S7 edge Battery life

[MclBR]

I had just disabled the WiFi and Bluetooth Auto Search. Do you guys think it'll make a good difference on battery life? I'll recharge my phone and let you guys know about the results tomorrow. Thanks.

 

[underway99]

Could you guys give me a help?
I bought, yesterday, a Galaxy S7 Edge equipped with an Exynios (Version GM-9350F).
With normal usage - WhatsApp, spotify, Ytb and games sometimes - I got a SOT of 5 hours... Screen brighteness is set in medium-autobrighteness, and I'm using most of the time Wifi and sometimes LTE/3G.
I've seen some people saying that they got 7hours of SOT, so I was wonder: Is my SOT normal? Do I have a deffective phone?
Big thanks in advance!

I suspect that your usage is close to the norm. I share office space with several folks who have this phone, and we all tend to get around 5 hours screen on time with varying usage.

 

[MclBR]

I suspect that your usage is close to the norm. I share office space with several folks who have this phone, and we all tend to get around 5 hours screen on time with varying usage.

Thanks for your answer, sir.
Is your WiFi AutoScanning enabled or disabled?
Also, this is my first charge cycle... do you think it'll get better over time?

 

[underway99]

I keep the WiFi autoscan disabled because the only WiFi that I use is my own. Everything else is on the mobile network.

My battery life was OK but not great for the first few cycles, but then got a lot better very quickly. It's a big battery, so I was still able to comfortably make it through the day. I normally let a new battery drain to about 10% (with battery saving modes temporarily turned off) before recharging, and I do it for about a week. I don't know how important it is to "condition" these newer batteries, but I got started doing that a long time ago.

Of course, part of the added battery drain with a new device is exploring the new device. It seems to take me about a week or so to stop tweaking the phone or to get past the "wow, this is cool" stage and leave the phone alone unless I'm actually using it.

 

[MclBR]

I keep the WiFi autoscan disabled because the only WiFi that I use is my own. Everything else is on the mobile network.

My battery life was OK but not great for the first few cycles, but then got a lot better very quickly. It's a big battery, so I was still able to comfortably make it through the day. I normally let a new battery drain to about 10% (with battery saving modes temporarily turned off) before recharging, and I do it for about a week. I don't know how important it is to "condition" these newer batteries, but I got started doing that a long time ago.

Of course, part of the added battery drain with a new device is exploring the new device. It seems to take me about a week or so to stop tweaking the phone or to get past the "wow, this is cool" stage and leave the phone alone unless I'm actually using it.

Thanks, dude!
One last question: your phone is the Exynios version, right?

 

[underway99]

Nope. Mine is the Snapdragon 820. I understand that the Exynos units get marginally better performance on paper, but I've read that it's supposedly not enough of a difference that most folks would notice. I've no experience with that, though.

One of my coworkers got her phone in Canada, so I expect that it has the Exynos processor. Her battery performance falls right in with the other four S7e devices in the office (all with the SD820).

 

[samhaggag]

Hello all,

I bought the S7 edge a week ago and I noticed that the battery doesn't really last longer than usual, if I enjoy my phone it usually lasts just the day. I checked to see if there were any apps taking more energy than usual but I found nothing. So instead I suspected maybe the battery capacity is not really that great. When I looked at the usage for each app, I noticed that it shows you the energy consumed for each app in mAh, given that it also shows the percentage of that app, I figured I can back calculate how much total mAh have been consumed and hopefully find out if the battery capacity is really 3600 mAh or not. I realize of course that this may not be accurate, however I thought it would be a good comparison method. So for example I open the screen usage and it shows 600 mAh and that is 25% of the consumed energy, which means that the total consumed is 2400 mAh, if the battery meter shows 5% left, then that means that the full battery capacity is 2526 mAh. I did this for a few charges and with different apps, and I found out that for my phone, the minimum I calculated was 2200 and the maximum was 2700.

I went through many posts here and using the screenshots people posted I calculated 16 samples; the minimum I found was 2378 mAh and the maximum was 4042 mAh, with the average was 3049 mAh.

I have concluded from this that my phone is sub-average. I read people say a factory reset solved the issue, so I will try that, if it didn't work out I will return the phone.

 

[underway99]

Remember that it can take a good week or so for a battery to settle. Now that you're past the first week "gee whiz" stage with the phone, run your test a few more times and see if it starts to get better. My power drain dropped substantially after the first week, when I was no longer tweaking it all day long or loading and configuring apps.

 

[hishaq96]

My battery is draining quite quick than it used to when I first brought the phone

 

[samhaggag]

Remember that it can take a good week or so for a battery to settle. Now that you're past the first week "gee whiz" stage with the phone, run your test a few more times and see if it starts to get better. My power drain dropped substantially after the first week, when I was no longer tweaking it all day long or loading and configuring apps.

yeah I noticed others are saying that too, but I haven't been tweaking it or doing anything with it actually, barely even talking, just basically observing the battery, Friday is my last day so I have to make the decision quickly if I will return it.

 

[underway99]

This is my usage right now. I'm at 44% now after 16 hours, with another projected 14 hours to empty. Today was a near normal day of usage -- some texts, a few voice calls, some BBM, some browsing, music, Words with Friends, a few app updates from the Play Store, and seven email accounts. Oh, and I lost a bunch of power when I got the September security update from Big Red.

I use the typical power-saving tricks like WiFi shutting down as I leave home, location set to just GPS unless I need Maps, display brightness to auto with 30-second timeout, AOD and Edge tools are off, etc. I've disabled most of the bloat by either disabling the app in the Application Manager or with Package Disabler Pro (paid app -- root not required). My BT is always on and connected to my earbud and my Fitbit.

 

[JOC2016]

I thought these 'smart phones' had really poor battery usage, but I have been amazed with my S7 edge. She is running a dual SIM system and I can easily get 3 days on standby and bit of web/email browsing. That said I think the biggest saving to be had is to run the screen at about 50% after 5 minutes I bet you won't notice you've done so either!

 

[blessedred]

Has anyone reverted back to a previous security patch? Seems like August Security Patch is horrible on battery life.

 

[JOC2016]

blessedred - not likely!, I've found no issues with battery life and literally minutes after that patch arriving my two sims actually started to work, which they hadn't done since I first got the phone 2 month previously - that patch actually saved my sanity

 

[blessedred]

blessedred - not likely!, I've found no issues with battery life and literally minutes after that patch arriving my two sims actually started to work, which they hadn't done since I first got the phone 2 month previously - that patch actually saved my sanity

Oh. For me it's Android System usage is ridiculous and I'm getting like 70% of the battery life that I used to. I think some others in the August post agreed.

 

[PeterKelly]

I bought the S7 Edge because of the large battery capacity, but have suddenly suffered a severe battery drain issue so searched high and low for a solution.

Everywhere you look there are examples of people having issues and endless advice as to how to maximise life, usually in the form of 'turn your excellent smart phone into a very poor dumb one'. However, I have had a thought which I'd like to share.

Perhaps this apparent fast running, battery draining phone and the variation in peoples' experience has the one root cause and it is nothing other than poor battery manufacture. The capacity should be 3600mAh, but how do we know? How do we know when we buy it and how do we know six months later? We only have the spec to go from. If the battery is of a poor quality it may well be that only a proportion are genuinely the full capacity and many will fail too soon.
Maybe the Note 7 debacle is just a more obvious consequence!

Clearly, there is something wrong when you have a battery read out which shows a combined use of about 360mAh and a gauge that indicates 56% left, which is where mine is at now. Mathematically, I've used 10%, or I've only got a maximum capacity of about 650mAh. Hmmm....

Are so many of these threads that suggest battery saving routines simply missing the point that Samsung (and other companies too) are skimping in the battery?

 

[chanchan05]

I bought the S7 Edge because of the large battery capacity, but have suddenly suffered a severe battery drain issue so searched high and low for a solution.

Everywhere you look there are examples of people having issues and endless advice as to how to maximise life, usually in the form of 'turn your excellent smart phone into a very poor dumb one'. However, I have had a thought which I'd like to share.

Perhaps this apparent fast running, battery draining phone and the variation in peoples' experience has the one root cause and it is nothing other than poor battery manufacture. The capacity should be 3600mAh, but how do we know? How do we know when we buy it and how do we know six months later? We only have the spec to go from. If the battery is of a poor quality it may well be that only a proportion are genuinely the full capacity and many will fail too soon.
Maybe the Note 7 debacle is just a more obvious consequence!

Clearly, there is something wrong when you have a battery read out which shows a combined use of about 360mAh and a gauge that indicates 56% left, which is where mine is at now. Mathematically, I've used 10%, or I've only got a maximum capacity of about 650mAh. Hmmm....

Are so many of these threads that suggest battery saving routines simply missing the point that Samsung (and other companies too) are skimping in the battery?

1. No, because people have noticed that battery drain problem only after certain updates, with those having the phone before that update seeing the great battery life that was promised, pointing it to a software issue.

2. Samsung knows people will randomly buy the phone for tests, tear downs and other things. Not all reviewers get the phone free. If they do something of the sort that you mention, they'll gonna be found out easily.

3. People who suggest battery saving routines are missing the point sometimes. There will be a root cause for sudden change in battery life. Of course, addition of an app that eats a lot of battery will necessitate changing that app's behavior to maintain previous battery life, but it should also be pointed out that the user expecting the phone to maintain optimal battery life when they set up a lot of apps to run in the background is also erroneous.

 

[PeterKelly]

Perhaps, in some instances, the updates affect the capacity monitor, but I'm not aware of how that might interact with the operation which I would've thought only depended on available voltage.

That said, I just have a niggling feeling that for so many people to suffer such a wide variety of issues it seems unlikely to be down to the OS. If it was then you would see a good number of successful solutions.

 

[cardboard60]

I bought the S7 Edge because of the large battery capacity, but have suddenly suffered a severe battery drain issue so searched high and low for a solution.

Everywhere you look there are examples of people having issues and endless advice as to how to maximise life, usually in the form of 'turn your excellent smart phone into a very poor dumb one'. However, I have had a thought which I'd like to share.

Perhaps this apparent fast running, battery draining phone and the variation in peoples' experience has the one root cause and it is nothing other than poor battery manufacture. The capacity should be 3600mAh, but how do we know? How do we know when we buy it and how do we know six months later? We only have the spec to go from. If the battery is of a poor quality it may well be that only a proportion are genuinely the full capacity and many will fail too soon.
Maybe the Note 7 debacle is just a more obvious consequence!

Clearly, there is something wrong when you have a battery read out which shows a combined use of about 360mAh and a gauge that indicates 56% left, which is where mine is at now. Mathematically, I've used 10%, or I've only got a maximum capacity of about 650mAh. Hmmm....

Are so many of these threads that suggest battery saving routines simply missing the point that Samsung (and other companies too) are skimping in the battery?

Ever took the phone to a corporate carrier. Let them hook it up and see what may be causing the problem.
They have a lot of equiptment for this kind of testing.

 

[chanchan05]

Perhaps, in some instances, the updates affect the capacity monitor, but I'm not aware of how that might interact with the operation which I would've thought only depended on available voltage.

That said, I just have a niggling feeling that for so many people to suffer such a wide variety of issues it seems unlikely to be down to the OS. If it was then you would see a good number of successful solutions.

It's not the capacity monitor, but the power usage itself. A previous update caused a Google Backup battery leak. After the May or June update for example, my battery life dropped to almost half of what I used to reach. Turning off Google back up returned it to previous levels. That points to a simple OS battery bug.

Currently, since the June to the latest update, I noticed that mobile data and WiFi is eating more battery than they used to, with either of them on causing a battery standby drain of 4% per hour, in contrast to having them off where I go to down to 1% per hour. That's a 4x increase in usage, which simple turning on of the data should cause. I could accept that on a 4G connection in a bad signal area, but the phone on standby with WiFi should not cause that much drain IMO. Since it was working correctly before an update, that again points to a software coding error on battery usage. At this point that is the more likely explanation compared to some conspiracy theory on the manufacturers are paying up the FCC to screw the customers over, especially in this day and age where customer satisfaction is paramount to sucess. It doesn't cut it anymore to just release a good product, like Sony does every year (but they still fall flat despite devices that can arguably be said to be superior to the S7 or HTC 10 in a number if ways). Customer satisfaction and brand loyalty ate big factors, and doing a battery job like you suggest is a bad way to cultivate those.