Help S2 Battery lasts about 5 hours on full charge, Any tips?

[mathesar]

I'm posting on behalf of a friend with a Galaxy S2, His phone is currently stock and ever since Sprint updated it to ICS the battery only lasts around 5 hours on a full charge with moderate usage and around 4 hours with heavy use, I did the battery spin test and it seems fine.

Is there any known issues or tricks that might help the situation without having to Root the phone?

Thanks.

 

[davis.rob]

There's a ton of posts here re: battery life after the initial upgrade to ICS. The primary suggestion was to do a factory reset ... a lot of people (including myself) saw a big improvement after that. There was also a suggestion that re-formatting your SD card (assuming you use one) could help. And, there have been two ICS updates since the initial one, and both claimed they improved battery life.

 

[cerj]

Manually sync, auto sync sux battery life, turn brightness down, auto bright uses lotz of batt, turn wifi off when not connected and turn off keytones and key vibrations (haptic) should get a lot more battery

 

[mathesar]

There's a ton of posts here re: battery life after the initial upgrade to ICS. The primary suggestion was to do a factory reset ... a lot of people (including myself) saw a big improvement after that. There was also a suggestion that re-formatting your SD card (assuming you use one) could help. And, there have been two ICS updates since the initial one, and both claimed they improved battery life.

Thanks I will pass the info along, Does sprint automatically apply the ICS updates or would he have to manually do it?

Manually sync, auto sync sux battery life, turn brightness down, auto bright uses lotz of batt, turn wifi off when not connected and turn off keytones and key vibrations (haptic) should get a lot more battery

I agree I'm the same way with my phone and the battery lasts on average 21 - 24 hours (Not a samsung phone tho, Im on a Huawei Mercury w/ Gingerbread 2.3.6) I think his S2 currently has everything enabled so ill have to suggest this.

 

[cr8tivand]

What I do is turn off 4G and 3G ALL TOGETHER when I'm not using the phone.

It extends battery life by at least 2 to 3 hours.

You can turn off 4G by swiping the notification bar down -- you will see a button for toggling 4G. You can also turn off 3G by going to Settings --> More... under Wireless and Network --> Mobile Networks --> 3G Data.

There's also a widget app that lets you bypass the stupid settings / notification bar, and let you toggle data by just tapping on the widget.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.enspirit.epic.data.toggle

Here's the link. I think this is the only one that works on Epic Touch.

 

[JaniceK]

Another thread recommended an app called "Battery Doctor" - available free at Google PlayStore - and it did the job for me. Since the latest update (are we on JB now?) my battery seems back to very normal & I have turned the B Dr off. Very easy to see & change what functions, WiFi, etc, are on or off.

 

[KitsapAndroid]

JaniceK, we're not on JB yet, unless of course you rooted and are running a custom ROM. Also, cr8tivand, what's the point of having a smart phone with no data? Turning it on and off should be un-necessary. And, if you're handset is anything like mine, when there is no data connection, you will not receive MMS messages. They'll just hang forever saying "downloading".

 

[JaniceK]

With Battery Doctor I can override its default settings & keep the data and messages coming. Thanks for the clarification about ICS vs. JB. I am very annoyed with these updates making a phone I was quite happy with into a little monster!
I am considering going to a Note 2, but that might just become another updates nightmare - who knows....

 

[Netcat]

I still have GB 2.3.6 but also experienced short battery life. Sometimes I would be fully charged in the morning but by noon my level was down to 50% or less. I couldn't go all day without charging it. I always had to plug it in at my desk at work and in my car so the battery wouldn't die.

I bought a 3800mA extended battery and now I usually have a >50% charge after 12 hours! I never plug it in all day and find it difficult to drain the battery in a single day. With the extended battery and the cover the phone is 5mm thicker over the battery compartment, total thickness 15mm. That is really not too bad. My old Palm Centro was 18mm thick stock, and that was a small phone. I'm very pleased with this extended battery but some people love a thin phone so this might not work.

I hope I don't sound like a salesman 'cause I'm not. This is the extended battery I bought but there are many others like it.

Trexcell Samsung Epic 4G Touch 3800mAh Extended Battery Cover Sprint Only | eBay