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Galaxy S3 battery life question

B

bc_co

Newbie
I [just ordered a S3 from Verizon and] have a question for the current S3 owners on battery life.

Does the battery last all day (12 hrs) with 'normal' use?

With the older android smart phones - battery life was/is a PITA. With my EVO I had to get the jumbo battery which worked great - could use it from 5 AM - 10 PM w/o draining the battery. However now after 2 yrs it doesn't hold a charge as well.

I'm hoping the S3 battery is sufficient so I don't need to upgrade to an aftermarket one (and then a new case to carry the then bulkier phone)

Thanks for your answers in advance
 
Tbh it all depends on how much you have activated throughout the day. But I don't think you'll have too much of a problem
 
I got 4 hours screen on time and it still lasted for more than 12 hours.

With normal use, it'd last a day and a half, maybe two I'd say.
 
Up time - 18h 5m
Screen on - 3h 47m
battery remaining - 41%

All in all i'd say that was pretty darn good.
 
I have a question also regarding the battery...

How much space if any is there between the back cover and the stock battery? Are you able to press down on the back cover where the battery is and it will indent? If it does this would leave room for slightly larger battery without increasing thickness of the phone.

The other question is...I know the design is more uniform than the Gnex is. If someone comes out with a 3300 battery or larger, would the phone have a huge hump on either side? Or is the battery more towards the center which would be best and the new cover could mold around this and still keep the same shape as the original case, just a larger hump..
 
Shockwave78 said:
I have a question also regarding the battery...

How much space if any is there between the back cover and the stock battery? Are you able to press down on the back cover where the battery is and it will indent? If it does this would leave room for slightly larger battery without increasing thickness of the phone.

The other question is...I know the design is more uniform than the Gnex is. If someone comes out with a 3300 battery or larger, would the phone have a huge hump on either side? Or is the battery more towards the center which would be best and the new cover could mold around this and still keep the same shape as the original case, just a larger hump..
Click to expand...

No you'll definitely need a bigger cover. I can't actually see it, but I'd be very surprised if the battery isn't touching the back cover when it's on.

When you're looking at the phone from the back, the battery is closer to the right hand side than the left.
 
I think the s4 and integrated lte radios will greatly help with battery. Reviews have been saying that the international version is getting really good battery life so hopefully it stays the same for US version
 
Skeeter125 said:
I think the s4 and integrated lte radios will greatly help with battery. Reviews have been saying that the international version is getting really good battery life so hopefully it stays the same for US version
Click to expand...

I am not sure...

I see a ton of reviews where people are saying they are getting about 4hrs screen on time. With my Gnex it was about 3hrs. Now, no doubt an extra hour screen on time would be great. But if it really does end up being 4hrs only then that is still pretty sub-par IMO. But with extended batteries and such it should easily be up to 5-7hrs screen on time.
 
Shockwave78 said:
I am not sure...

I see a ton of reviews where people are saying they are getting about 4hrs screen on time. With my Gnex it was about 3hrs. Now, no doubt an extra hour screen on time would be great. But if it really does end up being 4hrs only then that is still pretty sub-par IMO. But with extended batteries and such it should easily be up to 5-7hrs screen on time.
Click to expand...

The s4 is supposed to get better battery life than the quad core so it could get 5+ hours screen on time
 
So i looked for the longest S3 review video i could find. The one below is the result. The total review is 43 minutes long! The battery starts out at 33% and ends at 19% when he is done. Now he was not really using any data intensive stuff at all. Just basically browsing through the phone for 43 minutes. The phone was not on WIFI so this is actually a good gauge for battery life i guess for the phone itself.

So...

Starting - 33%
Ending - 19%

14% usage for 41 minutes(i took off a couple for screen off times during video)

100/14 = 7.14

7.14 * 41 = 292 minutes

292 minutes / 60 = 4.9hrs

Now those numbers are very respectable..But again he did not use any data really at all during the entire review, just screen on time browsing through apps and taking pictures. Figure in LTE data usage and subtract an hour or more and we come roughly to the 4hr mark that everyone is talking about for screen on time.


Throw in some tweaks and we may be able to squeak out 5hrs usage time on the stock battery :)


Samsung Galaxy S3 Review - YouTube
 
Shockwave78 said:
So i looked for the longest S3 review video i could find. The one below is the result. The total review is 43 minutes long! The battery starts out at 33% and ends at 19% when he is done. Now he was not really using any data intensive stuff at all. Just basically browsing through the phone for 43 minutes. The phone was not on WIFI so this is actually a good gauge for battery life i guess for the phone itself.

So...

Starting - 33%
Ending - 19%

14% usage for 41 minutes(i took off a couple for screen off times during video)

100/14 = 7.14

7.14 * 41 = 292 minutes

292 minutes / 60 = 4.9hrs

Now those numbers are very respectable..But again he did not use any data really at all during the entire review, just screen on time browsing through apps and taking pictures. Figure in LTE data usage and subtract an hour or more and we come roughly to the 4hr mark that everyone is talking about for screen on time.


Throw in some tweaks and we may be able to squeak out 5hrs usage time on the stock battery :)


Samsung Galaxy S3 Review - YouTube
Click to expand...

Being on the screen can be just as much a drain as data. The screen uses a lot of power.
 
Super thank you very much for the feedback all..

It looks like it's much better than the older generation of android phones.

I'm sure once we stateside all get the S3 we can compare
 
I use my phone a lot and have found the battery time to be very respectable. I'm mostly on wifi at work and home but I fiddle all day checking emails and making calls and get through the day fine. It is getting better with each charge too. Today I was at work for 6 hours, had to make a 45 minute phone call and was browsing the net for a lot of the day between customers and it still had 60% left when I got home. That being said I tend to keep my screen rather dim as I don't like a bright screen, had flash burn as a kid so brightness really dazzles my eyes now.
 
Shockwave78 said:
So i looked for the longest S3 review video i could find. The one below is the result. The total review is 43 minutes long! The battery starts out at 33% and ends at 19% when he is done. Now he was not really using any data intensive stuff at all. Just basically browsing through the phone for 43 minutes. The phone was not on WIFI so this is actually a good gauge for battery life i guess for the phone itself.

So...

Starting - 33%
Ending - 19%

14% usage for 41 minutes(i took off a couple for screen off times during video)

100/14 = 7.14

7.14 * 41 = 292 minutes

292 minutes / 60 = 4.9hrs

Now those numbers are very respectable..But again he did not use any data really at all during the entire review, just screen on time browsing through apps and taking pictures. Figure in LTE data usage and subtract an hour or more and we come roughly to the 4hr mark that everyone is talking about for screen on time.


Throw in some tweaks and we may be able to squeak out 5hrs usage time on the stock battery :)


Samsung Galaxy S3 Review - YouTube
Click to expand...

To give you some idea, the day after I bought the phone I had 4 hours screen on time, with two hours web browsing and two hours of spotify playing. I was also without a signal 42% of the time (which is a big battery drain).

Battery life is great on this thing. :)
 
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