Battery replacement

[mark7914]

My S8 is only about 18 months old but the battery life has plummeted and is getting worse by the day so I'll have to get it replaced. Doesn't appear to be a software issue.

Apparently the battery retains 80% of its capacity and that might be true, but despite there being nothing incriminating in the usage, it simply discharges at a much faster rate than it once did.

I can either have Samsung do it, or I can take it to the local place in town who come recommended.

I have the phone's OS locked on Android 7 by means of a package blocker and, battery life aside, it's perfect as it is. So I'd really rather not reset the thing to wipe all the data before submitting it.

There's nothing "embarrassing" on it that if seen would make me want to disappear into a hole in the ground, but on the other hand, I don't want anyone poking around at what's on it nor fiddling with any of the settings, nor changing any software or the OS. I'd like it back exactly as is just with a new battery.

I'm assuming that the battery replacement does not require the repairer to do anything more than simply turn it on afterwards and make sure it boots up normally.

While I don't imagine the security on these things is exactly hard to bypass for someone minded to do so, what's the risk in submitting it as it is, without the PIN number to access it?

And given that Samsung's batteries appear to be poor, as evidenced by the short life of this one, is there an after-market recommendation I could get the shop in town to fit?

 

[Rukbat]

If you're in the US, the recommended place is uBreakiFix. Some repair shops will insist on a factory reset, others don't care what's on the phone for a battery replacement. (Samsung may be cheaper than local, but their turn-around time can be long.)

(The battery should last longer than 18 months. If you charge when it's dropped to no less than 45%, it's going to last a lot longer. [Dropping it to 0%, or close to it, every charge cycle can kill it quickly. See Table 2 at Battery University - How to Prolong Lithium-based Batteries. Lithium batteries are not deep-discharge batteries.)

 

[mark7914]

We're in the UK. Local place is an independent. There is the option to have Samsung (or one of their outsourced representatives) come to the house for £74. Independent is a little cheaper.

I started a thread about the battery life and have asked others, but there isn't anything showing in "AccuBattery" that indicates a rogue app or "excessive usage" - the battery simply discharges very, very much faster than when it was new.

60 minutes of sat-nav mostly with screen off will see it lose 25%, just flicking into Twitter occasionally over the course of an hour will see it drop 15%, overnight even in airplane mode it will lose 27%. It just doesn't hold charge very well; used to last for two days on one charge, now one day.

Always charged every evening from around 70% (these days 45%) back up to 100%. Perhaps relevant - always on a wireless charger. Charges very quickly, maybe that's what has killed it.

Until a few months back it never dropped below 50%, these days, use it during the day and it will be down to 15% before it sees the charger. It's only tolerable because I work from home and therefore rarely leave the house. But when I do, the battery life is so bad the phone is useless. Six hours is good going. It used to be so good when it was new.

OS cannot be the culprit unless it has a time-bomb (I wouldn't rule that out) given that it's the same OS it shipped with. With the exception of the battery life the thing is just as perfect as when new, which it would be given it's running the identical OS and with the exception of only a few app updates, the identical software. It's a rather "controlled environment".

I'd love there to be a software fix - just get rid of one app and the thing is back to peak battery life - but AccuBattery says otherwise

 

[datum9]

I've had that exact same issue. The OEM battery wasn't holding charge after about 18 months, had it replaced. The new one, non-OEM seems to be OK thus far.

 

[mark7914]

Might I ask which one you went for?

I enquired with Samsung Repairs and one of their Ts and Cs is that they have the right to perform a reset on the device which I can't accept so I'll be going to the local place in town who assure me that they need no access to the phone apps, do not need the PIN, and will not alter anything.

 

[pbike908]

I had my Galaxy S8 battery replaced at Ubreakifix. If I recall, they didn't do a FDR. If I recall, all of my data on my SD card got erased. When they replaced my battery, it boinked my headphone jack for some reason, so Ubreakifx replaced the entire bottom piece of my phone -- headphone jack, charging port. etc. -- at no additional charge to me. If I recall, they may not have even charged me at all for the battery replacement since they boinked my phone. I offered to pay, however, they wouldn't take my money.

I am happy with the battery replacement.

In regards to them boinking the headphone jack, I suspect that the bottom module was already on the fritz, as I use my phone extensively while bike touring and camping. I didn't tell them that of course and my phone was working properly when I brought it in.

Ubreakifix does caution you that if they find something else wrong with the phone when you bring it in that they require that to be fixed or they won't replace the battery. I told them that if they encountered some other problem just put it back together and don't replace the battery. They said they would do that and if so there would be no charge.

All in all, I was very impressed with Ubreakifix -- especially the FREE battery replacement.

 

[shadowsjc]

bump - I am running into the same problem as OP. I am located in NYC. I believe that Best Buy provides this service (battery replacement), so I was thinking of going to them. Any pros / cons of using them (vs something else like UbreakIfix) ?

I have a factory unlocked Galaxy S8 running on Verizon if it matters

 

[mark7914]

I had mine done by a local shop in town (UK). Cost was £70. He handed me the SIM and SD cards to keep while he did the work and then put the tray back in for me before I left.

AccuBattery is slowly recognising this and the "Battery Health" is climbing back up from the 83% it had sunk to with the previous battery. Although - that makes it sound like with 83% of new capacity it would last about 83% of the maxmum time but I found that not to be the case. When new, over 24 hours - before replacement more like 6 to 8 hours.

It still isn't as good as when it was new, but then the apps on it are not like-for-like. I've basically put every single app into "Always Sleeping" mode except for a few, since I don't need to know if I have an email unless I want to look and pick up the phone, same for Twitter notifications - if I am not looking at the thing but instead watching TV I don't need it checking in the background; it isn't essential to me that I find out immediately when something happens. That has also helped.

 

[shadowsjc]

ah ok thanks. yeah i actually checked again and best buy doesn't offer this service locally in NYC. my other options are ubreakifix, the lowest of which wanted about $80 to fix it. i struggle with the battery on a daily basis and i dont want a new phone yet, so this might be my best bet