s3 very poor battery life.

[moez1210]

hello, i have had my galaxy s3 for about 2 weeks and the battery life is very poor. its an international version running 4.0.4. I listen to about 2 hours of music , play max payne for 1 hour and the battery will drop all the way down to 30% at low brightness when playing max payne. is this normal? and how can i fix it?

 

[Mudrat]

I was same as you with same model. I do this at night to help fix and save a bit of battery life.
Turn off these and use as needed.
1.Sync, only use it to sync when needed.
2. Bluetooth. Never turn it on. I do not have bluetooth items.
3. Mobile Data. Unless you are browsing or sending emails turn it off.
4. Go into power saving and set it up.
5. GPS. Turn off unless you need it to navigate or tag a spot in pictures.
6. Wi-Fi. Only turn on when needed also.
I only turn the above features on when I need to and have found they work for me. You can still send & receive SMS / mms.
I do not play intense games so can not offer help with the game power usage.
Hope this helps.

 

[Szadzik]

Do you also have twiter, FB, Tumblr, Picasa etc., accounts syncing at the same time? That may be the problem. Check battery use to see what is using battery most.

 

[John P]

Download GSam Battery Monitor and/or Better Battery Stats.
They will help you find out what is using your battery.

 

[THE W]

you're not streaming music are you?

 

[moez1210]

no im not streaming music, i have sync gps bluetooth and data off at all times and only turn on wifi when needed. but ive searched around and heard people are getting 8+ hours with heavy use and i dont even get that with low use.

 

[THE W]

Could be a faulty battery.

 

[Easilyamused]

I was same as you with same model. I do this at night to help fix and save a bit of battery life.
Turn off these and use as needed.
1.Sync, only use it to sync when needed.
2. Bluetooth. Never turn it on. I do not have bluetooth items.

turning off bluetooth will make no discernable difference.

3. Mobile Data. Unless you are browsing or sending emails turn it off.
4. Go into power saving and set it up.
5. GPS. Turn off unless you need it to navigate or tag a spot in pictures.

turning off gps will make no difference. it only uses battery when an active app accesses it.

6. Wi-Fi. Only turn on when needed also.

turning off Wi-Fi will make no noticeable difference.

I only turn the above features on when I need to and have found they work for me. You can still send & receive SMS / mms.
I do not play intense games so can not offer help with the game power usage.
Hope this helps.

First step in figuring this out - Get a battery monitor such as Gsam or BetterBatteryStats.

 

[moez1210]

screen 17% phone radio 20% app usage 62% in app usage 33% max payne and was only for 1 hour. the rest of the apps are 1% and below.

 

[SUroot]

Max Payne uses a lot of battery.

 

[moez1210]

Max Payne uses a lot of battery.

any game i play it will kill the battery in an hour :/

 

[SUroot]

Things like real racing for me are fine. Just max payne specifically. Something else may be going on and you already have advice for that

 

[Easilyamused]

well, at least initially the logical thing to do would be to remove Max Payne from the equation. track a normal days usage without running games and post the results. lets see what's really going on.

 

[Wisheezy]

well, at least initially the logical thing to do would be to remove Max Payne from the equation. track a normal days usage without running games and post the results. lets see what's really going on.

^^

Do a normal day without gaming and turning off the suggested above. Turn Power saving on too it's a must. Also kill your memory before you start the day too. And make sure brightness is on auto..you should be okay. If not..post your usage up could be a faulty battery but I have faith it's probably small things adding up

 

[SUroot]

^^

Do a normal day without gaming and turning off the suggested above.

Yes

Turn Power saving on too it's a must

It works but its unnecessary. Kinda makes the phone pointless too IMHO

Also kill your memory before you start the day too.

Why? Memory doesn't use battery. Unused memory is wasted memory. The best way to manage memory is to not manage memory.

And make sure brightness is on auto..you should be okay. If not..post your usage up could be a faulty battery but I have faith it's probably small things adding up

Autobrightness wastes power. Constantly polling the light sensor uses battery:

How bright is it? How about now? How about now? How about now? Oooh its bright, Adjust. How bright is it? How about now? How about now? Oooh Dull. Adjust. Adjust, Adjust. Is it bright yet? How about now? Yes its bright, but is it that bright? Lets check... No its not bright. Adjust? No. Is it bright? How about now? Now? Now? What about now? Is it bright yet? getting bored of this brightness. Adjust. Is it bright?

 

[Wisheezy]

Yes




It works but its unnecessary. Kinda makes the phone pointless too IMHO




Why? Memory doesn't use battery. Unused memory is wasted memory. The best way to manage memory is to not manage memory.




Autobrightness wastes power. Constantly polling the light sensor uses battery:

How bright is it? How about now? How about now? How about now? Oooh its bright, Adjust. How bright is it? How about now? How about now? Oooh Dull. Adjust. Adjust, Adjust. Is it bright yet? How about now? Yes its bright, but is it that bright? Lets check... No its not bright. Adjust? No. Is it bright? How about now? Now? Now? What about now? Is it bright yet? getting bored of this brightness. Adjust. Is it bright?

Auto brightness wastes power? I thought the option was there to keep it consistent to save power?

Also, this is from my personal experience, power saving mode definitely helped saving power for me.

And memory its self won't use battery, I was referring more to killing apps that may have not closed properly and could be using battery in that sense. I know very well unused memory is wasted memory but I ment purely for app draining etc.

 

[moez1210]

Tested a day without gaming just downloading a few apps,Facebook, light Usage lasted from 10 am to 11 pm most of the day I wasn't using it is this normal?

 

[SUroot]

Auto brightness wastes power? I thought the option was there to keep it consistent to save power?

Well if you are accustomed to using 100% brightness all the time, then switch to auto brightness then OK, the polling of the light sensor and automatically lowering the brightness when it doesn't need to be bright will seem to save battery.

However, If you are accustomed to 0% brightness and only adjusting it when you need it, this is using much less power than Autobrightness because no light sensor constantly being checked.

Also, this is from my personal experience, power saving mode definitely helped saving power for me.

Oh yeah definitely works. Making the CPU slower will use less power. I just dont like the idea of limiting my phones performance