Early S6 users, how's your battery life?

[ron561]

I usually lurk these forums, but since battery is such a big topic, I decided to just post my initial thoughts on it for those who don't have the phone yet. If anyone else has the phone already, feel free to contribute.

I didn't conduct any real test or anything. This is just my opinion based on personal usage the last 24 hours or so. I will answer any questions and give more thoughts on it as I get more usage out of the phone.

I went from about 100% to 85% today during a 15 minute drive to work using iHeart Radio. In comparison to my M8 which would only lose about 5% this is much lower.

The rate at which the phone discharges while using it is also noticeable. As of right now, I have been on battery for about an hour and 20 minutes with a screen on time of 1 hour and 10 mins and I'm at 63%. Mostly browsing Facebook and a text here and there on LTE. I would like to post a screen shot, but I'm not seeing an option for that on the mobile site.

The phone does charge fast though both wireless and wired so that is definitely a plus for heavy users like myself.

 

[STEVESKI07]

I'm starting to wonder if this is a T Mobile issue. No reviews seem to mention this poor of battery life so it's the only thing that makes sense. Is there anybody NOT having battery issues with their S6? Seems like everyone is saying it's bad. Way worse than any reviews have stated.

 

[warpdrive]

I'm starting to wonder if this is a T Mobile issue. No reviews seem to mention this poor of battery life so it's the only thing that makes sense. Is there anybody NOT having battery issues with their S6? Seems like everyone is saying it's bad. Way worse than any reviews have stated.

It could be a T-Mobile issue. Andrew is using 2 T-Mobile phones and has similar results.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[clevin]

In some other thread I predicted most people will see 3-5 hr sot, so I don't see any problem with yours. Unless you are willing to sacrifice being connected all the time, this would be normal.

 

[erasat]

Then it may be possible that it's one of the T-Mobile Bloatware that is causing this.

Can somebody go and disable all T-mobile and every other Unnecessary Bloatware and see if that helps?

 

[ron561]

I'm also a little surprised at the battery life. This reminds me of my experience with the iPhone 5s in that is was pretty quick to charge, but depleted pretty fast for me. My M8 with heavy use usually got me through my 8 to 4 work day. And by heavy use I mean lots of Facebook, texting, YouTube, and Google Music on LTE. I can't see my S6 doing the same without having to charge it at some point.

This is still day 1 for me though so take my opinion with a grain of salt.

 

[warpdrive]

I'm also a little surprised at the battery life. This reminds me of my experience with the iPhone 5s in that is was pretty quick to charge, but depleted pretty fast for me. My M8 with heavy use usually got me through my 8 to 4 work day. And by heavy use I mean lots of Facebook, texting, YouTube, and Google Music on LTE. I can't see my S6 doing the same without having to charge it at some point.

This is still day 1 for me though so take my opinion with a grain of salt.

While your battery life will improve after more charging cycles, most reviews state just shy of 4 hours screen on time. Andrew from here is using T-Mobile. he's claiming 2 1/2 hours at 14 to 16 total. But that is with light to medium use. Your milage my be slightly less, and alot less then our m8s

Posted via Android Central App

 

[berdinkerdickle]

It's been posted that the biggest majority of people buying these phones don't know or care about swappable batteries.
These same people aren't going to know to disable a bunch of stuff so their battery will last longer. They buy the phone and use it. If it gets poor battery life, that's how they'll see the S6 - A phone that gets poor battery life.

 

[STEVESKI07]

In some other thread I predicted most people will see 3-5 hr sot, so I don't see any problem with yours. Unless you are willing to sacrifice being connected all the time, this would be normal.

If this is true and this is normal behavior then I'll go back to my initial thought after the announcement of this phone that they really screwed up by making the battery smaller. Every other aspect of this phone is leaps and bounds better than every other phone. It will be too bad that they ruined such a great device with the inability to stay powered on.

 

[flamingoezz]

Its odd that most reviews say it slots somewhere between the s5 and iphone6 battery, and people using the phone are reporting awful results. Hopefully an extra 3 or 4 cycles helps.

Samsung obviously made battery life a consideration if they added 50maH to the edge. They must have had a goal in mind with regard to lasting power and sacrificed some size to hit that with the edge. I wish they would have made an incremental screen upgrade rather than a huge one over competitors and given us an extra half hour of SoT.

 

[STEVESKI07]

Its odd that most reviews say it slots somewhere between the s5 and iphone6 battery, and people using the phone are reporting awful results. Hopefully an extra 3 or 4 cycles helps.

Samsung obviously made battery life a consideration if they added 50maH to the edge. They must have had a goal in mind with regard to lasting power and sacrificed some size to hit that with the edge. I wish they would have made an incremental screen upgrade rather than a huge one over competitors and given us an extra half hour of SoT.

I think they had a goal on phone size and the battery size was the hit it took. Samsung thought they HAD to make it thinner than the iPhone and that means a smaller battery than any modern Android device has. No matter the efficiency of the hardware, it's starting to look like shaving off that extra 1mm, which nobody would ever care about, is taking a toll on the device.

I planned on getting this device for me and 5 of my family members. I was going to preorder all of theirs tomorrow. I'm not going to do that now. I still plan on preordering one for myself, but I may end up cancelling it. I'm not going to force my family into having a device that can't stay charged. They care much less about the cool technology than I do.

Hopefully this is a firmware thing....but I'm not so sure.

 

[Adranalyne]

It's important to remember what some of us may consider "poor" battery life is going to be more than sufficient for most users. Expecting between 3 1/2 and 4 1/2 hours of on screen time is reasonable with this device, but that's about it at this point. Is there room for improvement? Sure. I have a feeling that Lollipop isn't as efficient as it could be right now so there's always improvements to that as time goes on. If you're used to the kind of battery life you'd get from an iPhone 6+ or a Note 4 and you aren't willing/capable of charging for 10-20 minutes to get you through the day, then this phone probably isn't for you.

I think I'd be upset about the battery life of this phone if it was much worse than my expectations and it didn't provide so many ways to charge the device, one of which will charge it extremely fast. If I can get through a 9 hour work day with moderate to heavy usage, make it home to charge for 20 minutes, and have enough to last me the rest of the night, I'm more than okay with that. If my usage doesn't require me to charge it for that brief period, then that's fine, too.

 

[ron561]

I think Samsung took the Apple approach here. My experience with iPhone was the battery life isn't amazing, but the phone charges fast. I could put my iPhone 5s on the charger with less than 10% for about an hour and I'd be back up to over 50 by the time I left the house. That strategy has worked for Apple and I think that's what Samsung is hoping to accomplish here.

 

[neo905]

It will be addressed in the Note 5 which I think will be a beast. But yes, I didn't think a 2,500 mAh for a QHD would be great no matter how efficient it is. At best, it will be mediocre. People are starting to see this now first hand. That and where the hell is Project Voltra when we need it. Lollipop is a dud as far as that. A regression really.

Bottom line. Battery should have been at least 2,800 mAh. Thinness be damned. It would have been a perfect phone if it was just 1mm thicker.

 

[aggie]

I think they had a goal on phone size and the battery size was the hit it took. Samsung thought they HAD to make it thinner than the iPhone and that means a smaller battery than any modern Android device has. No matter the efficiency of the hardware, it's starting to look like shaving off that extra 1mm, which nobody would ever care about, is taking a toll on the device.

I planned on getting this device for me and 5 of my family members. I was going to preorder all of theirs tomorrow. I'm not going to do that now. I still plan on preordering one for myself, but I may end up cancelling it. I'm not going to force my family into having a device that can't stay charged. They care much less about the cool technology than I do.

Hopefully this is a firmware thing....but I'm not so sure.

I had that same thought at first. However, with as fast as this thing charges I think that will mostly be a non issue for me. I can see how it might still be an issue for you and others though. Most of the time that I use my device for activities that keep the screen on and tax the battery I'm either in my office, truck (not while driving), or home where I have a charger. Plan on having the Samsung wireless charging puck for my office and bedroom. I also have a portable charger that I keep juiced for when I'm out on job sites, skiing, vacation, or hunting that I keep on me. I firmly believe I will be ok and that the positives far outweigh this one potential issue. I do wish they would have kept the display at 1080p. Samsung's main competition is the iPhone and the iPhone 6 isn't even 1080p. Sure the screen looks stunning, but sit the S6 side by side with the S5 and there isn't much of a discernible difference.

I'll be keeping my Note 4 around just in case but I am really excited to get this phone. I've gone to Best Buy on my lunch break the past few days to play with it and I come away more excited every time. The guys at Best Buy probably think I'm a nut.

 

[Jdroids]

It will be addressed in the Note 5 which I think will be a beast. But yes, I didn't think a 2,500 mAh for a QHD would be great no matter how efficient it is. At best, it will be mediocre. People are starting to see this now first hand. That and where the hell is Project Voltra when we need it. Lollipop is a dud as far as that. A regression really.

Bottom line. Battery should have been at least 2,800 mAh. Thinness be damned. It would have been a perfect phone if it was just 1mm thicker.

Even if S6 had 2800mAh that's only 10% more from 2550mAh. Not really enough to bring it back to S5 level. I think there is more to this early results on T-mobile. Maybe firmware or their bloats are doing it. If AT&T or Verizon version ends up this way, it would be very disappointing.

 

[clevin]

Even if S6 had 2800mAh that's only 10% more from 2550mAh. Not really enough to bring it back to S5 level. I think there is more to this early results on T-mobile. Maybe firmware or their bloats are doing it. If AT&T or Verizon version ends up this way, it would be very disappointing.

I have been on T-mobile for a long time, so don't really know other carriers. But I seem to recall ATT being the bloat champion in the past?

 

[ron561]

I can't imagine T-Mobile bloat being the problem...There really isn't much of it.

 

[unashamedgeek]

I've only had the device since yesterday so there is no way I can give an accurate representation of battery life since I'm on it pretty constantly and I've been doing lots of downloads and app installs and playing with features, etc. I will say that looking at my battery stats, I'm getting the cell standby eating up a large percentage of my battery usage. This happened with my Nexus 5 when it moved to Lollipop and I believe that it could still be an issue. I just posted that in another topic as well. If you search for cell standby and battery drain, you will find a number of Nexus 5 and Nexus 6 owners discussing this same issue

I think Lollipop has been very buggy, especially when it comes to battery life and I think a Lollipop bug could be to blame again.

 

[neo905]

If Lollipop is to blame then why isn't it affecting all the of 2014 phones not as efficient as this one? I think there is more to it than that.