How To Judge Battery Life

[PsychDoc]

There seems to be little agreement or standardization, so, you'll see things ranging from "My battery life is great/sucks" with little or no other reference or justification for the statement in question. Alternatively you have (very) vague descriptors such as "...in 16 hours of heavy/moderate/light use, I found...." Not terribly helpful either.

So while a few variables that are hard to reliably quantify contribute greatly to observed battery life (search for signal in low signal area, streaming videos, etc) there is one pretty stable and reliable way to assess battery life that will work regardless of what carrier you're on and that is "SCREEN ON TIME" ("SOT"). While not a perfect measure because of variables that it does not take into account, I believe this will at least help in bringing some standardization to the discussion of battery life.

Since getting the phone, I've been seeing anywhere from an absolute low of 3.5 hours of SOT to a max of about 5:15 of SOT.

I would strongly suggest that any poster who wishes to discuss battery life always include a screen shot of SOT.

 

[FuzzyB]

Me too. Actually getting closer to 6hr SOT.

 

[Erm10]

how do you see what your SOT is? I can't find it in any settings - or do you need an app?

 

[Erm10]

You can either download GSam or you can go in to Setting > battery, then click the Screen %

Thanks!

 

[Adranalyne]

Right now, depending on how I want to use the phone, I can get between 12-15 hours if I want to run the screen time closer to 5 hours. If I'm trying to stay between 3:30-4:30, I can stretch it 18-22 hours.

Posted via Galaxy S6 edge

 

[jcp007]

There seems to be little agreement or standardization, so, you'll see things ranging from "My battery life is great/sucks" with little or no other reference or justification for the statement in question. Alternatively you have (very) vague descriptors such as "...in 16 hours of heavy/moderate/light use, I found...." Not terribly helpful either.

So while a few variables that are hard to reliably quantify contribute greatly to observed battery life (search for signal in low signal area, streaming videos, etc) there is one pretty stable and reliable way to assess battery life that will work regardless of what carrier you're on and that is "SCREEN ON TIME" ("SOT"). While not a perfect measure because of variables that it does not take into account, I believe this will at least help in bringing some standardization to the discussion of battery life.

Since getting the phone, I've been seeing anywhere from an absolute low of 3.5 hours of SOT to a max of about 5:15 of SOT.

I would strongly suggest that any poster who wishes to discuss battery life always include a screen shot of SOT.

Thanks for the thread and trying to initiate a more structured conversation rather than another rant thread that unfortunately we all resuscitate instead of euthanizing and relegating them to the rubbish heap. SOT and total time on charge are a good way to measure but still depend upon carrier and personal usage variables that play a huge role as not every carrier and owner experiences same. Perhaps also adding carrier and device tweaks would be helpful as well so that we all benefit and learn from one another instead of the slings and arrows and feeling retaliation instead of mutual respect and civility.

 

[player22]

Already answered.

 

[PsychDoc]

Already answered.

Pardon my ignorance but what was "already answered?"

 

[player22]

Pardon my ignorance but what was "already answered?"

I was answering someone's question in this thread but I found out someone already answered it so I erased my post and put already answered. My bad. Probably not the best choice of words .lol

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

 

[warpdrive]

I have been trying to standardize any and all battery life questions. What is truly needed to receive help is a list of the following....

1) what carrier or country you use/are in.

2) post screen shots of your phones history and screen on time but before you plug it in (say at 20%, we can't help you if your pictures are with the phone being used in the first hour.).

3) Please also tell us what you did on your phone for that time period.
When I post screen shots, I list all the things I did and for approximately how long.

Example:

On AT&T, with VoLTE off, wifi on but always scanning and smart switch turned off, everything syncing besides any social media, location services on.

I played 3 hour of video games, 1 hour of YouTube, some text and email, and about an hour of web.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[smooth4lyfe]

I have been trying to standardize any and all battery life questions. What is truly needed to receive help is a list of the following....

1) what carrier or country you use/are in.

2) post screen shots of your phones history and screen on time but before you plug it in (say at 20%, we can't help you if your pictures are with the phone being used in the first hour.).

3) Please also tell us what you did on your phone for that time period.
When I post screen shots, I list all the things I did and for approximately how long.

Example:

On AT&T, with VoLTE off, wifi on but always scanning and smart switch turned off, everything syncing besides any social media, location services on.

I played 3 hour of video games, 1 hour of YouTube, some text and email, and about an hour of web.

Posted via the Android Central App

Where do you turn off VoLTE? Is that the same thing as HD Voice?

 

[berdinkerdickle]

Thanks for the thread and trying to initiate a more structured conversation rather than another rant thread that unfortunately we all resuscitate instead of euthanizing and relegating them to the rubbish heap. SOT and total time on charge are a good way to measure but still depend upon carrier and personal usage variables that play a huge role as not every carrier and owner experiences same. Perhaps also adding carrier and device tweaks would be helpful as well so that we all benefit and learn from one another instead of the slings and arrows and feeling retaliation instead of mutual respect and civility.

Those threads wouldn't deteriorate to that if you'd quit calling everybody with battery life issues whiners.

 

[Jon_Doh]

I have been trying to standardize any and all battery life questions. What is truly needed to receive help is a list of the following....

1) what carrier or country you use/are in.

2) post screen shots of your phones history and screen on time but before you plug it in (say at 20%, we can't help you if your pictures are with the phone being used in the first hour.).

3) Please also tell us what you did on your phone for that time period.
When I post screen shots, I list all the things I did and for approximately how long.

Example:

On AT&T, with VoLTE off, wifi on but always scanning and smart switch turned off, everything syncing besides any social media, location services on.

I played 3 hour of video games, 1 hour of YouTube, some text and email, and about an hour of web.

Posted via the Android Central App

That's good battery life given what you were doing. Most of the tests I've seen in the reviews where they concluded battery life was poor to fair, the reviewer had brightness turned up all the way, wifi on and Facebook, Twitter, etc running. All of those things will drain a battery. For me, I don't do Facebook, etc, use auto screen brightness and only talk, text and get push email. So my usage has a different drain on the battery than what I've seen anybody test so far.

To answer the OP's question, you can only test the phone yourself using it the way you use a smart phone. If battery life is unacceptable, then you can start disabling some of the bloat software that's always running as well as turn off Location Services, wifi scanning and VoLTE or HD talk. Then use the phone how you normally do and see if those changes make any difference.

 

[warpdrive]

Where do you turn off VoLTE? Is that the same thing as HD Voice?

Go to settings > mobile networks > mobile data > enhanced 4G LTE services

Bare in mind, that Voice over LTE (VoLTE) or HD voice only works if both partys have a capable phone and the service is turned on on both devices.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[warpdrive]

That's good battery life given what you were doing. Most of the tests I've seen in the reviews where they concluded battery life was poor to fair, the reviewer had brightness turned up all the way, wifi on and Facebook, Twitter, etc running. All of those things will drain a battery. For me, I don't do Facebook, etc, use auto screen brightness and only talk, text and get push email. So my usage has a different drain on the battery than what I've seen anybody test so far.

I always feel that auto brightness is too dim indoors for me. As a result, my tests are with brightness set at 35% indoors, but when gaming or watching YouTube it is set at 50% or slightly higher. Outdoors it's set at auto.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Rukbat]

SoT won't tell you that you're getting very short time between charges because you have a very weak mobile signal (which eats as much battery as the screen, if not more). It won't tell you if you have a bad SD card (which can lock Media Scanner up and kill the battery in an hour). It won't tell you if you have the 5GHz/Cell Standby bug.

There's really no way to compare batteries between phones, unless both phones are being used exactly the same way, have exactly the same firmware and are in just about exactly the same place. (Move one into a dead spot a few feet away and the battery life will plummet.) The valid comparison is how is your battery life now, with approximately the same usage pattern, compared to right after you conditioned the battery when it was new? If you're getting 5% loss in capacity every month, you have a bad battery. If you're getting 95% capacity after 2 years, you could have done better, but the battery is still pretty good.

But comparing battery life on a phone used mostly within sight of the tower but indoors against one used 10 miles from the tower and usually in bright sunlight is comparing apples to ducks.

 

[KyleDC]

Are we saying that people who are claiming to only get 2 hours of SOT on the Galaxy S6 are clearly using their devices much differently than people claiming to get 6 hours of SOT?

 

[meguy67]

I have 38% battery left and screen on time says 2 hours and 12 min, but I took it off the charger yesterday morning at 8:00am. I guess I have poor battery life, but I feel I'm using the phone normal. Maybe with heavy use I would see the problem. In battery usage, my screen is the last on the list at 2% of total battery usage.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[warpdrive]

Are we saying that people who are claiming to only get 2 hours of SOT on the Galaxy S6 are clearly using their devices much differently than people claiming to get 6 hours of SOT?

No, he is not. He's saying that SoT alone is not enough information to assess if there is a problem or not. Other factors may be a huge influence such as being on T-Mobile and having additional battery drain due to poor software implementation of wifi calling because T-Mobile didn't test the software that they installed themselves.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[warpdrive]

I have 38% battery left and screen on time says 2 hours and 12 min, but I took it off the charger yesterday morning at 8:00am. I guess I have poor battery life, but I feel I'm using the phone normal. Maybe with heavy use I would see the problem. In battery usage, my screen is the last on the list at 2% of total battery usage.

Posted via the Android Central App

Too little information to determine anything. Please reread what I posted above on what is needed for us to help you answer your question.

Posted via the Android Central App