topic Re: Samsung S3 battery drain in Android

Samsung S3 battery drain

Anonymous — Wed, 29 Oct 2014 09:56:37 GMT

I've had my Samsung S3 for nearly a year and it is pretty much the best phone I've used but my S3 battery is draining really quick. This morning I took my phone off at 7:30ish and I made no calls, texts, didn't use 3G if and I was listening to music via Spotify while offline and as of now my phone battery is at 91% which to me it rather annoying since I did not use my phone hardly at all this morning.

My phone is running Android 4.3 (which is up-to-date) and I have wi-fi, data, gprs and bluetooth turned off, Screen brightness around 25% and I have also used the power saving mode feature but I hardly notice any different with battery life (If anything it makes my phone laggy when doing simple task) I also barely have any apps installed since I did a massive clear out with apps.

Has anyone else got any more suggestions before I go hunt down a spare battery?

Cheers,

Alex

Re: Samsung S3 battery drain

jonsie — Wed, 29 Oct 2014 10:03:14 GMT

I would install Onavo count which will show you if any apps are using battery power. Simple test for the battery is to take it out and lie it on a flat surface and their should be no bevelling or bulging.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.onavo.android.onavoid&hl=en

Re: Samsung S3 battery drain

Anonymous — Wed, 29 Oct 2014 10:22:07 GMT

Hi AleB91 and Welcome to the forum.

Occasionally turning the phone off , clean the SIM card and battery pull (phone model dependant) and turn the phone back on clears lots of glitches.

Batteries do have a certain amount of optimum charges and do diminish over time.

I would however expect a battery to last longer than a year.

It may be that time to replace your battery with another authentic original one.

If you have recently updated your firmware then if glitches occur its an idea to hard reset the phone after making a back up of any data in the phones memory and move what you can to any sd card.

This is one if the last procedures to carry out.

http://www.hard-reset.com/samsung-galaxy-s3-hard-reset.html

Re: Samsung S3 battery drain

Anonymous — Wed, 29 Oct 2014 10:38:19 GMT

I've had the same problem with my S3 after updating to 4.3. My husband also had the same issue on his Note 2. But after the updated the to 4.4 the battery issue improved. I think it's something to do with the 4.3 software.

Until Samsung releases the fix I think you will have to suffer with the battery issue till then.

Re: Samsung S3 battery drain

jonsie — Wed, 29 Oct 2014 11:44:46 GMT

Unfortunately, it's unlikely there will be any further software updates for the S3. Mine does lose battery power quite rapidly since 4.3 but there were so many problems with that update that Samsung did pull it until the issues were supposedly fixed.

Even after a factory reset my S3 is nowhere near as fast or as responsive as it was on 4.1.2. I have since got the Note 4 so wiped the S3 of virtually all apps and it's ok now to sell on but not aa patch on the phone it once was.

Re: Samsung S3 battery drain

Cleoriff — Wed, 29 Oct 2014 11:51:40 GMT

@jonsie wrote:
Unfortunately, it's unlikely there will be any further software updates for the S3. Mine does lose battery power quite rapidly since 4.3 but there were so many problems with that update that Samsung did pull it until the issues were supposedly fixed.
Even after a factory reset my S3 is nowhere near as fast or as responsive as it was on 4.1.2. I have since got the Note 4 so wiped the S3 of virtually all apps and it's ok now to sell on but not aa patch on the phone it once was.

@jonsie I am finding the same with my S3 which is nearly 2 years old now. I followed all the advice given by yourself and Rich and ended up getting a new battery (Genuine Samsung of course...:smileywink:)

It did improve for a while but now is pretty poor again considering the limited use it gets... (compared to my Tablet and Laptop)

I wont do anymore with it now as I am shortly due to upgrade....to my Note

Re: Samsung S3 battery drain

jonsie — Wed, 29 Oct 2014 11:57:41 GMT

You will certainly notice a remarkable difference on the Note 3. Sad to say, we get used to a phone and don't normally notice a slight deterioration in speed over time but with the 4.3 update, the lag and freezing were instant. I was in Thailand when I updated with no PC to help. Even the factory reset did little to help and the phone was constantly overheating. One of the reasons I bought the Note 2 there.

Re: Samsung S3 battery drain

MI5 — Wed, 29 Oct 2014 12:00:31 GMT

That's pretty normal for an S3. It's only a 1750mah battery (I think) so you'll struggle to get much more out of 4.3 which is a fair bit more battery hungry than 4.1.2 was.

Re: Samsung S3 battery drain

Anonymous — Wed, 29 Oct 2014 12:27:48 GMT

Hello ladies and gents,

Many thanks for the suggestions, I will give these a try when I get back from university and will let you know.

I have a feeling though with reading some of the replies, I have a strong feeling that I may need to either invest in carrying a spare battery and a spare USB lead for my travels which is rather annoying. Especially knowing that the fact that Samsung won't be releasing another update to address this issue.

As I said, I'll update later and let you know what the actual issue is.

Cheers,

Alex

Re: Samsung S3 battery drain

jonsie — Wed, 29 Oct 2014 12:30:03 GMT

Good luck. I normally carry a power pack with me if I'm away from home or charging points for extended periods.

Re: Samsung S3 battery drain

Cleoriff — Wed, 29 Oct 2014 12:30:59 GMT

Hi @Anonymous

Please come back and update us. It all helps others with the same problem..:smileywink:

Re: Samsung S3 battery drain

viridis — Wed, 29 Oct 2014 12:34:20 GMT

Also just to add, power saving modes will cause many phones to "lag" and is perfectly normal.
The powersave function restricts CPU performance and/or disables a core or 2 in multi core systems.

Re: Samsung S3 battery drain

Anonymous — Wed, 29 Oct 2014 13:42:10 GMT

Fair enough but it is frustrating to try and use the phone when you want to do the simplest task such as texting or browsing call logs.

Re: Samsung S3 battery drain

viridis — Wed, 29 Oct 2014 14:04:06 GMT

It shouldn't lag to the point of hindering basic functions.

Re: Samsung S3 battery drain

Sammy_boy — Wed, 29 Oct 2014 23:49:59 GMT

Could be a rogue app causing drain and lag? Check battery usage in settings to see if anything is using excessive battery. Might also explain the lag you're experiencing.