Samsung Galaxy S4 Battery Life

[mach1rider]

I took mine off the charger this morning at 0530 and right now 4 hours later I am at 68% battery. I leave everything on most of the time and leave my screen on full brightness. I like being able to swap out a battery when mine dies.

 

[garublador]

I'm not convinced that Jelly Bean is handling the location services correctly all the time. Over the weekend I had turned off all the Background Location Reporting options and several Google Now cards because Maps was taking like 20% of my total battery capacity for the day. That fixed that. The Google Services function was taking a larger chunk of battery than before but I am using some Tasker profiles that use net only location tracking and a weather widget so that didn't bother me. My battery life was still way better.

Then I saw thegrants82's thread about the SnapDragon Battery Guru app and he was getting battery life similar to what I'd expect with that stuff on so it downloaded the app and turned all those Background Location Reporting options back on along with all of the Google Now cards. The app is still in learning mode and Maps is taking more than it was with that stuff off, but not nearly as much as it was with that stuff on before. The Google Services function is taking more than it was at the beginning and so far today my battery life is somewhere between what it originally was and what it was with that stuff off, though it is pretty early in the day.

My current hypothesis is that if Maps is handling your location services it takes way more battery than if Google Services is. If you get your phone to use the Google Services instead you might get better battery life. I've seen several workarounds that involve either disabling and re enabling Maps or downgrading Maps that could accomplish that. Though it is still pretty early in my testing so we'll see how it unfolds. Perhaps "tricking" Android into handling the location tracking better combined with the Battery Guru will get me the Google Now functionality with the lower power consumption I saw before. thegrants82's findings support that this may be the case.

 

[Joe_Perone]

This is a normal day for me since I started using SnapDragon Battery Guru. Haven't seen less then 6 hours screen time in about a week. Over 3 hours so far at the 50% mark means another 6 hour + day for my GS4. Still dont understand why everyone doesn't use this app but I'm sure that it wont be long before most are using it. Just remember that the same people that make our GS4 processor wrote this app

It's a fantastic app; I actually love it so much! 3 days of battery time, 4 and change hours of screen time, I'm at 23% right now!

 

[JLeung1]

I seem to be getting inconsistent results. The first charge I had with snapdragon guru on I got great battery life but then the second charge I got battery life as if I didn't even have it on. Anyone know what could be the problem?

 

[fishepa]

What does everyone have checked for location services? Mine are below.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

[fishepa]

This is a normal day for me since I started using SnapDragon Battery Guru. Haven't seen less then 6 hours screen time in about a week. Over 3 hours so far at the 50% mark means another 6 hour + day for my GS4. Still dont understand why everyone doesn't use this app but I'm sure that it wont be long before most are using it. Just remember that the same people that make our GS4 processor wrote this app

Can you please share your GPS & Location settings? This phone has so many different settings for these I'm not sure which ones are suppose to be on/off to help with battery life.

Thanks

 

[mysterygirl]

Moderate to heavy user and have been very impressed with the phone's ability to get through the day. I worried about how the phone would hold up to the number of work phone calls and teleconferences I take throughout the day. No issues thus far.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[garublador]

What does everyone have checked for location services? Mine are below.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

I'm not sure that you're in the right place to try to save battery. The way I understand it, those settings just say what method apps are allowed to use to get your location. Turning all that stuff off will probably help, but it will also not allow any apps to find you, so you won't be able to use weather widgets that use your location or Maps for navigation. You're better off finding what apps or processes are accessing your location way too often. In Maps>Settings>Location Settings there are options that seem to make a big difference. I've shared my experiences with this a few posts ago.

 

[fishepa]

I'm not sure that you're in the right place to try to save battery. The way I understand it, those settings just say what method apps are allowed to use to get your location. Turning all that stuff off will probably help, but it will also not allow any apps to find you, so you won't be able to use weather widgets that use your location or Maps for navigation. You're better off finding what apps or processes are accessing your location way too often. In Maps>Settings>Location Settings there are options that seem to make a big difference. I've shared my experiences with this a few posts ago.

Thanks. It now appears Google Services is taking up about 25% of my battery now. That still seems high to me. I would love the magic settings to get 5 hours of on screen time. I do use push email though with our corporate exchange account. I typically get around 80 or so emails a day, I'm assuming that eats up battery, but just not sure what category it falls in on the battery information.

 

[thehatguy]

Moderate to heavy user and have been very impressed with the phone's ability to get through the day. I worried about how the phone would hold up to the number of work phone calls and teleconferences I take throughout the day. No issues thus far.

Posted via Android Central App

I'm like you, very pleased with the daily battery life.

Just in case, I bought this bad boy for the S4 and the Nexus 10.

10,000mAh capacity and not much bigger than the S4.

John

 

[Love Divine]

Thanks. It now appears Google Services is taking up about 25% of my battery now. That still seems high to me. I would love the magic settings to get 5 hours of on screen time. I do use push email though with our corporate exchange account. I typically get around 80 or so emails a day, I'm assuming that eats up battery, but just not sure what category it falls in on the battery information.

Yeah I got 5 consistently the first few days of ownership. Then it fell bigtime. Now with even less apps installed and all bloat disabled, I haven't ever been able to hit 5 again. These reports of people hitting 7 hours screen on with more stuff enabled than I is starting to get a little discouraging.

Battery guru finished learning last night. Let's see if that app can work its magic. So far, it seems to be helping, but I'll give it more time before making a judgement. If I can reliably gain some screen-on time with it, I'll consider it a success. If not, I'll probably return my S4 and stick with my One from here on out (an excellent device).

 

[garublador]

Thanks. It now appears Google Services is taking up about 25% of my battery now. That still seems high to me. I would love the magic settings to get 5 hours of on screen time. I do use push email though with our corporate exchange account. I typically get around 80 or so emails a day, I'm assuming that eats up battery, but just not sure what category it falls in on the battery information.

Keep in mind those numbers are relative to how much battery has been used. It's not that the Google Services has used 25% of your total battery capacity.

I found that the Google Services took up a larger percent after I disabled that stuff, too. I think my location based Tasker profiles and weather widget are the culprits. However, my actual battery life was way better. I estimate that at that point I had saved about 20% of the total battery life for the day. If you don't turn the screen on very much the something like that is bound to take the battery. I'd suggest checking to see how your total battery life is after the changes to see how much it's improved.

 

[Love Divine]

Keep in mind those numbers are relative to how much battery has been used. It's not that the Google Services has used 25% of your total battery capacity.

I found that the Google Services took up a larger percent after I disabled that stuff, too. I think my location based Tasker profiles and weather widget are the culprits. However, my actual battery life was way better. I estimate that at that point I had saved about 20% of the total battery life for the day. If you don't turn the screen on very much the something like that is bound to take the battery. I'd suggest checking to see how your total battery life is after the changes to see how much it's improved.

Also check GSAM. I once randomly had Google Services taking up 80% of my battery, with Screen 10%. Checking GSAM however revealed more sane, real figures (Google Services was like 10% lol).

 

[fishepa]

I also randomly get a blinking GPS notification in the notification bar, when I pull the shade down it says "Searching for GPS". Does anyone know what this does or app it's from?

 

[fishepa]

Something is chewing up the battery I can't figure out what it is.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

[thegrants82]

Something is chewing up the battery I can't figure out what it is.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

Just download a battery usage app like this and you can see exactly what is chewing up your battery.

 

[JLeung1]

Is anyone else's wake locks and kernels taking up most of the app usage? I've already force stopped music in task manager so I don't know why it's still so high.

 

[Love Divine]

Is anyone else's wake locks and kernels taking up most of the app usage? I've already force stopped music in task manager so I don't know why it's still so high.

Download Wakelock Detector from the Play Store. Voicemail and Facebook Messenger were big culprits for me.

 

[JLeung1]

I restarted my phone and now wake locks is down but is android system being this high normal?

 

[svitore]

I switched from an iPhone 5. after unplugging around 6:00am it'd be down to 20% by 12 pm. Now with the GS4 i can get to around 7pm before hitting 20% and that's if I don't plug it in for short periods like while driving, etc.