S III Battery use

[jroyjohnson]

Holy Cow! How is everyone getting such great battery life. Mine isn't awful, but I wouldn't say it's good at all. I've been reading forums like crazy trying to decide if I have a bad battery or not. I used mine yesterday with just 2 hours of screen time and about 8 hrs off the charger after a full nights charge I was down to 20%. Another day I used the screen for 3.5 and it was pretty much depleted after 4-5 hours. Granted that was heavy use, but still. Even the days I'm at work it typically drains about 5% per hour just on standby!! I rarely touch it at all while I'm at work. No wifi, no Blutooth, no GPS, no nothing! Maybe once or twice an hour I'll wake it up to see if I have a text message since light flow doesn't work properly on it yet. Other than that it sits on my desk with full 4G coverage all day and still drops quite a bit I think.

Any thoughts?

I don't have it rooted nor do I have any power/battery saving apps. Is that how others are getting longer life or is mine just bad????

 

[jroyjohnson]

Since installing Avast on my phone the battery has been draining fast.

Even before the Avast app noticed when I was using the phone the battery would go down by 1% every 4secs!!

Also still waiting to know how the other user got Max Payne 1 on his S3! As when I try to get it the game/app says not compatible :-(

Anyone else noticing Avast eating up battery life? I don't see it in my battery life monitor to know what it's doing to mine. Maybe that has been my problem for poor battery life.

If so, anyone know of an alternative to Avast that doesnt' eat up the battery?

 

[jroyjohnson]

How long is everyones S3 taking to get a full charge? Mine seems to take about 5-6.5 hours. That seems a bit long to me, but I came from Blackberry, which could charge in about 2.5 hours!

 

[jaymf]

I think I charged mine from 4% to full in about 4 hours.

 

[sergey]

My old iPhone 4 got better battery life. But it's not the huge gap that I thought it would be given LTE and the 4.8" screen. Overall, I'm happy.

 

[Caesars]

Just the fact that you can compare an Android stock battery to an iPhone is a good thing lol.

 

[jroyjohnson]

sorry to make a handful of posts, but I wanted to give an update in case others are having similar battery issues. I am excited to say I uninstalled Avast yesterday and am getting amazing battery life now! It's hardly even draining at 1% per hour now. Before it was 5% or more!! And that is with WiFi on and Power Saver mode off!! I hope this will help the speed it takes to charge as well.

Anyone know of a good anti-virus/malware program that won't eat up the battery?

 

[liteon163]

I usually download and install an anti-virus app, run it once, and then delete it. I usually restart my phone then, too.

In the 2+ years I've had a smartphone, I've never had a virus or any other spyware.

 

[kurtyyyyyy]

What ive started doing is when im at work and not using my phone for a good few hours, i switch on airplane mode. Thats started saving me HOURS of battery.

If i dont use airplane mode all day, i still get good life. 12 hours medium-long use. So pleased with this phone.

 

[SUroot]

Holy Cow! How is everyone getting such great battery life. Mine isn't awful, but I wouldn't say it's good at all. I've been reading forums like crazy trying to decide if I have a bad battery or not. I used mine yesterday with just 2 hours of screen time and about 8 hrs off the charger after a full nights charge I was down to 20%. Another day I used the screen for 3.5 and it was pretty much depleted after 4-5 hours. Granted that was heavy use, but still. Even the days I'm at work it typically drains about 5% per hour just on standby!! I rarely touch it at all while I'm at work. No wifi, no Blutooth, no GPS, no nothing! Maybe once or twice an hour I'll wake it up to see if I have a text message since light flow doesn't work properly on it yet. Other than that it sits on my desk with full 4G coverage all day and still drops quite a bit I think.

Any thoughts?

I don't have it rooted nor do I have any power/battery saving apps. Is that how others are getting longer life or is mine just bad????

I have got a custom kernel (see signature) and I have undervolted it by at least 100mV which will of course have a slight positive effect on battery.

Being rooted is a good start as you can use titanium backup to freeze apps you never use that may use a bit of power etc.

 

[MentatYP]

I ran mine down at the end of day 3 with some browsing and such before taking the screenshots. Disconnected Saturday morning, took screenshots Monday night.

 

[johnnypaddock]

I'm a new member here, hoping for a little help.... So far, I've had a terrible time with the battery life on my new Galaxy S3. I can't post screen shots yet, being a new member, but here is a quick example:

I charged the phone to 100% overnight. Today, after just 3:15 on the battery, I was already down to 75% remaining battery life. My screen time was just 13 minutes... All I did was check my emails and looked at my fantasy baseball app.

The battery usage screen:

Android System 65%
Cell Standby 15%
Screen 7%
Android OS 5%
Maps 3%
Android Core Apps 3%
Exchange Server 3%


This seems crazy to me that the Android System/OS and Standby would rip up that much battery life. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.



- Joe

 

[ylexot]

I'm a new member here, hoping for a little help.... So far, I've had a terrible time with the battery life on my new Galaxy S3. I can't post screen shots yet, being a new member, but here is a quick example:

I charged the phone to 100% overnight. Today, after just 3:15 on the battery, I was already down to 75% remaining battery life. My screen time was just 13 minutes... All I did was check my emails and looked at my fantasy baseball app.

The battery usage screen:

Android System 65%
Cell Standby 15%
Screen 7%
Android OS 5%
Maps 3%
Android Core Apps 3%
Exchange Server 3%


This seems crazy to me that the Android System/OS and Standby would rip up that much battery life. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.



- Joe

There's a thread about this over at xda:
'Android System' draining battery fast! - xda-developers

Turning off mobile data helps, but it's not a very good solution. Lots of other information in the thread, but no definite solutions.

 

[rjtim]

Turning off mobile data helps, but it's not a very good solution.

Why is that?

 

[ylexot]

Why does it help or why is it not a good solution?

 

[jroyjohnson]

I'm a new member here, hoping for a little help.... So far, I've had a terrible time with the battery life on my new Galaxy S3. I can't post screen shots yet, being a new member, but here is a quick example:

I charged the phone to 100% overnight. Today, after just 3:15 on the battery, I was already down to 75% remaining battery life. My screen time was just 13 minutes... All I did was check my emails and looked at my fantasy baseball app.

The battery usage screen:

Android System 65%
Cell Standby 15%
Screen 7%
Android OS 5%
Maps 3%
Android Core Apps 3%
Exchange Server 3%


This seems crazy to me that the Android System/OS and Standby would rip up that much battery life. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.



- Joe

Definitely try rebooting it after any install/uninstall. Also Better Battery Stats is a great app (have to pay for it but I think it's only 2-3 bucks) that will help show any possible apps that are causing wakelocks and keeping your phone awake.

I recently uninstalled Avast anti-virus and noticed HUGE increase in battery life. Sync will drain some battery as well if you have lots of google or other shared data. You can change how often it checks for new info or if you have ability to a steady wifi during the day I found it doesn't drain near as fast as it does when using sync over the LTE network.


I also have the turned off most of the motions and keep the screen on low auto, but that's all the battery saver options I have checked.


I hope that helps.

 

[Lato9905]

Ill wake up at 6am. Go exercise until 730 playing music from my library and then stream Pandora when in the shower. By the time I get to work at 9 my percentage is in the 80's (low 80s) feels terrible to me. I dont think I could make it 8 hours at work and if I can its going to be just barely.

 

[dennygreen]

Well, I tried juice defender just for fun. Just like on my DX, it drained the battery faster than without it.

I still think the gs3 needs the option to shut off mobile data when the screen has been off for 15 minutes or so. I guess I'll try to do it with Tasker, since I did buy it a while ago.

 

[naviwilliams]

I don't understand what some people do with their device(s) to not get at MINIMUM 10 hours of battery life, even with at least 2+ hours of screen time...

I say, without a shadow of a doubt, turn off notifications for social media, and I bet you get better overall battery life. No one needs to check social media that much, surely. Don't people work during the day? Honestly, rhetorical of course

 

[avgazn91]

2nd day of having the phone. This went through about 7 hours of using 8tracks and pandora with earbuds in. Also with so sporatic web surfing and texting.

 

[alexander323bc]

Ill wake up at 6am. Go exercise until 730 playing music from my library and then stream Pandora when in the shower. By the time I get to work at 9 my percentage is in the 80's (low 80s) feels terrible to me. I dont think I could make it 8 hours at work and if I can its going to be just barely.

This is about right for me. I get about 12 hours of my battery. Keep in mind when you streaming Pandora your using 4g. So even thought your using the same amount of data as you did with 3g its at much higher bandwidth so your using more battery. The thing that kills my battery the most is the Face Book app. I could be wrong but this is how it was explained to me

 

[ylexot]

I'm a new member here, hoping for a little help.... So far, I've had a terrible time with the battery life on my new Galaxy S3. I can't post screen shots yet, being a new member, but here is a quick example:

I charged the phone to 100% overnight. Today, after just 3:15 on the battery, I was already down to 75% remaining battery life. My screen time was just 13 minutes... All I did was check my emails and looked at my fantasy baseball app.

The battery usage screen:

Android System 65%
Cell Standby 15%
Screen 7%
Android OS 5%
Maps 3%
Android Core Apps 3%
Exchange Server 3%


This seems crazy to me that the Android System/OS and Standby would rip up that much battery life. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.



- Joe

FYI, I was running Bean's ROM when I was having this issue. I flashed NoSympathy's VRALG1 ROM and haven't been having the problem so far.

 

[koopatroopa]

Hey guys, new member here.

I got my S3 a week ago and since day 1, I have thought I had battery drainage issues. Granted I've been on the phone constantly during the first few days, however, today with light-medium usage (texting, camera, no wifi, 4g for an hour), I got down to 5% with 9 hrs unplugged and 2 hrs screen time.

What do you guys think? Should I exchange it for a new phone as I am within the 30 day policy?

 

[liteon163]

Every few days I notice this unusual case where, without plugging in, my battery actually goes UP one to three percentage points. Anyone experiencing similar circumstances?

Now if only I could get the phone to do this on command... B-)

 

[liteon163]

As for the guy using 95% in 9 hours, how bright do you have your screen?

And stop using Task Killer. It sort of helped on Gingerbread and earlier versions of Android, but ICS is quite adept at managing its own tasks. Also make sure you don't have too many apps updating in the background.

I don't understand how, but it appears that you aren't on 3G, LTE, or wi-fi. Maybe this has something to do with your battery's charge draining so quickly.