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. 

[Juan greenfield]

Amazing!! Happy to know that also worked for you,  so guys everybody with VoLTE activated with battery draining problems while on stand by, deactivate that option you will see a major change in the battery, over night only 4% battery drain, before was like 20 to 25%

[Ajs3]

If you can't toggle VoLTE, try this app. It worked perfectly for me to deactive VoLTE.  Will see if it changes anything.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ray.samsungbandselection  

[Ihatesammy]

Volte is also tied to mobile data, so if you disable that one it will behave the same as disabling volte. 

[Ajs3]

Well I obviously still want mobile data...

[Juan greenfield]

VoLTE is just to have the 4G network working on phone calls, I don't personally use to call that much, and If i do 3G is more than enough, so in my case VoLTE is just unnecessary and I prefer my battery life over that, but of course not everyone have the same usage for that.

[Chrisg79]

Looks like there is another update that's just been released, but only for S21+

G996BXXU1AUB8

[K Dimov]

Wow, they spitting those updates like crazy 🤣. Just hope they will get the phone to where it is supposed to be (work).  I still have not received a single update in the Netherlands...

[Entra80]

S21Ultra Go to settings = Mobile Network. 

 

[Kyriacos]

For me when i had the phone i had it on 2g most of the time! and switching to 4g/3g/2g when im outside and want mobile data. My standby drain was okay over night 2-3% max. i was dissapointed with overall battery.. 

[Austineal]

I got my s21U through pre order, received it last Jan 29. At first i synced all my apps and accounts from my old note 9. Experienced really bad battery drain, even after the phone finished learning my usage pattern. Getting around 4hrs sot max a day, with just light gaming, social media and messaging. Had adaptive, fhd, dark mode, 5g disabled and aod off. 

So i decided after 5days of bad battery, i read people from this community suggesting a reset and clean start, no sync. So i did. During the first 3 or 4 days, got better sot of 5hrs, still bad battery for a flagship 5000mah, but better than before. After a few days, sot went up to 6hrs, i got excited. But after the aub3 update, battery went down back to 4hrs sot. I didnt want to reset again, so cleaned the cache partition and i kept observing. Bumped up my display to wqhd, imma use this phone the way its meant to be used or whats the point in burying this flagsht. After a week of this setting, sot went up. Shockingly. Yesterday for the first time ever. 7hrs sot. No gaming and no chrome. I hope today and till the upcoming days. Itll get better. Since aub6 isnt availble yet here (Philippines), i hope if and when i install that update, battery wont go back down. 

Waiting was kinda worth it... but for a flagship, it took too long.