S21 Ultra Battery life really bad compared to all the youtube video review

[daribeiro]

So I bought the new S21 Ultra on the pre order the day it was announced. I was one of the lucky ones to get early so I could leave a review. 

Coming from a Note 10+ that I had for a year and a half, I was really excited for the S21 Ultra, but was really disappointed with the battery life. I've had the phone for 5 days now and since the very beginning I've not been able to use the phone for the whole day on a single charge. It's been giving me screen on times comparable to my Note 10+ (4/5 hours) which is a much older device, but I thought maybe this was the way all S21 ultra's were behaving, just not very good battery life.

BUT, yesterday all the youtubers started to publish they're videos comparing batteries with older S devices and Iphones and their S21s were doing amazing, giving them screen on times of up to 13 hours! 

I contacted support but they said this would be normal as my phone was still learning user patterns... but I'm not sure if that would affect it as bad as it is at the moment. 

What do you guys think? Should I send the phone back? I'm really concerned that I just spent all this money on a new phone for it to be so bad with battery. 

[Ihatesammy]

I have installed the latest update (i live in Switzerland) and really didn't improve anything on the drain side. Last night it drained around 26% in 8.5 hours it's unacceptable. I do have dual sim, 1 esim and 1 normal but this is the setup that I have used on the note20 ultra also anf and that phone was draining around 9 or 10% per night, which I also find *****ing ridiculous but still better than my brand new 1300 euro door holder. 

[Juan greenfield]

I bought mine with a 15 day return plus an insurance that cover everything (bought through carrier), so if samsung did send us early unfinished devices, I will wait and drop my phone from the top of a skyscraper to get a new one with a better performance 🙂

Just kidding, I'm happy so far, better battery would be amazing, but overall is a beautiful device.

Also from Switzerland, and also the update did *****, everything is the same. But over night it just eats 9 to 11%. Is a matter of optimization, app by app, put them in sleep and deep sleep.

[SaiChaotic]

Got mine through a carrier with 7 day return policy, I have lost the chance to return the unit but I think 5 hours of screen on time is passable, but could be better though. 

[Ajs3]

Is there a clear benefit of doing a factory reset and re-loading all data from scratch without Smart Switch. I used Smart Switch to transfer everything.  I really don't want to do it all manually if it isn't necessary - have quite a few apps and settings.

[Juan greenfield]

HI Ajs3 you if you used Smart Switch you can try by going into recovery mode and wipe cache partition, that way you'll be wiping up all the garbage that was transferred from you old device. No meed to do a factory reset and go app by app.

[Stuart8]

This is such a shame, nobody buys any phone regardless of costs to worry how long the battery is going to last, and in doing so limiting the phone so much it just makes it an ordinary phone. Samsung really need to sort this issue out as soon as possible. I can imagine it’s going to make a lot of people lose patience in trying to resolve the issue them selves and just returning the phone for a refund. From looking at the comments it seems to be certain phones that are having battery issues, more often than not. But if you do have the device which has a faulty battery all I can suggest is returning it for a replacement. 

[Ajs3]

Thanks for this. I Googled a bit but can you only boot in recovery mode while in charger? I tried booting in recovery 4 times now (don't have charger with me) without luck.

[Ihatesammy]

it's not easy at all to return or exchange a phone in switzerland....

[Stuart8]

I appreciate that mate. some people's circumstances aren't the best, im sure Samsung will bring an update to fix the issues that are currently occurring.. but what do I know, I'm not a Samsung professional, so, then again.. maybe not

[mayaneire]

I used Smart Switch and I have great battery life. However deleted this app asap and also got rid of Smart Things app (it was suggested before).