Galaxy s7 edge battery draining fast

[Android Central Question]

So I've recently purchased a refurbished Galaxy S7 Edge (exynos) to replace my 4 year old Galaxy S5 and I'm really liking it so far however I have a pretty big battery problem. I'm losing over 1% an hour with AOD off plus location and wifi/mobile data also off. I was using it for about a week without a SIM card and was getting 3 to 4 days with 6 hours SOT on a full charge and losing no more than 1% overnight. I get 1 hour or less SOT now at 50% charge with same brightness/usage.

Any idea what's going on? Obviously having a mobile sim is going to drain more battery but it really shouldn't be this much as mobile data has always been off and signal is good. I done a factory reset based on the answers of some others having similar issue but saw no difference.

 

[methodman89]

Open Settings, Battery usage, and see.
Another possible reason, you mentioned it was good before inserting the sim card. Are you far from a cell tower and only get 1 or 2 bars? That will cause a noticeable drain on the battery.

 

[S K9]

@methodman89 I'm the creator of this thread, i couldn't reply to you as i hadn't created an account but now I've created an account I'm no longer the thread creator. I officially have no idea how this forum works lol. Anyway to answer your question signal bars are almost full and battery stats have cell standby and device idle at the top but if I'm reading the stats correctly then both have used 256mAh combined but battery is currently sitting at 53%

 

[methodman89]

Can you post a screenshot of your battery usage?

 

[S K9]

@methodman89 i didn't think i could post screenshot? I only see a small white bar at the bottom of the page with a submit answer button below it, no options to upload any images.

 

[methodman89]

Here you go

 

[S K9]

 

[methodman89]

You’re not using it much, but it shows you’re getting over a day on the battery. Charge it full, use it to where the drainage is noticeable, then take the screenshots.

 

[S K9]

You’re not using it much, but it shows you’re getting over a day on the battery. Charge it full, use it to where the drainage is noticeable, then take the screenshots.

Sorry but I didn't quite understand what you meant, the phone was charged to 100% and the screenshots I posted were when I just lost over half the charge. In the end I put my phone on charge at 5% or so and I had achieved just over a day and 1 1/2 hours SOT. I'm sure everyone would agree that this is absolutely terrible for a phone that doesn't have any 3rd party apps installed plus Wi-Fi / mobile data disabled most of the time with good network signal, especially since i was getting 3-4 days standby and 6 hours SOT just a few days ago.

 

[methodman89]

Maybe I'm missing something. After about a day, you still have 49% battery remaining.
Your pics show alot of standby and very little usage.
At the rate shown, you will get about 2 days of cell standby time. Not bad for an old battery in a smart phone.
Please use the phone to show how it is overly discharging.

 

[S K9]

It's not just the standby that worries me, the battery drains faster when in use as well (compared to having no sim). 2 days standby may sound great but only when accompanied by a decent screen on time, i'll probably get that without turning on the screen at all for 2 days which is terrible, my 4 year old s5 does better than that and that's been used heavily with over a thousand full charge cycles.

If this is considered normal battery life for the s7 edge then I think I'm just going to send an email to the company i purchased it off and get a refund as I'm still within the return time period. I'll just have to hang on to my s5 for another year or so.

 

[S K9]

So I turned off sync and volte and somehow the standby on my phone is even better than when i had no sim inserted. Lost less than 1% over 10 hours. No idea why turning them off made such a difference as i wasn't connected to WiFi or mobile Internet when my battery was still draining fast.

 

[methodman89]

So I turned off sync and volte and somehow the standby on my phone is even better than when i had no sim inserted. Lost less than 1% over 10 hours. No idea why turning them off made such a difference as i wasn't connected to WiFi or mobile Internet when my battery was still draining fast.

Because your phone was constantly trying to sync, per your instruction, but you wouldn't let it connect. Your advanced wifi settings need to be configured.

 

[S K9]

Because your phone was constantly trying to sync, per your instruction, but you wouldn't let it connect. Your advanced wifi settings need to be configured.

Hm interesting i didn't know that. Only thing is though the sync was on and Internet off before i put the sim card in and no problem then, that shouldn't have changed with a sim. However that probably explains why i got slightly less drain now with a sim than without as sync was on then.

I think the problem was indeed the volte, i turned it back on and battery drain came back. Why it is making such a big difference i don't know as mobile Internet was off and i didn't use the phone to call.