Galaxy S8 / S8 + Battery Life Thread

[jmigna]

My first post here, but have been doing a lot of research and thorough testing and

Here is what you need to do in order to significantly improve your battery life (both SOT and idle on both S8 and S8+):

1. AOD off (very important for idle)
2. Google history location tracking off
3. WiFi on during sleep NEVER (very important for idle)
4. Location power saving mode
5. No Wifi & BT scanning
6. Nearby devices scanning off
7. No auto-brightness (very important for SOT)
8. Max brightness no more than 40-50%

If you do the above setup you should be able to get:

a) around 7-8 hours SOT on S8+ and 6-7 hours on S8
b) battery drain during night (idle) between 3-6%

Please remember:

a) 1 hour of SOT if you use it continuously (e.g. watch 2 youtube videos for 30 minutes each) is way smaller that 1 hour of SOT when you switch your phone on and off 30 times for 2 minutes.

b) your GSM connection must be decent - it does not have it be 4 bars all the time, but it needs to be stable - it cannot keep jumping from 1 bar to 3 bars etc. 3 stable bars is completely sufficient

c) the above numbers will obviously vary depending on how much social media/email etc activity you have in the background (how frequent notifications which do not let the phone sleep)

If the above did not help anyone significantly (e.g. you still have 4 hours of SOT) please post here and I will try to help

 

[THEPRFCT10]

My first post here, but have been doing a lot of research and thorough testing and

Here is what you need to do in order to significantly improve your battery life (both SOT and idle on both S8 and S8+):

1. AOD off (very important for idle)
2. Google history location tracking off
3. WiFi on during sleep NEVER (very important for idle)
4. Location power saving mode
5. No Wifi & BT scanning
6. Nearby devices scanning off
7. No auto-brightness (very important for SOT)
8. Max brightness no more than 40-50%

If you do the above setup you should be able to get:

a) around 7-8 hours SOT on S8+ and 6-7 hours on S8
b) battery drain during night (idle) between 3-6%

Please remember:

a) 1 hour of SOT if you use it continuously (e.g. watch 2 youtube videos for 30 minutes each) is way smaller that 1 hour of SOT when you switch your phone on and off 30 times for 2 minutes.

b) your GSM connection must be decent - it does not have it be 4 bars all the time, but it needs to be stable - it cannot keep jumping from 1 bar to 3 bars etc. 3 stable bars is completely sufficient

c) the above numbers will obviously vary depending on how much social media/email etc activity you have in the background (how frequent notifications which do not let the phone sleep)

If the above did not help anyone significantly (e.g. you still have 4 hours of SOT) please post here and I will try to help

Great ideas. Done. (Except I keep Google History On because I like Google Rewards program)! I look forward to seeing an improvement!

 

[steven Hadjez]

My first post here, but have been doing a lot of research and thorough testing and

Here is what you need to do in order to significantly improve your battery life (both SOT and idle on both S8 and S8+):

1. AOD off (very important for idle)
2. Google history location tracking off
3. WiFi on during sleep NEVER (very important for idle)
4. Location power saving mode
5. No Wifi & BT scanning
6. Nearby devices scanning off
7. No auto-brightness (very important for SOT)
8. Max brightness no more than 40-50%

If you do the above setup you should be able to get:

a) around 7-8 hours SOT on S8+ and 6-7 hours on S8
b) battery drain during night (idle) between 3-6%

Please remember:

a) 1 hour of SOT if you use it continuously (e.g. watch 2 youtube videos for 30 minutes each) is way smaller that 1 hour of SOT when you switch your phone on and off 30 times for 2 minutes.

b) your GSM connection must be decent - it does not have it be 4 bars all the time, but it needs to be stable - it cannot keep jumping from 1 bar to 3 bars etc. 3 stable bars is completely sufficient

c) the above numbers will obviously vary depending on how much social media/email etc activity you have in the background (how frequent notifications which do not let the phone sleep)

If the above did not help anyone significantly (e.g. you still have 4 hours of SOT) please post here and I will try to help

Awesome first post mate ! I'm screenshoting this and keeping it as a guide for all my future new phones setups.

I'm one of the guys with no more than 4hrs SOT on my s8+ so I'm looking forward to seeing my results with this. Just a few questions for clarification (sorry if some of them are stupid)

1. Can you clarify what you mean by "Location power saving modes"?

2. When you say no WiFi and BT scanning, you mean that we should simply toggle them off when not using them, or is there a setting to find in order to turn off scanning ?

Thanks a lot in advance. I will report with my results tomorrow but I think that you've identified a huge issue I have: I'm not the guy who leaves YouTube on for 2 hours straight. I'm the guy who wakes up the phone 6 times per hour for a minute in order to check my Instagram notifications!!!

Let's see ...

 

[jmigna]

1. Can you clarify what you mean by "Location power saving modes"?

2. When you say no WiFi and BT scanning, you mean that we should simply toggle them off when not using them, or is there a setting to find in order to turn off scanning ?

1. Settings->Connections->Location
2. Settings->Connections->Location->Improve accuracy

 

[steven Hadjez]

1. Settings->Connections->Location
2. Settings->Connections->Location->Improve accuracy

Oh ok thank you I found it. Well I have to say that all of a sudden my hope level went down just a little because I already have my location toggled off at all time! Which means that the only new thing for me will be 3 and 7/8.
I have difficulties imagining that this will double my sot but let's see.

Thanks again for the help mate.

 

[jmigna]

For those of you who implement my suggestions but are still not happy with the results here are some smaller things that will help a little bit, but will compromise the functionality:

a) switch off google now cards if you do not use them
b) switch off auto-sync for google play
c) switch off auto-sync for Settings-Software update
d) switch off all the gestures which you do not need (especially Smart Stay will help with SOT obviously making the devise less pleasant to use)
e) switch off bluetooth manually every time you do not use it
f) switch off iris scanner/face recognition and only use fingerprint (you can do the other way around if you prefer iris and cancel fingerprint then)

Most important:

If the app does not appear on the battery consumption list it does not mean it does not cause battery drainage. Biggest problem is with apps which wake up the kernel frequently (or even less frequently, but can trigger a process that may run for 15 minutes in the background). So go through your apps and consider yourself what they do in the background, e.g.:

a) weather app how ofter does it update
b) social media apps
c) email apps
d) news apps
e) fitness apps measuring app (like 'samsung health' measuring steps you make)
e) any other apps that you installed

Before you go to sleep go to Battery and put the apps visible there to sleep manually. Also clean the RAM. You should have reasonable (2-6%) battery drain overnight. If you have 15% drain in few hours (sleep time) then there must be something specific waking up the phone all the time, which affects your both idle efficiency and overall SOT

 

[jmigna]

Oh ok thank you I found it. Well I have to say that all of a sudden my hope level went down just a little because I already have my location toggled off at all time! Which means that the only new thing for me will be 3 and 7/8.
I have difficulties imagining that this will double my sot but let's see.

Thanks again for the help mate.

3,7 & 8 will not double it but should help significantly. You will see big difference

 

[Lecrae116]

My first post here, but have been doing a lot of research and thorough testing and

Here is what you need to do in order to significantly improve your battery life (both SOT and idle on both S8 and S8+):

1. AOD off (very important for idle)
2. Google history location tracking off
3. WiFi on during sleep NEVER (very important for idle)
4. Location power saving mode
5. No Wifi & BT scanning
6. Nearby devices scanning off
7. No auto-brightness (very important for SOT)
8. Max brightness no more than 40-50%

If you do the above setup you should be able to get:

a) around 7-8 hours SOT on S8+ and 6-7 hours on S8
b) battery drain during night (idle) between 3-6%

Please remember:

a) 1 hour of SOT if you use it continuously (e.g. watch 2 youtube videos for 30 minutes each) is way smaller that 1 hour of SOT when you switch your phone on and off 30 times for 2 minutes.

b) your GSM connection must be decent - it does not have it be 4 bars all the time, but it needs to be stable - it cannot keep jumping from 1 bar to 3 bars etc. 3 stable bars is completely sufficient

c) the above numbers will obviously vary depending on how much social media/email etc activity you have in the background (how frequent notifications which do not let the phone sleep)

If the above did not help anyone significantly (e.g. you still have 4 hours of SOT) please post here and I will try to help

I use mobile data when not on Wi-Fi so if it set the policy to never that means I'll be on mobile data so do I need to disable both?

 

[ClintRo]

Oh ok thank you I found it. Well I have to say that all of a sudden my hope level went down just a little because I already have my location toggled off at all time! Which means that the only new thing for me will be 3 and 7/8.
I have difficulties imagining that this will double my sot but let's see.

Thanks again for the help mate.

Did you ever clear you cache?

 

[jmigna]

I use mobile data when not on Wi-Fi so if it set the policy to never that means I'll be on mobile data so do I need to disable both?

No, only change precisely what I suggested. You WiFi will turn off when you do not use your phone and you are in WiFi range. When you start using it it will automatically turn on. It will not affect the way you use your phone outside of WiFi range.

 

[steven Hadjez]

Did you ever clear you cache?

Never did cause I don't know how.
I don't if this means anything though but I rooted my phone last week and in the process I had to reset it to factory default and start from scratch. So I'm assuming that the cache was wiped at that moment ?

 

[ClintRo]

It might help, you should do it as part of rooting and roming.

What ROM are you running?

Here is how you clear cache, it will not erase anything or reset your device if you follow the direction exactly.

How to Enter Galaxy S8 and S8+ in Recovery Mode

Here are the few simple steps to boot into recovery mode on Samsung Galaxy S8 or S8+.

1. Turn off the phone completely.
2. Now press and hold Bixby, Volume Up and Power Keys simultaneously.
3. Release all the buttons when screen flickers, and Samsung’s logo appears to enter into recovery mode.
4. In the Recovery Mode, use Volume Up, and Down Keys to for navigation purpose. Use Power button for selection purpose.
5. Once you get into recovery mode, you’ll see the following screen containing similar options are a little bit different.
recovery mode on Samsung Galaxy S7 shown below.
6. To delete device cache, select “Wipe cache partition” from the list of options and confirm it.
7. Wait until the process gets finished.
8. Once it is completed, select ‘reboot system now’ to restart the device.



View attachment 259563

 

[Bbtz84]

S8 and I'm happy with my results so far

 

[m3lover1]

For those of you who implement my suggestions but are still not happy with the results here are some smaller things that will help a little bit, but will compromise the functionality:

a) switch off google now cards if you do not use them
b) switch off auto-sync for google play
c) switch off auto-sync for Settings-Software update
d) switch off all the gestures which you do not need (especially Smart Stay will help with SOT obviously making the devise less pleasant to use)
e) switch off bluetooth manually every time you do not use it
f) switch off iris scanner/face recognition and only use fingerprint (you can do the other way around if you prefer iris and cancel fingerprint then)

Most important:

If the app does not appear on the battery consumption list it does not mean it does not cause battery drainage. Biggest problem is with apps which wake up the kernel frequently (or even less frequently, but can trigger a process that may run for 15 minutes in the background). So go through your apps and consider yourself what they do in the background, e.g.:

a) weather app how ofter does it update
b) social media apps
c) email apps
d) news apps
e) fitness apps measuring app (like 'samsung health' measuring steps you make)
e) any other apps that you installed

Before you go to sleep go to Battery and put the apps visible there to sleep manually. Also clean the RAM. You should have reasonable (2-6%) battery drain overnight. If you have 15% drain in few hours (sleep time) then there must be something specific waking up the phone all the time, which affects your both idle efficiency and overall SOT

Not bad ideas, but might as well get a flip phone then if you turn all these off. Whats the use of having a new flagship smartphone when you're going to turn off the features that make it smart?

 

[steven Hadjez]

Not bad ideas, but might as well get a flip phone then if you turn all these off. Whats the use of having a new flagship smartphone when you're going to turn off the features that make it smart?

I never thought of measuring my idle time. Maybe it will give me an indication as to what causes my drain. I will look into this tonight

 

[jmigna]

Not bad ideas, but might as well get a flip phone then if you turn all these off. Whats the use of having a new flagship smartphone when you're going to turn off the features that make it smart?

I'm aware of that and I mentioned that this is compromising some of the main features. However some people may not use gestures for example or iris scanner then it is better to disable them to improve battery.

 

[steven Hadjez]

I'm aware of that and I mentioned that this is compromising some of the main features. However some people may not use gestures for example or iris scanner then it is better to disable them to improve battery.

What's your thoughts on roaming ? I'm always roaming you think this is bad for battery ? Even if I have good signal?

 

[jmigna]

What's your thoughts on roaming ? I'm always roaming you think this is bad for battery ? Even if I have good signal?

I do not think this is bad for battery but I have not tested it so it is only my guess. Most important thing to have stable (not necessarily very strong) signal.

 

[gops2116]

My first post here, but have been doing a lot of research and thorough testing and

Here is what you need to do in order to significantly improve your battery life (both SOT and idle on both S8 and S8+):

1. AOD off (very important for idle)
2. Google history location tracking off
3. WiFi on during sleep NEVER (very important for idle)
4. Location power saving mode
5. No Wifi & BT scanning
6. Nearby devices scanning off
7. No auto-brightness (very important for SOT)
8. Max brightness no more than 40-50%

If you do the above setup you should be able to get:

a) around 7-8 hours SOT on S8+ and 6-7 hours on S8
b) battery drain during night (idle) between 3-6%

Please remember:

a) 1 hour of SOT if you use it continuously (e.g. watch 2 youtube videos for 30 minutes each) is way smaller that 1 hour of SOT when you switch your phone on and off 30 times for 2 minutes.

b) your GSM connection must be decent - it does not have it be 4 bars all the time, but it needs to be stable - it cannot keep jumping from 1 bar to 3 bars etc. 3 stable bars is completely sufficient

c) the above numbers will obviously vary depending on how much social media/email etc activity you have in the background (how frequent notifications which do not let the phone sleep)

If the above did not help anyone significantly (e.g. you still have 4 hours of SOT) please post here and I will try to help

Not sure about 1&3. I have AOD on, wifi on during sleep ALWAYS but my phone easily goes into light and then deep doze without any hassle. I drain not more than 4-5% over 8 hours in the night. I find the AOD in the S8 series quite efficient and doesn't wake up the device over prolonged idle period. Guess I had mentioned this in my earlier post as well. Check the stats of doze and deep doze in the screen shot.

 

[jmigna]

Not sure about 1&3. I have AOD on, wifi on during sleep ALWAYS but my phone easily goes into light and then deep doze without any hassle. I drain not more than 4-5% over 8 hours in the night. I find the AOD in the S8 series quite efficient and doesn't wake up the device over prolonged idle period. Guess I had mentioned this in my earlier post as well. Check the stats of doze and deep doze in the screen shot.

5% drain overnight is not bad and probably further changes may not be worth the hassle in your case. You still would have significant improvement changing WiFi and AOD, but in your case 50% progress would mean 2-3% overnight drain instead of 5%. In my case (Exynos S8+) AOD takes a lot of battery so I optimised it from 15% drain to 3% (not only AOD but everything I mentioned previously)