Tips about Battery Usage post from our friends in the Dutch Forums

[DannyT]

Hi all, this post was sent through by a user to the Note 20 boards in the Dutch forums. Thought I'd translate and add here just in case it helps anyone. By all means these tips do not need to be used, but if it helps just one person it is certainly worth it. A special thanks to @Patrick as he was the original author. 

This guide works for all Android devices but has been developed for the S20 models and Note 20 models.

Tips

Make sure the following are off when not in use.

• Bluetooth
• GPS
• Wifi
• Nfc
• Auto sync
• AOD (Always on Display off) this takes a lot of battery. I would always leave AOD off.
• Edge lighting off.

Go to settings display and turn on dark mode.

Set a black background as a wallpaper, this saves about 3 to 4% battery per hour when you actively use the phone.
100% black sets the pixels of your home screen from 1 to 0 and effectively turns them off which saves power.

• Make sure you don't have any icons on your home screen because that turns certain pixels back on, so all apps in the app drawer.
• Do not use widgets.
• Keep your phone on silent all the time ringing and vibrating consumes a fair amount of power.
• If you do not need your phone for longer periods (hours), switch it to airplane mode or switch it off completely.

If you want to do extra long with your battery, set the device to energy-saving mode with HD or fullHD and 60hz. You can always do temporary or fullHD 120hz or WQHD + and 60hz if you want to use Youtubing or Netflix for example.

Make sure the brightness is not set to automatic always try to keep it normal so not 100%. The screen consumes by far the most power, so 30% to 40% is ideal or lower if you can. I understand that with youtube you turn it brighter but normally during the day I recommend lower.

Forget galaxy store, samsung account and make sure you are not tracked by your google account or samsung account if you decide to use it anyway.

Do not download extra battery savers or task managers, Android is perfectly capable of doing that yourself. External apps only drain battery.

Restart your device at least once every few days, this works wonders for performance.

Use an SD card instead of cloud storage.

Settings / appliance maintenance / battery /
energy management app / ultimate hibernation / do apps that you use less and that do not need to be constantly active.

Some examples:

• Banking / browser / dropbox / youtube are allowed to sleep
• Whatsap and important chat apps do not sleep or you will not receive notifications.
• Package disabeler pro must NOT go to sleep.

Go back in time! Do as much as possible in the browser. I recommend Google Chrome. Apps like Facebook and other social media are very battery unfriendly. Doing them in the browser saves a lot of battery. Simply save to favorites. With a fast phone like the Note 20 or S20 series you have almost the same experience in the browser as with apps.

Apps in the browser need the Android System Webview service, so don't disable it with package disabeler.

Be sensible with downloading apps from the playstore. Only install what you need.
Some people have extremely many apps and wonder why their battery is draining so quickly.

Tweaks

(based on the S20, S20 + and S20 Ultra but will also work with the Note 20 series)

Download package disabler pro and disable the following: see screenshots in dropbox.

(these are things that I don't use, so if something stops working let me know in this topic I will help right away)

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/7y0n2z3h3a6ab4m/AABbzl6M-PQ6PW43hCfqWKb4a?dl=0

Never use bixby or google assistant or other similar apps.

An app called simple keyboard with emojis in the playstore has consumed around 30mb instead of the Samsung keyboard which is around 300mb. You notice a clear difference in battery life.

I also turn off the playstore myself, I turn it on once a week to update all apps and then immediately turn it off again.

Nice if your phone has 12GB RAM but the operation remains the same the less you use the more battery you save, which is why the package disabler way is so effective.

People who have root and want even more extreme tweaks can send me a private message. For example, with root you can disable even more than with package disabel and more. But in most cases root will void the warranty and you will have to install new androids yourself when they come out so I don't recommend that.

Manage background data for each app separately.
This way you ensure that apps are not running in the background and do not use data so that your battery does not drain.

• Go to settings - -> Apps then click on mobile data and stop data usage in the background. Only do this if it is an app that does not matter to you, if you do this with whatsapp, for example, you will no longer receive any notifications, the app will only work when you open it.
• Go to settings - -> Apps and click on battery and then allow background activity and turn it off.

Nice extras

If you want to buy an SD card, choose the sandisk extreme pro or Kingston Canvas go plus as these are the best in terms of speed and quality. The best power bank you can use with Samsung phones. https: //elecjet.com/collections/power-banks/products/super-fast-charging-powerpie-x-20000mah-power-b ... I recommend always having a good power bank like this one in your pocket. Samsung cameras take good pictures with a lot of details but unfortunately they have too bright colors not realistic for the people who love editing photos to make them phenomenal I have a nice tip. Search for the YouTube channel NavEdits and download Google Snapseed and Adobe Lightroom. (A great adventure awaits here) Very educational and super fun to make your own creations from, for example, holiday photos.

[gunmasterg9]

I think it is better to switch off phone instead of turning every setting off and use a 20 pound feature phone instead. what a joke.

[Patrick]

Thank you @DannyT 

@gunmasterg9   it was not intended as a joke. 

I dont just do this on Samsung phones, this works for all Android phones.   I dont turn off important stuff, just stuff nobody uses anyways.

When you can tripple Screen On Time the real question becomes 'Why not'  nothing to lose and everything to gain ( pro battery life )

[gunmasterg9]

no disrespect but this is a joke when you are discussing poor battery life in a 1200 £ device. you have talked about switching off every possible feature a person want to use out of a premium device. our concern is why every other device is working way better compared to this latest flagship on similar settings. like s20 ultra with just 10% extra battery but 50% extra battery backup. its like someone has murdered you and instead of finding who the murderer is, we are discussion why you were out there at that time. anyways I am not happy and this not the first time I am using a smart phone. only idea to discuss here is to get samsung acknowledge this before majority of us returns the device.

[Patrick]

Its funny I placed this on the Dutch forums and everyone is gratefull. Than it gets put on the UK forum and instant hostility... that says alot

[Deeplay68]

I think it is ridiculous to have to switch of so many things on such a high priced handset! thats not what we buy them for. Personally its a joke Samsung could even suggest this. So glad I didnt get suckered into buying this. Its a real shame as the note 20 Ultra had so much potential. But the processor amongst other things  was a very bad move by them.

[JAMES4578]

The  original post was submitted by a Dutch user and translated by a Samsung Moderator.  Some members here will find it helpful, whilst others will not wish to take much of the advice.

I think there is some beneficial advice such as switching off connections that are not needed and putting some apps into hibernation .  It may also make sense to use the Browser more often and to not have Brightness  too high most of the time.     However  some of it to me seems overkill  and users should not need to do all of that  as some steps would potentially limit the enjoyment of the Device.   

Whilst I do not have the  S20/Note 20  personally I would not want Dark Mode on constantly on any device  and would not particularly enjoy plain wallpaper.  Some people like SD cards  but have heard of some with issues and that is why they like cloud storage, whilst others  want both options.   The advantage of having a Samsung Account is to sync across Devices and the Find My Mobile service amongst others and  virtual assistants are attractive to some.    However realise  others may take a different view.

[roryh86]

Guys, it's just software issue, it will get fixed. The problem is the Optimised Power Mode is using more battery than it should. So when the optimised mode gets fixed in a future update battery life should improve.

You don't need all these steps above, just set the phone in Medium Power Mode and make sure Adaptive Power Saving is on. It will be just as fast and last you at least the whole day. You can even have it 120Hz Medium Power Mode (Bixby routine hack) but for sure will use more battery. Let's face it, all 120Hz phone rarely go over 7 hours screen on time.

I get average:-

- 6.5-7 hours SoT 120Hz Medium Power Mode

- 8-8.5 hours SoT 60Hz Medium Power Mode

- 5-6 hours SoT 120Hz Optimised Power Mode

[JAMES4578]

@roryh86 Yes  a future software update should improve battery life , hopefully in the not too distant future.   I have been mostly using Medium Power Mode on an S10.

Your SOT time seems reasonable.

[Shnookerdookies]

sorry but this shouldn't be needed and why would I spend a fortune on a phone to turn off nearly e ery needed feature!!!