Becoming increasingly frustrated with battery. Please help!

[afgbruins21]

I've had my S3, stock no root, running 4.1.1, since late October 2012. Since the day I've gotten it, I've had horrible battery life. I always keep my screen at lowest brightness, I rarely turn GPS on, I do not use the bluetooth, I have power-saving mode on, I have JuiceDefender running, and I have the Wi-Fi set to "on only when plugged in." I mainly am on wi-fi when I use it, and am only on 4G LTE for short periods of time. I do not watch videos. The widgets I use are Falcon for Twitter, a compose tweet for Tweetcaster, a tiny Spotify one, and a Beautiful Widgets clock. None of them auto-refresh. I do keep sync on in general. My screen appears to eat up my battery life and I don't know why! I mainly use my phone for Twitter, Facebook, and email. I barely ever get 6 hours out of it and constantly have to carry around chargers. Once or twice I have gotten 8 hours. I notice my phone goes down to 85% in 10-15 minutes of use. My iPhone friends have consistently better battery life and I am actually jealous. I charge my phone overnight, every night and they don't have to and their phone only uses about 1-2% overnight while in sleep mode. I'm sure mine would die. AND they get to keep their phone at full brightness, something else I am jealous of. I wish I could use my phone to its full potential but I can't. Please help!

Edit: Sometimes, besides screen, if I'm not using my phone that much, "Cell standby" is the second biggest eater of battery.

Here is a screenshot of my battery life

 

[remakeyourself]

I felt the same way, so I purchased the Hyperion 4500mwh battery off of Amazon for $30 - now the S3 is incredible. When I'm not traveling, I usually have a dock or charger nearby, so I use the small/stock battery, and when I'm going to be out and about or know I'll need the extra juice, this battery is a lifesaver.

The S3 shuts down and boots up so quickly that swapping batteries is no big deal. Instead of worrying about hacks and fixes to make the phone function differently, I recommend going this route. Very glad I did.

 

[remakeyourself]

However that 85% after 15 minutes is clearly an issue... Not sure what to tell you about that. As long as the screen/cell standby/Services/Android are the biggest battery offenders, that's normal.

I still say just get a different battery, then you've got a backup as well.

 

[afgbruins21]

I'm going to the Verizon store sometime this week to see what it's about. That Hyperion thing sounds like a mad good idea! But wait, won't I need a new back for my phone for that? Would it ruin the sleek, thin design?

 

[MikeLip]

I'm going to the Verizon store sometime this week to see what it's about. That Hyperion thing sounds like a mad good idea! But wait, won't I need a new back for my phone for that? Would it ruin the sleek, thin design?

Absolutely do that. That kind of drop is way out of line for an S3. As for the Hyperion thing, yeah, it will make your phone a lot thicker. No getting around that I'm afraid. Samsung is releasing their extended battery and back in the UK, and while it doesn't have the capacity of the Hyperion or Onite, it seems like it's a lot thinner. I hope it comes to the US.

 

[bjboucher]

You say you aren't watching videos but how long is your screen staying on in those 6 or so hours of usage before you need to charge? If you are constantly using the phone, then 6 hours isn't bad but if the screen on time is only a few minutes here and there then you have in issue. You can get screen on time stats in the battery section of the menu.