S7 weak signal's impact on battery drain worse than other phones?

lcs101

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Nov 18, 2016
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I ask because I've had my phone about a week, and the battery life has been quite poor. It didn't make it through yesterday with minimal usage. When I checked the battery, 48% was used by cell standby. Clearly my signal is not great, and I downloaded an app to check dBm, and it was worse than -100. Thing is I'm on the same carrier as before (AT&T), but my iPhone 6 never drained anywhere close to this quickly. A day like yesterday, I would have easily had over 50% left on my iPhone.
 

Rukbat

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For a week, with AT&T, it's still under an exchange warranty. Exchange it and check the signal in the store, both on this one before you exchange it and on the new one before you accept it. And have them open a few boxes to find one that works, if they have to. (The DSC manager would blow a fit if you brought it there and they didn't find a good one - or explain that the S7 has a terrible receiver [I don't know, I don't have an S7, but if the design is bad they should offer you a different model phone].)
 

lcs101

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For a week, with AT&T, it's still under an exchange warranty. Exchange it and check the signal in the store, both on this one before you exchange it and on the new one before you accept it. And have them open a few boxes to find one that works, if they have to. (The DSC manager would blow a fit if you brought it there and they didn't find a good one - or explain that the S7 has a terrible receiver [I don't know, I don't have an S7, but if the design is bad they should offer you a different model phone].)

Appreciate the input. Was told by AT&T that a main tower by me was currently down, and that's the cause, but it's supposed to be back up tomorrow. Hopefully that's true and the timing is just a coincidence. I will update.
 

Snappy Phoenix

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I ask because I've had my phone about a week, and the battery life has been quite poor. It didn't make it through yesterday with minimal usage. When I checked the battery, 48% was used by cell standby. Clearly my signal is not great, and I downloaded an app to check dBm, and it was worse than -100. Thing is I'm on the same carrier as before (AT&T), but my iPhone 6 never drained anywhere close to this quickly. A day like yesterday, I would have easily had over 50% left on my iPhone.

I'm in Dubai and I noticed that the iPhone SE that I have has much better signal than the Galaxy Phones, both on my previous Note 7 and now on my S7 which in turn, does in fact lead to worse battery and even the standby time is horrible compared to iToys
 

Dan TheMan86

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My battery life drains like crazy when I'm in a low signal area. Unfortunately where I live, AT&T gives me a -100 to -120 dBm signal. I use 4G Switcher to bump down to 4G and I get -65 to -77 and battery life greatly improves. I NEVER had this problem on my old Lumia 920. Android problems.
 

lcs101

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My battery life drains like crazy when I'm in a low signal area. Unfortunately where I live, AT&T gives me a -100 to -120 dBm signal. I use 4G Switcher to bump down to 4G and I get -65 to -77 and battery life greatly improves. I NEVER had this problem on my old Lumia 920. Android problems.

UPDATE: It appears I might need to try a 4G switcher as well. All towers are currently functional in my area, but my signal is still around -110 or so (despite the fact the coverage map said I should be good. [I know those maps are not exactly the most precise]). I guess the S7 battery just does not deal as well with a weak signal as the iPhone. That's disappointing, because otherwise I'm really liking it.
 

Dan TheMan86

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UPDATE: It appears I might need to try a 4G switcher as well. All towers are currently functional in my area, but my signal is still around -110 or so (despite the fact the coverage map said I should be good. [I know those maps are not exactly the most precise]). I guess the S7 battery just does not deal as well with a weak signal as the iPhone. That's disappointing, because otherwise I'm really liking it.

I use the app "4G Switcher"
 

lcs101

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I use the app "4G Switcher"

Having trouble finding one simply named that. And I've only found one with a 4.0 rating (nothing better), "4G LTE Only Switch--Speed Test." Says the 4G switch feature doesn't work for Samsung though. Today, my phone went from a full charge to 91% in an hour. At most touched it once or twice during this time. 58% of the battery use from cell standby.
 

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