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Help Crap battery life?

H

Hjortron

Newbie
Hi.
I've been experimenting with a Galaxy S3, courtesy of my job (am thinking about making the switch over to it, from my iPhone). Have had it for about 2 weeks. I really LOVE the GS3, but lately, I've been getting really crap battery life. For example, I took it off the charger at about 7:45 this morning. By 12:00PM, I was down to 16% charge, and the phone was asking me to plug in my charger! Now, mind you: This is not even my main phone, so I'm NOT taking calls on it, am NOT sending texts, I don't have ANY games installed, so I'm NOT gaming. At the moment, I use it for reading news articles on the web, and I also have Touchdown (Exchange/Lotus Notes mail client) installed, so am receiving/sending my work email on it as well. I guess I actually have a FEW email accounts set up on it: My work account, my Gmail account (via the Gmail app), my Yahoo account (via the Yahoo app), and my Hotmail account (via the built-in mail app. This account does not push). This is a new phone (actually, it's "Reconditioned", though it came directly from AT&T), so I was expecting MUCH better battery life. My little iPhone 4 (a plain 4; not even a 4s) has a MUCH smaller battery, but is performing SIGNIFICANTLY better (It's at about 45% right now, and has been off the charger since about 7:15AM). It has all the same accounts on it, set up in the native mail app, all pushing. I also have the Gmail app running in the background. Why does my 2 year-old iPhone get better battery life than a brand new Galaxy S3?

If it's of any help, I just upgraded the phone to Jelly Bean (Android 4.1.1) via the Samsung Kies software the other day. Might this make a difference? Any ideas anyone might have would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!
 
screen is the big killer for battery you can be just starting on the home screen but if the screen is on for 2+ hours than yes that will drain the battery, so charge it up today do the same tomorrow if its low again tomorrow after just a few hours, hit settings than battery, see what % each process is using, than click screen to see how long the screen was on, something might be keeping the screen on
 
Try this, it worked for me very early on when I got the phone in July. Install the app called CPU Spy from the Google Play store, your phone doesn't need to be rooted or anything to use this app. Once you have the app installed, turn off the phone. Take the battery out. Plug the battery back in, and turn on your phone. I don't know why this worked for me, but it did. In the morning, I unplug my phone at 6am, and I don't look at it until 7:45am usually and the battery will be around 95% at that point. I'm assuming that an app was stuck in an endless cycle or something like that and that it kept the phone running continuously. Don't know if that'll help you or not, but I hope it does.
 
kanezfan said:
Try this, it worked for me very early on when I got the phone in July. Install the app called CPU Spy from the Google Play store, your phone doesn't need to be rooted or anything to use this app. Once you have the app installed, turn off the phone. Take the battery out. Plug the battery back in, and turn on your phone. I don't know why this worked for me, but it did. In the morning, I unplug my phone at 6am, and I don't look at it until 7:45am usually and the battery will be around 95% at that point. I'm assuming that an app was stuck in an endless cycle or something like that and that it kept the phone running continuously. Don't know if that'll help you or not, but I hope it does.
Click to expand...

what was your phone at for the same usage before installing that app?
 
It was very poor. I'd say 10-15% per hour at least. I too had an iPhone 4 before my GS3 and I wasn't thrilled with its battery life but it wasn't 10% an hour. By the way, I always have wifi, GPS, and Bluetooth on.
 
Goto > settings > battery
and see what has been using your battery the most. Big drains like that usually come from a poorly written app that constantly runs and drains battery or being on the fringe of a reception area and the phone is constantly searching for signal
 
CrimsonPride said:
Goto > settings > battery
and see what has been using your battery the most. Big drains like that usually come from a poorly written app that constantly runs and drains battery or being on the fringe of a reception area and the phone is constantly searching for signal
Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestion. Screen was eating up 43% (I had it at maximum brightness, not on Automatic). When I put it on Automatic, the usage went UP 10%! I've put it back on the brightest setting, and it's gone down from 53% to 47%. Android System is at 14%. There don't seem to be any obvious culprit apps in there, robbing the phone of power. Power Saving Mode is ON, with CPU Power Saving enabled, Screen Power Saving enabled & Haptic Feedback DISabled (Background color is NOT ticked. I don't like the background color power saving feature). Maybe I just got a bad battery with this thing? I'll see about ordering a replacement...
 
Hjortron said:
Thanks for the suggestion. Screen was eating up 43% (I had it at maximum brightness, not on Automatic). When I put it on Automatic, the usage went UP 10%! I've put it back on the brightest setting, and it's gone down from 53% to 47%. Android System is at 14%. There don't seem to be any obvious culprit apps in there, robbing the phone of power. Power Saving Mode is ON, with CPU Power Saving enabled, Screen Power Saving enabled & Haptic Feedback DISabled (Background color is NOT ticked. I don't like the background color power saving feature). Maybe I just got a bad battery with this thing? I'll see about ordering a replacement...
Click to expand...
may be a bad battery, i would turn off battery saving though and see what happens. ive heard more than one person say that hurt their batter rather than helped it
 
Hjortron said:
Thanks for the suggestion. Screen was eating up 43% (I had it at maximum brightness, not on Automatic). When I put it on Automatic, the usage went UP 10%! I've put it back on the brightest setting, and it's gone down from 53% to 47%. Android System is at 14%. There don't seem to be any obvious culprit apps in there, robbing the phone of power. Power Saving Mode is ON, with CPU Power Saving enabled, Screen Power Saving enabled & Haptic Feedback DISabled (Background color is NOT ticked. I don't like the background color power saving feature). Maybe I just got a bad battery with this thing? I'll see about ordering a replacement...
Click to expand...

43% of battery is screen could mean its been on or coming on by somthing when you click screen whats the actual time on say?
 
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