Help Poor battery life on my new Galaxy Note 3. Should I be concerned?

michelledm12344 said:

Right now, I'm using my Note 3. I've not had much experience with Android and Samsung devices so I thought of posting a thread about it.

I just got my Note 3 yesterday, and I've been advised by the salesperson to just use up all the battery on the new phone, that I have to drain it and charge for 8 hours straight, without using it. And so I did. I used up all the existing battery life on my new phone and charged it for exactly 8 hours. Now, one of the reasons on why I purchased this phone is because of the rumours about how it has excellent battery life. However, when I unplugged my phone from the charger, it says 100%. I used it out for around 20 minutes and checked my battery info. It says that I have 92% left (37 mind and 21 secs).

I'm completely disappointed about this, is this just some kind of new phone issue? Will I be able to fix this? Has anybody experienced this kind of problem?

All opinions will be highly appreciated.
Thank you.

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Check out this thread, I hope it will be of help:
http://androidforums.com/samsung-galaxy-note-3/793554-battery-life-charging-habits.html

1) Out of the box on the Note 3, there's a lot of bloatware that runs...which can be removed or disabled.

2) If you're running things like WiFi /Bluetooth /NFC all the time, even when unnecessary, that's going to chew through at light speed

3) It seems like you have no experience with Android, and it's going to take a bit of learning to understand what you should and should not be running on your phone, to get great battery life. It took me a few days until I figured out what to do and battery has been tremendous since.

4) Keep your screen brightness on auto or at well under 50%

5) Video - it eats battery like no tomorrow

6) Put the "Active apps" widget on your homescreen so you can see what's active and how it's impacting your battery. It's in your widgets folder right now.

7) If you're using Facebook/ Twitter etc...check out how often your syncing happens and slow it down or make it a manual process if need be

8) Battery should be charged for about 20-30 minutes after it reaches 100%. It slow charges and tops off for that period and you will see the drop off form 100% will take longer than if you pull it off charge once it hits 100%.

9) Don't EVER drain your battery to the point where the phone shuts off; that's a battery killer. Do that a few times and your battery will suffer degraded charge capacity.

10) ALWAYS USE WiFi when in a WiFi zone. Even when WiFi and Mobile data are ON together, data over WiFi takes far less radio power vs data over the Mobile network.

11) Last but BIGGEST battery eater - turn off LTE and just go to 4G or 3G. LTE is a battery killer, period, no matter what anyone tells you. Just do a Google search on LTE battery life and see what comes up. Anyone telling you otherwise is a moron.

it also will depend on what your signal strength is and what you were doing during that time. if i was to play a game for 20 mins, my battery will drain about that much.

the previous post are some great suggestions to help save battery life......just keep in mind the more you use it the faster the battery will drain.

plus one day is not the best to judge battery life on....give it a few days to see how the phone performs under various conditions.

FBA said:

1) Out of the box on the Note 3, there's a lot of bloatware that runs...which can be removed or disabled.

2) If you're running things like WiFi /Bluetooth /NFC all the time, even when unnecessary, that's going to chew through at light speed

3) It seems like you have no experience with Android, and it's going to take a bit of learning to understand what you should and should not be running on your phone, to get great battery life. It took me a few days until I figured out what to do and battery has been tremendous since.

4) Keep your screen brightness on auto or at well under 50%

5) Video - it eats battery like no tomorrow

6) Put the "Active apps" widget on your homescreen so you can see what's active and how it's impacting your battery. It's in your widgets folder right now.

7) If you're using Facebook/ Twitter etc...check out how often your syncing happens and slow it down or make it a manual process if need be

8) Battery should be charged for about 20-30 minutes after it reaches 100%. It slow charges and tops off for that period and you will see the drop off form 100% will take longer than if you pull it off charge once it hits 100%.

9) Don't EVER drain your battery to the point where the phone shuts off; that's a battery killer. Do that a few times and your battery will suffer degraded charge capacity.

10) ALWAYS USE WiFi when in a WiFi zone. Even when WiFi and Mobile data are ON together, data over WiFi takes far less radio power vs data over the Mobile network.

11) Last but BIGGEST battery eater - turn off LTE and just go to 4G or 3G. LTE is a battery killer, period, no matter what anyone tells you. Just do a Google search on LTE battery life and see what comes up. Anyone telling you otherwise is a moron.

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1a) Carrier apps aren't the battery killers you suggest.

2a) Simply untrue, I use them freely while enjoying 14 to 18 hour battery life under heavy usage.

3a) Why assume?

4a) I use 75% brightness with great success.

5a) Video does consume battery, but the Note 3 is made to minimize it's impact.

6a) No advantage, the Note 3 is superb at automatically managing battery life.

7a) No need for concern.

8a) Bad "advice". You obviously have not used a Note 3. When it indicates 100% charged, it is. It also tells you to unplug the charger which is an excellent practice.

9a) Its not necessary to drain the battery, yet unless that's done repeatedly, no harm will come to the battery.

10a) Wi-Fi is best used at will. It's not mandatory, nor must it be on in a Wi-Fi coverage area.

11a) The Note 3 is an LTE phone. No need to cheat yourself out of using it's advantages. Mine stays on LTE always.

Respectfully, no need to guess or act the expert. There's a big improvement in battery management from Android version 4.0 and newer.

I think it would help to look at all of these suggestions as generally useful tips that can cumulatively make a huge difference in a typical user's battery usage. Some of the tips may not be relevant or practical with the way you use your particular phone, so feel free to experiment and find out what's best for you.

zipred said:

1a) Carrier apps aren't the battery killers you suggest.

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FBA said there's a lot of default bloatware that can be removed or disabled, which is a fact. It's also true that battery life can be improved by decreasing the number of apps which are 1) running in the background, and 2) periodically synchronizing with various servers.

zipred said:

2a) Simply untrue, I use them freely while enjoying 14 to 18 hour battery life under heavy usage.

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It's great that you're happy with the battery life you get, but that doesn't change the fact that turning off WiFi, Bluetooth, and NFC can improve battery life when you're not using those features. I'd also add GPS to the list.

zipred said:

3a) Why assume?

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Nothing was assumed. The OP said clearly that they've only had the Note 3 for a day and that they're inexperienced with Android.

zipred said:

4a) I use 75% brightness with great success.

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So? It's well known that cranking screen brightness consumes battery power. Note 3's Super AMOLED display is a very efficient design, but it doesn't change the laws of physics.

zipred said:

5a) Video does consume battery, but the Note 3 is made to minimize it's impact.

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Again, so what? FBA stated that watching videos consumes significant battery, which it does. If the OP is interested in minimizing battery consumption, then this is a good thing to know.

zipred said:

6a) No advantage, the Note 3 is superb at automatically managing battery life.

Click to expand...

It is indeed useful to have an understanding of what's running in the background and consuming resources, and if there's already a problem then this is a great place to look.

zipred said:

7a) No need for concern.

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Yes it's a concern. If a Note 3 is in a weak reception area, then the number and type of background synchronizations happening can make a dramatic difference in battery life. Many apps even have a setting where you can configure how often they should synchronize, so as not to suck up too much battery and bandwidth.

zipred said:

10a) Wi-Fi is best used at will. It's not mandatory, nor must it be on in a Wi-Fi coverage area.

Click to expand...

Sure it's not mandatory, but using WiFi when available can indeed save a lot of battery, especially in weak reception areas.

So lots of good info and discussion here. A very wise other-worldly being once said, "Attack the issue, not each other." So I've cleaned up a little bit of the latter, in hopes that the excellent examples of the former win out. Please remember that personal attacks are against site rules, but enthusiastic discussion of differences of opinions on topic are encouraged.

Thanks for your cooperation!

OK I'm back.

The topic is battery life on the Note 3. All further discussion on anything but that will be deleted.

If you would like to discuss my actions here, or have issues with the content of a post, please either PM me or report the post to the Mods using the report button.

Thanks.

the battery will get stronger over a couple of weeks.

Turn down auto updates - do you really need the weather refreshing every hour and email every 5 mins? Probably not. Check news updates, manual updates in flipboard.

Turn down the screen as suggested.

Check battery usage once you've done this.

Dont drain the battery or carry out silly conditioning. Just use it normally. Batteries are great nowadays and require little or no special witchcraft.

Battery life will get a little better after a couple days (a couple discharge/recharge cycles). I agree that it is not good to completely discharge your battery all the way until the phone dies. It is just not necessary. Today's batteries do not develop a 'memory' like the batteries of old.

Here are my personal battery habits and suggestions to Android noobs:

1. Screen time is the enemy. It is the single biggest use of the battery, assuming all is operating normally. Minimize it's use. By that I mean don't just leave it on all the time while NOT using it! Also, screen brightness is a variable. Brighter = more battery use. Do NOT use the auto-brightness! I have found that to not be very effective. Pick a screen brightness you can live with and stay there. You might need to adjust higher for outside use. I use an app called Brightness Level Disk which is great. It gives me a four position virtual switch. I use position 2 (approximately 48%) and it's very bright and does not impact nearly as much as auto-brightness.

2. Be aware of your running apps. There is an included little app manager widget that shows you how many apps are still running and even turns from green to red if any are active and sucking down resources - one of them being battery power! You can kill any or all from this widget or just long press the Home button and kill from there if you prefer.

3. Learn and be aware of your system. As stated above, certain things will obviously use more resources and battery life: Video (heavy screen and processor use), streaming music over 4G (use 'offline' modes where available), use wifi whenever available over data, but turn off wifi when none is available. If you have a wifi that is available but you cannot connect, the phone will constant try to make the this connection and you will see faster battery drain. I notice this in our local Walmart - when I come out if I forget to turn off wifi my phone is hot and battery has dropped significantly.

4. Here is the single biggest thing you can do to help with battery life: Charge nightly (or whenever you sleep!) and then REBOOT IN THE MORNING BEFORE YOU REMOVE FROM THE CHARGER!). This evolution serves a couple purposes: Android phones tend to get kinda 'clogged' for want of a better term. Rebooting is sometimes the only way to close out all those little things left running the background. Doing so with a fresh battery, before you start the day guarantees you are starting with a clean slate. Doing it while still connected to the charger makes sure that the reboot is not coming on the fresh battery's dime.

If at any time during the day you notice your phone is warm to touch (without having been exposed to a heat source) or you notice what appears to be sudden and inexplicable battery drain, then reboot your phone immediately if you can. This will generally kill off whatever condition was causing the drain and get you back on track.

Understand that even if you have a full charge, and don't use your phone for anything at all, it will still discharge. Things are still running. 5% an hour on an unused phone is not uncommon and freaks some people out. It's still an electronic device sitting there like an idling Porsche, just waiting (begging, actually) for you to step on the gas!

I typically get a full 18 hour day our of a single charge with some fairly heavy use all throughout the day. You will get used to what it can and cannot do after a little while but adhering to the above will help you get a good baseline as to what to expect from your level of use.