Samsung A71 Idle battery drain
Discussion
I have both a Galaxy A71 and a Pixel 3A. For some reason, my A71 seems to drain more when left on standby than my 3A does, by quite a bit. The Pixel only drops about 0.9% per hour when connected to a medium strength mobile network over 4G without wifi. (This is according to Accubattery). The A71 drops anywhere from 1.5 (being the best case) and 2.5% per hour when not in use during the day.
I have tweaked every setting I know of to see if it'll help, but it never seems to do much. My phone never tends to sit too much between using it (only 30 minutes maximum), but this idle drain does add up a lot over the course of the day.
Does anyone else experience similar on their Samsung phone?
Just to add - I was losing about 12% overnight on it, but realised this was because I have no mobile reception at home, so it was constantly searching for it. When in airplane mode with wifi on, it lost 3% overnight. I just wish I could get similar results during the day as my Pixel gets, because although the A71 gets far better overall battery life, it spoils it a bit that it can drop 25% of it's battery over the course of a day just in 'idle drain'
Edit - I've checked the actual signal strength in the settings app to get the dBm figure and it reads about 96-110dBm when i'm at work. Which is catagorised and poor to no signal whatsoever. Which is odd because I never have issues loading videos or web pages. The speedtest.net app shows 35mbps download speed still. But perhaps that is my issue still, poor reception? It'd be interesting to test the Pixel to see what that shows up as.
Thanks
I have tweaked every setting I know of to see if it'll help, but it never seems to do much. My phone never tends to sit too much between using it (only 30 minutes maximum), but this idle drain does add up a lot over the course of the day.
Does anyone else experience similar on their Samsung phone?
Just to add - I was losing about 12% overnight on it, but realised this was because I have no mobile reception at home, so it was constantly searching for it. When in airplane mode with wifi on, it lost 3% overnight. I just wish I could get similar results during the day as my Pixel gets, because although the A71 gets far better overall battery life, it spoils it a bit that it can drop 25% of it's battery over the course of a day just in 'idle drain'
Edit - I've checked the actual signal strength in the settings app to get the dBm figure and it reads about 96-110dBm when i'm at work. Which is catagorised and poor to no signal whatsoever. Which is odd because I never have issues loading videos or web pages. The speedtest.net app shows 35mbps download speed still. But perhaps that is my issue still, poor reception? It'd be interesting to test the Pixel to see what that shows up as.
Thanks
Edited by gman88667733 on Wednesday 27th January 14:43
Edited by gman88667733 on Wednesday 27th January 14:43
Edited by gman88667733 on Wednesday 27th January 14:52
gman88667733 said:
I have both a Galaxy A71 and a Pixel 3A. For some reason, my A71 seems to drain more when left on standby than my 3A does, by quite a bit. The Pixel only drops about 0.9% per hour when connected to a medium strength mobile network over 4G without wifi. (This is according to Accubattery). The A71 drops anywhere from 1.5 (being the best case) and 2.5% per hour when not in use during the day.
I have tweaked every setting I know of to see if it'll help, but it never seems to do much. My phone never tends to sit too much between using it (only 30 minutes maximum), but this idle drain does add up a lot over the course of the day.
Does anyone else experience similar on their Samsung phone?
Just to add - I was losing about 12% overnight on it, but realised this was because I have no mobile reception at home, so it was constantly searching for it. When in airplane mode with wifi on, it lost 3% overnight. I just wish I could get similar results during the day as my Pixel gets, because although the A71 gets far better overall battery life, it spoils it a bit that it can drop 25% of it's battery over the course of a day just in 'idle drain'
Edit - I've checked the actual signal strength in the settings app to get the dBm figure and it reads about 96-110dBm when i'm at work. Which is catagorised and poor to no signal whatsoever. Which is odd because I never have issues loading videos or web pages. The speedtest.net app shows 35mbps download speed still. But perhaps that is my issue still, poor reception? It'd be interesting to test the Pixel to see what that shows up as.
Thanks
Yes, it's a Samsung thing.I have tweaked every setting I know of to see if it'll help, but it never seems to do much. My phone never tends to sit too much between using it (only 30 minutes maximum), but this idle drain does add up a lot over the course of the day.
Does anyone else experience similar on their Samsung phone?
Just to add - I was losing about 12% overnight on it, but realised this was because I have no mobile reception at home, so it was constantly searching for it. When in airplane mode with wifi on, it lost 3% overnight. I just wish I could get similar results during the day as my Pixel gets, because although the A71 gets far better overall battery life, it spoils it a bit that it can drop 25% of it's battery over the course of a day just in 'idle drain'
Edit - I've checked the actual signal strength in the settings app to get the dBm figure and it reads about 96-110dBm when i'm at work. Which is catagorised and poor to no signal whatsoever. Which is odd because I never have issues loading videos or web pages. The speedtest.net app shows 35mbps download speed still. But perhaps that is my issue still, poor reception? It'd be interesting to test the Pixel to see what that shows up as.
Thanks
Edited by gman88667733 on Wednesday 27th January 14:43
Edited by gman88667733 on Wednesday 27th January 14:43
Edited by gman88667733 on Wednesday 27th January 14:52
QuartzDad said:
A70, wifi off, 4G signal of -107dBm. 100% at 6pm last night, 89% at 08:30am this morning.
In 'Optimise battery usage' I have 67 apps that are not optimised and 460 that are.
Thank you for that! Your reception is similar to mine is at work. At home my reading is 121dBm I believe, essentially I don't get any reception whatsoever.In 'Optimise battery usage' I have 67 apps that are not optimised and 460 that are.
Your usage seems to tally up with what I would expect from my A71 currently. You do have an awful lot more apps than me though, good going!
Perhaps a) I am caring too much about this given I have never drained the battery in a single day yet anyway and b) the apparent poor reception at my work (also poor on my 3A that I tried this morning) and no reception at home is the main cause of the idle drain...
Edit - your idle time is perhaps a tad better than mine actually, but I expect if I left the phone for the whole time instead of using it a lot in-between, it would get similar.
gman88667733 said:
Have you got experience with it?
I'm sure I'm looking too much into it since I've never killed the thing in a day before. Just a bit frustrating!
Yes, I have had a Samsung Galaxy S8 for the past couple of years and generally it consumes battery at a similar rate to yours when on standby. I don't think it's apps that cause the issue but moreover being in a less than perfect signal area. I live in a new build property so the insulation means that the signal indoors is not great. Other phones I've used don't seem to drain quite as fast so it must be down to Samsung hardware somehow.I'm sure I'm looking too much into it since I've never killed the thing in a day before. Just a bit frustrating!
I've got an Android tablet that lasts much longer than on standby but I have the 4G radios disabled on that as I only use it at home. That tells me it's the connection to the mobile network that drains the Samsung.
7n8n said:
Yes, I have had a Samsung Galaxy S8 for the past couple of years and generally it consumes battery at a similar rate to yours when on standby. I don't think it's apps that cause the issue but moreover being in a less than perfect signal area. I live in a new build property so the insulation means that the signal indoors is not great. Other phones I've used don't seem to drain quite as fast so it must be down to Samsung hardware somehow.
I've got an Android tablet that lasts much longer than on standby but I have the 4G radios disabled on that as I only use it at home. That tells me it's the connection to the mobile network that drains the Samsung.
I think you're right. It is unfortunate as otherwise the battery life is stellar.I've got an Android tablet that lasts much longer than on standby but I have the 4G radios disabled on that as I only use it at home. That tells me it's the connection to the mobile network that drains the Samsung.
Ahhh!!! I've had my SIM card in the Pixel today. Charged the A71 up fully before bed and left it with WiFi on and no SIM in. It dropped 14% in 6 hours!!! Without a sim card in.
One app I installed the other day showed as 0.4% battery usage overall, so I've gotten rid of that. But 14% with no SIM in it? That's crap.
I should add, that's with Bixby routines set up to put it into medium power saving mode at 10pm. So it was the whole time.
The other night with it in airplane mode but WiFi on, it only dropped 3%. Why the difference?!
One app I installed the other day showed as 0.4% battery usage overall, so I've gotten rid of that. But 14% with no SIM in it? That's crap.
I should add, that's with Bixby routines set up to put it into medium power saving mode at 10pm. So it was the whole time.
The other night with it in airplane mode but WiFi on, it only dropped 3%. Why the difference?!
Edited by gman88667733 on Friday 29th January 06:15
gman88667733 said:
Ahhh!!! I've had my SIM card in the Pixel today. Charged the A71 up fully before bed and left it with WiFi on and no SIM in. It dropped 14% in 6 hours!!! Without a sim card in.
One app I installed the other day showed as 0.4% battery usage overall, so I've gotten rid of that. But 14% with no SIM in it? That's crap.
I should add, that's with Bixby routines set up to put it into medium power saving mode at 10pm. So it was the whole time.
The other night with it in airplane mode but WiFi on, it only dropped 3%. Why the difference?!
It sounds like one of your apps (either user installed or system) is trying to use the mobile radio, possibly for location purposes.One app I installed the other day showed as 0.4% battery usage overall, so I've gotten rid of that. But 14% with no SIM in it? That's crap.
I should add, that's with Bixby routines set up to put it into medium power saving mode at 10pm. So it was the whole time.
The other night with it in airplane mode but WiFi on, it only dropped 3%. Why the difference?!
Edited by gman88667733 on Friday 29th January 06:15
Try putting it into safe mode tonight before bed tonight and see if it still drains by the same amount. Alternatively, try disabling location services temporarily.
You can try using an app such as Wakelock Detector to track down which app(s) is the culprit, but if it's a system app you may not be able to to do a lot about it.
7n8n said:
It sounds like one of your apps (either user installed or system) is trying to use the mobile radio, possibly for location purposes.
Try putting it into safe mode tonight before bed tonight and see if it still drains by the same amount. Alternatively, try disabling location services temporarily.
You can try using an app such as Wakelock Detector to track down which app(s) is the culprit, but if it's a system app you may not be able to to do a lot about it.
I will try safe mode tonight.Try putting it into safe mode tonight before bed tonight and see if it still drains by the same amount. Alternatively, try disabling location services temporarily.
You can try using an app such as Wakelock Detector to track down which app(s) is the culprit, but if it's a system app you may not be able to to do a lot about it.
If the drain is noticeably less, do I need to either do a factory reset and install the apps one or two at a time to see what affects it, or shall I uninstall any apps I don't use much and see how that affects it and then slowly add them again?
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