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. 

[Ajs3]

So my issue was that I didn't connect a USB-C cable. Has to be the C cable, despite that it might look like it is charging with another cable.

[Boeing100]

Thanks, do you mean USB C on both ends (like the one supplied in the box)?

[Ajs3]

I took the one from the box and plugged it into my laptop's micro/C port. Otherwise you will have to get a USB to C cable. The one in the box is C to C basically. If that makes sense.

[Boeing100]

You were right, that worked. Thanks very much! Now let's see if a clean cache makes any difference to my SOT... 

[Sanj3]

This is what I've got out of it today.. also updated to the Feb batch.

[Darbis]

Yes 5 hours is good enough for now it will increase as they tweak it with updates.

[Entra80]

Ok guys this my S21Ultra today usage 

FHD+ / 4G+ using it for 7 hour then connected to wifi for rest of the day/Bluetooth on/ Always Display 10 seconds/  put some apps in sleep (snapshat- instgram -internet browser )

After using the phone for 5 days i formated from 2 days ago 

Firmware February 1

Still camera lagy And get hot 🔥 (hope for update fix)

 

 

[SaiChaotic]

I managed to get 6hours of screen on time with 10% battery left.

I have wqhd+ with adaptive refresh on, but have forced 60hz on screens where I will be typing a lot.

About the refresh rate kicking in only at 40 lux and above, how bright is that? 

[GCrane1982]

I am also getting pretty bad battery life. I am in Australia and have the Exynos version. I have tried changing all possible settings and have also factory reset a few times with and without smartswitch back up and haven't noticed any real improvements. 

I tested it over night where I fully charged it before bed and turned off AOD and between 10pm and 5:30am it dropped 13% without any interaction what so ever. That's nearly 2% per hour. 

This morning I fully charged it back up to 100% at 7am and as of now 2:30pm (7.5 hours off charge) I am 34% battery life with 2h13m screen on time. If I extrapolate this out I would get a max of around 11 hours usage with 3h 20m screen on time which is far lower than what other people have been reporting.

I am a pretty heavy user where I have dual SIM cards active all the time and use the phone for work. I also have 3 email accounts syncing, however based on the reviews I would have expected to get a full day (16hrs)  usage with at least 4-5 hours of screen on time, or am I expecting too much from the phone. 

In comparison, I have an iPhone 8 with battery health at 85% capacity which was last charged to 74% at 10:30am yesterday and has been sitting on my desk with minimal usage (email and app sync/notification) for nearly 30 hours and it have only lost 19% which is only 0.63% per hour which is 1/3rd compared to the s21 Ultra. 

[Kyriacos]

Wow thats really impressive compared to what i am getting! do u have the new update? is the camera better ? because i dont like it that much.  i took only the 1st of junuary security patch