Bad Battery??

justlaxin13

Well-known member
Jul 28, 2010
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Ok i bought that SGSII partially due to the talk of great battery life. I'm not yet seeing it. I would by no means call myself a super heavy user but i've been getting 12-ish hours out of this thing not the 20 or "easily a full day I hear from most people".

I text more than anything, I have gmail and google service syncing, twitter updating every hour, screen on auto-brightness and relatively few phone calls. I always have gps off. I can't seem to figure out what I am doing that these "power users" getting 20+ hour are doing.

I have noticed that when I check the battery use, "android OS" is using 20% or so. According to the description listed there that is for "battery used by applications" but im not sure what apps im using that should be using that high a percentage.

Anecdotally, Right now my phone has been unplugged for roughly 2 hours, I'm at about 89% battery. I have send/received 30 text messages and made one 5 minute phone call...thats its. "android OS" is still at 21% of battery use and I feel like that number is too high for little use i've put in...

Any thoughts?
 
Have you taken advantage of the stock task manager that comes with the phone? I am surprised how well it works for me when I know i wont be using the phone for awhile I clear the list. This is legit .bf works waaaay better than that task killer everybody was using for the longest time. Make it a widget and try it it for a day.
 
im in the same boat as you kind of regret skipping the iphone 4 and waiting for this, i ONLY waited for it because i heard good things about the battery

my main concern with androids was the battery, i have friends who carry chargers with them all day, and my friends with iphone 4 never complain

I did everything all guides said, and i lose 1-2% while idle, 1-2% per minute while playing games/browse/use apps. i love all the ffeatures i get but i don't know, if after 20 days or so my battery can not do any better with juicedefender or something i might downgrade to an iphone 4 if its possible

whats the point of all these apps / games if i can only play them for 5 minutes lol
 
Ok i bought that SGSII partially due to the talk of great battery life. I'm not yet seeing it. I would by no means call myself a super heavy user but i've been getting 12-ish hours out of this thing not the 20 or "easily a full day I hear from most people".

I text more than anything, I have gmail and google service syncing, twitter updating every hour, screen on auto-brightness and relatively few phone calls. I always have gps off. I can't seem to figure out what I am doing that these "power users" getting 20+ hour are doing.

I have noticed that when I check the battery use, "android OS" is using 20% or so. According to the description listed there that is for "battery used by applications" but im not sure what apps im using that should be using that high a percentage.

Anecdotally, Right now my phone has been unplugged for roughly 2 hours, I'm at about 89% battery. I have send/received 30 text messages and made one 5 minute phone call...thats its. "android OS" is still at 21% of battery use and I feel like that number is too high for little use i've put in...

Any thoughts?


That 21% means of the battery that's been used, less than 1/4 of it was used via the OS. If the iphone gave people the same info the android system does, iOS users would be up in arms as well. If I keep turning the screen on but don't do anything other than watch the Koi swim around, I'm gonna show some exorbitant percentage via the display/screen. It doesn't mean I have a faulty screen, it means that's what's been consuming the majority of the battery FOR MY USE.

People read alot into these numbers, sometimes too much information is a bad thing. This is one of those times.

Now with that said does the battery suck? Yes it does. Can I understand why people would possibly want to migrate back to an iPhone, yes I can. Battery was never an issue with it. You didn't have to run a task manager and jump through 15 hoops to make it through your work day without charging. I get that frustration.
 
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Yeah, i realize android is not the gold standard for battery life. But every review i've read of this phone was glowing. The android central review said definitively that it should get through a day for "all but the most powerful of power users"...which i am not...hence my confusion.
 
Ok i bought that SGSII partially due to the talk of great battery life. I'm not yet seeing it. I would by no means call myself a super heavy user but i've been getting 12-ish hours out of this thing not the 20 or "easily a full day I hear from most people".

I text more than anything, I have gmail and google service syncing, twitter updating every hour, screen on auto-brightness and relatively few phone calls. I always have gps off. I can't seem to figure out what I am doing that these "power users" getting 20+ hour are doing.

I have noticed that when I check the battery use, "android OS" is using 20% or so. According to the description listed there that is for "battery used by applications" but im not sure what apps im using that should be using that high a percentage.

Anecdotally, Right now my phone has been unplugged for roughly 2 hours, I'm at about 89% battery. I have send/received 30 text messages and made one 5 minute phone call...thats its. "android OS" is still at 21% of battery use and I feel like that number is too high for little use i've put in...

Any thoughts?

I would turn off auto brightness and make it low, like 20-25% of the entire slider.....

Also, just for reference, based on your "89% battery after two hours"...thats exactly where I would be when I had my iphone 4. I don't think this battery sucks by any means, but I do think you have to customize just a bit more to get max battery out of it. I'll post some other things I did to get better battery later on for ya.
 
Now with that said does the battery suck? Yes it does. Can I understand why people would possibly want to migrate back to an iPhone, yes I can. Battery was never an issue with it. You didn't have to run a task manager and jump through 15 hoops to make it through your work day without charging. I get that frustration.

I don't think it sucks overall...its definitely better than all the other Android handsets I've used or read up about.....it's not going to "beat" an iphone 4.....Apple has that sh#t down....as it kept me from switching to Android before....I *almost* switched but the battery specs on the 4 kept me for another year (or year plus since they didn't release on their typical schedule).

You shouldn't need to run a task manager on Android, or jump through 15 hoops.....but you do need to tweak some things just like you did with an iphone 4 to maximize battery.
 
I get the same battery life as my old iPhone 4 so this sounds weird to me.

Sent from my Samsung galaxy S2 using Tapatalk
 
this phone battery gets worse everyday for me
today with everything off, i lost 3% per hour..ridiculous

im at 13%, turned off the phone, n will charge

hopefully it will calibrate this way or something

i started the day at 85 % from 8-6 i ended up with 13...little more gaming than usual but the idle time i still lost more than usual

apn off/wifi off etc
 
I don't think it sucks overall...its definitely better than all the other Android handsets I've used or read up about.....it's not going to "beat" an iphone 4.....Apple has that sh#t down....as it kept me from switching to Android before....I *almost* switched but the battery specs on the 4 kept me for another year (or year plus since they didn't release on their typical schedule).

You shouldn't need to run a task manager on Android, or jump through 15 hoops.....but you do need to tweak some things just like you did with an iphone 4 to maximize battery.


Well a lot of people are jumping from the iPhone to the SGSII, so to them it feels like they're jumping through hoops. I never had do to a thing to the iPhone settings to get good batt. Left WIFI and BT on all the time. Easily lasted me a day and then some. Going from that to being lucky to make it to 6:00pm will be a turn off. Especially when they hear, turn that highly regarded AMOLED screen down to 20%, turn off wifi, turn off BT, turn off GPS, use the task manager, don't use these widgets, ect. I can see where iPhone users might get turned off by that. WTF is the point of the phone if you have to shut half of it off? To them, the tag line "It just works", really isn't just a line in their eyes. I'm just saying what they are thinking.
 
Well a lot of people are jumping from the iPhone to the SGSII, so to them it feels like they're jumping through hoops. I never had do to a thing to the iPhone settings to get good batt. Left WIFI and BT on all the time. Easily lasted me a day and then some. Going from that to being lucky to make it to 6:00pm will be a turn off. Especially when they hear, turn that highly regarded AMOLED screen down to 20%, turn off wifi, turn off BT, turn off GPS, use the task manager, don't use these widgets, ect. I can see where iPhone users might get turned off by that. WTF is the point of the phone if you have to shut half of it off? To them, the tag line "It just works", really isn't just a line in their eyes. I'm just saying what they are thinking.

Angry much? NOTHING will compare to the battery life of the iphone 4/4S....but saying you don't have to tweak an iphone 4 at all is crazy. I know I did....and noticed after about a year it's "life" was getting significantly worse.

Yes, you gotta do some additional tweaking on Android to get it running well with battery life, but I can't imagine how pissed other iphone users would be if they came over onto other devices less than 6 months ago......simply put, the SGSII has some of the best battery life on Android.

(Also I believe there is a bug with the SGSII with AOS (Android OS) causing the battery to drain quicker than it should)
 
Angry much? NOTHING will compare to the battery life of the iphone 4/4S....but saying you don't have to tweak an iphone 4 at all is crazy. I know I did....and noticed after about a year it's "life" was getting significantly worse.

Yes, you gotta do some additional tweaking on Android to get it running well with battery life, but I can't imagine how pissed other iphone users would be if they came over onto other devices less than 6 months ago......simply put, the SGSII has some of the best battery life on Android.

(Also I believe there is a bug with the SGSII with AOS (Android OS) causing the battery to drain quicker than it should)


Not angry at all. So far I love my SGSII, I'm just calling it like I see it. I had iPhone 4, never tweaked a thing on it, never needed to for my use.
 
what are your thoughts on going from an iphone to an sg2

i really wanted the iphone 4,but that was 2 months ago and opted to wait for iphone 5
couldnt handle the wait n looked at near by android phones, n waited for the sg2

tell me everythign small n big that you like/hate about both phones
i remember i hated typing in the iphone, did it get any easier? i hated browsing on it too, but battery life is the ice breaker for me
 
what are your thoughts on going from an iphone to an sg2

i really wanted the iphone 4,but that was 2 months ago and opted to wait for iphone 5
couldnt handle the wait n looked at near by android phones, n waited for the sg2

tell me everythign small n big that you like/hate about both phones
i remember i hated typing in the iphone, did it get any easier? i hated browsing on it too, but battery life is the ice breaker for me


The only thing the iPhone has over the SGSII is battery. However, I would take a wait and see approach with the new 4s. Notifications, reminders, assistant, faster chip, are all going to eat into their famed battery. I think you will start to see some complaints on it.
 
Well, it looks like i'm going to be needing to invest in some spare chargers. Amazon has some for $4 . Hopefully they are legit.

Unplugged the phone at 5am and is is 3:45pm now. I had 1 call for about 5 minutes this morning. Texted a bit, downloaded some new apps and played around with it for a little bit trying to get familiar with it. I'm at 23% now. Around noon i turned off the gps, bluetooth, wifi and turned the display down from auto.

Display 45% (on auto)
Android OS 25%
Android System 13%

I bought the vehicle charger when i bought it just for emergencies and judging from how slow the wall charger takes im sure the vehicle charger will just slow the depletion at best.

I couldnt imagine being bored for an extended period with it like at an airport or on an airplane. I would be shocked if it could get through one streaming netflix movie without needing to be plugged in.
 
Yeah, I'm not saying the battery life is horrible. But when literally every review of this phone i have read has said that it should last you a day at least, i tend to expect that. I've been paying close attention to my usage the past two days and its not good.

Moderate texting, screen on auto, no gps, no bluetooth, twitter and gmail as the only apps syncing (twitter every hour), and roughly 15 minutes of phone calls both days...never did my battery make it past 11 hours. Not only is that not a "full day at least" it is relatively low usage. I would have no problem if that was what reasonably expected, but everything I read claimed much much more. at this point i'm honestly wondering what im doing wrong here cause i feel like all the reviewers couldnt be off by that much.

As a side note, at the end of both days, 24% of the battery was used by the "android OS". Given what i used the phone for all day, what does that represent? The screen only took 36%...shouldnt that be a much bigger chasm considering i didnt play any games, download any apps, use the browser...etc.??
 
Here is what I am getting:

left my phone off for 1 hour while driving home, no phone calls, no texting, etc

The battery meter went from 90% to 84%, 6% per hour??!!
 
my battery is getting better since i charged it while off, im gona unplug today at about 95-100% and go to work, coming home at 6 and will tell where im at

im estimating 13-20 % depending on how much i game

if i feel i dont need to play games cuz im busy i think if i dont use my phone at all i can come back with 30-40% easily >.>
 
I am completely new to smartphones. I have been running my phone on maxed settings (brightness, GPS on, etc) and after a full charge, extensivley used it with these settings on. Browsed, downloaded, called, etc etc. Did this for a good portion of the day. Seems like with as much as I did and the fact that brightness was 100% the whole time and all power options turned off, the battery held up pretty well.

though i have never had an iphone so I cant compare.