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. 

[Bevvzy]

I totally agree. Got S21 Ultra 5g last week, worst mistake of my life... 

[mathy07]

So, there is not a definitive solution yet? I have my S21 ultra since one week ago, and the battery still being awfull. I installed the april update yesterday, i didn't notice any improvement. I had between 4:15 and 5hs SoT every day, even putting at least 90% apps on deep sleep, and locking 5G signal.

[Stuart8]

That's correct, there isn't a solution unfortunately. For me personally my battery has been getting slightly better after a month now. Brought the second device on the 4th of March. I run the screen on WQHD, dark mode, it's probably been 50% on WiFi and the other half on a mixture of 4 and 5G. And at a real push ill be getting 5 hours SOT with 3 and a half days off charge. For me that's more than enough for what I need, the phones been incredible.

[Juan greenfield]

I had the same problem the first month and a half after the updates and heavy usage the battery finally is working fine for me, give it time, this screenshot is from now.

 

[Logicrhino21]

Hey thread, I had terrible battery life on my s21u as well, read up everywhere how to fix it. Poor battery life and my phone overheated a fair bit as well, which got me thinking that the apps arent using the hardware properly. Surely. I then came across an article that said that some apps, when pulled across from older phones (mine was a p30 pro) using the smart switch set up, actually pulls older versions which aren't compatible with the newer s21u.

Tl:Dr. Hard factory reset back to fresh, didn't use smart switch, didn't recover any apps from any back ups, installed everything fresh.

Doubled my battery life, no overheating.

Well worth the shot!!! 

[mathi777]

I did the same, i was using it after used smart switch, and had an horrible battery drain. Last monday made a factory reset without smart switch, and just installed at least half of the apps that had installed, and still having battery drain. My only hope its wait a month, to see if the battery get calibrated.

[mad_penguin]

I am considering my buy of this S21 Ultra as the worst downgrade i've ever done since the smartphones became a thing. Forcefully downgraded because of the US government ban on Huawei. Former Huawei Mate 20 Pro user, never had power drain issues like these with my Mate 20 Pro. With the same apps installed and usage habits, Mate 20 Pro gives me 2 and a half days of use before it starts to complain for low battery at 10%. With S21 Ultra, no matter if  i used the smart switch or not (tried both), with all recommended best power optimization practices applied, the best i can get is 12 hours before it starts to scream for a low battery.
This is not ok at all for a "flagship phone" if it can be called like this at all. It's not a Nintendo or some pocket console to have some frickin' Screen On Time as a parameter, although the gaming consoles can beat this phone on screen on time with ease too i guess. Don't get me wrong, i am not a Samsung hater. The most of my home relies on Samsung devices and i love every single one of them Smart Things inclusive. 

Still, if it keeps going like this, i'll ditch this utterly expensive POS and return back to my 2 years old Mate 20 Pro till i have some better options working with Google on the market. 

[SaiChaotic]

What's your settings like that enables you to reach 11hours of screen on time?

 this is my recent battery usage and I have 33% left

[SaiChaotic]

I've come from the Huawei Mate 20 pro as well. I've come to just enjoy the phone. It can last me the day, so I guess that's that. But in comparison to the mate 20 pro's battery it can't compete. I guess it has something to do with Huawei's ram management as it kills apps faster than the s21 ultra resulting to the longer battery life. I'm still hoping to get more than 5 hours of screen on time from a single charge, maybe a future update can still fix it. I'm still hopeful. 

[mad_penguin]

The settings are the publicly available ones advised in a bunch of S21U tips and tricks YT channels. In addition i have turned off the VoLTE for both cards. Set them to 4G only mode, as the 5G is of no use to me.
Judging by the apps you use, all of them are power intensive and have/need active data access the most of the time. It can be the reason with your specific case. Anyways, you have bought this phone to use it, right? Not to babysit it's power optimization. I'm pretty sure, that if you use the same apps on a Mate 20 Pro it will last you at least 2 days.