My Samsung Galaxy S4 Battery life is Rubbish!

[smudge173]

I've had my phone for 3 days, and the battery life is terrible on it.

I am constantly on power saving mode, turned off all gestures etc, careful to close applications, all the things I've seen/read that will help save battery life.

However, I could be on 100% and then a minute later it's on 99% and I've only been sending text messages. I do play games frequently on it, which of course will drain the battery, but I'm noticing (what I perceive as) unnatural drainage.

I have took a print screen of Settings>More>Battery (as shown below) and the screen used 64%... have I been doing something wrong? I have the screen on auto but have the brightest on the lowest setting unless I am in sunlight.

It's worth noting that although I had 8 hours from the battery today, it was on charge for 3 hours during the day whilst I was using it. Also this is my first android phone.

If anybody could help me with this, maybe give me some advice on what to do, maybe see if I can get a replacement or if it's something I'm doing.

 

[rushmore]

Are you in a bad signal area? Mine gets good battery life, but different network so not apples to apples.

 

[Tahoe916]

How long was the screen on? If you tap on it, it will show you. A lot of screen time I think can drain it fast although seems excessive. I think you want auto brightness off if you want to control screen battery usage better. I only see on bar on your signal, perhaps that's a factor too, if you tap on cell standby it will show how long you had signal vs. didn't.

 

[Aesthete18]

I charge my phone twice a day because it drains so fast, but I'm always on it so I'm guessing that's why.

 

[newS4owner]

nothing wrong with 64% for screen, just means you been having alot of screen time on it

 

[shoii]

Yeah that looks like a problem. This is me right now.

4 hours screen.

 

[loc09]

Strange, I've been using my S4 for 3 weeks now and really surprised with the battery. During the first days I wanted obsessively empty the battery before recharging and it was hell lot of a work to drain the battery. For example after yesterday the battery level was over 50% so I didn't want to charge it over night. And honestly I think that use my phone during the day quite much compared to others around me

(I have basically everything on, wifi, mobile data, gestures, auto brightness on etc. and definitely not using power saving)

Only once there was a bug with google service app and it had drained the battery during the day. It was only once.

*added picture

 

[monsieurms]

Recently developed a problem with one of the after-market Anker batteries I bought--suddenly overnight, it discharges dramatically even when in Airplane mode. Went to bed last night with the battery at 80% or so. Woke up this morning at 17%. I can't imagine what's doing that if the battery is sound and I'm in Airplane mode. Will try a new one.

 

[smudge173]

Thank you for your replies.

My signal is terrible in the village I live, but in my house and surrounding areas my signal ranges from one bar to full signal! Time without signal is 30% apparently.

Does anybody have any advice on what I should do? I feel like I'm having to turn off all the cool features that I bought the phone for just so I can preserve battery life!

I was thinking of either: Buying a secondary battery to take out with me, buying a bigger battery (maybe a zerolemon 7000mAh ish or a 5200mAh battery), buying a case that can charge my phone, factory resetting my device to see if it's something I've done, ringing customer service and see if I can get a replacement battery. Any opinions?

 

[edgefever]

One of the features that we have is to pop in a fresh battery, instantly back to 100 percent.
Great luxury.

 

[smudge173]

One of the features that we have is to pop in a fresh battery, instantly back to 100 percent.
Great luxury.

Exactly. Even though the battery life is (on my device) terrible, I know I have the option of upgrading a battery or just swapping them! Something Apple followers can't do.

 

[jokout1]

couple things here...your signal quality and LTE signal quality will make a HUGE difference in battery life! Second, do a little research into what is working in the backround! Being your first Android device you probably haven't experienced apps that run in the backround and access the web in the constantly such as Facebook and Twitter...put these apps on a diet by limiting sinc and schedule updates less frequently! A little work now will improve your experience with your S4 and you will see the benifits of the Android platform!
Also...you may see some improvement in battery life as the battery settles in a bit and you aren't constantly playing with your new toy.

Cheers

 

[boltor]

The biggest drain I experienced on my battery was Google Now - disabled that and now have fantastic battery life and no heated case. I don't really missed the functionality. Do you have Google Now enabled?

 

[monsieurms]

Looking at my battery usage, I discovered two things.....unexpectedly Samsung Link was the #1 user. It's a program I don't really even use. And GPS was next!

Turning off GPS overnight and uninstalling S. Link returned the device to normal and really solved the problem.

 

[smudge173]

Thanks for the replies.

My signal quality is poor whenever I am at home so I guess that contributes to the battery life. However when I'm at home I am on wi-fi rather than mobile data so that's a plus. My GPS is always turned off as well.

I disabled Google Now and S voice, are there anymore battery killer pre-installed applications I should know about?

Is there a way to find out what applications run in the background? I hold down the home button to get rid of applications that are running.

Thank you.

 

[smooth4lyfe]

One of the features that we have is to pop in a fresh battery, instantly back to 100 percent.
Great luxury.

Yup! I do this daily and I love it...saves charging time

 

[nickgalaxys4]

I am charging mines but I get about 19 hours,but system idle takes a lot of battery anyone know why? But I have to say I really happy with my battery it's gets my by work/school so I'm happy.

 

[anon5664829]

Exactly. Even though the battery life is (on my device) terrible, I know I have the option of upgrading a battery or just swapping them! Something Apple followers can't do.

Sorry if this is off topic, but can't you control your Apple bashing? because the HTC One and the Nexus 4 that I have don't have a removable battery. Why do you have to say this?

 

[HypoDest]

Thanks for the replies.

My signal quality is poor whenever I am at home so I guess that contributes to the battery life. However when I'm at home I am on wi-fi rather than mobile data so that's a plus. My GPS is always turned off as well.

I disabled Google Now and S voice, are there anymore battery killer pre-installed applications I should know about?

Is there a way to find out what applications run in the background? I hold down the home button to get rid of applications that are running.

Thank you.

Try disabling 'keep Wi-Fi on during sleep' under the Wi-Fi settings. If you have Viber, it tries to override this setting so you'll have to disable it in Viber settings.

S-voice only tends to drain battery if it has been set to wake up to a voice command so you can disable just that feature in its settings.

Google now can be configured to use much less battery if you go to google now/maps location settings and disable the 'Report from this device ' option under background reporting.

Removing the apps from the recent apps list (from pressing the home button) may not help much won't battery in the long run since most of the apps there aren't running, they are saved to ram or to a dormant state.

You want to close the ones on the active apps menu, under the task manager. But you can avoid having to do this if you consistently exit out of apps by using the back button and not using the Home button.

Major battery loss can be caused by background apps waking the phone when you aren't using it, preventing the phone from entering deep sleep. These are called wakelocks and they can be identified from the battery charts having frequent readings on the 'awake chart' when the screen is off. You can find the apps using wakelock detector or better battery stats. And google for more info about them.

Lastly phone screens (especially 1080p) should be using up most of your battery life, as they are the must power hungry component, can't be helped. Don't expect much more than ~6hours screen time, tops. You can improve screen time on amoled screen by sticking you darker, black backgrounds and themes, avoid white.

Sent from my GT-N7100

 

[smooth4lyfe]

I have Google Now off, and all features off except Air View...you can easily turn the ones u want on by dragging 2 fingers down on the notification bar... Also 30% brightness... U will be a very happy camper... I feel like I could do better though

Sent from my Galaxy S4 Exynos via Tapatalk 4... I LOVE THIS PHONE