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Help S2 Excessive battery drain

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fillerfine

Lurker

I've bought a Samsung Galaxy S2 and am having a lot of problems with it in regards to battery consumption, and it's making me regret buying this phone. :mad:

I can play games and have a call on loudspeaker and the drain on the battery seems more than fine - but on standby the battery is just draining like I'm using it all the time. I'm scared to touch the phone to be honest as it barely lasts 15 hours on standby, this is with GPS off, Wi-Fi off, and roaming Internet off, brightness on lowest possible (which is not low enough IMHO). The phone is also on Economy mode and I have used "Battery saver" software, none of which seems to work. I lose about 25% power overnight with everything switched off on standby which is ridiculous. I don't want to have to switch my phone off in case I get a call and I use it for my alarm. Please can someone help, I am having almost Obsessive Compulsive behaviour towards saving the battery. I have an iPod Touch 4G and when not in use - it never drains with Wi-Fi on or high-res backgrounds, so why should this be any different? :confused:

Here are more changes I made to save the battery, all of which fail to save any power;

- Black background
- Lock wallpaper is low-res black background
- Deleted all widgets
- Removed auto-refresh on Facebook and other apps
- Regularly cancel all tasks in Task Manager
:mad:

Why is the battery draining this much when I'm not using it? To me this can't be normal and I don't want a phone which I have to charge all the time and keep turning things off. When you disable all of the above, there isn't much point in having the phone.


Any help would be appreciated. :D
 
What is your mobile phone signal level? If you are in a very weak reception area then the phone transmits on much higher power to the cell and this kills the battery within a few hours.

A sold, strong mobile phone signal means that the phone doesn't need to use higher power to contact the cell so battery life should be much better.
 
fillerfine said:

I've bought a Samsung Galaxy S2 and am having a lot of problems with it in regards to battery consumption, and it's making me regret buying this phone. :mad:

I can play games and have a call on loudspeaker and the drain on the battery seems more than fine - but on standby the battery is just draining like I'm using it all the time. I'm scared to touch the phone to be honest as it barely lasts 15 hours on standby, this is with GPS off, Wi-Fi off, and roaming Internet off, brightness on lowest possible (which is not low enough IMHO). The phone is also on Economy mode and I have used "Battery saver" software, none of which seems to work. I lose about 25% power overnight with everything switched off on standby which is ridiculous. I don't want to have to switch my phone off in case I get a call and I use it for my alarm. Please can someone help, I am having almost Obsessive Compulsive behaviour towards saving the battery. I have an iPod Touch 4G and when not in use - it never drains with Wi-Fi on or high-res backgrounds, so why should this be any different? :confused:

Here are more changes I made to save the battery, all of which fail to save any power;

- Black background
- Lock wallpaper is low-res black background
- Deleted all widgets
- Removed auto-refresh on Facebook and other apps
- Regularly cancel all tasks in Task Manager
:mad:

Why is the battery draining this much when I'm not using it? To me this can't be normal and I don't want a phone which I have to charge all the time and keep turning things off. When you disable all of the above, there isn't much point in having the phone.


Any help would be appreciated. :D
Click to expand...


The book would say you are doing all the right things. From my experience with samsung android devices (galaxy range) i'm gonna say you are doing all the wrong things.


I'm gonna share with you what you should try that i find give better results

1. Disable auto roatate

2. turn off ALL power saving settings and warnings

3. Turn on auto brightness level, this will disable your ability to change the britghness level your self

4. close all apps when not using the phone and clear cache (Don't go insane doing this too much, the cpu uses more power starting up apps than idling them)


Do all the above (Not just some, or it's pointless) and then come back letting us know the results, i am 100% confident you will see a huge difference in battery life.

You will see a difference with wifi/3g on or off but for now during your test leave them off
 
I forgot one thing in my initial post. Reduce the amount of home screens/widgets n icons, 3 pages or less is better, don't fill them heavily try to keep your home screen as free as possible. This I am sure helps
 
rumbataz said:
What is your mobile phone signal level? If you are in a very weak reception area then the phone transmits on much higher power to the cell and this kills the battery within a few hours.

A sold, strong mobile phone signal means that the phone doesn't need to use higher power to contact the cell so battery life should be much better.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply.

My signal fluctuates from 2/3 out of 4 so this may be an issue.
 
suicidallooney said:
The book would say you are doing all the right things. From my experience with samsung android devices (galaxy range) i'm gonna say you are doing all the wrong things.


I'm gonna share with you what you should try that i find give better results

1. Disable auto roatate

2. turn off ALL power saving settings and warnings

3. Turn on auto brightness level, this will disable your ability to change the britghness level your self

4. close all apps when not using the phone and clear cache (Don't go insane doing this too much, the cpu uses more power starting up apps than idling them)


Do all the above (Not just some, or it's pointless) and then come back letting us know the results, i am 100% confident you will see a huge difference in battery life.

You will see a difference with wifi/3g on or off but for now during your test leave them off
Click to expand...

OK that's great. Will see what happens and I will get back to you. :)
 
suicidallooney said:
The book would say you are doing all the right things. From my experience with samsung android devices (galaxy range) i'm gonna say you are doing all the wrong things.


I'm gonna share with you what you should try that i find give better results

1. Disable auto roatate

2. turn off ALL power saving settings and warnings

3. Turn on auto brightness level, this will disable your ability to change the britghness level your self

4. close all apps when not using the phone and clear cache (Don't go insane doing this too much, the cpu uses more power starting up apps than idling them)


Do all the above (Not just some, or it's pointless) and then come back letting us know the results, i am 100% confident you will see a huge difference in battery life.

You will see a difference with wifi/3g on or off but for now during your test leave them off
Click to expand...

Hi,

I tried all your tips and the phone is still at 96% after 6 1/2 hours! Albeit, I barely touched my phone only the Battery function.

Good job!

I guess I now just need to decide what I want to keep on/off. Might root my phone and try one of the alternative kernels as well.

Thanks so much.
 
fillerfine said:
Hi,

I tried all your tips and the phone is still at 96% after 6 1/2 hours! Albeit, I barely touched my phone only the Battery function.

Good job!

I guess I now just need to decide what I want to keep on/off. Might root my phone and try one of the alternative kernels as well.

Thanks so much.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply and feedback :- ) i have also notice with this set up the battery is better in ICS than gingerbread however i think that's to do with the washed out colours ICS offers
 
Hi,
I've had my S2 for a week and I have to charge the battery daily, I have done all the suggestions above, but I'm not sure if I have cleared the cache, can you tell me how to do it please, I love the phone, just not the battery usage.

Thanks
 
Its also a daily charge for me and definitely for most others. Its really how you use the phone. If you have 3g on and use the phone for emails, light browsing, calls, maybe some light games, you get about a day of usage.

What is important is whether the battery is draining when the screen its off. You have to check for those.
 
hey guys, i'm a total noob on this galaxy s2 thing.. i just bought this phone an hour ago.. i was on galaxy s (sold it) and used to do flashes and custom roms and etc.. but i have a question, what firmware is the best for i9100? specifically the one with great battery and performance, by then i can flash it :) it would be great if you guys could help me out on this.. i've been reading looots of articles and found nothing -.- help?
 
pinkrosie said:
Hi,
I've had my S2 for a week and I have to charge the battery daily, I have done all the suggestions above, but I'm not sure if I have cleared the cache, can you tell me how to do it please, I love the phone, just not the battery usage.

Thanks
Click to expand...

On your home screen, press and hold for 3 seconds and then go on add widget, add application monitor.

Open app monitor then press the RAM tab then clear memory.


Russell Ng said:
Its also a daily charge for me and definitely for most others. Its really how you use the phone. If you have 3g on and use the phone for emails, light browsing, calls, maybe some light games, you get about a day of usage.

What is important is whether the battery is draining when the screen its off. You have to check for those.
Click to expand...

Yes the phone does need daily charge, all smart phones do. you can still use3g but but it off when you aren't, for example, turn it on every few hours and check your mails, it doesn't need to be on all the time just for e-mails. User usage will determine the battery of course, so playing gaming and your worried about battery is just silly.

Your other option is to buy a bigger battery, samsung does an offical upgraded battery
 
I've been guilty of obsessing over my battery in the past.

Try not to worry about how much it's dropping as long as it gets you through the day (presuming you charge overnight, most people do I think).
 
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