Battery Life and Build Quality

[Eclipse2K]

How much usage on 4G can you get? Screen time is a big factor in this. Also, do you charge through the day? Is the build quality the same as all Samsung phones? I'm switching to a smaller phone this month and I'm either going with an S4 or Droid Maxx. I prefer Samsung devices but if the battery is as bad as I've heard I'm not a fan. I don't want to worry about it.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note II

 

[Eclipse2K]

I'm going to check out the S4 in a little bit. I would assume after reading up on it I can get the battery life to be very Note II like if I disable a lot of the gestures which I would never use. Any experience on this from anyone here? I can't imagine a 5" screen with a 2600 mah battery faring any worse than a 3100 mah battery with a 5.5 inch screen.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note II

 

[j510]

So I get 4 hours on screen time one cycle tops. 3hrs 30 min average. It usually last me passed a day on average 24 hrs +.

I disabled all Smart screen gestures. Every other gestures are enabled. No power saving.

Screen always on auto brightness. And I managed all my syncing times for the apps I use.

And the phone charges really fast with the provided 2 mah output wall charger. Im serious when I say fast

 

[Eclipse2K]

So I get 4 hours on screen time one cycle tops. 3hrs 30 min average. It usually last me passed a day on average 24 hrs +.

I disabled all Smart screen gestures. Every other gestures are enabled. No power saving.

Screen always on auto brightness. And I managed all my syncing times for the apps I use.

And the phone charges really fast with the provided 2 mah output wall charger. Im serious when I say fast

That's not very good considering I get about 6 hours of battery life from my Note II. I can't understand (without looking at the phone) how Samsung gets such poor battery life with a 5" screen in comparison to a 5.5" screen with a slightly larger battery. I left Motorola devices despite their amazing battery because they always felt outdated rather quickly. I have considered going back to Motorola with a Droid Maxx when it comes out but I feel like I'll regret it and that's why I was hoping an S4 would do well enough. Oh well, I may have to stick it out with the Note II. I'll go to the Verizon store once the Motorola Droid Maxx comes out and compare it with an S4. If neither blows me away I'll stick with my phone and hope the S5 is improved.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note II

 

[msavic6]

I average 4:30 hours of screen on time using Mobile data and a mix of wifi. With pure wifi usage, 5 hours or more is easily achievable

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk 4

 

[Eclipse2K]

I average 4:30 hours of screen on time using Mobile data and a mix of wifi. With pure wifi usage, 5 hours or more is easily achievable

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk 4

Do you have anything such as GPS, Bluetooth, Location Settings, etc turned on?

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note II

 

[j510]

Do you have anything such as GPS, Bluetooth, Location Settings, etc turned on?

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note II

I use all them always on, bluetooth I turn on n off when needed though. We all use our phone different so depending on what you do and how you use it Will vary

 

[msavic6]

Do you have anything such as GPS, Bluetooth, Location Settings, etc turned on?

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note II

All Smart features are on as well as GPS, bluetooth I keep off since I use it rarely. Location reporting is off since Google Now is useless too me and I use auto brightness.

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk 4

 

[Kilgore Trout]

I honestly don't know what all this discussion about battery problems is all about. I am easily getting through a day of use without recharging. In fact, it is down to about 40% when I come home at night.

I constantly check e-mail, use the organizer features, have it connected to the car via bluetooth, use WiFi, surf the web on it. I don't watch videos or play games ever, and I have all the Samsung smart features disabled (because I find them to be silly gimmicks). But, my battery life has been stellar.

Look at somewhat objective tests in sources like Consumer Reports. The S4 actually does fine (quite good even) when it comes to battery life.

The build quality issues have ups and downs. The phone is solidly built, and creak free. But, the casing is ridiculously slick and it is a finger print magnet.

You'll want to put a more grippy case on it.

The Moto phones tend to have better build quality, but I had such a poor experience with my Droid 2 Global and Droid 3, that I will likely never buy another Motorola product.

Overall, I really like the S4. I do feel that the phone would be better without touchwhiz and all the Samsung gimmicks, but that stuff is all easily disabled.