Note 5 Battery life thread

[vm81]

I tried turning off Google location history and Google now... I didn't notice a change in battery life. There might have been one, but it wasn't noticeable to me.

Sent from my Verizon Samsung Galaxy Note 5

Since you are on Verizon, thats not the issue? Are you using WiFi...if you are...thats your problem. Turn off wifi and see your battery life jump.

 

[Kelly Kearns]

The only widget I have is a clock and weather which only updates hourly. I use Google Now and want location history on. I have been carrying both my Note 5 and iPhone 6+ with me to see how each performs in the same environment. GPS is on all the time on my iPhone 6+. It seems like something is eating up the battery of my Note 5 while on standby.

I wasn't saying you had widgets..

 

[Kelly Kearns]

The only widget I have is a clock and weather which only updates hourly. I use Google Now and want location history on. I have been carrying both my Note 5 and iPhone 6+ with me to see how each performs in the same environment. GPS is on all the time on my iPhone 6+. It seems like something is eating up the battery of my Note 5 while on standby.

Oh and.. I keep location on and turn location history off. Are you needing to have Google know where you were yesterday?

 

[Kelly Kearns]

Since you are on Verizon, thats not the issue? Are you using WiFi...if you are...thats your problem. Turn off wifi and see your battery life jump.

He tested it yesterday with wifi, didn't have the issue. There is an ambassador with a Note 5 on Verizon, he isn't having the issue either.

 

[dpham00]

Since you are on Verizon, thats not the issue? Are you using WiFi...if you are...thats your problem. Turn off wifi and see your battery life jump.

I have used it with wifi and 4GLTE. About the same. 6-7% overnight whether on wifi or 4GLTE.

Sent from my Verizon Samsung Galaxy Note 5

 

[Zoonvu]

And I can pretty much guarantee that if you just turn off your wifi...you will be thrilled with your battery life. Nothing else needed.

You are right, my note 5 lost about 8% of battery by just turning off wifi overnight. I didn't turn off the location, sync, and power save was off. My phone also fully loaded with apps also.

Still wondering why by just turning off wifi save battery draining from 25% to 8% on standby.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[drone3]

You are right, my note 5 lost about 8% of battery by just turning off wifi overnight. I didn't turn off the location, sync, and power save was off. My phone also fully loaded with apps also.

Still wondering why by just turning off wifi save battery draining from 25% to 8% on standby.

Posted via the Android Central App

I think it may be a lollipop WiFi bug, I know the nexus 5 also had battery drain on WiFi.

If you want even better standby time, in WiFi settings under 'keep WiFi on during sleep' choose 'only when plugged in' and install the the app 'Doze' it will restrict data when the screen is off.

dreaming of electric sheep

 

[jdhooghe]

Coming from Verizon I can second the observation that cellular standby is worse. Tmobile is non existent.

Those that have lots of apps: if all of them have notifications turned on your wakelock is going to be insane. Go into each app and make sure the notifications are as needed. If not, turn them off!



from my smexy Note 5

 

[vm81]

I think it may be a lollipop WiFi bug, I know the nexus 5 also had battery drain on WiFi.

If you want even better standby time, in WiFi settings under 'keep WiFi on during sleep' choose 'only when plugged in' and install the the app 'Doze' it will restrict data when the screen is off.

dreaming of electric sheep

I don't think it's lollipop issue. I was using S6 till last week for couple of months and S4 before that. Both of them on lollipop... Absolutely no issue on either.

 

[vm81]

You are right, my note 5 lost about 8% of battery by just turning off wifi overnight. I didn't turn off the location, sync, and power save was off. My phone also fully loaded with apps also.

Still wondering why by just turning off wifi save battery draining from 25% to 8% on standby.

Posted via the Android Central App

If you notice on your notification bar... When you have WiFi on... 4G is also on. This never used to be the case for me on S6 on lollipop full last week. While I am sure even though it shows 4G on its not using carrier data... But somehow WiFi is interfering with 4G radio and is resulting in very high cell standby shock is indeed causing battery drain. If you look at your battery usage, you will see this. If you are just on 4G cell standby will be very very low. That is what is causing battery drain.

I am sure people can turn notifications of on various apps and use power saver etc.... But that's not the solution. They will improve your battery life for sure but those things will improve battery life even further if it was running fine to begin with.

When you spend $700 on a device... You should have to make sacrifices to make it run. II shouldn't have to make my peace with such major flaws.

 

[jdhooghe]

Also, disabling apps doesn't seem to stop them from updating in the background. As Kelly said, go to data usage and you'll see which apps have used data. For example on tmobile I have the amazon app that was preinstalled. I disabled it and it still uses data it seems. Click on it and forbid it from updating in the background

from my smexy Note 5

 

[Zoonvu]

I totally agree with you 'vm81'. Why should you do that much tweak to save battery for this level of phone.

For my carrier, I am not livining in US, Thailand is where I m living. All phones here are unlocked phones and we are free to change to any carrier we want. So I don't my carrier would effect use of battery life here.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[JimmyMac]

You are right, my note 5 lost about 8% of battery by just turning off wifi overnight. I didn't turn off the location, sync, and power save was off. My phone also fully loaded with apps also.

Still wondering why by just turning off wifi save battery draining from 25% to 8% on standby.

Posted via the Android Central App

If it isn't already, try to set your location to Power Saving so that it doesn't keep searching for GPS satellites all the time. This should save you even more. I'm coming from the iPhone 6plus. I usually went to bed with an hour long playlist. Woke up with 99% battery all the time. With my Note 5, I wake up with about 97~98% battery without music playing. This is with Wifi off as well. Email syncing plays a big part too.

 

[erasat]

I totally agree with you 'vm81'. Why should you do that much tweak to save battery for this level of phone.

For my carrier, I am not livining in US, Thailand is where I m living. All phones here are unlocked phones and we are free to change to any carrier we want. So I don't my carrier would effect use of battery life here.

Posted via the Android Central App

Android devices come with tons of bloatware, services and components ftom factory that if you don't disable you're just wasting battery resources. In order to get better battery life, we. Android users should do some tweaks, and remove bloatware. Contrary to iOS that restricts basically everything, our phones come with all this on by default and running in the background most of the time, yes, you may leave them all on as they come, but you'll need a 4000mAh battery to last the same than a device with a 3000mAh battery and the tweaks done, so it's really up to you.

But don't trust us, just see this video and tell me if Samsung themselves are not recommending to turn off services when not in use.

https://youtu.be/DidNaoZ3adc

 

[Chitown28]

i would turn power saving mode on if they gave us options to what to turn on or off like the note 4 did by the way what bloatware should we all remove?

 

[maj71303]

My 2 bits is that I agree that you shouldn't have to tweak a device so much to get optimal use and battery life. But I learned my lesson with the S6 and don't buy android devices from U.S. carriers as they pretty much blow chunks. I now buy the unlocked international version that comes with no bloat. If you are on verizon and sprint you are kinda out of luck mostly on that front. For those with ATT or T-Mobile then it works well unless you need WiFi calling from T-mobile .

If you are already paying full price for a phone why be subject to the whims of these ignorant U.S. carriers. I paid less for my 64GB Gold Note 5 SN-N9208 Dual Sim than you can get from any U.S. carrier. Just got it in today and it preforms like a beast and will serve my well for 1 - 2 years depending on if I upgrade to something else. Folks if you are paying full price for something this costly don't get it from a carrier, get it unlocked and free from their crippling, stupid, no updating ways.

 

[Chitown28]

I just realized that most of you and myself are complaining about the battery but did we even give power saving mode a shot? Did you guys know you can have it turned on at a certain battery percentage? go into power saving mode turn it on and then at the bottom click on start power saving mode and it will give you 5 options to turn it on immediately, at 5%,15%,20%, or at 50% so for me im a heavy user when i wake up and before i go to bed so in between my day im gonna turn it on when the battery hits 50% then i will turn it off before i go to bed since i need it to perform to the max. Also i just realized i have 2 vibration settings turned on vibration feedback and keyboard vibration which are really pointless to have on like anytime you press any keys you feel a vibration i dont think any of us need to feel that in order to type. Imagine every time u touch a key the phone vibrates that to me sounds like a battery drainer.

Yes i know power saving mode makes the phone run slower but if your just making calls and texting and not doing any other things at the moment give it a shot.

 

[Kelly Kearns]

Power saving works for many. I never use power saving myself and keep most things always running. I can almost always charge if I have to though.

Even if you get really low, ultra power saving mode will keep it going a long time if you just need eo make calls, etc.

 

[vm81]

I have read what every one has said and I agree that there are bunch of ways to extend battery life... Shut services, locations, etc etc etc. That's not the point I am trying to make.

What I am saying is whether you keep all those apps and services off or on... If you have WiFi on or off will make a huge difference.

All these things are to extend battery life, not to fix broken battery life. Working with an earlier example of a sports car... I buy a sports car with 8 cylinder engine and big battery and what not. But then I realize oh damn...due to some fault I am not able to squeeze 500 horse power that I am supposed to get... But I am only getting 300 hp. Well I am screwed... Maybe if I don't use the exhaust system to its full potential, I can get some power, or maybe if I turn the engine down from v8 to v6...i can get to 400 hp maybe... Still not full potential but better. But that's not why I bought the car. I want the car that performs to its potential and then I can make whatever tweaks I want to one way or the other to make it even better.

I think what people are not grasping here is... That i am not saying that I can't improve my battery life by doing certain things. Yes my battery life sucks when on WiFi and I can turn off various services and make it suck a little less. But I would like it to not suck such dramatically on WiFi compared to 4G...and then I can make it even better if I choose to by turning certain services (location, power saving etc) off. Turnings these on and off should be my decision but all else equal... Turning WiFi on should not cut your battery life in half.

I know US carriers suck when it comes to bloatware... I am not arguing whether they should have all that on our not... Thats a separate discussion. All I am saying is all equal turning WiFi on its killing battery.

Not sure if I was able to explain myself but this was the best I could do.

 

[Kelly Kearns]

No, we understand your issue with WiFi, that is not normal and it shouldn't be doing that.

I never ever turn off my WiFi toggle just set it to turn off when my screen is off. The WiFi issue is a different issue.