Sorry about another battery thread :-\

[Joltcola1234]

Hey all, first post here (long time CrackBerry user so lots of posts there )

Not here to complain about the battery life or anything! I just got my Galaxy S III on Thursday night and am loving it thus far. I've never had an Android phone before this, and also never really had "high end" - type, phone. Did some reading about battery conserving stuff and mostly it was stuff I already know (screen brightness low, make sure apps aren't running your battery down, searching for signal, wifi on/off, blue tooth on/off, gps on/off etc.). Also found the thread about disabling bloat from your service provider in your application manager.

My question is mainly just what type of battery life is somewhat normal? I've seen a few threads on this and everyone seems to have wildly different answers. I guess of course it all depends on use and what not, but under normal circumstances and not going crazy, what is expected out of a full charge until it's time to recharge? About a day?

Currently I've gone from 100% to 15% in about 14 hours of use with the screen being on for about 4 hours, and using the most power (new phone ). Does this sound about inline without anything abnormal going on?

Also, I saw a drain of a little over 1% per hour last night while sleeping - this was with it connected to LTE and receiving a few messages (emails, texts, whatsapp), is this also about normal?

The drain on the battery right now is certainly worse then it was with my BlackBerry, but nothing really to alarming.

 

[kodybrannon]

Sounds like you are getting about the same average that I am getting. I can average anywhere from 12-16hrs with light to moderate use. I keep my phone on wifi if possible. I am ecstatic with it, never had a phone last that long before. usually if I got 5hrs without a charge I was happy.

 

[meyerweb#CB]

Currently I've gone from 100% to 15% in about 14 hours of use with the screen being on for about 4 hours, and using the most power (new phone ). Does this sound about inline without anything abnormal going on?

Also, I saw a drain of a little over 1% per hour last night while sleeping - this was with it connected to LTE and receiving a few messages (emails, texts, whatsapp), is this also about normal?

Welcome. I hope you enjoy your S3. Quite a few Blackberry users can't seem to get used to the very different way Android does some things, and some of the things BB does that are missing from Android. Be sure to check this post: http://forums.androidcentral.com/sa...ing-you-wanted-know-about-your-galaxy-s3.html Lot's of great information linked there, including a guide for BB users coming to Android.

Anyway, to your questions: 14 hours with 4 hours of screen time is pretty good. As you say, it really depends a lot on usage, signal strength, WiFi usage vs. cellular data, and 3G vs. 4g, and more. But the screen is really a big battery user. I can get 16 - 20 hours, but with only about 2.5 hours of screen on time. And most of the day on WiFi. As you say, keeping the screen brightness low is the best thing you can do to reduce battery usage when the screen is on.

I haven't monitored overnight drain like that myself (I generally charge over night, so don't care), but from what I've read in other posts here I think 1% is good, especially on LTE. I don't think you'll get any lower than that without rooting and using 3rd party kernels and ROMs or programs that throttle the cpu when the screen is off. .

And yes, BB's get better battery life. But most of them have much smaller screens, which translates to a lot less drain when on. And I don't think BBs do nearly as much background processing as Android, either. Android can probably get better in terms of efficiency, but part of the price of a powerful, multi-tasking OS and a big, bright screen is going to be more power consumption. Just plug it in for 30 minutes to an hour during the day, and when you go to bed, and you should be fine.

If you find you really need more battery life, there are a few options: larger, extended batteries (which require new backs, make the phone bulkier and heavier, and don't fit into most cases), inexpensive replacement batteries from 3rd parties, or expensive replacement batteries from Samsung, so you can swap a new one in during the day, or external battery cases, which also make the phone bigger and heavier.

 

[Joltcola1234]

Welcome. I hope you enjoy your S3. Quite a few Blackberry users can't seem to get used to the very different way Android does some things, and some of the things BB does that are missing from Android. Be sure to check this post: http://forums.androidcentral.com/sa...ing-you-wanted-know-about-your-galaxy-s3.html Lot's of great information linked there, including a guide for BB users coming to Android.

Anyway, to your questions: 14 hours with 4 hours of screen time is pretty good. As you say, it really depends a lot on usage, signal strength, WiFi usage vs. cellular data, and 3G vs. 4g, and more. But the screen is really a big battery user. I can get 16 - 20 hours, but with only about 2.5 hours of screen on time. And most of the day on WiFi. As you say, keeping the screen brightness low is the best thing you can do to reduce battery usage when the screen is on.

I haven't monitored overnight drain like that myself (I generally charge over night, so don't care), but from what I've read in other posts here I think 1% is good, especially on LTE. I don't think you'll get any lower than that without rooting and using 3rd party kernels and ROMs or programs that throttle the cpu when the screen is off. .

And yes, BB's get better battery life. But most of them have much smaller screens, which translates to a lot less drain when on. And I don't think BBs do nearly as much background processing as Android, either. Android can probably get better in terms of efficiency, but part of the price of a powerful, multi-tasking OS and a big, bright screen is going to be more power consumption. Just plug it in for 30 minutes to an hour during the day, and when you go to bed, and you should be fine.

If you find you really need more battery life, there are a few options: larger, extended batteries (which require new backs, make the phone bulkier and heavier, and don't fit into most cases), inexpensive replacement batteries from 3rd parties, or expensive replacement batteries from Samsung, so you can swap a new one in during the day, or external battery cases, which also make the phone bigger and heavier.

Thank you both for the replies! No complaints here so far vs the old BlackBerry 9860. The BlackBerry OS does offer a couple features that I miss immediately, but overall the Galaxy S III feels like a much more powerful piece of tech and I'm very happy with it. I don't foresee the need for an additional battery, and I was expecting the GS3 to be a bigger "hog" then my BlackBerry, so nothing really unexpected there. I was mainly just concerned about keeping the consuming to average levels and setting the up the phone properly for that!

 

[Robert White1]

One IMPORTANT difference is that the BB's alarm would ring even if the phone was "switched off"
the reason is that it was not powered down... sorta like put in a deep airplane mode.... but still ON!

So, if you need an alarm to wake you, do not turn off your phone!
Good Luck & Aloha!

 

[Uncle Reemus]

Your battery life doesn't sound bad at all really, but there are as few apps that you can install to get a few more hours.

From my Galaxy Tab 2