Battery life still poor after tweaking, resets. What's my next move?

[Dell May]

I'm looking for your advice. Here's my situation. Forgive the length:

I’ve spent much time trying to adjust all my settings and tweak my usage patterns to boost my Galaxy S6’s battery life. I've read through AC forums and made all the oft-suggested optimization changes, read articles on battery troubleshooting, followed AT&T’s recommendations. I've twice done a factory reset, most recently Sunday at an AT&T device support center (AT&T’s diagnostic test said the battery was OK and software could be at fault).

After all of that, at best, I have eeked out around 3.5 hours SOT and 13 total hours on battery with about 7% left. That included 8 hours of sleep standby, 25 minutes of Spotify streaming, 55 minutes of web reading, and 10 minutes writing this on Google docs. I also used my 4G only (very little wireless), and had the brightness on about 1/3. I attached photos from today, and these are my all-time best usage stats.

More often, I get between 2-2.5 hours SOT, which seems to pale compared to what many other AC writers say they get with their S6. Furthermore, when I compare that to my work iPhone 6, the S6 is put to shame. The iPhone can easily go all day without needing a charge; I never even really sweat battery juice.

Is this really as good as I can expect? I want to like my S6 and use it as my main driver; it’s my personal handset, the camera is terrific, I like Android, etc. But the battery seems too unreliable. I had it drain from 85% to dead shooting pictures and video (none on QHD, none terribly long) over the course of 1.5 hours at my kid’s birthday party. I knew the battery wasn't as large as the S5, but this is frustrating.

So what's my next move? The options as I see it:

1.) AT&T said it would replace the phone with another S6 if the last factory reset didn’t lead to a big improvement. But I fear going through the hours of “new phone setup” only to get the same subpar battery.

2.) Keep my phone or do option 1, and buy a battery juice case like Mophie for when I won't be near a charger.

3.) Park the S6 and buy a Note 5 or Note 4 from a site like Swappa; or trade it in at Best Buy for a Note. Seems costly.

4.) Beg AT&T to let me trade to a Note 5 and pay the difference. So far, two AT&T reps have told me this is not possible. But I haven't gone up to a manager yet and made myself an annoyance (“I’ve been a customer 16 years! You owe me a solid!”). Do you guys even know whether this is an option that works?

Thanks for any advice and thoughts.



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[Dell May]

Forgot my screen caps. Whoops.

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[tpero]

My experience has been almost exactly the same as yours. I had the iPhone 3S, 4S, and 5S, and this was my first move to Android. I love the customization of Android and specs of the Galaxy S, but I used to get so much better battery life with all of my iphones. On the 5S, for example, I could go 36 hours between charges, including heavy facebook and RSS feed reading. With the Galaxy S6, I take my phone off the charger at 6:30am and usually have to put it back on the charger the second I get home around 5:30pm. And while at work, I generally only even use it during my lunch break to read the news. The amount of battery drain I experience when it's on standby is ludicrous.

I have done multiple factory resets and have already once exchanged my handset for a factory refurb under warranty, figuring it was a hardware issue of some sort. After the exchange, my batter life was a lot better, but that only lasted about a month, and now it's back to being complete sh!t. My stay awake times on "Android OS" and "System" processes are a bit troubling, but since there is no root available for this phone, I can't use any of the go-to apps to diagnose what's keeping those processes awake. It's extremely frustrating and making me regret the switch, despite the fact that on paper the galaxy should be a superior phone.

Long story short, I'm equally eager to see feedback on your question.

 

[Dell May]

Yes! Exactly same boat. I never, ever needed to charge my iPhone 4S during the day. I often can't make it to 5:30 with the s6. Hopefully some experts will pipe up.

Your experience on the post-reset handset exchange discourages me. Did your carrier offer up any other solution? I was hoping AT&T would let me pay the difference between an S6 and Note 5, and just trade/exchange. But AT&T reps made that sound like I was making an impossibly unreasonable request that required congressional approval.

 

[sakendrick]

I am also interested in any responses. My conclusion is that the Battery life on the S6 is just sub par at best. I came form a Nokia 1020 and it was a better and a much older phone. I expected a lot more. Tough move for iphone users as that is one area Apple as everyone beat in my opinion. What I don't understand is my battery life is very inconsistent. Yesterday on my way home from work (6pm) I was still at 70%. The day before I was at 50% by noon. Today I'm in between with little to no difference in usage. When I look at the battery stats, it's all screen. I suppose it's possible I'm checking screen more on the days it really sucks. I have a background photo which I darkened with a transparent overlay. Have thought about trying to change other used screens to use dark background but haven't found a setting that is battery friendly and usable. My friend that has a note 5 says he gets much better battery.

Looking for suggestions or do we just have to wait perhaps until a firmware upgrade.

 

[cohoman]

I've been using a 3rd party app called "Doze" which seems to do well at extending my phone battery. You might give that a try. Otherwise, I'm waiting for Marshmallow to come out for my ATT S6 next month which supposedly has some great power saving features.

 

[sakendrick]

Doze Battery Saver or Doze - For Better Battery Life? There are two

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[justnivek]

I've went thru a lot of trouble with my 1st S6, purple dots on the first camera and horrible battery life.

Once I sold it (was using a Verizon branded BUT unlocked phone on T-Mobile) and bought a factory unlocked S6 (no carrier branding at all) I have gotten over an hour extra of SoT.

But it has been so inconsistent (getting 3:30 to 4:30 of SoT) that I don't know what's going on, I've been keeping an eye on the battery meter in settings to see what's eating it and it hasn't changed really the past month. The only thing I can think of is signal strength/wifi strenght (the better the connection the less strain on the battery)

On my old S6 I was getting 2:45 SoT TOPS! couldn't hit 3 hours if you paid me

 

[cohoman]

Doze Battery Saver or Doze - For Better Battery Life? There are two

Posted via the Android Central App

Doze for Better Batter Life.

 

[Dell May]

So I called Samsung again and eventually was passed to a tech manager after some complaining. He found the screen being a battery drain as suspicious and a sign of a rogue app. He wanted me to do the soft reset trick. I was skeptical. I tried that and didn't really notice a change. But again I went through and aggressively restricted background use on all apps except a very select few. I quit using Nova Launcher because I read some features may drain. I uninstalled any app I wasn't using and also quit Messenger, which I read may drain. I am now able to get 3hrs 15min-30min SOT somewhat consistently and my overnight drain is lower. When I am on the device, it still gulps battery somewhat quick-ish. See my screen caps.

This performance is more tolerable, though I believe it is wholly insufficient that a flagship device as expensive as this requires so much tweaking to avoid battery drain. (I do hardly any adjustments on my work iPhone 6.) The S6 should perform better out of the box, I think. I'm never not on Power Saving mode, over 50% screen brightness or off wireless for long stretches. I may still see what a place like Best Buy may offer on a trade-in. If I could get a Note 5 at a decent price, I may go for it. I may also scout Swappa for a good deal.

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[mwboost]

I'm surprised how many people dislike the S6 battery. We've got a few S6's in our house. It lasts me just fine. Overnight I only lose 1-2% while sleeping. Keen to see how marshmallow goes on the S6 with doze.

 

[AlphaTango414]

Check your build number in about phone setting.

Do you have the latest At&t 5.1.1 firmware update. On 5.0.2 I got terrific battery life. (5.5 SOT on 18 hour discharge.) Then AT&T finally pushed out 5.1.1 and the best I could get was 3hrs SOT on 13 hour discharge. Much worse battery life. Month or so after initial 5.1.1 update another smaller update pushed out that fixed the battery life.

I now get my great battery life again and don't even follow all recommended "tweaks".

 

[AlphaTango414]

Please note several things. There are SO MANY variables when it comes to battery preformance. Condition of the battery, apps you have installed, time spent on 4g/mobile data, time spent on wifi, signal strength, and many more things.

 

[Dell May]

I have 5.1.1. But battery always been weak compared to what others say they get. I've never had 4 hours SOT. Will 6.0 help much?

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Dell May]

I am also interested in any responses. My conclusion is that the Battery life on the S6 is just sub par at best. I came form a Nokia 1020 and it was a better and a much older phone. I expected a lot more. Tough move for iphone users as that is one area Apple as everyone beat in my opinion. What I don't understand is my battery life is very inconsistent. Yesterday on my way home from work (6pm) I was still at 70%. The day before I was at 50% by noon. Today I'm in between with little to no difference in usage. When I look at the battery stats, it's all screen. I suppose it's possible I'm checking screen more on the days it really sucks. I have a background photo which I darkened with a transparent overlay. Have thought about trying to change other used screens to use dark background but haven't found a setting that is battery friendly and usable. My friend that has a note 5 says he gets much better battery.

Looking for suggestions or do we just have to wait perhaps until a firmware upgrade.

I do use a dark screen and background to try to save juice. You might try that. The theme store has some nice UIs in the simple category. Several are free, too. Spares my eyes at night as well.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Dell May]

I've went thru a lot of trouble with my 1st S6, purple dots on the first camera and horrible battery life.

Once I sold it (was using a Verizon branded BUT unlocked phone on T-Mobile) and bought a factory unlocked S6 (no carrier branding at all) I have gotten over an hour extra of SoT.

But it has been so inconsistent (getting 3:30 to 4:30 of SoT) that I don't know what's going on, I've been keeping an eye on the battery meter in settings to see what's eating it and it hasn't changed really the past month. The only thing I can think of is signal strength/wifi strenght (the better the connection the less strain on the battery)

On my old S6 I was getting 2:45 SoT TOPS! couldn't hit 3 hours if you paid me

Signal strength may impact mine at times. But I'm still consistently weaker than most. But yet, my work iPhone 6 is with me as well and it holds up just fine.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Dell May]

Please note several things. There are SO MANY variables when it comes to battery preformance. Condition of the battery, apps you have installed, time spent on 4g/mobile data, time spent on wifi, signal strength, and many more things.

I don't know if you intended that for me. But the battery condition I guess is fine. AT&T's diagnostic people flagged nothing. I'm always on 4G because wireless drains so much now. My signal is usually 3-4 bars. No HD voice. Always on Power Saving. I mostly text, read news, take pictures on phone; maybe once or twice a week watch 30 minutes of video. I've halted all but one news notification, killed most all background use by apps except a few needed for device syncing across ecosystems. Run dark backgrounds and quit using Nova Launcher (now Touch Whiz themes). Only update apps on wireless at home when charging.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[tpero]

I have 5.1.1. But battery always been weak compared to what others say they get. I've never had 4 hours SOT. Will 6.0 help much?

Posted via the Android Central App

I'm lucky if I get 3 hours SOT. I don't do any gaming, most just reading - emails, RSS, Facebook - on a very low brightness setting. I have no widgets. Android OS and System are a huge drain on my battery, both with substantial wakelock, but I haven't been able to tell which app is causing it. I suspect Facebook - since it came preinstalled on the phone I can't remove it, but I'm going to experiment with disabling it today.

 

[Brad Semenick]

I followed the instructions listed by this website last night: http://trendblog.net/increase-samsung-galaxy-s6-battery-life/ and so far I think batter is better although it hasn't been a full day, it's worth trying

 

[dazkil2103]

I had the S6 before it was stolen. I loved the screen, the camera but when I bought a new phone their was no way I could get another S6 simply as the battery life was so awful. I hated having to charge the device so often and worrying before I went out if I had enough battery (could be 30%).I have gone to the LG G4 and the battery life on lollipop is a revelation compared to the S6.Its a shame as if the battery had been good I would not have even thought about getting a different phone. Let's hope it's sorted with M. Ironically people with LGG4 who have M have said the battery life has worsened alot (I won't update).