Battery Life

[DrewP1337]

This is my first android phone and im crushing through my battery life. I quit running apps and make sure that wifi and bluetooth are off when i dont need them...help...

 

[Hadron]

Can you give more information on what you mean by short battery life? How long per charge with what sort of usage (not just "heavy" or "light" as they mean different things to different people, but what you do with it, how much time the screen is on)? We'll need this to determine whether there is anything unusual or not, then can try to work out what will help.

Remember also that batteries need a few cycles to reach full capacity, so if it's new you may not be there yet.

 

[davidlawrence]

I am experiencing the same thing. When I wake up in the morning, phone is at 100%. When I sit down to breakfast, I read news using Feedly app. Screen is at moderate brightness. It seems to rip through battery at around 1% every two minutes.

When it is just idle in my pocket, it doesn't lose charge nearly as fast.

 

[MargueriteB]

I am having battery life issues as well. I have data turned off and have only been using wifi. My screen brightness is auto and I have fully charged my phone up to 100% twice. During charge, I keep my phone sleeping. At 2:20 today, my phone was at 20% so I began to charge it. It is now 9:39 and I am at 80%!! Wifi has been off since charging, and i have only texted a few times..power saving mode is on as well but It doesnt seem to be doing anything. Someone please help me! What am I doing wrong?!

 

[Joshuah22a]

7 and a half hours in and I have 25% left... ehh.. it's OK at best... pretty heavy use as well..

 

[JimKnuckles]

I'm a heavy user, with most of my battery drain coming from the screen being lit. I took my phone off charger at 8:30a, and I was at 35% at 5p. Thats pretty good for me.

I always buy this accessory, a must have for me. I swap batteries at around 5:30p and back to full charge. Register your phone on Samsung.com and they will send you a 50% off discount code for an accessory under $50, which I applied to this
http://www.samsung.com/us/mobile/cell-phones-accessories/EB-KN910BWUSTA

 

[Joshuah22a]

That looks good but it's going to be annoying always having to take off my 3 piece case to swap batteries

 

[Teegunn]

There is something not right for those with issues as bad as I have read in this thread. If the battery life was as bad for everyone as posted here we'd know about it. Either the phone is defective, the battery is defective or there is something chewing up battery that shouldn't (app, OS or even hardware issue). If it were me I would be getting a replacement phone if the issues were that serious. Probably do a factory reset a couple times first. In any case, this is not an android issue or note 4 issue but something wrong with a few specific phones. Happens to all brands, apple, androids, etc.

 

[JimKnuckles]

That looks good but it's going to be annoying always having to take off my 3 piece case to swap batteries

Ah true. I don't use a case. If I do, it's s view cover so never a problem for me to quickly swap

 

[Joshuah22a]

Wow this fast adapter charger my batt in less then 2 hrs to 100% while I was on the phone.. pretty impressive.. so like 2 hr downtime and another 8 hrs isn't bad..

 

[Joshuah22a]

Does leaving the charger in cause overcharging? I normally charge it overnight and don't know if that can strain the battery

 

[mak916]

Does leaving the charger in cause overcharging? I normally charge it overnight and don't know if that can strain the battery

I leave my phone plugged in all night. I have never had any problems with it. Just don't try to leave it under your pillow.

 

[xyc_2k]

ya, samsung's phone they do charge up fast.

 

[rushmore]

Leaving a charger plugged in all night has not been a problem for years and does not hurt the battery life. I have done this with every phone since the Ngage. The only thing that really impacts a battery in time is extreme heat, cold and actual use through time. Leaving in a charger is not an impact.

 

[lakersfreak]

mine yesterday was 15% at 7:00 pm after taking it off charge at 7:00 am, and I was using it heavily. Been uploading photos to cloud...still hasn't finished. Right now I'm at 86% and its been off charge since 6:30 am....Not bad at all.

 

[bszaronos]

You can do alot to reduce the battery drain.
1) check widgets to make sure they are not syncing. (my weather app would sync whenever I unlocked the phone, I turned this off to only sync every hour. )
2) Check the accounts settings and see what is syncing. ( google wants to sync everything. I don't use most of them, so I turn them off. email I sync my main account to every 30 minutes, every other account is set to 2 hours. Facebook ,samsung,twitter I turn these off. )
3) motions and gestures, ( I turn most of these off execpt for palm to capture.
4) Svoice ( I turn off voice wake-up and leave open via the home key

5) Look at the battery setting, This will tell you what is eating up most of the power.

My phone is at 90% and has been on for 6hrs 51m. And I have been taking pictures and facebooking most of the time.

Hope this helps.

 

[Joshuah22a]

I go from full charge to low batt in like 5-6 hrs! That is with low brightness setting as well..heavy use

 

[bonerp]

I'm not impressed tbh. It syncs stuff (email etc) every hour, weather every 8, BBC news when I want it (manual), same for Flipboard etc.

I unplug it at 6.15am. Last night by 6/7pm it was down to 7%. Admittedly its still new and has only been through 6 charging cycles. However my oneplus was going all through the day and every night I had at least 40% left. 30% at worse and that was at bed time 10.30pm ish, not 7pmish.

For a battery that is much bigger than the one, performance is not great. I had the same situation with Note 3 and that had an upgraded 4200mh battery in it!

Samsung isn't great at getting the best out of a battery IMHO. I was expcting better.

If I go out for the day, I know I'll need to take a spare battery - I've bought the charger kit in anticipation.

 

[LaTuFu]

That looks good but it's going to be annoying always having to take off my 3 piece case to swap batteries

It's far less annoying than being tethered to a charger because you can't remove the battery.

I use this same process with my S4, and I have an otterbox case.

Not that big of a deal once you get in the habit. Especially to keep working with a good charge on the battery.

 

[LaTuFu]

There is something not right for those with issues as bad as I have read in this thread. If the battery life was as bad for everyone as posted here we'd know about it. Either the phone is defective, the battery is defective or there is something chewing up battery that shouldn't (app, OS or even hardware issue). If it were me I would be getting a replacement phone if the issues were that serious. Probably do a factory reset a couple times first. In any case, this is not an android issue or note 4 issue but something wrong with a few specific phones. Happens to all brands, apple, androids, etc.

Before I go jumping off that cliff, I would spend some time looking through the settings like others have said.

This is OP's first Android. It is very possible that all the apps and accounts added to the phone are set to "always sync" type settings that keep the system pulling on the battery.

Google location services draws a lot of battery, and it is enabled unknowingly by many users, experienced and novice alike.

OP, you have gotten a few really good suggestions for settings to check. Look through those to make sure you have not overlooked anything.

I also recommend having it on a charger when you aren't using it whenever possible.

I have a spare battery and charger for my S4. I also keep it on the charger in my car (a requirement for using Waze) and in my office.

I get better battery performance than my wife does with her iPhone. But I still manage the charging as much as I can.

EDIT: OP, check out this article from the Phandroid page:
13 things every Samsung Galaxy Note 4 owner should do

There are a lot of good tips in the article for setting up your phone, especially since this is your first android.

 

[lakersfreak]

Just noticed that my battery didn't charge to 100% last night. I charged the phone at midnight and took it off at 7am, it was at 90%. I was using the charger that came with the Note 2. Is that normal?

 

[Podivin]

Just noticed that my battery didn't charge to 100% last night. I charged the phone at midnight and took it off at 7am, it was at 90%. I was using the charger that came with the Note 2. Is that normal?

Everything I've read says that the N4 comes with a special fast charger, so yes it's probably reasonable to assume that any other charger is going to charge it slowly.

 

[lakersfreak]

I understand the charger that comes with the note 4 is a fast charger. Does that mean all other chargers should charge slower than normal? I don't think so.....my Note 2 would charge in about 5 hours from 0 to 100.

 

[bonerp]

Yes any other charger is much slower. I've tried. The n4 fast charge is about 30 Mins to an hour to refill. Others are overnight.

 

[Joshuah22a]

I just turned off locations as it was on high accuracy let's see if that helps..