Samsung Galaxy S4 Battery Life Question! Whats normal?

[ksung4]

Hi everyone,

I recently got the galaxy s4 with t-mobile, and I am loving it! Except, I am not quite sure if my battery life is normal. I have been reading a lot of different posts where people claim to get at least 11 to 12 hours of the phone, and up to 3-4 hours of actual screen time.

I have been testing out my battery, I uncharge usually in 9 am then I use it until the battery reaches 2%. I look at the battery app, and see that the most I can get is about 9ish hours and only 2.5 hours of actual screen on time.

I turn off the smart features, gps, use wifi when I have it, auto-brightness turned on, turned off wake lock location features on google maps, and I frequently clear out the background running apps.
I feel like I do everything I could possibly do to increase battery life. I also have Launcher EX running (I am not sure if that affects the battery)

If you think this is not normal, I am planning on going back and exchanging it. I am just afraid that I got a defect phone, and I would like to see if it is normal.

Please let me know what you think!

Thank you for your time

 

[Golfdriver97]

Hi everyone,

I recently got the galaxy s4 with t-mobile, and I am loving it! Except, I am not quite sure if my battery life is normal. I have been reading a lot of different posts where people claim to get at least 11 to 12 hours of the phone, and up to 3-4 hours of actual screen time.

I have been testing out my battery, I uncharge usually in 9 am then I use it until the battery reaches 2%. I look at the battery app, and see that the most I can get is about 9ish hours and only 2.5 hours of actual screen on time.

I turn off the smart features, gps, use wifi when I have it, auto-brightness turned on, turned off wake lock location features on google maps, and I frequently clear out the background running apps.
I feel like I do everything I could possibly do to increase battery life. I also have Launcher EX running (I am not sure if that affects the battery)

If you think this is not normal, I am planning on going back and exchanging it. I am just afraid that I got a defect phone, and I would like to see if it is normal.

Please let me know what you think!

Thank you for your time

Welcome to the forums!

Let's take a look at your steps to maximize battery one by one. Turning off smart features, GPS, and using wifi when possible: Good!

Auto brightness on: not so good. The auto brightness constantly evaluates the ambient light and adjusts accordingly. To turn the question around, which is better for fuel mileage on a car, cruise control or varying speed from 50 to 70 on an interstate? The more static you can keep your screen brightness, the less your phone has to calculate, and the more battery power you will save. Also, the more you light up pixels means more energy consumption; therefore, a lower brightness setting is better than high brightness. I would choose a brightness level and stick with it. My S3 is about 35% and I average about 10-11 hours easy.

Frequently clearing running apps....that one depends. An app that you use a lot would actually be better to leave it be. Android likes having apps in memory, so when you open an app for subsequent times in the same day, it doesn't have to calculate as much to open it. A better choice would be to disable apps you don't use through Settings>Application Manager>swipe over to all apps, and scroll down through the app list and disable apps. Say for example: XXX Finance is on your phone. You hate/don't use/prefer a different app. Tap on it, and you should see the upper portion of the Application Information page. At the top should be a button labeled Force Stop, and a seconds button either Disable or Uninstall Updates. If you see the Uninstall updates, you need to hit that first before you can disable an app. I would suggest leaving any Google app alone. While many people argue that unused RAM is wasted RAM, I think this statement should be elaborated further to include what I just covered. You should have as much RAM as possible for your needs, not bloatware.

Lastly, don't let your battery drop to that low of a level. 25-35% is fine. I have seen numerous posts on technical forums that once a month let it get that low and do a full charge, but for every other day, 30%.

Sorry about the long reply. Hope it helped.

 

[ksung4]

thanks for your opinions!
I basically turned off everything possible that can be turned off (all features) and disabled several apps that I dont use (samsung games...music...etc)
Yesterday I unplugged the phone at 9am and literally in exactly 1 hour and 40 minutes, I was already down 20%. I was shocked at this. I did not do anything different except I turned on my SYNC option. I dont think that just sync takes up that much power? Anyways, that was really bizarre, because I am pretty sure 20% in under 2 hours is not good.
All I did was text, take a few pictures, and use pandora on 4G. I checked and only had about 30ish minutes of actual screen on time.

Anyways, whats weird was today my battery lasted a little bit longer. I unplugged at 820am and by 2pm it was at 30%. Again, I had pretty light usuage, pandora, music playing for an hour or so, took a few pictures, checked out a few websites and disabled a few more apps. That was it. I am planning on exchanging the phone due to the battery behavior.

Ive read so many posts where people are getting almost all day with their phone and they are moderately using it.
Sorry for the long response haha!

 

[Golfdriver97]

thanks for your opinions!
I basically turned off everything possible that can be turned off (all features) and disabled several apps that I dont use (samsung games...music...etc)
Yesterday I unplugged the phone at 9am and literally in exactly 1 hour and 40 minutes, I was already down 20%. I was shocked at this. I did not do anything different except I turned on my SYNC option. I dont think that just sync takes up that much power? Anyways, that was really bizarre, because I am pretty sure 20% in under 2 hours is not good.
All I did was text, take a few pictures, and use pandora on 4G. I checked and only had about 30ish minutes of actual screen on time.

Anyways, whats weird was today my battery lasted a little bit longer. I unplugged at 820am and by 2pm it was at 30%. Again, I had pretty light usuage, pandora, music playing for an hour or so, took a few pictures, checked out a few websites and disabled a few more apps. That was it. I am planning on exchanging the phone due to the battery behavior.

Ive read so many posts where people are getting almost all day with their phone and they are moderately using it.
Sorry for the long response haha!

No it's ok. Your battery may have a break in period where it learns how you use your device. However, I just thought of something. Do you have Auto sync on? With an email application? If so, the phone may be checking email frequently. Check that.

But, if it continues for another day or so, take it in to T-mo. See what they say. You may have a defective battery.