S22 Ultra Battery Disappointment

[Mr Segundus]

Anyone else disappointed with their battery life from their S22 Ultra?

Coming from the smaller iPhone 13 Pro, I am getting about half the battery life with moderate usage.

I love Android over IOS as an operating system but it's embarrassing a device with a 3095 mah vs 5000 mah is way better.

I know there are "tweaks" I can do to extend battery life but with a brand new flagship that shouldn't be necessary..

Yikes. I had an iPhone 13 Pro and the battery life on that wasn't all that great. If the S22 Ultra is worse, I'm inclined to pass on it.

 

[tivoboy]

I only had my Galaxy note 10 + plus prior to this.. I’ve tried the S20 NOTE and S21 ultra and didn’t find them too much better.. I will say, my Note 10+ USED to get really incredible battery life, on WiFi only at home and with limited use, the battery would last 4-6 DAYS!..ever since either android 12 and the UI 4.0 update, battery life went down by about 20%.. no changes, no higher usage, just worse overall. So, I’m thinking there is something in there that Samsung should be able to optimize again and make the phone last a bit better than it does now - since it came with A12 and UI 4.0 coming out fo the gates.

 

[Go0gle]

Yikes. I had an iPhone 13 Pro and the battery life on that wasn't all that great. If the S22 Ultra is worse, I'm inclined to pass on it.

My wife has a 13 Pro Max and my S21U and now S22U gets very similar battery life. I also have an iPhone 12 Pro Max issued to me by my company and battery life is/was at least as good if not better on my S21U/S22U, at least for my specific usage.

The battery life reviews you see on YouTube and other online writeups (where I assume most people are getting their data from) fail in two very important areas - 1) they do not simulate realistic usage patterns as they try to accelerate everything for the purposes of the test (most are left on a video loop or whatever, where apple has among other things a much lower resolution screen), and 2) there are some very easy settings to enable on Samsung phones that dramatically improve battery life throughout normal usage that reviewers always ignore.

Also, if you are getting ~2 day battery life (what I get easily with my usage if I don't charge in between, YMMV) - who cares? It's never going to run out before you toss it on a charger anyway. My typical usage involves constant intermittent charging throughout any given week. When I'm in my car, it's charging a bit. When I'm home, I might toss it on a wireless charger while it's sitting beside me on the desk or whatever. It basically lives in a constant state of 30% to 80% battery, which also happens to be extremely good for maintaining battery health (0%-100% sweeps are not good). Sure if I go on a flight or whatever I will charge it to 100% beforehand, but that just isn't necessary day-to-day.

That's just my take on it anyway - I couldn't care less about 100% to 0% battery life watching a YT loop. Also, you can charge a S22U much faster than you can an iPhone if you're in a pinch. The phone literally never runs out of battery or leaves me stranded with small periods of charging throughout most days, so whether the phone had day or a week of battery life, my experience wouldn't change, and I suspect that is the case for many other users as well.

 

[Laura Knotek]

I'm coming from an S10+, so my battery life is much better on the new S22 Ultra, even though I have a brighter screen using adaptive setting. I'm getting more than 7h SOT despite only charging the battery to 85%. Yes, I charge it briefly a few times a day (on the wireless charger at my desk). However, I never feel like I'll be in need of a charge when I'm out and about, and I never use any battery saving settings.

 

[YankInDaSouth]

After 6 days in I was a bit concerned with my battery life so I decided to bite the bullet and factory reset and set up clean (no app or data restored). I typically set up all my new devices clean, but got lazy this time LOL

It's not even been 24 hours since I did the reset so it's too early to say for sure, but I already feel like the battery life is better than what I experienced the first few days. Hopefully as it learns my usage patterns it'll get even better.

 

[retrofred]

Maybe I'll try that. My battery seems to be getting better from day to day, but the phone still shows it leaning my usage pattern.

I usually setup fresh also, but was lazy too and did a restore. I'll give it a day or two more

 

[tcdude]

To be honest I am a little disappointed with the battery I am hoping it gets better with some updates

 

[Rzshackelford]

I am disappointed as well. Coming from my S21 Ultra, the S22 Ultra us a big disappointment. U run about the same everything but can't go very far without my charger. I agree that whole there may be some tweaks that could help, it really shouldn't be necessary on a brand new flagship from the world's largest smartphone maker.

 

[Mr Segundus]

My wife has a 13 Pro Max and my S21U and now S22U gets very similar battery life. I also have an iPhone 12 Pro Max issued to me by my company and battery life is/was at least as good if not better on my S21U/S22U, at least for my specific usage.

The battery life reviews you see on YouTube and other online writeups (where I assume most people are getting their data from) fail in two very important areas - 1) they do not simulate realistic usage patterns as they try to accelerate everything for the purposes of the test (most are left on a video loop or whatever, where apple has among other things a much lower resolution screen), and 2) there are some very easy settings to enable on Samsung phones that dramatically improve battery life throughout normal usage that reviewers always ignore.

Also, if you are getting ~2 day battery life (what I get easily with my usage if I don't charge in between, YMMV) - who cares? It's never going to run out before you toss it on a charger anyway. My typical usage involves constant intermittent charging throughout any given week. When I'm in my car, it's charging a bit. When I'm home, I might toss it on a wireless charger while it's sitting beside me on the desk or whatever. It basically lives in a constant state of 30% to 80% battery, which also happens to be extremely good for maintaining battery health (0%-100% sweeps are not good). Sure if I go on a flight or whatever I will charge it to 100% beforehand, but that just isn't necessary day-to-day.

That's just my take on it anyway - I couldn't care less about 100% to 0% battery life watching a YT loop. Also, you can charge a S22U much faster than you can an iPhone if you're in a pinch. The phone literally never runs out of battery or leaves me stranded with small periods of charging throughout most days, so whether the phone had day or a week of battery life, my experience wouldn't change, and I suspect that is the case for many other users as well.

Look, I get where you're coming from, but I actually have the S21U, Z Fold 3, and iPhone 13 Pro Max and the S21U and the Z Fold 3 don't have anywhere near as good of battery life as the iPhone 13 Pro Max. When my S21U and Z Fold 3 are out of power, my iPhone 13 Pro Max still has 40-50% in the tank. It's that good. It helps Apple makes sure the software plays nice with the hardware. That's where Android phones get battery life so wrong.

 

[neil74]

It's ok but not great. They might be comparable for torture tests but for general use droids do drop far quick er than an iPhone with light use. Pixel used to be an exception but not so much since 12 dropped.

 

[jadenerd]

I have absolutely no complaints about the battery but I'm almost always near a charger, so it probably doesn't mean a lot. When at my desk I rest it on a charging stand so it doesn't get buried under papers or be at risk of coffee spills. The first thing I do when I get in the car is plug in the USB cable for AA so it charges then. I will say that when I'm not near a charger the battery life is subjectively better than my N20U.

 

[Mike Dee]

It's ok but not great. They might be comparable for torture tests but for general use droids do drop far quick er than an iPhone with light use. Pixel used to be an exception but not so much since 12 dropped.

I've found that the difference is greater mostly on standby. I kill my iPhones just as easily as my Samsungs with heavy duty use.

 

[GrooveRite]

After 6 days in I was a bit concerned with my battery life so I decided to bite the bullet and factory reset and set up clean (no app or data restored). I typically set up all my new devices clean, but got lazy this time LOL

It's not even been 24 hours since I did the reset so it's too early to say for sure, but I already feel like the battery life is better than what I experienced the first few days. Hopefully as it learns my usage patterns it'll get even better.

View attachment 342449

This is one of the reasons why I always like doing a clean install. The only thing I bring over is my stored username/passwords. I never bring apps/app data over to my new device.

 

[zoggybottom]

Coming from S21 Ultra to S22 Ultra. It feels like the S22 Ultra battery ends the day with about 10% less than the S21 Ultra did (~15% vs. ~25%). Definitely disappointed.

 

[Mike Dee]

Coming from S21 Ultra to S22 Ultra. It feels like the S22 Ultra battery ends the day with about 10% less than the S21 Ultra did (~15% vs. ~25%). Definitely disappointed.

There are a lot of variables that could account for 10 percent difference in usage.

 

[Go0gle]

Look, I get where you're coming from, but I actually have the S21U, Z Fold 3, and iPhone 13 Pro Max and the S21U and the Z Fold 3 don't have anywhere near as good of battery life as the iPhone 13 Pro Max. When my S21U and Z Fold 3 are out of power, my iPhone 13 Pro Max still has 40-50% in the tank. It's that good. It helps Apple makes sure the software plays nice with the hardware. That's where Android phones get battery life so wrong.

Our usage cases must be very different then, which is fine. All I can say is that there is no way either mine or my wife's iPhones have anywhere near 40-50% better battery life than my S21U/S22U. Like not even remotely close to being that different. They are very similar, which is to say excellent from both brands. As I said, every test I have ever seen or watched by a reviewer A) does not simulate anything even close to typical usage and B) ignores commonly used options/features that affect battery life dramatically. Android devices are exponentially more customizable than iOS devices and some of those customizations have a huge affect on battery life.

I also don't understand the comment about Android battery life bring wrong or unoptimized - losing 1-2% overnight and genuine 2+ day battery life is right up there with the best anyone else has to offer, with perhaps the biggest difference being the Android phones have a universally accepted charging port (rather than an antique USB 2.0 lightning port) that can also charge much faster than any iPhone can, giving you significantly more up-time if you're an extremely heavy user.

Again, I can't speak for anyone else's experience, but that is been mine and I am actually using or exposed to all the phones in question daily. My usage is geared towards productivity and not gaming or watching Netflix/YT all day, so if that's a lot different then I wouldn't know.

 

[neil74]

I've found that the difference is greater mostly on standby. I kill my iPhones just as easily as my Samsungs with heavy duty use.

Yep, standby and light use is where you see it.

 

[Gary02468]

My Note/S phones have all been similar in their battery performance, including my new S22U. With power-saving off, using WQHD+ adaptive 120Hz, 5G, WiFi, BT, NFC, and AOD, a full overnight charge gets me through a normal day of use with charge to spare. GSAM shows an average of 24+ hours usage, with 5-6 hours of screen time, on a full charge (extrapolated to 24 hours from the actual 16 or so hours of usage before I recharge myself and the phone). There are two situations where I need supplemental charging: if I take a long drive using Google Maps navigation, I plug the phone into a car adapter for the trip; and if I'm sightseeing and using my phone all day for photography, navigation, communication, and information, I carry a battery pack & adapter with me. (I rarely use my phone for games, which I imagine would drain the battery much faster.)

 

[zoggybottom]

There are a lot of variables that could account for 10 percent difference in usage.

Of course, but in general using the S22U for a week in the same way with the same settings as my S21U and finding it's consistently not as good on battery life is annoying.

 

[Tarah Sorber]

I've had mine for almost 2 weeks and battery is not great.... I will compare it to my 13 mini maybe even a little worse.