Real Battery Life

[Juriaan727]

Hi guys,

I spent a lot of time reading about the battery life on the S4 but I cannot seem to get a straight answer. Some people/sites claim the battery will last 2-3 days even on moderate/heavy use and others claim that the battery won't get through a single day without a charge...

I would love to hear about what you guys have to say since I might buy this phone and battery life is very important to me ( I know I can carry an extra battery but I would prefer not to).

Also, does anybody know how it REALLY compares to the battery of the HTC One? Again, some say it is much better and others say its worse.

Thank you very much

 

[truthteller10]

I've learned on most forums that you will never get a straight answer on this. I could go on and on about the fanboy lies that have been made up about their phones. Back in my Palm Pre days folks used to swear to get 22 hours of battery life when it was no way a phone so horrible could manage that. Battery life is better gauged by "on screen" time. A phone that gets about 2.5 hours of that time is good. The HTC One and GS4 can get that much "on screen" time.

 

[smooth4lyfe]

If you have a lot of the features on, it will make ur battery go down, if u turn most of them off, ur battery can last over a day...its the features that take a lot of the battery as I noticed with users.
You could get an extended battery, which I may do in the future, so you wouldnt have to worry about battery drain

 

[HOLLYWOODANT215]

If you have a lot of the features on, it will make ur battery go down, if u turn most of them off, ur battery can last over a day...its the features that take a lot of the battery as I noticed with users.
You could get an extended battery, which I may do in the future, so you wouldnt have to worry about battery drain

Solves my problem everytime hyperion I just ordered

Sent from my SPH-L720 using Android Central Forums

 

[mpdofficer514]

Screen shots dont lie.
Edit: my screen is always at 50% brightness

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[PaulWog]

Screen shots dont lie.

Sent From My Galaxy S4 Using Android Central App

... Come on. That's not too informative.

@OP: The battery life of the S4 is great when the screen is off. The main thing that will drain the battery is the screen (the lower the brightness, the better, but it's still the main thing that drains the battery). If you aren't constantly looking at your S4 with the screen on throughout the day, and rather you check it occasionally and only sit down to use it for 30-60 minutes at a time, then it'll make it through a 12-24 hour period no problem. The primary factor that will decide whether your S4 lasts long enough through the day is how bright you keep the screen, and how often you have the screen on to look at it. I'm not completely satisfied with the battery, but it's fine if you aren't clinging to your phone all the time, using it for videos, apps, etc (but any phone will suffer from battery problems in that case). If you do use the phone a lot, then I recommend just getting a back-up battery when you can, and just carry that around.

 

[mpdofficer514]

... Come on. That's not too informative.

@OP: The battery life of the S4 is great when the screen is off. The main thing that will drain the battery is the screen (the lower the brightness, the better, but it's still the main thing that drains the battery). If you aren't constantly looking at your S4 with the screen on throughout the day, and rather you check it occasionally and only sit down to use it for 30-60 minutes at a time, then it'll make it through a 12-24 hour period no problem. The primary factor that will decide whether your S4 lasts long enough through the day is how bright you keep the screen, and how often you have the screen on to look at it. I'm not completely satisfied with the battery, but it's fine if you aren't clinging to your phone all the time, using it for videos, apps, etc (but any phone will suffer from battery problems in that case). If you do use the phone a lot, then I recommend just getting a back-up battery when you can, and just carry that around.

Now it has all the info needed. Brightness, screen on time, and time between charge. The point of that post was to show the S4 battery is no slouch. At 41 hours since the last charge and over 3 hours of screen on time it doesnt matter what features you have on or not. It shows the battery is good

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[jaxterzz]

If you have a lot of the features on, it will make ur battery go down, if u turn most of them off, ur battery can last over a day...its the features that take a lot of the battery as I noticed with users.
You could get an extended battery, which I may do in the future, so you wouldnt have to worry about battery drain

What is this extended battery you are talking about and where can I order this?

 

[rahlquist]

I've learned on most forums that you will never get a straight answer on this.

Part of the problem in getting a straight answer is the sheer number of variables involved. Every movement the device makes in physical space affects its battery life with varying signals, temperature, use etc. Even with some of the excellent monitoring apps out there that can record histories of your battery status every few minutes the variables come into play and make the data very subjective.

I'm no Samsung fanboi. I was on the Captivate before this and abused them constantly because of the problems with that device that were never adequately addressed. That said the battery life for me with light to medium use has been great. It will easily last 24 hours on a charges. A few variables that may be of import to some, I am not in a LTE area, and the signal I get is only 2 bars one could say the area I am in is quite rural.

I will be getting an extended battery when I find one I like. Mainly for the weight. I dislike that so large a device is so light and worry I will fumble finger it.

 

[slave]

Now it has all the info needed. Brightness, screen on time, and time between charge. The point of that post was to show the S4 battery is no slouch. At 41 hours since the last charge and over 3 hours of screen on time it doesnt matter what features you have on or not. It shows the battery is good

Sent From My Galaxy S4 Using Android Central App

You barely made phone calls, don't see a web browser, no facebook, not a single game. Don't see your email client. No bluetooth share. Pretty much, 1D on stand by. Sure 3 hours of screen time is great, but what did you do with the screen on?

OP, if you use anything that uses the cell radio, or the screen, your battery life is toast. The 1d+ users basically use it as a ipod touch. If you actually play games, surf the web, check your email, make phone calls, etc. The battery will not get you through the day. 2300 mah is simply not enough for a smart phone, and the Galaxy S line is plagued with crap radios that draw power. The S4 is better than the 3, but that is not saying much.

 

[droric]

I noticed a significant increase in battery life by disabling the quick glance feature of 'gestures' since it requires the front IR emitter and front facing camera on whenever the screen is off to capture your hand over the phone. I typically get 3-5 hours of on screen and 24 hours of usage if im using it all in one day. Over the weekend i left the phone sleeping alot longer and had 2 days on time no problems. I think the key is figuring out what features are actually draining the battery as the 'battery' app is just an estimate of application usage and is not always accurate.

 

[mpdofficer514]

You barely made phone calls, don't see a web browser, no facebook, not a single game. Don't see your email client. No bluetooth share. Pretty much, 1D on stand by. Sure 3 hours of screen time is great, but what did you do with the screen on?

OP, if you use anything that uses the cell radio, or the screen, your battery life is toast. The 1d+ users basically use it as a ipod touch. If you actually play games, surf the web, check your email, make phone calls, etc. The battery will not get you through the day. 2300 mah is simply not enough for a smart phone, and the Galaxy S line is plagued with crap radios that draw power. The S4 is better than the 3, but that is not saying much.

I made several phone calls, I didnt surf the web a ton that day because of work but I did use the crap out of twitter. And I used email all day long for work... why the percentages are low? No idea. Even on my heavy days of usage with video games and lots of surfing I get at miniumum 20 hours with 4 hours of screen on time.

Sent From My Galaxy S4 Using Android Central App

 

[kh4fun]

The battery live on my S4 is great compared to my S2. My S2 would die at work in about 5-6 hours due to poor cell signal. I have been able to have my S4 off the charger from 6am to 10pm almost every day. I receive emails from 6 email accounts though 2 email programs. Receive Facebook notifications and text messages many times throughout the day. Normally a few calls and the other day listened to music that was on the SD card for about 5 hours. I know I am not a power user, however I am using the S4 more than I did my S2 and the S4 now works for me better than the S2 did. Both phones were on Sprint's network.

 

[Cigar-Junkie]

All I ask is that it make it though a moderate day. I don't mind plugging in for real heavy use but if I am just away on vacation and not doing much I hate it when the iPhone people see me begging for a charger. I also leave GPS, email sync for two addresses, bluetooth and wifi on at all times. If I have to turn those off just to make it through the day then its not a good phone for me. With every phone there are people that complain about battery life when they have one bar of signal but I really think its going to be fine based on what I have seen.

 

[Parafly9]

Kinda like driving a car. If you are alead foot your mileage sucks. If you are more reasonable on the gas you go longer.

I think smartphone habits make a big difference. I am constantly turning my phone on and checking it. i bet I do that probably every 1 - 2 minutes. It's a compulsion :lol: and my battery life sucks because of it

EDIT: on my galaxy nexus. Haven't gotten the S4 yet, waiting on Verizon.

 

[xnorsx]

I'm searching for android phone, but when i read galaxy s4 battery life on screen usage 3 h only, i disappointed. I have iPhone 4s and i have almost 5 h of screen usage and more than day standby.

 

[emad1995]

I'm searching for android phone, but when i read galaxy s4 battery life on screen usage 3 h only, i disappointed. I have iPhone 4s and i have almost 5 h of screen usage and more than day standby.

Look into the s5 not s4

Posted via Android Central App on my Note 3

 

[alexcolka]

Look also that new Samsung ad about wall huggers poking on iPhone users about battery life, really funny ad.

Sent from my GT-I9500 using Tapatalk

 

[Edible Walrus]

Mine doesn't last more than 10 hours. Pretty poor

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[Murph5150]

How's this for crap? Verizon variant Samsung Galaxy S4. dropped 30% in under two hours.

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