LG G3 battery life in real world

[Sandroidfan]

Now that G3 is finally hitting US stores. Let's share your battery life experience with G3 in your life. Forget about media reviews so far.

I like G3 overall (good fast camera, smooth UI, plenty of ram/storage) but battery life is still concern for me. I'd like to hear from real users and appreciate feedback on how well it's doing, how it's used (brightness, Wifi vs LTE, signal quality, apps) and any setting changes (location, WiFi, removing bloats, rooting, etc) if made.

 

[jeff76ms]

Now that G3 is finally hitting US stores. Let's share your battery life experience with G3 in your life. Forget about media reviews so far.

I like G3 overall (good fast camera, smooth UI, plenty of ram/storage) but battery life is still concern for me. I'd like to hear from real users and appreciate feedback on how well it's doing, how it's used (brightness, Wifi vs LTE, signal quality, apps) and any setting changes (location, WiFi, removing bloats, rooting, etc) if made.

I am coming from a 2 year old Sprint Samsung Galaxy S3 to the Sprint LG G3. I purchased the G3 on Saturday and after playing with it a lot on Sunday I got back to more normal usage yesterday and today. This is purely an observation comparing my old phone to the new G3.

I am guessing that I am getting anywhere from a 35% to 40% increase in battery life. It uses less per minute while gaming and uses almost zero when in standby. My old Galaxy S3 would go down 5% on my 15 minute drive in to work. The new G3 will stay at 100% until I begin using it. Anyway...hope this helps.

I have another observation that I would like to share...one thing that could become a worry is the screen. The off-center viewing is worse than my old Galaxy S3. It is actually starting to becoming slightly annoying. Sharing video or other content with someone else is kind of a pain in the butt. I can no longer see whats on the screen from an angle like I am used to with the old Samsung. This will most likely cause me to return the phone. Other than that...the Lg G3 has been great.

 

[jreed2560]

I am coming from a 2 year old Sprint Samsung Galaxy S3 to the Sprint LG G3. I purchased the G3 on Saturday and after playing with it a lot on Sunday I got back to more normal usage yesterday and today. This is purely an observation comparing my old phone to the new G3.

I am guessing that I am getting anywhere from a 35% to 40% increase in battery life. It uses less per minute while gaming and uses almost zero when in standby. My old Galaxy S3 would go down 5% on my 15 minute drive in to work. The new G3 will stay at 100% until I begin using it. Anyway...hope this helps.

I have another observation that I would like to share...one thing that could become a worry is the screen. The off-center viewing is worse than my old Galaxy S3. It is actually starting to becoming slightly annoying. Sharing video or other content with someone else is kind of a pain in the butt. I can no longer see whats on the screen from an angle like I am used to with the old Samsung. This will most likely cause me to return the phone. Other than that...the Lg G3 has been great.

viewing angles on an LCD are almost always worse than that of an amoled display. Keep that in mind if you return the phone and look to pick something else up

 

[ODog2323]

I have another observation that I would like to share...one thing that could become a worry is the screen. The off-center viewing is worse than my old Galaxy S3. It is actually starting to becoming slightly annoying. Sharing video or other content with someone else is kind of a pain in the butt. I can no longer see whats on the screen from an angle like I am used to with the old Samsung. This will most likely cause me to return the phone. Other than that...the Lg G3 has been great.

I have the same concern holding me back from grabbing this phone. I've been on Samsung AMOLED screens for a few years now, and I'm worried that the lame viewing angles and poor contrast on the LCD display just won't cut it.

 

[jeff76ms]

I have the same concern holding me back from grabbing this phone. I've been on Samsung AMOLED screens for a few years now, and I'm worried that the lame viewing angles and poor contrast on the LCD display just won't cut it.

Just to clarify...the straight ahead viewing on the LG G3 compared to the Samsung Galaxy S3 is much better. The colors look more natural and there is lots more detail. The problem I am having is the quality drops significantly more on the LG G3 than the Galaxy S3 when tilting the phone just slightly. It is not terrible by any means...it might not be an issue if you are coming from a previous LCD based phone.

I really love this phone and hate to put a bad impression out there. This is purely just a slight annoyance. I keep weighing the price $50 I paid on 2 year contract versus what I would have to pay for a new Galaxy or Note device on a 2 year contract. Possibly over $200 difference! I am trying to determine if it is worth that much more to just have better viewing angles. I have 10 days to decide

 

[rushmore]

I always side with "when in doubt". If you are doubting your purchase, the $200 (27 cents a day over two years) will seem insignificant if you would have been happier with another device.

Close to talking myself into a Note 3, since gaming and web browsing are great on the device and has about two hours more battery life than the G3 for heavy use. The throttle tricks on the G3 really helps though for light and medium users.

If I knew the Qhd devices released later this year will have similar issues as the G3, I would go ahead and get the Note 3 now. Note 4 though might be worth the wait, if they figured out how to get a 28nm chip and Qhd to both have great battery life and performance like the Note 3.

 

[Maine Coon]

I don't see what you guys are seeing from the angle.

Perhaps it's me.

The contrast can be easily adjusted in Settings/Accessibility/Color Adjustment.

Maybe that's why I don't see it.

But yeah, go ahead, spend an extra $200 for non-issue, lol.

 

[rushmore]

I did not notice it much, but I say the same thing about the reported sharpness issue. Key point seems get the device you will be most happy with for two years. JMO.

 

[Sandroidfan]

Just to clarify...the straight ahead viewing on the LG G3 compared to the Samsung Galaxy S3 is much better. The colors look more natural and there is lots more detail. The problem I am having is the quality drops significantly more on the LG G3 than the Galaxy S3 when tilting the phone just slightly. It is not terrible by any means...it might not be an issue if you are coming from a previous LCD based phone.

LCD screen tends to have faster brightness fall-off with angle than AMOLED. But I don't think G3 is worse than other LCD screen phones in this.

Did you uncheck auto brightness when looking at it? It significantly brightens up the screen than auto when I saw AT&T model. I think G3 screen looks bright enough at angle with auto brightness turned off. Also someone posted there is nice tip for increasing contrast in general setting.

 

[JD06ctsV]

99% of the time I use my phone fairly straight, not a viewing angle. To me this is a stretch of concern but if your sharing with group I could see the problem. That said, I came from a S3 & S4 and love this LCD display. The Samsung screens are overly bright and I always had to dial it back. If the AMOLED brightness is important, then get the S5. I've had enough of the Touch Wiz.

 

[hilmar2k]

I thought this was a battery thread?

 

[rushmore]

I thought this was a battery thread?

Wait..... This isn't a sports forum?? Doh! :stupido3:

 

[Maine Coon]

I thought this was a battery thread?

Who told you that?

 

[hilmar2k]

Thoughts?

EDIT: Found a battery on Google, but the link to it won't post correctly.

 

[Sandroidfan]

OK. let's keep this thread to battery related things.

 

[zipred]

Perhaps I should ask if it's OK to stay on topic... LOL

DAY 7 Battery life isn't quite as good as I hoped but to be fair, I'm a very heavy user. I have screen brightness set to 60%.

Under the same exact conditions as my Note 3 I get about 15% less which is a big deal for me. Nonetheless I always carry an ANKER external in my laptop bag so I'm fine.

It's a great phone, fast, fun and stable.

 

[Maine Coon]

Perhaps I should ask if it's OK to stay on topic... LOL

DAY 7 Battery life isn't quite as good as I hoped but to be fair, I'm a very heavy user. I have screen brightness set to 60%.

Under the same exact conditions as my Note 3 I get about 15% less which is a big deal for me. Nonetheless I always carry an ANKER external in my laptop bag so I'm fine.

It's a great phone, fast, fun and stable.

Would an extra battery resolve it?

I ALWAYS carry an extra battery w/me. Except for Nexus 5/Z Ultra

 

[Sandroidfan]

I'm somewhat baffled at low activities on this thread. Is everyone happy with battery life?

 

[zipred]

Would an extra battery resolve it?

I ALWAYS carry an extra battery w/me. Except for Nexus 5/Z Ultra

I have made it a habit to carry an external Anker Battery. With 2 USB ports I can recharge my phone and a tablet which gives me ultimate flexibility. Small and light it's great.

 

[iowabowtech]

I thought this was a battery thread?

OK. let's keep this thread to battery related things.

Good plan. This is a good thread idea. Many people are interested in this topic. Let's ease the ship back into the harbor and keep it there. Thanks.

 

[extermin8or_]

I am coming from a 2 year old Sprint Samsung Galaxy S3 to the Sprint LG G3. I purchased the G3 on Saturday and after playing with it a lot on Sunday I got back to more normal usage yesterday and today. This is purely an observation comparing my old phone to the new G3.

I am guessing that I am getting anywhere from a 35% to 40% increase in battery life. It uses less per minute while gaming and uses almost zero when in standby. My old Galaxy S3 would go down 5% on my 15 minute drive in to work. The new G3 will stay at 100% until I begin using it. Anyway...hope this helps.

I have another observation that I would like to share...one thing that could become a worry is the screen. The off-center viewing is worse than my old Galaxy S3. It is actually starting to becoming slightly annoying. Sharing video or other content with someone else is kind of a pain in the butt. I can no longer see whats on the screen from an angle like I am used to with the old Samsung. This will most likely cause me to return the phone. Other than that...the Lg G3 has been great.

This is geat news I'm in the uk but have a galaxy s3 had been seeing sone concerning stuff about the G3's battery and then at the same time praise and was really confused. To hear this from an actual everyday user is promising Although I wish there was a phone with the Galaxy S5's specs (quadhd is nice but im sure id live with 1080p) the g3's 3000mAh battery and and basically pure android OS... ive read the G3 allows you tobdelete most bloatware without having to even bother rooting it? Is this true

 

[rushmore]

All I know is every professional review so far that actually does heavy usage tests state the battery life is two hour less than the M8, S5 and Note 3.

Summary that is very similar to the other reviews and confirms the other tests are NOT heavy use tests. Laptop magazine actually tests the device out thoroughly like others such as Anandtech and GSM. This is a new review of the US model.

"Battery Life
Although LG brags about the G3's long battery life, other handsets offer much longer endurance. The G3's 3,000mAh battery lasted just 7 hours and 12 minutes on the Laptop Mag Battery Test, which involves continuous Web surfing over AT&T's 4G LTE network with the display set to 150 nits. That's a half hour short of the smartphone category average of 7:44. The Galaxy S5 and One M8 lasted more than 2 hours longer, at 9:42 and 9:52."

The G3 has long battery life if you are not using the display too much and not web browsing or gaming- the things that leverage the GPU and push the display.

 

[meganoobie]

All I know is every professional review so far that actually does heavy usage tests state the battery life is two hour less than the M8, S5 and Note 3.

Summary that is very similar to the other reviews and confirms the other tests are NOT heavy use tests. Laptop magazine actually tests the device out thoroughly like others such as Anandtech and GSM. This is a new review of the US model.

"Battery Life
Although LG brags about the G3's long battery life, other handsets offer much longer endurance. The G3's 3,000mAh battery lasted just 7 hours and 12 minutes on the Laptop Mag Battery Test, which involves continuous Web surfing over AT&T's 4G LTE network with the display set to 150 nits. That's a half hour short of the smartphone category average of 7:44. The Galaxy S5 and One M8 lasted more than 2 hours longer, at 9:42 and 9:52."

The G3 has long battery life if you are not using the display too much and not web browsing or gaming- the things that leverage the GPU and push the display.

While the underlying theme is no doubt true, you pay a price in battery for the extra pixels, these tests are not the answer for personal usage. Case in point, I saw a battery review for the M8 that had a similar web browsing result, but found that under intensive gaming it lost 46% per hour, worse than all others tested.

I'm a medium user, I would say, probably 2 hours SOT per day, and I make a whole day easily. Heavy users won't make a full day, but I don't see how they would make a full day on an S5 or M8 either.

With a removable battery, wireless charging, bump charging.........battery hasn't been a concern of mine and I would think it's better for a heavy user than the M8. S5 is also removable, so a great choice, but that lack of storage is so frustrating.

 

[lexluthor]

With a removable battery, wireless charging, bump charging.........battery hasn't been a concern of mine and I would think it's better for a heavy user than the M8. S5 is also removable, so a great choice, but that lack of storage is so frustrating.

Exactly, I don't see how one could say that the M8 is better for a heavy user when you can just carry a small 2nd battery for the G3 or S5 and get almost double the life of an M8. Lack of a replaceable battery eliminates any phone for me.

 

[freeperjim]

New G3 owner here - less than 24 hours and love the screen resolution & brightness and the speed.

BATTERY QUESTION: What is best strategy re: charging a new battery?

I've found different "advice" on web so seeking some specific G3 owners' experience.