Why is my S5 Active such a battery hog?

[jungleexplorer]

Why is the battery life so bad on this S5 as compared to my Sony Z3? This thing burns through the battery even when in standby. For example. Yesterday I was out hunting deer on a stand. My battery was at 30% and dropping fast at around 4:00, so I put the phone into Ultra Power Saving mode. I did not use it after that. I got a deer around 5:00pm, got it home and proceed it and was done around 7:00. During this whole time, I did not touch my phone. After I washed up, I got my phone out and it was at 2% battery. So, even in Ultra Power Power Saving mode and not being used, the phone consumed 28% of the battery life in three hours. That is just plain ridiculous.

Now my Z3 on the other hand uses almost no battery while in standby. Once I charged it to 100% before going to bed and then left it unplugged overnight, about 8 hours. When I checked it in the morning it was still at 99%. I could use my Z3 all day heavily and have battery to spare. On this S5 I have to charge it two to three times a day.

I typed this message on my S5 and it used 8% of its battery just typing this question.

 

[mydian]

Install an app like GSAM and see what's hogging most of your battery life. My S5 lasts all day and I use my phone a lot. Usually averaging around 5 hours of screen time.

 

[lvt]

Every smartphone is battery sucker today, you got more powerful CPU and GPU, larger LCD with better brightness, tons of apps that connect themselves to cloud based services...

 

[jungleexplorer]

Every smartphone is battery sucker today, you got more powerful CPU and GPU, larger LCD with better brightness, tons of apps that connect themselves to cloud based services...

I use my phones in pretty much the same way. I disable every thing I don't use. The Z3 has better faster hardware, so by your logic, it should use more energy, but the opposite is true.

 

[AZgl1500]

I use my phones in pretty much the same way. I disable every thing I don't use. The Z3 better faster hardware, so by your logic, it should use more energy, the oposite is true.

ditto:
just because it is on there, does not mean it should "always" be turned on.

I am a minimalist, if I am not using it, it is turned off.

 

[jungleexplorer]

Install an app like GSAM and see what's hogging most of your battery life. My S5 lasts all day and I use my phone a lot. Usually averaging around 5 hours of screen time.

Okay, I installed Gsam. Lets see what it says.

 

[dontpanicbobby]

I'm interested.

 

[jungleexplorer]

Okay. This is funny. My phone was just gobbling up the battery until I installed Gsam. Ever since then it has done the complete opposite. Now I can go all day and still have 50% battery at night. It's like whatever it was that was eating up the battery is hiding because I installed the app and it does not want me to see what it is doing.

So far the biggest power consumer (aside from the screen obviously) on my phone is the Android System itself.