Galaxy Note 4 Verizon - HORRIBLE BATTERY LIFE

[CatLady2010]

With my iPhones, when I was in a rural area with poor signal and no Wifi, the batteries would deplete faster. Switching to airplane mode helped a lot. I imagine it will be the same with my Note 4. Fortunately, I live in an area with good signal. However, that means instead of the phone searching for a connection, the apps are searching for updates. I hadn’t thought of it before reading through this thread, but I may need to go into each app and set how often it refreshes, if possible (in setting up my non-Gmail email, I was asked how often to refresh, and chose every hour. (And another thought: when I have no signal, are the apps searching along with the phone?)

 

[Serial Fordicator]

Just my opinion, but
1. Perform a factory reset.
2. If a reset doesn't work, you have 15 days to trade in from purchase date. Trade in for a new note 4 and if you are in the same boat, sell on ebay.

 

[Nitro211K]

That has little to do with the phone and everything to do with your computer. It is only giving the phone a small amount of power hence the slow charging, plug into the wall with the provided charger and you'll be impressed.


How long have you had the phone? Mine was great out of the box and got even better, but its not unrealistic if your phone is a day or two old that the battery needs to get a couple good full cycles (and real ones, not charging it off and on from you laptop giving it just enough juice to charge it a tad) to break in. All batteries have a break in period where they get better after a couple duty cycles.

It just looks like bad battery life mainly, it shows you are losing signal quite a bit though so a part of it could be your phone roaming for a signal or an antenna issue. Also having GPS and bluetooth on when not in use will unnecessarily drain you battery not helping the cause, and GPS will obviously kill it faster then just about anything save for games. Is your brightness at max as well? 40% drain from your screen alone is rather high. You should expect from a properly broken in and working note 4 to give you high 5's to low 6 hours of screen on time a day.

My suggestion would to A. if it is new give it a chance to break in and do like I said with the battery or B. get a replacement unit. The note 4 is a proven beast when it comes to battery life, don't discount all note 4's because of your phone there are a ton of factors at play here.

I too disable the GPS (location), however I keep getting an annoying popup window that says that my location is disabled, and asks me if I want to go into settings and enable it, or if I should be reminded later. do you get that also? is there a way to disable this popup?

 

[Preach2k]

This is what I got after 11 hours of use. I work the grave yard shift. I used my phone a lot last night. My battery life is pretty good. Verizon GNote4.

Sent from my GNote4 using Tapatalk!

 

[new2thisyeah]

On my current charge, I have gotten 1 day, 14 hours, 32 minutes (on screen time: 7 hours, 45 minutes).

My wifi is always on and no power-saving mode. I still have 12% battery life.

 

[eao1991]

With the wifi battery drain, you could just disable "Always allow scanning" within the Advanced WiFi settings

Sent from my Note 4

 

[fragologist]

I want to say this without sounding too dramatic or like I am exaggerating, but I think I lose around 10% of my battery per hour. A very generous estimate would be 5% of my battery an hour.

I think you got a bum phone. You need to replace it. I can get nearly 18hrs with moderate use and %30 brightness. Hope it works out for you.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[gorgalis]

Two reasons your battery is dying that quick.

1. Your screen has been on for over 2.5 hours when it has been off the charger for a little over 5 hours.

2. Something is using GPS. Look at the big drop in your battery and compare that to the "Location On" bar graph... they match perfectly. Make sure you do not have a weather app constantly looking for your location.

And try Greenify, it will greatly improve your battery life.

 

[pdub73]

Blake...
A lot of things factor into battery life... wifi, GPS, are not huge battery killers as some people think... you may have a faulty device but u also have to consider things like how often your weather app updates and how often your email apps sync/push also signal strength is a huge factor...2 bars of 4g will still drain your battery while idle more than 4 or 5 bars...also app notifications, games are huge battery hogs "words with friends", candy crush, 2 of the worst battery hogs out there...i leave my wifi and GPS on ALL THE TIME...and i get excellent battery life but I'm a bit OCD about apps running in the background so im always clearing the recent apps and freeing up memory apps i never use i disable, or remove if i can, my weather widget updates every 6 hours if i need more recent weather info i manually update it.. i have 3 email accounts i use their apps not the native email app from android/samsung, gmail and yahoo I let push but hotmail(junkmail) i manually sync...signal strength you cant really control because of where u work, where u drive, where u live all have different bars of signal strength but i try to use wifi whenever possible to save data...i hope this helps...

 

[LaTuFu]

I am not yet ready to say it is a bad phone or bad battery. I think you're dealing with learning curve issues from returning to Android from iOS.

From your screen shots, what I got out of it was:
--You had your screen on approx 50% of the time measured by that ss. When the screen is on a lot, you're going to eat battery. That's just how it works. You might want to try having it on auto for a while and see if that helps. I have my screen set that low, but I also override with auto most of the time and don't see much of an issue with the battery drain. If I get on for a long time I will go to manual and dial it down, if I think it will help.
--Your system was on WiFi and Location On was also on approx 50% of the time measured. Whatever is wanting Location info constantly is probably your biggest culprit right now.

There were some other issues I can see, but they are relatively minor and I'd address these issues first and see if it clears anything up.

WiFi/GPS on/off: There is nothing wrong with leaving the WiFi and GPS on with this phone, but if you do, you better make sure you manage your app settings properly. If you don't really need them, nothing wrong with turning them off. With my past Galaxy devices, I had those services off unless I needed to use them. When I got the Note 4, I have been leaving them on just to see how battery life is impacted. I do turn off WiFi when I leave the house or the office, just to avoid the WiFi searching drain, but I am leaving GPS turned on pretty much 24/7 right now. I've been impressed with how well the Note 4 manages resources compared to previous Samsung devices.

But you still have to do your part. Things like, make sure Facebook and other apps are only allowed to "check" for things when there is a WiFi connection, or when you're on the app, etc. Make sure you don't have weather widgets or other widgets refreshing their data too often. I have my weather info update every 6 hours, and if I need it more frequent, I update it manually. So check your settings on your apps and make sure you have them set up correctly. Especially that "home beta" app you had listed. That seemed to consume a fair amount of juice compared to the rest of your system.

I have never seen the need for apps like Greenify if you know how to manage your settings properly. The Android OS does a good job by itself of managing RAM and CPU if you take the time to set up your apps properly. JMHO.

 

[varunaX]

Without trying to be negative, it does seem a little odd that you guys are pleased with 10-12-14hrs of battery life and 5hrs of screen/usage time. Just reading this thread objectively, it appears as you guys have all just become accustomed to this standard, because when you look at those numbers from afar, that really is poor battery life. (perhaps what those people are trying to communicate)

I am very aware of how different the devices are, but i could actually use my old blackberry with the screen on for the equivalent of 48 hours and could leave it on stand by for a week without charging it. The note 4 does have extremely bad battery life in comparison. (Apples to oranges, maybe, but some blackberry passport users are reporting 20 hours of screen time on full charge)

 

[varunaX]

I
I took possession of the phone with about 50% battery and played with it until about 25%. I charged it a while in my car, but not long enough for a full charge. I did that later, at home. I'm now at 81% and not plugged in.

If i had to guess, i think this is what the majority of people do when they get their new phone. they setup as much as they can before it needs a charge, they start charging it, get impatient while it charges, unplug the charager when its at 30% and continue to set it up. Samsung probably knows this which i dont think any battery harm could come as a result.

I
I have read different things about changing the battery. You can fully change it and let it fully deplete, or you can use the phone right out of the box and let it deplete, or pretty much do what you want and it won't harm the battery or cause issues with memory. I've no clue which piece of advice is correct or if all of it or none of it is.

again its probably safe to say that because carriers, nor samsung, explicitly state how to charge your battery when you first get it, you cant really screw it up. if you could do something that would damage your batteries calibration or conditioning, i promise you carriers would have been instructed to explain this after they give your device for the first time, or there would a huge warning in the box from samsung so its the first thing you see when you open the box..

batteries have come a long way since the 90's and anything you hear about on forums on how not to harm a battery is probably just an old wives tale from years ago.

 

[zeuswsu]

Without trying to be negative, it does seem a little odd that you guys are pleased with 10-12-14hrs of battery life and 5hrs of screen/usage time. Just reading this thread objectively, it appears as you guys have all just become accustomed to this standard, because when you look at those numbers from afar, that really is poor battery life. (perhaps what those people are trying to communicate)

I am very aware of how different the devices are, but i could actually use my old blackberry with the screen on for the equivalent of 48 hours and could leave it on stand by for a week without charging it. The note 4 does have extremely bad battery life in comparison. (Apples to oranges, maybe, but some blackberry passport users are reporting 20 hours of screen time on full charge)

I average about 6 hours of screen on time on weekdays and 7 on weekends. I have to admit though that when I see that I've been staring at my phone screen that long, it makes me question what I am doing with my life

I consider 6 hours of screen time to be pretty impressive.

 

[lazerproof]

How long my battery lasts depends on usage (duh) , however, I can easily get a whole day with moderate use. Can you provide more daily usage details, e.g. talk time, Internet use, etc...?

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[kanesmith41]

I'm with sprint and using note 4 and this is my battery stats.

USMC97

 

[Alexander Burnside]

Without trying to be negative, it does seem a little odd that you guys are pleased with 10-12-14hrs of battery life and 5hrs of screen/usage time. Just reading this thread objectively, it appears as you guys have all just become accustomed to this standard, because when you look at those numbers from afar, that really is poor battery life. (perhaps what those people are trying to communicate)

I am very aware of how different the devices are, but i could actually use my old blackberry with the screen on for the equivalent of 48 hours and could leave it on stand by for a week without charging it. The note 4 does have extremely bad battery life in comparison. (Apples to oranges, maybe, but some blackberry passport users are reporting 20 hours of screen time on full charge)

Why should it be odd to be pleased with that?

Comparing the Note 4 to the blackberry is silly; the blackberry has a bigger (non-removable) battery and doesn't have as much to power, so it's a no-brainer that it'll last longer. Regardless, while I wouldn't turn down the battery life of your blackberry if it was possible on the Note 4, I didn't buy the Note 4 because of it's battery life. I imagine most of the people you're referring to feel the same way.

It sounds more like you're expecting too much from a phone with a huge amount of tech that needs to be powered. It seems reasonable nowadays to expect to go a full day of moderate use before needing to charge. It's impressive, by that metric at least, that the Note 4 can go significantly longer than that assuming you manage your usage appropriately.

 

[Greg P1]

After what I've learned about lithium-ion batteries, I don't let my battery run down if I can help it. I plug it in while I'm driving, all day at work, and as soon as I get home. The only exception is when I'm out and about, and I can usually get a full day out of the battery, but I have "power-save" turned on.

The less you can discharge and recharge your battery, the longer it will last.

 

[LaTuFu]

Without trying to be negative, it does seem a little odd that you guys are pleased with 10-12-14hrs of battery life and 5hrs of screen/usage time. Just reading this thread objectively, it appears as you guys have all just become accustomed to this standard, because when you look at those numbers from afar, that really is poor battery life. (perhaps what those people are trying to communicate)

I am very aware of how different the devices are, but i could actually use my old blackberry with the screen on for the equivalent of 48 hours and could leave it on stand by for a week without charging it. The note 4 does have extremely bad battery life in comparison. (Apples to oranges, maybe, but some blackberry passport users are reporting 20 hours of screen time on full charge)

You are correct, but the old blackberries are not a reasonable comparison to any modern smartphone. From processor to display to application capabilities, the difference is enormous. It is no more reasonable to compare battery life on a smartphone to a Blackberry than it is to compare a smartphone to an old Nokia 5110.

 

[Almeuit]

After what I've learned about lithium-ion batteries, I don't let my battery run down if I can help it. I plug it in while I'm driving, all day at work, and as soon as I get home. The only exception is when I'm out and about, and I can usually get a full day out of the battery, but I have "power-save" turned on.

The less you can discharge and recharge your battery, the longer it will last.

That is a lot of work for me to do that ... I simply just use my battery .. when it runs slow I swap between my spare and keep going. I don't want to be tied down .

 

[LaTuFu]

After what I've learned about lithium-ion batteries, I don't let my battery run down if I can help it. I plug it in while I'm driving, all day at work, and as soon as I get home. The only exception is when I'm out and about, and I can usually get a full day out of the battery, but I have "power-save" turned on.

The less you can discharge and recharge your battery, the longer it will last.

Lithium Ion batteries don't really have much of an issue with charge/discharge like other chemistries (NiCd, for example) do. What degrades Lithium batteries over time is temperature extremes and the degree of discharge the battery is subjected to. Unlike Lithium batteries used for hobby purposes, (RC Cars and planes, for example) most consumer lithium batteries for cellphones and other rechargeable home devices are constructed with onboard circuitry that monitors cell voltage and prevents over discharging. So when your phone is telling you your battery is a "0" it just means it is shutting it off well above the limit that is harmful to the battery.