seriously considering the S3, but.....battery life???

[GC736]

I have another thread in the Verizon forum about my phone research, but I need a bit more direct input on this. I understand that to MOST owners of the S3, this phone is above average, if not a great phone. however, after reading at least 100-200 reviews (user and websites), I still cannot come to a conclusion on battery life. some say it's Ok, some say it's horrible, and some say it's great. I'm not naive enough to believe it's great, but horrible?

financially, I CAN afford up to $199 per phone,(the wife and I upgrade at the same time) but who doesn't want to save money? my two biggest contenders are the Note 2 and the S4, both of which are going to cost me at least $199 (verizon still hasn't revealed pricing on the S4 yet). the S3 is now $49 on Amazon, and $39 at Walmart. but I really, really need to know about the battery life of the S3. it's really the only thing keeping me from choosing it. if it's better than my Rezound, then it's settled. but from some of the reviews I've read, you can go from 100% down to 50% in less than four hours. I need to hear from people who have owned the S3 who really know, thanks in advance.

I also came from the Rezound to the S3, and I find the battery life better than I was getting with the Rezound, even after several updates. Been very pleased with the phone, happy with the upgrade.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Android Central Forums

 

[Deadly_Poison630]

For the most part I love my battery life. It's amazing when i'm at home though when at school it drains quicker due to not have a signal in most of my classes.

 

[dlinares90]

absolutely not. I don't want to bulk up my phone from the original form. push come to shove, I'll get an extra battery @ 2100 mah, for those times where I MAY need it. I've heard of other batteries @ 2500 mah that don't add any bulk, but so far, the reviews on those are meh.

I figured I'd ask. Some people like the bulky feel.

 

[The Hustleman]

I have another thread in the Verizon forum about my phone research, but I need a bit more direct input on this. I understand that to MOST owners of the S3, this phone is above average, if not a great phone. however, after reading at least 100-200 reviews (user and websites), I still cannot come to a conclusion on battery life. some say it's Ok, some say it's horrible, and some say it's great. I'm not naive enough to believe it's great, but horrible?

financially, I CAN afford up to $199 per phone,(the wife and I upgrade at the same time) but who doesn't want to save money? my two biggest contenders are the Note 2 and the S4, both of which are going to cost me at least $199 (verizon still hasn't revealed pricing on the S4 yet). the S3 is now $49 on Amazon, and $39 at Walmart. but I really, really need to know about the battery life of the S3. it's really the only thing keeping me from choosing it. if it's better than my Rezound, then it's settled. but from some of the reviews I've read, you can go from 100% down to 50% in less than four hours. I need to hear from people who have owned the S3 who really know, thanks in advance.

It depends on how you use it.

When I barely touch the phone I can get over 24 hours, but if I give it normal use, i can get 12 hours out of it, but with heavy usage it'll only last about 4 and a half hours.

The device is good for about 3 hours and 50 minutes screen time when new, then about an hour less after a year.

But that can easily be remedied by either a new battery or like I do, carry a spare and swap out when needed

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2

 

[johnriii]

It depends on how you use it.

When I barely touch the phone I can get over 24 hours, but if I give it normal use, i can get 12 hours out of it, but with heavy usage it'll only last about 4 and a half hours.

The device is good for about 3 hours and 50 minutes screen time when new, then about an hour less after a year.

But that can easily be remedied by either a new battery or like I do, carry a spare and swap out when needed

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2

Yeah, it looks like I'll be adopting the "spare battery" routine, if I get the S3.

Sent from my ADR6425LVW using Tapatalk 2

 

[bp3dots]

Got mine about a month ago, and battery had been pretty darn nice.

Wifi mostly:

LTE:

Obviously, YMMV

 

[johnriii]

Got mine about a month ago, and battery had been pretty darn nice.

Wifi mostly:
http://i.imgur.com/TX67Z2s.png

http://i.imgur.com/sMHphOt.png


LTE:
http://i.imgur.com/OrgLn0N.png

http://i.imgur.com/Px55wdG.png

Obviously, YMMV

yeah, that about settles it. unless I get an unknown bonus before the end of July, it looks like I'll be going with the S3, along with a spare battery, Just in case. I'm sure my wife will appreciate it more than she would have the Note 2, strictly based on it's size. specs, bells and whistles mean absolutely nothing to her.

 

[MrDoh]

I have my S3 rooted, and am using CleanROM 6r2. Just flashed Lean Kernel 2.2 a couple of days ago, and that seems to have improved my battery life some, not sure how much yet. Need to give it some time, and it definitely isn't up to battery usage on an iPhone, but seems to be using less battery. So there's a thought for you if you want to spend a bunch of time and do the work (carefully). Also suggest making nandroid backup when you reach points where things are working well that you might want to restore to.

Update: looks like my phone is idling at about 1% battery charge per hour instead of 1.5% or 2%. Worthwhile gain.

 

[Nicholi2789]

I've had my S3 for about nine months now. Only a couple months ago did I start playing around with root stuff and trying custom Roms. I bounced around for a little bit between roms and finally settled on beans build 14 w/lean kernel. I usually unplug at about 8 or 9 am and am out all day, by the time I get home from work at 9 pm or so, battery will be at around 15-20%. Not too shabby.
I am a heavy user. If I'm not on tapatalk browsing forums I'm watching videos or reading other articles. Typically I have about 3 hours of screen on time.
Being able to leave in the morning with a full charge and coming home at night without charging in between sometime is okay by me. My incredible 2 got worse battery life.
All in all im happy with it. I wouldn't mind having slightly better battery life but I'm not complaining. It's enough.
Get the S3. It's the best phone out right now. The only problem is that Verizon always locks down their software, not anything the local developers can't get around though.
Get the S3, you won't regret it.

sent from my Galaxy S3 on beans 14 via tapatalk 2

 

[johnriii]

I've had my S3 for about nine months now. Only a couple months ago did I start playing around with root stuff and trying custom Roms. I bounced around for a little bit between roms and finally settled on beans build 14 w/lean kernel. I usually unplug at about 8 or 9 am and am out all day, by the time I get home from work at 9 pm or so, battery will be at around 15-20%. Not too shabby.
I am a heavy user. If I'm not on tapatalk browsing forums I'm watching videos or reading other articles. Typically I have about 3 hours of screen on time.
Being able to leave in the morning with a full charge and coming home at night without charging in between sometime is okay by me. My incredible 2 got worse battery life.
All in all im happy with it. I wouldn't mind having slightly better battery life but I'm not complaining. It's enough.
Get the S3. It's the best phone out right now. The only problem is that Verizon always locks down their software, not anything the local developers can't get around though.
Get the S3, you won't regret it.

sent from my Galaxy S3 on beans 14 via tapatalk 2

from what I've learned from you guys in the last week, I'm going with the S3. My first smartphone was the HTC Eris, which was a nice phone, and the battery life was great, for the specs. I don't remember ever running out of battery on that phone, and I was (am) a video streaming fool. when I upgraded to the Tbolt, I never even considered the battery size, which wasn't much larger than the Eris. I got my Rezound 6 months ago, and the battery life on it is "slightly" better than the Tbolt, probably due to it's ability to hold a signal.

the S3 sounds like a major upgrade over the Rezound, in all aspects. and Walmart has it for $39.88, so how can you beat that, especially when your budget is already tight? thanks again guys, I really appreciate it.

 

[HIMAN1998]

I have so-so battery, but I am coming from an iPhone 5 to the S3, so I was used to good battery life. When I'm at school, my phone is in airplane mode, but is still on wifi (my school allows this). I use it for an iPod on the bus (1 hour ride) and get down to about 85%. When I get back on the bus, it is usually at around 70% to 60%. I use it for the same purpose on the bus, but also use it to browse Facebook. When I get home, I usually am at 50% to 40%. At home I am on my laptop, so my phone is on standby. Around 9PM, it is at 25% or so because my emails come to my phone simultaneously. I can barely go the day on battery, but if I used it heavier, I would definitely get an extended battery.

 

[johnriii]

I had a verizon rep try to convince me to buy the cordless charger, the $100 version, instead of going with an extra 2100 mah battery. I really don't think I would need to go that route, because 90% of the time, I'm going to be within an hour of charging my phone. the only reason I would need that item is for camping trips or somewhere when I won't be near an outlet for an extended time. but even then, I would have my car charger, or the extra battery. Either way, I'm really at peace with my decision to go with the S3, despite it's age. now, 91 days can't go by fast enough!!

 

[MrDoh]

I have so-so battery, but I am coming from an iPhone 5 to the S3, so I was used to good battery life. When I'm at school, my phone is in airplane mode, but is still on wifi (my school allows this). I use it for an iPod on the bus (1 hour ride) and get down to about 85%. When I get back on the bus, it is usually at around 70% to 60%. I use it for the same purpose on the bus, but also use it to browse Facebook. When I get home, I usually am at 50% to 40%. At home I am on my laptop, so my phone is on standby. Around 9PM, it is at 25% or so because my emails come to my phone simultaneously. I can barely go the day on battery, but if I used it heavier, I would definitely get an extended battery.

So your phone is dropping from about 50% to about 25% in maybe 4 hours not being used? That's assuming that you get home from school about 5PM? Anyways, that's about 6% per hour drop when your phone is not being used, since you're using your laptop. Am I interpreting this as you meant it? If so, I'd be looking into this. While 6% per hour on standby isn't horrible, it would lead me to believe that something funny is going on. Are you syncing everything? So your phone is really busy while it's on standby? If you get an app like "BetterBattery Stats" you can look at how much your phone is in "deep sleep" state, and look at what's keeping your phone awake when it should be sleeping. There may be some app that's running a lot more than you realize, and you can decide which apps you want to get rid of, and which to keep.

Or, if you're fine with your battery usage, or maybe I'm misinterpreting what you said *smile*, then don't worry about it. But if it were me, I'd be looking at it to see what's causing all that battery drain on standby. I'd be looking for about 2% per hour on standby as kind of a high amount, but then I don't sync anything, have notifications off for everything except text messages, etc. The worst thing that I'm currently doing is keeping both cellular data and WiFi on pretty much full time (unless I'm in a known no-service area, then it goes into airplane mode *smile*). For email, when I want to read it on my phone, I'll go and download it, rather than syncing it all the time.

 

[HIMAN1998]

So your phone is dropping from about 50% to about 25% in maybe 4 hours not being used? That's assuming that you get home from school about 5PM? Anyways, that's about 6% per hour drop when your phone is not being used, since you're using your laptop. Am I interpreting this as you meant it? If so, I'd be looking into this. While 6% per hour on standby isn't horrible, it would lead me to believe that something funny is going on. Are you syncing everything? So your phone is really busy while it's on standby? If you get an app like "BetterBattery Stats" you can look at how much your phone is in "deep sleep" state, and look at what's keeping your phone awake when it should be sleeping. There may be some app that's running a lot more than you realize, and you can decide which apps you want to get rid of, and which to keep.

Or, if you're fine with your battery usage, or maybe I'm misinterpreting what you said *smile*, then don't worry about it. But if it were me, I'd be looking at it to see what's causing all that battery drain on standby. I'd be looking for about 2% per hour on standby as kind of a high amount, but then I don't sync anything, have notifications off for everything except text messages, etc. The worst thing that I'm currently doing is keeping both cellular data and WiFi on pretty much full time (unless I'm in a known no-service area, then it goes into airplane mode *smile*). For email, when I want to read it on my phone, I'll go and download it, rather than syncing it all the time.

That's on airplane mode, so I don't see why it drains that much. I forgot to turn on airplane mode today, started school at 80%, and when I looked at it at 3:30 (7 hours later), it was at 40%. I did receive about 10 emails during that time, and also received a text. So, that was probably the reasoning for that battery drain. I'm trading the GS3 for a Galaxy Nexus later this week because I need the cash. I will see what the battery is like for that. When I was on the iPhone, it would not be in airplane mode and still only drain about 10-15% during the day, being checked periodically.

 

[o4liberty]

Today is my first full day with the S3 and so far it's like any other smart phone the battery life is horrible Imo!

 

[dpham00]

If you want the larger screen, then keep your eyes peeled for a deal. The Note 2 was $50 earlier this year.

With that said, I have the rezound, s3 and Note II, and both the s3 and Note II get way better battery life than the rezound. The display on the rezound is better though than s3 which has a meh display. The Note II display looks better despite being much larger. Also, the rezound is way brighter especially in direct sunlight, it is harder to see the s3 or note 2.

If you don't need Note II exclusives like the larger screen, s-pen, multi view, then I would just get the s3. The Note II is quite a bit larger and heavier. The Note II does get better battery life, but you can put a larger battery in the s3 to compensate


Sent from my Verizon Samsung Galaxy Note II

 

[romiust]

Since I used the T-Bolt I have always carried a couple of spare batteries. You can find them cheap on Amazon, and I find I never worry about battery life anymore. I feel like more people need to jump on the spare battery wagon. I feel like i am sorta of a evangelist in this way, like you said most folks never even consider carrying them, but once you do it totally frees you!

 

[o4liberty]

My second day with the S3 and I now know why they make the spare battery and charger combo! It's a great device but for a heavy user the second battery is needed Imo!

 

[sooner7]

Rooted running CM10.1 / Custom Kernel

Can get about 12-15 hours with near 3 hours screen time w/ highest brightness on this ROM.

On stock TW, which is what you're after, it was about 10-12 hours.

 

[cdmjlt369]

What about signal, 4g? Comparable to the rezound?

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