S III Battery life...

scottjen26

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I posted here a month or so ago right after I got my phone. Horrible battery life, was interested to see other's results. Now I've seen more results with extended batteries etc., which is nice, but I don't feel I should have to spend another $50 - $100 for a battery to get my phone to work properly.

Contacted Samsung, they sent me to AT&T to get my battery "tested" by the store. 3 stores said they could not do that, wouldn't even know how. But the warranty center did order new batteries for my wife and I, which was nice.

So I get the battery, charge it to full, take it off the next morning, and see what happens. I leave for work at 9am or so, phone is still going strong at 11pm!!! 30% left. I actually had to play games and try to drain it to 15% so I could plug it in again, per instructions (which I still think don't matter much with lithium batteries). Thought problem solved.

So yesterday, I'm at 37% by 1pm? Disgusted. Looked at my phone, and Android System was responsible for 60% of the drainage. Hadn't really touched my phone, but figured something was running amok. Restarted phone, charged at work up to about 80% before I left, it was 60% 6+ hours later which was great!

So today, left at 9am at 100% again. I looked down an hour ago (3pm), and I'm at 34%!! Here are my current stats:

7h 14m on battery
Voice - 29%
Cell standby - 28%
Screen - 13%
Everything else small


Usage:
Voice - 1h 1m (had a con call today at work)
Screen - 26m


Bottom line, I've done virtually nothing with the phone and it's almost dead! What can I do? I haven't even gotten around to fully loading my phone up like I had my iphone. Juice Defender wasn't helping, delete it. Same with GSAM. The purist in me just thinks I shouldn't have to obsess over my battery, looking down all the time, it should just work, and if I leave at 8 or 9 in the morning I should be good until 9 or 10 at night at least with normal usage.

Are there other resources to check? Bite the bullet and get extended battery? Replace the phone? Jailbreak and use custom roms to remove Samsung or AT&T bloatware? Everything else about the phone is awesome except this!!!!

Thanks,
Scott
 

bengalt9

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I upgraded to S3 last week and had terrible battery life initially. The battery would drain completely in 5-6 hours. I let the cycle go on for 4-5 times and then did a battery pull. After that the phone has been wonderful...giving my 2 days worth of battery on normal usage.
 

Kelly Kearns

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A battery pull? What are you talking about?

This is the 2nd time my battery has run down and I got the phone 2 days ago and spent a lot of time on it that first day getting all my apps on it, getting wallpapers, etc.
 

bengalt9

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Well, by battery pull i meant- i removed the battery and re-inserted back in. I don't know what that did but my phone has been giving me wonderful performance after that (If you were a blackberry user anytime you would have known what exactly a battery pull is :D) . Just my experience.
 

fireidiot

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I'm not happy either. I talked to a friend with the iphone5 and he is experiencing the same issues. I have the extended Hyperion battery and the phone shows that it's 100% charged each night, but it's truly not. Anywhere from 74 to 88 percent as soon as it boots up. I'm really pissed about this. Now I think I will have to purchase the Seidio battery and see if it's better, but I'm tired of spending money on this phone. Every day is a mystery on how long the phone will last. I'm thinking 4GLTE has a lot to do with it, but at what price? As far as I'm concerned, yes this is a great phone with a lot of features, but it sucks that you have to plug it in constantly. Which makes all those features useless. I'm just about ready to go back to my iphone4.
 

Kelly Kearns

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Oh I forgot to mention, my battery time is also with 4G/LTE and I understand it uses a lot of battery. I was told with my last phone I shouldn't be plugging it in all the time or keeping it plugged up after it is charged. I've only plugged this on up when it's down to about 2% and the first couple of times I let the phone run until the battery went completely out and shut down my phone.
 

winmod21

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Well, here's what an AT&T (corporate store) employee told me last night:

? Let your GS3 go completely dead;
? Plug it in (to wall charger, not vehicle charger) and turn phone on as soon as it will turn on;
? Charge your GS3 (with it turned on) for 10 hours (e.g.- keeping it plugged in even though it reached a full charge after an hour or so); :eek:
? Unplug the GS3 ? turn GS3 off ? plug back in and charge it for 1 hour;
? Unplug the GS3 ? turn GS3 on ? plug back in and charge it for 1 hour;

? Total of: 12 hours!

. . he said that this method will 'properly re-calibrate the GS3's battery'. He claimed he read/saw this method on an XDA HTC forum, a few years ago, posted by an HTC Rep. He said that he used this method with his HTC Vivid, and that it should work equally as well with the GS3 ? since the HTC Vivid & GS3 both run on Lithium Ion batteries; the Vivid w/ 1620 mAh; the GS3 w/ 2100 mAh.

. . he also said that, in his opinion, vehicle chargers should "never be used", unless absolutely necessary, and then only briefly ?until enough of a charge exists? 'til the GS3 can be plugged back into the wall or a computer.

Any thoughts on this method?

I'm not happy either. I talked to a friend with the iphone5 and he is experiencing the same issues. I have the extended Hyperion battery and the phone shows that it's 100% charged each night, but it's truly not. Anywhere from 74 to 88 percent as soon as it boots up. I'm really pissed about this. Now I think I will have to purchase the Seidio battery and see if it's better, but I'm tired of spending money on this phone. Every day is a mystery on how long the phone will last. I'm thinking 4GLTE has a lot to do with it, but at what price? As far as I'm concerned, yes this is a great phone with a lot of features, but it sucks that you have to plug it in constantly. Which makes all those features useless. I'm just about ready to go back to my iphone4.
I've been thinking the same thing recently. The AT&T guy I spoke with last night also said: 'when the GS3 gets to 100% charged . . it's really not 100%'. :confused: And that it's best to leave it plugged-in some while longer (however long that is?) . . because it continues to get a 'small trickle' of a charge that brings it 'eventually up to a true 100%' . . 'due to the fact that when the GS3 initially shows 100%, it's false, and not really 100%.'

Any of that make any sense? :confused:
 
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sniffs

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That's called "Bump Charging"

Doing this isn't very good for your battery. Yes you can get a few extra %'s, but doing this can cause irreparable damage to the battery. Lithium Ion batteries are designed to operate well within a certain range. To keep from damaging the batteries/overcharging/overheating and corrosion, the manufacturers artificially limit the charging. So your phone reports 100% charge, in actuality, it might be 95% capacity.

I've read many white papers on lithium-ion batteries.. Here's a good read,

Your battery gauge is lying to you (and it's not such a bad thing) - xda-developers

Here's something to keep in mind,

"Several partial discharges with frequent recharges are better for lithium-ion than one deep one. Recharging a partially charged lithium-ion does not cause harm because there is no memory."
- I never recommend discharging your battery completely. When you discharge a LI-ION battery, you actually damage cells.

Charging Lithium-Ion Batteries

"Li-ion should never be discharged too low, and there are several safeguards to prevent this from happening."

I bolded that bottom part.. DO NOT EVER let a li-ion discharge completely regardless of what the store dummies/CSR's tell you. They are reading que cards, and remember, they work for a company that sells products. They tell you to discharge, and you'll ruin your battery quicker, requiring you to buy one sooner.
 
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fireidiot

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Well, here's what an AT&T (corporate store) employee told me last night:

? Let your GS3 go completely dead;
? Plug it in (to wall charger, not vehicle charger) and turn phone on as soon as it will turn on;
? Charge your GS3 (with it turned on) for 10 hours (e.g.- keeping it plugged in even though it reached a full charge after an hour or so); :eek:
? Unplug the GS3 ? turn GS3 off ? plug back in and charge it for 1 hour;
? Unplug the GS3 ? turn GS3 on ? plug back in and charge it for 1 hour;

? Total of: 12 hours!

. . he said that this method will 'properly re-calibrate the GS3's battery'. He claimed he read/saw this method on an XDA HTC forum, a few years ago, posted by an HTC Rep. He said that he used this method with his HTC Vivid, and that it should work equally as well with the GS3 ? since the HTC Vivid & GS3 both run on Lithium Ion batteries; the Vivid w/ 1620 mAh; the GS3 w/ 2100 mAh.

. . he also said that, in his opinion, vehicle chargers should "never be used", unless absolutely necessary, and then only briefly ?until enough of a charge exists? 'til the GS3 can be plugged back into the wall or a computer.

Any thoughts on this method?


I've been thinking the same thing recently. The AT&T guy I spoke with last night also said: 'when the GS3 gets to 100% charged . . it's really not 100%'. :confused: And that it's best to leave it plugged-in some while longer (however long that is?) . . because it continues to get a 'small trickle' of a charge that brings it 'eventually up to a true 100%' . . 'due to the fact that when the GS3 initially shows 100%, it's false, and not really 100%.'

Any of that make any sense? :confused:

I get that it might show 100% but actually be 90 or above, but not 65 as mine showed this morning. Also, within 30 minutes it went from 65% down to 12%. I checked Gsam and it wasn't an app causing that. I think the charging circuits in these phones are junk. I will be contacting AT&T for a replacement phone tomorrow. BTW, I have had the same charging issue with the stock battery and the Hyperion battery. I have also used different chargers with the same rating and have has this issue. I have also done 3 factory resets, and the last reset I didn't load anything except Gsam and SwiftKey. I'm done troubleshooting. If replacing this phone doesn't fix it, I'm going to a different phone completely.
 

fireidiot

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That's called "Bump Charging"

Doing this isn't very good for your battery. Yes you can get a few extra %'s, but doing this can cause irreparable damage to the battery. Lithium Ion batteries are designed to operate well within a certain range. To keep from damaging the batteries/overcharging/overheating and corrosion, the manufacturers artificially limit the charging. So your phone reports 100% charge, in actuality, it might be 95% capacity.

I've read many white papers on lithium-ion batteries.. Here's a good read,

Your battery gauge is lying to you (and it's not such a bad thing) - xda-developers

Here's something to keep in mind,

- I never recommend discharging your battery completely. When you discharge a LI-ION battery, you actually damage cells.

Charging Lithium-Ion Batteries



I bolded that bottom part.. DO NOT EVER let a li-ion discharge completely regardless of what the store dummies/CSR's tell you. They are reading que cards, and remember, they work for a company that sells products. They tell you to discharge, and you'll ruin your battery quicker, requiring you to buy one sooner.

As an Electronics Technician I completely agree with your statements.
 

winmod21

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Oct 22, 2012
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That's called "Bump Charging"

Doing this isn't very good for your battery. Yes you can get a few extra %'s, but doing this can cause irreparable damage to the battery. Lithium Ion batteries are designed to operate well within a certain range. To keep from damaging the batteries/overcharging/overheating and corrosion, the manufacturers artificially limit the charging. So your phone reports 100% charge, in actuality, it might be 95% capacity.

I've read many white papers on lithium-ion batteries.. Here's a good read,

Your battery gauge is lying to you (and it's not such a bad thing) - xda-developers

Here's something to keep in mind,

- I never recommend discharging your battery completely. When you discharge a LI-ION battery, you actually damage cells.

Charging Lithium-Ion Batteries



I bolded that bottom part.. DO NOT EVER let a li-ion discharge completely regardless of what the store dummies/CSR's tell you. They are reading que cards, and remember, they work for a company that sells products. They tell you to discharge, and you'll ruin your battery quicker, requiring you to buy one sooner.
All very interesting. Thanks so much, sniffs. ;)
What you've shared and the info. within the links that you've also kindly shared? makes much more sense to me. Appreciate the links, your prompt reply, and your helping to set us straight! ;)

Just glad I posted that AT&T guys' so-called charging & re-calibrating methods . . for review here . . before trying any of it, which we obviously shouldn't.. :-\
 

DallasFlier

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I let the Hyperion 4400 drain down to 3% last night, turned off the phone and charged all night. It said 100% this morning and within 5 minutes it dropped to 77%. I'm stumped.

My experience with Hyperion batteries is similar. I think they never really fully charged. But my Samsung and seidio batteries do charge fully. If they say 100%, that's what they mean.

Sent from my GT-I9300

I think if this doesn't get any better, I'll breakdown of and buy the Sedio battery.

I have better results (longer usage) with the Hyperion than with the Seidio battery, I have both. For a while, my S3 was doing very well on battery life - well, at least as well as it ever has.

Now the past week, its all gone to complete **** again. With the Hyperion 4200 ma battery, I'm down to 69% after 4 hours & 45 minutes of usage. The thing I'm seeing but not able to figure out is - of that high battery usage, GSAM says that 69.3% of it is from "Android System." I had recently installed a few new apps - mostly for Black Friday - but have gone back and removed everything I installed recently, but the "Android System" usage is still ridiculously high.
 

winmod21

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Oct 22, 2012
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Hey DallasFlier ? Thanks again for all your friendly help a month or so ago! Being able to download the Adobe Flash Player; a good note app; the MPR & TuneIn apps; plus upgrade the build & base to [~LH9] w/ the brightness slider ? all contributed to helping me decide to stay with the GS3.
Been meaning to 'thank you' again. So thanks again. ;)

Just curious, overall, have you been happy with the Gsam app? And don't feel that it may be contributing to excessive battery drain? I see that the reviews are pretty stellar.

Those links posted (up above, 5 posts) by sniffs ? are all very interesting reads, imo. :)
 
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scottjen26

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A week after getting a new battery, and 1 good day, 1 okay day, and the rest just as bad as before.

Today for instance - took off charge this morning, it's now 4:30. Showing 8h 21m on battery, I'm at 26%. That wouldn't be horrible - assuming I was actually using the phone. Largest offenders are:

Cell standy - 36%
Screen - 20% - 35 m of screen time
Voice - 9% - 16 m of talk time

Everything else is very small. So for my phone to essentially sit all day, I make a few phone calls, play Temple Run for 10 minutes, and check a few emails, and if I was going out tonight my phone would be dead by the end of supper? Just crazy. And what's worse, is 90% of the people are getting normal battery life, or even exceptional with extended batteries etc. and this seems to only affect a small portion of us, and so I've found no solutions.

Maybe I just need to back up my phone and try another one? I know one thing - I never once worried about my battery on my iphone 3gs in 3 - 4 years of owning it, it only died early when I was excessively using it and wasn't as good toward the end but still got me up until 9 - 11pm at night with normal usage. Now all I do is look down during the day to make sure I get enough of a charge to carry me through the day/night...

Scott
 

winmod21

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Oct 22, 2012
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Maybe I just need to back up my phone and try another one? I know one thing - I never once worried about my battery on my iphone 3gs in 3 - 4 years of owning it, it only died early when I was excessively using it and wasn't as good toward the end but still got me up until 9 - 11pm at night with normal usage. Now all I do is look down during the day to make sure I get enough of a charge to carry me through the day/night...

Scott
I couldn't agree more, Scott. Coming from the 3GS as well, my experiences have been identical to yours. :(
On the other hand (operating system), these GS3's seem to be turning us all into human battery percentage monitors. lol
 

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