Battery Draining Fast - Lemon or just useage?

[john_yoshi]

HI all,

I just received a Galaxy Tab S 8.4 as a gift and I am wondering if I received a lemon due to how fast my battery is draining

So, two days ago I fully charged the unit and started playing. I am an avid Star Wars Commander fan and I play it somewhat frequently.

After charging the unit overnight up to 100% (with the included charger) I unplug the unit and begin to play. After 10 minutes I notice that my power is down to 91%. Thinking that I might have my settings too high I make the following changes to the unit:

1) Turn on standard power saving mode
2) Change the color scheme to normal and turn off the adaptive screen
3) Turn off the location services
4) Turn off all notification sounds
5) Turn off constant Wi-Fi scanning
6) Lower the brightness meter to around 1/3 of full on the dropdown bar

For the whole day until I go to bed I use the unit for just under 4 hours (this includes 1.5 hours of SW commander). If I remember correctly when I got to bed the power meter is at 35%. I do not plug in the unit and after I wake up I check the power level it's down to 20%

My questions are:

Is this normal power drainage for the settings above?
Is there anything I should check to make sure I don't have anything on that would be draining the batteries.
Since this was a gift and I don't have the receipt how to I use the warranty? Will samsung accept it based off of serial number?

Thanks!

 

[Golfdriver97]

Welcome to the forums. The Star Wars game is probably a resource heavy game, with lots of motion etc? That is probably the reason for your drain. Is there any way you can post some screenshots of your battery stats? Settings>Battery.

 

[john_yoshi]

Hi Thanks for the welcome!

SW commander can have a lot of constantly moving parts and probably does drain the battery fast from what I can tell. But I only played the game 1.5 hours from the battery screen it shows that SW commander used 16% of the power.

BTW how do I take a screen shot from the battery screen?

Thanks!

 

[briannamarie91]

Hi!

I also have a Samsung galaxy tab s and I can tell you with certain that you do NOT have a lemon. I thought something was wrong with mine initially, I returned 2 of them back to best buy only to find that unfortunately, the battery is just terrible. I play clash of clans a lot and with just 5 minutes of using that my tablet trains at least 3%. If I leave it idle, it will last but will still drain faster than my phone (which doesn't make sense because that is searching for signal!). What I find helps is lowering the brightness (not auto), power saving mode (not ultra), turning my tablet off to charge it, letting the battery drain completely until it powers off, closing all apps after using them, turning off wifi searching when you are connected to a network (that can be found in the menu settings in wifi). Also see how your battery is with just searching the web or other apps like amazon, facebook, etc. If it does not drain AS FAST as when using games, your device is most definitely not a lemon. I have noticed that although this product drains quickly, it won't drain as fast when using other apps than clash of clans or trivia crack. Also keep in mind, I used to own 3 different Samsung devices and the battery operated the same on those. Terrible when operating games, would die 1% after powering on from 100% and even die very quickly in stand-by mode.

Good luck and let know if I can help in any other way

Best,
Brianna

 

[briannamarie91]

And yes, Samsung will ask for the serial number when you call. If you would like them to swap the battery you are covered for a year from the purchase of the device and you can send it into them it will take about 2 weeks to send it in and have it sent back to you!

 

[john_yoshi]

Thanks! That must be it then. SW Commander is basically the same game as Clash of Clan. I was hoping for a bit better battery life than my phone, but I guess not.

 

[briannamarie91]

Yeah I came from an iPad mini, the battery was much better but this tablet is just awesome. It generally gets me throughout the day and I charge it overnight with my phone. The display and lightweight design is fabulous it has made me overlook the crappy battery lol. Good luck let me know if you have any other questions!

 

[Golfdriver97]

A screenshot I think is done with power and home at the same time. Another common method is power and volume down at the same time.
Samsung displays don't care for light screens. Dropping the brightness might help some, as well.

From an AOSP M8

 

[raaisma]

I had a similar problem just like you. My Galaxy tab S 8.4 LTE drained very fast. I'm talking 100% to flat battery in 2 days without turning it on. I sent it to the service centre. Samsung replaced 'power IC' (as said in the receipt) and now the battery drains like normal. Hope this helps.

 

[Mike Wright2]

Yeah I came from an iPad mini, the battery was much better but this tablet is just awesome. It generally gets me throughout the day and I charge it overnight with my phone. The display and lightweight design is fabulous it has made me overlook the crappy battery lol. Good luck let me know if you have any other questions!

Thanks, as a new owner your info on the battery life is very helpful.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[briannamarie91]

Thanks, as a new owner your info on the battery life is very helpful.

Posted via the Android Central App

I guess you missed my entire paragraph that I wrote above that. Read the thread again.

 

[briannamarie91]

Hi!

I also have a Samsung galaxy tab s and I can tell you with certain that you do NOT have a lemon. I thought something was wrong with mine initially, I returned 2 of them back to best buy only to find that unfortunately, the battery is just terrible. I play clash of clans a lot and with just 5 minutes of using that my tablet trains at least 3%. If I leave it idle, it will last but will still drain faster than my phone (which doesn't make sense because that is searching for signal!). What I find helps is lowering the brightness (not auto), power saving mode (not ultra), turning my tablet off to charge it, letting the battery drain completely until it powers off, closing all apps after using them, turning off wifi searching when you are connected to a network (that can be found in the menu settings in wifi). Also see how your battery is with just searching the web or other apps like amazon, facebook, etc. If it does not drain AS FAST as when using games, your device is most definitely not a lemon. I have noticed that although this product drains quickly, it won't drain as fast when using other apps than clash of clans or trivia crack. Also keep in mind, I used to own 3 different Samsung devices and the battery operated the same on those. Terrible when operating games, would die 1% after powering on from 100% and even die very quickly in stand-by mode.

Good luck and let know if I can help in any other way

Best,
Brianna

Pretty sure this is useful .

 

[nonnasmyladie]

That is the tab s. Battery life is 1 hour on average for me. Totally useless.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[spydre]

That is the tab s. Battery life is 1 hour on average for me. Totally useless.

Posted via the Android Central App

Do the other Samsung tablets have similar battery issues? If they can't repair mine (extended warranty with accidental damage covered), I'm not certain that I want to replace it with something with a large battery drain issue.

 

[MattKerwin]

i would say a full day is pretty good for the screen on this bad boy...also gaming definitely drops any device very quick...i did very casual gaming on my former ipad air 2, and it went very quick...so far the tab seems pretty par for the course!

 

[briannamarie91]

It is terrible while playing games. Dies in a few short hours they say the battery is good and it's terrible

 

[CBreen28]

Received mine in October. Battery wasnt great but a few days ago it went from ok to rapidly decreaing. %50 battery doesnt last me an hour. Might have to give samsung a call soon.

 

[MattKerwin]

what do you have going on for location settings?

 

[DeeBoy21]

Samsung just told me I basically need to turn off EVERYTHING for the tablet battery to last. Cannot have email sync, calendar, drive, etc....

That is absolutely ridiculous.

 

[cracks1er]

I've had my tab s 10.5 for almost a year now. This past month my battery has been draining fast going from 100% to 0 in a little over an hour. When I first bought it I would get good battery life would be able to watch 2 movies and still have about 50%. Just sent it in since it was still under warranty just received a email that they replaced the charge port. Not sure how the charge port has anything to do with the battery life but hopefully when I get it back I don't have the drain issues.