Odd Battery stats

[ianeb]

Hey, I'm new to the S7 and android after years of iPhone ownership.

I am generally very happy with the S7 apart from the battery. I have no idea how people are getting 4-5 hours of SOT because I struggle to get 3 or more.

I remove the phone from charge on 100% and within 2 hours I've generally lost 8-10%. I took it off charge today at 6:50am I have 22% remaining and have 3hrs 14m SOT. This is generally a good day.

I have disabled as many rubbish apps I don't use as I can. I have switched off and disabled the most mentioned culprits. I'm still baffled when after 2 hours on standby and no use, I can lose 10%!

I've got Gsam battery installed as of this afternoon and will monitor over next couple of days but just wondered if there is anything I should know or be doing to get better SOT. I have my brightness around 60-65%.

Thanks in advance and apologies as I know these battery questions come up quite often!

 

[chanchan05]

The brightness may be a factor. The phone is pretty bright for me already and I keep it at below 50%. I do have auto brightness on but since it's configurable, I set it to be usually at 40% or lower since it fits my usage. Indoors i already find 50% needlessly bright. I mean I would be using my phone and my face would look like there is a small flashlight pointing at it. The only time it goes brighter than that is outdoors where the auto brightness would set to 100%.

The amount of color also takes its toll. Black themes and wallpapers save more battery on OLED screens.

Personally though I think it's your brightness. Not even the default autobrightness went beyond 50% in my experience except when outdoors.

 

[RadeonHD4250]

How "new" are we talking? A few days or weeks?

If it's a few days I'd say give it a few more to condition your battery.

If it's a few weeks maybe post a screenshot to show us your use history.

At this point I'm trying not to worry about battery life as much. As long as I get through a full day and then some? I'm good.

Usage patterns vary. I'm running a Note 4 for comparison (an older less power efficient version of your phone) and BARELY squeezed out 5 hours from a 44 hour session. You should definitely be able to pull more than I do, depending on use.

I use my phone for texting, forum browsing and listening to music for the most part.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[RadeonHD4250]

I know it's different phones, but the newer phone should be able to squeeze more than an older phone because of all the enhancements under similar usage conditions.

Could you show us these two screens?

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[ianeb]

Thanks for the info guys, I will post screen shots later tonight once Gsam has had a fill day to monitor.

Maybe the brightness is the culprit? I'll certainly try knocking it back a touch but I guess if I'm getting a full day, maybe I shouldn't be so obsessed with SOT!? I didn't care with the iPhone, I charged it used it all day and then charged it again. The SOT didn't ever bother me.

 

[cohoman]

Thanks for the info guys, I will post screen shots later tonight once Gsam has had a fill day to monitor.

Maybe the brightness is the culprit? I'll certainly try knocking it back a touch but I guess if I'm getting a full day, maybe I shouldn't be so obsessed with SOT!? I didn't care with the iPhone, I charged it used it all day and then charged it again. The SOT didn't ever bother me.

Yes, I think screen brightness is a big culprit for battery usage. Also, any graphic-intensive games can quickly drain your battery.

 

[ianeb]

Ok, so here are some screen shots from Gsam. Can someone let me know what they think because I've never used it before but I can see some really odd stuff straight off the bat.

Screen drain, more has drained with the screen off than on!? Am I reading that wrong!?

App usage, Microsoft Word is high on the list yet I've not opened or used it this week!

Doze, looks like the phone isn't dozing at all? Or am I reading wrong?

Many thanks for your help

 

[t11rmh]

Those stats look fine to me. 62% left after 9+ looks good to me.

Posted via the Android Central App via a kicking Gold Galaxy S7 Edge.

 

[RadeonHD4250]

The "usage" time on iPhone and Screen on Time are different variables as an FYI.

Usage accounts for everything including SoT, music playback, syncing, etc.

Anyway, it seems your phone has been kept awake for an abnormally long time.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[RadeonHD4250]

For comparison. My phone was kept awake for 45 minutes out of 8 hours.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[ianeb]

Yeah that's what I thought, unfortunately I forgot to screen shot the stats before I went to bed last night. I got up and plugged it in this morning and the stats have been reset.

It does appear to be staying awake and the doze time is next to nothing which is poor considering how good the feature is supposed to be.

 

[ianeb]

Here are some screen shots of a full day, whilst the battery does appear to be good with no real concern about it not lasting all day, I am concerned about the amount of time it's being held awake. It doesn't seem to be entering doze at all.

 

[Cristiano Coelho]

Have you found any ways to improve this? I'm on a similar situation, but way worse. I'm sitting at around 5% batter / hour with basically doing nothing (you can see that on the app list)
My samsung is the exynos duos variant (SM-G930FD). Sorry about the spanish on the screenshot

 

[3Dee]

In my experience the number one thing that leads to variation in battery life is cell signal. A good way to test whether and to what extent this is the problem is (on a day where this is practical) to turn airplane mode on, and then turn WiFi on (but leave all other connections off). This will always have a positive impact on battery life, but if the improvement is not just 'good' but 'phenomenal', then you can more confidently point to weak cell reception as the likely problem (to which sadly the only solution is - move).

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[chanchan05]

Have you found any ways to improve this? I'm on a similar situation, but way worse. I'm sitting at around 5% batter / hour with basically doing nothing (you can see that on the app list)
My samsung is the exynos duos variant (SM-G930FD). Sorry about the spanish on the screenshot

View attachment 234928

I've noticed that if I keep data or WiFi connected, it will use up between 3-5% per hour. Turning those off reduce my standby usage down to less than 1% per hour. Seems like internet connection on the current firmware eats battery like crazy.

 

[ianeb]

Yesterday was my best day get and for an unknown unexplainable reason, my doze actually worked!

 

[Cristiano Coelho]

I charge it up to 100% at night, disable pretty much everything (wifi, location, and data, no airplane mode though) and yet after 8hs of doing absolutely nothing the phone still eats like 3% battery. I'm coming from windows phone where I would lose at most a 3% during the whole night even with wifi and data turned on, for me this is a big let down.
I'm also comparing this to a one plus 3 which has a bigger screen ( but lower resolution) and the same battery size and it has no issues.

 

[Cristiano Coelho]

This is very strange, even with airplane mode, and everything disabled, the usage is of over 16% after 8hs idle!
What's even worse, is that all the usage comes from the celular network, which shouldn't be happening with airplane mode, should it? Look at the below screenshot.

 

[chanchan05]

Clear your system cache.

 

[Cristiano Coelho]

I have done that already, both the apps cache and the partition cache from the recovery menu. I'm starting to think that the app is just giving me wrong values because it just doesn't make sense to have the phone radio use all the battery on plane mode and without wifi. I have changed some settings in the app and will try again this night. Although even if the app is reporting incorrect values, the fact that I'm losing 16% of battery in just 8hs and completely idle is just crazy, when I see people reporting 2 or 3% for the same.
Note that this is a stock android, nothing changed, bought a week ago and the S7 Exynos and Duos variant.