to moderate use?

Keep the S5 in Ultra Saving Mode when not in use or when only using phone calls and messages. Both those tasks can be done in that move.

That doctrine really cuts down battery usage.

Also, buy and install GSam Battery Monitor Pro. It will show exactly what is using your power. You can keep a large widget of it on your main home page to show the battery level and access GSam rapidly.
 
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Re: What battery life should I expect with low to moderate use?

I'll try out GSam and will keep an eye on it tomorrow and see what it says. Still, while I understand I can use the ultra low mode, if I plan on only using it lightly during the day and plugging it in every night, I should think I wouldn't have to do that.
 

edge4628

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Re: What battery life should I expect with low to moderate use?

Josh I am having the same battery problems as you. I've scoured through the phone disabling every thing recommended to disable, not using any widgets, Bluetooth off, location off. I have airplane mode on a large portion of the day and use wifi. Today was one of the better days I have seen with this phone. After 9 hours I was at 66% with 1 hour and 13 minutes of screen time. Something chewed through my battery.
 
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Re: What battery life should I expect with low to moderate use?

Josh I am having the same battery problems as you. I've scoured through the phone disabling every thing recommended to disable, not using any widgets, Bluetooth off, location off. I have airplane mode on a large portion of the day and use wifi. Today was one of the better days I have seen with this phone. After 9 hours I was at 66% with 1 hour and 13 minutes of screen time. Something chewed through my battery.

So sorry, I'm feeling your pain right now :( That's my next step for tomorrow, disable everything I can short of going into ultra power saver mode. I'll keep tweaking and playing with things, but I'm leaning towards wondering if I kind of got a lemon and having Verizon replace it next week if things don't markedly improve. I would even take 66% after 9 hours, but I don't think you should have to jump through hoops and hamstring yourself in order to achieve that.
 
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Re: What battery life should I expect with low to moderate use?

Also, buy and install GSam Battery Monitor Pro. It will show exactly what is using your power. You can keep a large widget of it on your main home page to show the battery level and access GSam rapidly.

Apparently with kitkat none of the battery tools have access to the battery usage without rooting. GSam specifically states that it doesn't work because of this. :(
 

ab304945

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Re: What battery life should I expect with low to moderate use?

Don't have a screen shot. But with moderate use, I was at 20 hours with 15% left. This is listening to music, milk radio, for about 3 hours straight. And some gaming.

I think I had about 2 1/2 hours of screen time.

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edge4628

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Re: What battery life should I expect with low to moderate use?

So sorry, I'm feeling your pain right now :( That's my next step for tomorrow, disable everything I can short of going into ultra power saver mode. I'll keep tweaking and playing with things, but I'm leaning towards wondering if I kind of got a lemon and having Verizon replace it next week if things don't markedly improve. I would even take 66% after 9 hours, but I don't think you should have to jump through hoops and hamstring yourself in order to achieve that.

That's ultimately what I am feeling. The fact I have had to go through just about every part of the phone to get the battery to last through the evening, with moderate use, makes me think something is not right. I wouldn't imagine the phone would have such high ratings if everyone was having to go through disabling and shutting down features.
 

Paul lebbon

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Re: What battery life should I expect with low to moderate use?

I have been losing sleep over my S5. First day no problems, I was actually laughing quietly at finding the perfect phone. Then on day three the battery drained from 87%~4% overnight! Three things I have installed, removed, installed again and so on. First Go Power Manager, then 360 Anti-virus and finally the Shockingly expensive S-view case. Not sure exactly which it was but now the battery drain has stopped. I now have no AV, no Battery saver and no Protective case but a good battery! Let me know if you have any of the things listed and if it made a HUGE difference when you removed them ok. Good luck
 

Milos1977

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Re: What battery life should I expect with low to moderate use?

Something speciffic must be causing your power drain performance.

I have the opposite story:

I have my S5 7th day now, and battery is consistent and pretty amazing.
Note: I'm running both Security 360, and Lookout protection softwares together, GPS on all the time, and either mobile data or Wifi on all the time(Never both in the same time)
I also disabled more than few apps which i never use, such as my magazine and bunch of others. I did add many of my own choice apps, and run many apps updates.

I did 36h moderate use twice already getting down to about 15%.

This included shooting 2-3 4K videos, few standard HD videos, 50-60 photos. Viewing them all. Using moderate web browsing, mainly reading news, and playing music or chess game while on the train to and from work, or in the evenings. 5-6 few minutes phone calls. Installing bunch of apps, and customizing screens (over and over :)

On Wednesday morning after unplugging the phone from charger, I decided to push it to the end, and with such usage (minus taking any videos, but doing everything else mentioned above) After 36h battery was again at 16%. It was evening. I used phone to brows some more news online, and played with google Sky Map, and played more chess till it hit 9%.
In the morning it was 7%. I Downloaded/read more news (CNN app), etc..After 49h, my battery was down to 5% !!!

5% after 49h of light to moderate use !! I couldn't be more happy. I hope it lasts.
 
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