The Truth About Your Battery

[SUroot]

Its not that its inaccurate. More that it doesnt give as much detail. Infact it gives almost no detail.

Other apps can give you partial wake usage, kernel wakelocks etc etc and break it down into how many times apps did certain things as opposed to "Maps 43%"

 

[Hogan773]

After re-reading your reply, I would have to respectfully disagree with one part of your comment. While in range of multiple AP's, but outside the range of my "Saved" networks, Wi-Fi consumed 0.3% of the 61% battery power used - The same as the unconnected Bluetooth (screenshot of battery monitor added to my original post above). 0.6% combined is inconsequential, and certainly unnoticeable without the use of monitoring software.

I have noticed a meaningful improvement in battery life while my phone is sitting idle on my desk all day at work with having Wifi OFF.....then it is not always checking for APs.

I use an automatic app that turns it off when I leave the house, then can turn it on again when I get home.

 

[Stuntman]

Maybe try buying a brand new battery for your phone (after months of using the phone prior) and test to see how long it lasts with the same usage. Then, if the battery doesnt last as long as the other one, then you know that new batteries just need to be cycled a few times to work at full capacity.:smokingsomb:

I tried buying a new battery for my HTC Desire Z because the battery was going bad. I ordered it, but after a couple of weeks, I was told that they don't make them anymore. I then bought a new phone instead.

 

[Easilyamused]

I have noticed a meaningful improvement in battery life while my phone is sitting idle on my desk all day at work with having Wifi OFF.....then it is not always checking for APs.

I use an automatic app that turns it off when I leave the house, then can turn it on again when I get home.

While there are Wi-Fi APs in the area where I work, I do not connect to any of them. At the end of the day, there is no discernible difference in the power used by Wi-Fi.

There have been days when I've had to go running around in urban areas where there are literally hundreds of WAPs. With Wi-Fi on continuously usage is still 3/10th of 1 percent (0.3%) of total battery use. Absolutely insignificant.

It seems many people are under the false impression that the Wi-Fi radio tries to continually connect to WAPs and drain the battery. This is absolutely untrue. When the GS3's Wi-Fi is "on", it doesn't "seek" WAPs, and by default it doesn't try to connect to any network available. There are no protocols running, and there is no attempt to negotiate an authentication, therefore it does not put a significant load on the battery. You always have to initially connect manually, after which point it becomes a "known" network and will connect automatically when in range. What people need to realize it it's simply acting as a receiver and as such the current required is trivial. If you put it into a "hotspot" mode, than the drain is significant as it's acting as a transmitter.

If a battery monitoring application actually shows the Wi-Fi radio is causing a significant battery drain, there is something wrong. Simply turning the Wi-Fi off is nothing more than a bandaid fix; the underlying problem is still present.

Edit: Apparently there are some carrier specific apps which may be cause the GS3 to try and connect to any open network it finds (my AT&T GS3 does not have this). See the following post for specifics:

http://androidforums.com/samsung-galaxy-s3/615395-wifi-keeps-auto-connecting.html#post5048592

My suggestion would be to turn off or disable such apps.

 

[hbryder]

When browsing these forums, you're bound to run across that thread where a frustrated user is yelling, "I hate my S3 the battery sucks!". It can't be avoided; there is always one similar on the first page of the forum.

You can't help but get sucked in, either because you feel sorry for the poster and want to help, or you're simply curious as to what it could be now. There are always some offering help (sometimes useful; most times not), some sharing that their battery is "just fine" while not offering anything useful, and some just making some statement to the effect that the original poster is an idiot... You know. You've read that thread. You may have even started that thread . Unfortunately, much of what you read in that thread is misinformation, so, before the next person starts yet another thread on that matter, I'd like to offer some truths about your S3 and its battery.

1. You have a bleeding edge, full featured 2012 Smartphone, with a huge, beautiful screen. It's gonna suck juice. 3G/4G/LTE data running in the background is the other killer of your battery life. Those 2 are the worst offenders, but that's what owning a smartphone is all about. It isn't all bad however, if you're not playing games or posting to Facebook 24/7, it really should last you the day without having to recharge, provided you go through and make sure you apps are set up properly.

2. Will turning off Wi-Fi, GPS, and Bluetooth significantly improve my battery life? No. In fact, it may shorten it. When your W-Fi is connected, the 3G/4G/LTE radio is basically in "sleep" mode. It's on, but it doesn't actually use any resources unless called up to do so. Since your S3 is getting it's data from Wi-Fi (which uses significantly less power than your cell radio), the only time your cell radio will use power is if it receives an SMS or other carrier related data that puts it to use.

Wi-Fi, GPS and Bluetooth when they are turned on by themselves don

 

[kurtyyyyyy]

Lol just kidding!

 

[SUroot]

Lol just kidding!

Best show on TV

 

[blenkows]

Since you seem to know a bit about batteries, maybe you can help me with my problem. I go to bed fully charged every night and wake up with 0-5% battery. It doesn't matter what combination of Wi-Fi/Syncing/Mobile Data/etc, that I use. I always just seem to end up with an almost dead battery.

So I downloaded GSam and this is an example of the results it gave me...





As you can see, cell radio is what takes up my entire battery. But as you can see from the other picture, I have no trouble getting reception. So what is the cause? If it was a rogue app running in the background, wouldn't it show up under "apps" rather than radio? And even if it WAS a rogue app, can it seriously be responsible for that much?

EDIT: And if you're wondering why airplane mode is on, it's because I awoke in the middle of the night to find my battery low so I turned airplane mode on to ensure it didn't die in my sleep. So basically airplane mode was only on for an hour or so, so don't be mislead by the icon lol. Airplane wasn't on the whole night.

 

[TadeoNYC]

This should be on as different thread. But I'll try and help.

You may have a bunk phone because with a strong signal like that something is really wrong. Download phone info and use it to try a different band. 3g vs 4g or whatever applies. Google more info.

If you try and return it they will make you factory reset first. So it is probably worth trying that as well

 

[Easilyamused]

Since you seem to know a bit about batteries, maybe you can help me with my problem. I go to bed fully charged every night and wake up with 0-5% battery. It doesn't matter what combination of Wi-Fi/Syncing/Mobile Data/etc, that I use. I always just seem to end up with an almost dead battery.

So I downloaded GSam and this is an example of the results it gave me...

View attachment 40826

View attachment 40827

As you can see, cell radio is what takes up my entire battery. But as you can see from the other picture, I have no trouble getting reception. So what is the cause? If it was a rogue app running in the background, wouldn't it show up under "apps" rather than radio? And even if it WAS a rogue app, can it seriously be responsible for that much?

EDIT: And if you're wondering why airplane mode is on, it's because I awoke in the middle of the night to find my battery low so I turned airplane mode on to ensure it didn't die in my sleep. So basically airplane mode was only on for an hour or so, so don't be mislead by the icon lol. Airplane wasn't on the whole night.

The cell standby is a known issue and will skew your stats.

http://androidforums.com/samsung-ga...andby-issue-please-sign-petition-samsung.html
.
Try putting it in airplane mode overnight (this should turn the radio off) after it's fully charged, then post the results, incl. the app page. Also check the "view time held awake" and " view num times waking device" values. Hopefully this might shed some light on what's actually going on.

 

[blenkows]

The cell standby is a known issue and will skew your stats.

http://androidforums.com/samsung-ga...andby-issue-please-sign-petition-samsung.html
.
Try putting it in airplane mode overnight (this should turn the radio off) after it's fully charged, then post the results, incl. the app page. Also check the "view time held awake" and " view num times waking device" values. Hopefully this might shed some light on what's actually going on.

I know for a fact that when I put it on airplane mode, it tends to kinda level out. I generally don't like using airplane mode though.

Also, I should note that sometimes when I take my phone off the charger, it will sometimes go UP in battery power. Like just now for example, I took it off the charger at 56% and now it's at 58%. This also happens to my girl (who has the same phone and service). Do we just have messed up batteries or is that normal?

EDIT: Now it's up to 59% lol. This is OFF the charger. I think my phone is haunted

 

[Roadie1015]

This is spot on. If I'm connected to 3G/4G/LTE I usually notice about a 2-3% battery drain per hour. So throughout the course of the day I lose about 30-50% of my battery just doing nothing. I downloaded Juice Defender and set my mobile data to shut off when my screen is off, I haven't ran the numbers yet but my battery life has been significantly better.

 

[jp76]

Thank you to the OP for this info.

I have question on my battery life, if I may: I loaded up GSam and noticed the biggest drained is the "Phone Radio". I haven't made a call all day, in fact I barely talk on my phone at all. Is there something or a setting I should look at?

Thanks!

 

[johnnylighton]

How is your phone signal? If it's weak, maybe your phone is spending a lot of juice telling the cell tower "I am here," so you can get calls?

And/or if you are not connected to wifi during this time, could you have an app that's continually updating like Facebook (if you have not set the app to not do that) and it's using the phone radio to connect?

 

[jp76]

How is your phone signal? If it's weak, maybe your phone is spending a lot of juice telling the cell tower "I am here," so you can get calls?

Constantly have 4 to 5 bars of signal. FWIW, the "4G" icon is always there too. I'm also able to make and receive calls without issue.

Also...I had a 100% charge at 7AM. Four hours later I'm down to 87% or roughly a 3.25% drop per hour. No surfing, no videos, just a couple texts and my MS Exchange account being sync'd.

 

[Mohaver]

If you check Gsam you would observe that JD stops the phone going into a proper deep sleep, which contributes to battery drain. JD will use more battery than a properly set up phone.

I might however agree that if you have no desire to go through and set everything up correctly, JD will probably decrease your overall battery use, however JD itself can be a hassle by getting in the way of certain functions when you need them.

As for Wi-Fi and BT, I never turn them off. Currently after a bit over 30 hours, my battery is down to 40%, and Wi-Fi and BT have accounted for 0.4% combined of the 60% battery used (adj. for apps which account for half of the battery drain):

Please for the love of god share how you get 30 hours of battery life on your S3. I just got mine a week ago but every other day it gets crippled by terrible battery life (especially terrible compared to 30 hours.

 

[MBCO]

Very good info here, Thanks. I've had my S3 for 5 days now and with mild tweeks I am impressed with the battery life.

Mine so far today:

-On charger all night. Left the charger @ 6:30 AM
-Light use, email, text, lunch time web browsing + video's using 4G
- 10h 40m on battery
-59% as of 4:00 PM

 

[jaydee77ca]

Please for the love of god share how you get 30 hours of battery life on your S3. I just got mine a week ago but every other day it gets crippled by terrible battery life (especially terrible compared to 30 hours.

Yeah, I'm nowhere near that. My Average Battery Life in GSam Battery Monitor says 15h 10m. I'm at 68% today after 7.5 hours with only 34 minutes of screen on.

 

[hbryder]

Thank you to the OP for this info.

I have question on my battery life, if I may: I loaded up GSam and noticed the biggest drained is the "Phone Radio". I haven't made a call all day, in fact I barely talk on my phone at all. Is there something or a setting I should look at?

Thanks!

If you click on phone radio , it will tell you exactly what it used and why based on the signal. example:

 

[Easilyamused]

I know for a fact that when I put it on airplane mode, it tends to kinda level out. I generally don't like using airplane mode though.

Well, the whole reason I suggested measuring it in airplane mode is it gets rid of the reporting bug for the radios, and puts the rest of the % in line with what it's actually doing.

Thank you to the OP for this info.

I have question on my battery life, if I may: I loaded up GSam and noticed the biggest drained is the "Phone Radio". I haven't made a call all day, in fact I barely talk on my phone at all. Is there something or a setting I should look at?

Thanks!

Basically the "Phone Radio" is not being reported with the correct value. This obviously makes the rest of the values lower than they should be. The "bug" needs to be corrected by firmware update. See this thread for a better description:

http://androidforums.com/samsung-ga...andby-issue-please-sign-petition-samsung.html

Please for the love of god share how you get 30 hours of battery life on your S3. I just got mine a week ago but every other day it gets crippled by terrible battery life (especially terrible compared to 30 hours.

Well, here is how I set up and run my phone...

Almost all background syncing is off. I get very few notifications. Email is checked every 4 hours, but that's about it. Facebook for example only updates when I open the app.

I have all the all the accounts - Google, Google +, Samsung... active but they are set to sync MANUALLY.

The one thing I haven't quite been able to do is keep Google Maps from doing stuff in the background, but that's probably because I keep GPS on at all times (along with BT and Wi-Fi; they are NEVER off). Need to look into that further.

I use "Power Saving" mode. This cuts cpu performance a bit, among other things... but this phone is insanely fast so it doesn't bother me even though I use a third party launcher and have unnecessary (but cool) screen transitions and stuff...

My phone use is moderate.. a few phone calls, lots of texts, and emails and occasional browsing. It connects to my car audio via BT for hands free calling and I listen to music quite a bit. I usually get about 2 hours of screen time or a bit more in a full day.

I don't have LTE in my area; but over 3 days in an LTE area I still got a full days use no problem. In a typical day my radio has 5 bars over 90% of the time; 4 bars the rest. Other than about 10 hours while I am at work, it is usually on WiFi the rest of the time.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. Let me know if you have any other questions.

 

[Mohaver]

Well, here is how I set up and run my phone...

Almost all background syncing is off. I get very few notifications. Email is checked every 4 hours, but that's about it. Facebook for example only updates when I open the app.

I have all the all the accounts - Google, Google +, Samsung... active but they are set to sync MANUALLY.

The one thing I haven't quite been able to do is keep Google Maps from doing stuff in the background, but that's probably because I keep GPS on at all times (along with BT and Wi-Fi; they are NEVER off). Need to look into that further.

Edit: also App Usage accounts of 44.0% of my battery, Phone Radio accounts for 31.2%, and Screen accounts for 23.3%. The other stuff is minimal. Though it was only "Held Awake" for 24 minutes, using 0.2% power. Thought this info might be helpful. Thanks again.

I use "Power Saving" mode. This cuts cpu performance a bit, among other things... but this phone is insanely fast so it doesn't bother me even though I use a third party launcher and have unnecessary (but cool) screen transitions and stuff...

My phone use is moderate.. a few phone calls, lots of texts, and emails and occasional browsing. It connects to my car audio via BT for hands free calling and I listen to music quite a bit. I usually get about 2 hours of screen time or a bit more in a full day.

I don't have LTE in my area; but over 3 days in an LTE area I still got a full days use no problem. In a typical day my radio has 5 bars over 90% of the time; 4 bars the rest. Other than about 10 hours while I am at work, it is usually on WiFi the rest of the time.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. Let me know if you have any other questions.

Your usage and syncing info and everything is almost identical to mine. But I still get insane battery loss. I found that "Android System" had 1415 wakelocks (found using Gsam Battery). Does this sound extreme? I'm getting quite a bit of loss of battery while the phone is asleep but Gsam also says that "Android System" is only using 15.1% of the 95% loss of charge. Thanks for the help, I truly appreciate it. I love this phone, but the battery is killing me (and the phone).

 

[blenkows]

Well, the whole reason I suggested measuring it in airplane mode is it gets rid of the reporting bug for the radios, and puts the rest of the % in line with what it's actually doing.

Ah okay that makes sense. Well its bedtime right now. I'm fully charged and running GSam. I have airplane mode activated. So I will post in the morning letting you know. Please check back. Thanks

 

[Easilyamused]

Your usage and syncing info and everything is almost identical to mine. But I still get insane battery loss. I found that "Android System" had 1415 wakelocks (found using Gsam Battery). Does this sound extreme? I'm getting quite a bit of loss of battery while the phone is asleep but Gsam also says that "Android System" is only using 15.1% of the 95% loss of charge. Thanks for the help, I truly appreciate it. I love this phone, but the battery is killing me (and the phone).

So what is using the other 80%?

 

[blenkows]

Okay so ran it in airplane mode all night (and of course that was when all the action went on. woke up to 3 texts, a score center update, 3 fb notifications, and an email lol)

Now THIS is a number I like. Woke up with 99%


So I check GSAM



88% of that 1% is attributed to apps... so onto the apps...



Android System is responsible for 51% of that... so onto that...



I feel this is the most important snapshot of the series. This reveals the wakelocks and whatnot




The above is a snapshot of the setting's battery usage thing built in




I'm noticing my phone wasn't awake during the night according to this lol. I like this!




Here is a different snapshot of Android system. I like GSam's better


Anyway, that's the results. What's the next step? What do these pics reveal?

 

[spartanrob]

I thought Airplane mode shuts off everything, how did you get "3 texts, a score center update, 3 fb notifications, and an email" or was that after you turned airplane mode off?