Samsung Galaxy S4 battery life

[ToastedJellyBowl]

So, a few days ago I got a Samsung Galaxy S4 through Verizon. I've always wanted a Galaxy and now I have my hands on one, but I can't help but notice I'm a little disappointed in the battery life. Last night I pulled my phone off the charger at 100% right before I went to bed around 10:30 PM. When I woke up this morning at 7:00 AM I look down at my phone and my battery had already drained down to 87% or so. Is this normal? My buddies were chatting on Kik for a few minutes over night as I slept, but I had Kik closed and just seen the notification in the task bar for Kik. Would Kik cause this to happen, even if it was closed?

I go to work today, and I only used the phone enough to check the time a few times through the day, and I believe I may of sent a message or two to my friends, but that was it. I had maybe 35 minutes of screen time and my battery was down to about 58% when I got home from work. I dont know, but to me this sounds a little excessive just to idle all day and to send a few quick Kik messages.

So is this really the battery life I can expect out of this phone, or is there something wrong going on? Sorry, I don't have any screenshots as I just restored my phone thinking maybe something haywire went during the initial setup. I can say the main thing in the battery log was Google Services, and I think maybe Android OS next? I read some issues with the Google Wi-fi GPS or whatever causing massive battery drain. Am I really going to have to turn the Google Location Servicves OFF? Which will disappoint me as I like to leave that stuff on so when I'm traveling I can pick up my phone, look at the screen, and my weather widget will show the weather of my current location.

Anyways, if anyone has any input on their typical battery life I would be extremely grateful as I'm just not getting the experience I expected from this device.

 

[dancing-bass]

Typically you need to give your phone a few days before getting any realistic reading on battery life. If it's a new device, you tend to spend more time with it, setting it up, finding out where all the features and settings are, and gennerally just "geeking out" with it.

You can turn GPS off and still have your weather widgets update just fine. They'll use cell tower triangulation rather then GPS so that will save some battery. Of course, doing stuff like turning off wifi and bluetooth when you're not using them will help as well, and turning the screen as dim as possible will probably be the biggest help -- that big bad screen likes to devour the juice.

You can also check all your apps to see how often they sync. Facebook and Twitter will sync every hour (I set these not to sync. I just check the app, rather then have notifications being synced all the time). Some apps sync as often as 15 minutes! So as you can imagine, having an app sync data 360 times per day (24 hours) can also hurt your battery.

Really it all comes down to balance though. The more stuff you do to save battery life, the more you turn your smartphone into a dumbphone. The more goodies and stuff you leave running to keep yourself in the know and using your phone to its full capacity -- well, that will hurt battery life. So you just need to find that "sweet spot" for your usage needs/wants. There will always be some trade-offs, unless you are near an outlet almost 24-7. And if THAT is the case, pack your charger with you and don't sweat it.

Final thoughts: Most people I know would be ecstatic to make it home after the workday and still have almost 60% battery left. Give it a few days, and see how your phone settles in.

 

[garublador]

I've found that Google Now location services take significantly more battery during the first few days you turn it on. On mine it was checking my location every 42 seconds for the first couple days then dropped to every 80 seconds after that. I'd give it a few days to see if it improves.

A few things to consider are that you can just charge your phone overnight and start at 100%. That would have left you with 71% when you got home. Also, as long as you made it all the way through the day the battery worked just fine. Granted, it's nice to have some headroom for busier days, but 71% after a full day of work is pretty good, especially with 35 minutes of screen time.

You can also consider some automation apps like Tasker or Llama to control things like syncing. I have my email sync every 15 minutes, most other things once per hour and the non-essential sync at night when my phone is charging. Once it's set up it all does that automatically without me having to do anything.

Personally, I find that even with Google Now location, AutoLocation geofences in Tasker, GPS and WiFi on all the time, the amount of drain I get from WiFi and GPS is minimal. Some spend lots of time and energy figuring out how to minimize when those radios are on, but according to every battery use reporting app I've seen, that could only ever save me about 3-4% per day, and that's if they were off all the time. My phone seems to spend way more energy waking up the processor to get and use the location data than it does on the WiFi and GPS radios.

 

[johnriii]

So, a few days ago I got a Samsung Galaxy S4 through Verizon. I've always wanted a Galaxy and now I have my hands on one, but I can't help but notice I'm a little disappointed in the battery life. Last night I pulled my phone off the charger at 100% right before I went to bed around 10:30 PM. When I woke up this morning at 7:00 AM I look down at my phone and my battery had already drained down to 87% or so. Is this normal? My buddies were chatting on Kik for a few minutes over night as I slept, but I had Kik closed and just seen the notification in the task bar for Kik. Would Kik cause this to happen, even if it was closed?

I go to work today, and I only used the phone enough to check the time a few times through the day, and I believe I may of sent a message or two to my friends, but that was it. I had maybe 35 minutes of screen time and my battery was down to about 58% when I got home from work. I dont know, but to me this sounds a little excessive just to idle all day and to send a few quick Kik messages.

So is this really the battery life I can expect out of this phone, or is there something wrong going on? Sorry, I don't have any screenshots as I just restored my phone thinking maybe something haywire went during the initial setup. I can say the main thing in the battery log was Google Services, and I think maybe Android OS next? I read some issues with the Google Wi-fi GPS or whatever causing massive battery drain. Am I really going to have to turn the Google Location Servicves OFF? Which will disappoint me as I like to leave that stuff on so when I'm traveling I can pick up my phone, look at the screen, and my weather widget will show the weather of my current location.

Anyways, if anyone has any input on their typical battery life I would be extremely grateful as I'm just not getting the experience I expected from this device.

my S4 was great out of the box on battery life. i turned off GPS and bluetooth, turned on power saver, and away I went. Google now can be a battery hog, but I don't use it. i've heard (as another post in this thread stated) that google now eases up on battery usage as you use it. Now, I seriously believe battery life depends on your network, and what kind of connection you have. I have a great signal all over KC with Verizon, so I may be atypical of S4 battery life, but I'm a heavy user. I bet I spend at least two hours a day on youtube, about 30-45 minutes on facebook, etc. i have yet to be able to kill my battery. I actually tested it a week or so ago, and i made it to 22 hours with just under 20%, with 5 hours of screen time.

try the power saver option, use a dark homescreen wallpaper, and you SHOULD see a bit better battery life. the numbers you're talking are reminicent of my HTC thunderbolt days! (shudder).

 

[Pipemajor]

I just upgraded from the Galaxy Nexus which couldn't get through a full day on a single charge. In fact, I had difficulties making it on 2 charges per day.

The GS4 is a different animal. I can make it through an entire day with moderate use. Only had the phone for 2 weeks but so far, am a happy customer.

 

[Leo G]

Yesterday, because of new years I got up at the crack of noon LOL. I had the phone on the charger and removed it about 2. About 10:30 I went to bed. First time I really didn't use my phone that much. Had 6:11 minutes on the screen, 95% battery life left. I thought 5% use for 8 hours was pretty good. That would be over 6 days of standby if the battery discharged in a linear fashion.

I keep just about everything off. When I need something I push the toggle and a few seconds later I have what I need.