S21 Ultra SOT @ 60hz | 1440p

[Kasim2409]

I've been using 120hz daily since i've had the phone for a week come tomorrow and i'm getting around 5hrs /5 & a half SOT so i decided to use 60hz from 90% and it's now on 12% and Screen On Time has just passed 6hrs (bare in mind i started this over night so this includes idle battery drain - according to Accubattery the Screen off time drain is at 11% whereas Screen on is 69%) My most used apps are Youtube, MX Player and Chrome. Considering i started from 90% instead of 100 and still have 12% left i reckon you could easily get over 7 hrs SOT with 60hz but if you spend over £1000 on the S21 Ultra surely you will wanna use the phone at it's full potential @ 120hz...just a thought, what do you guys think?

[GalaxyAsh]

I have been getting excellent battery life on my S21 Ultra at FHD+ 120hz - I don't play games at all, but right now I'm using alot of YouTube, Facebook and Chrome as well as Members. I have included screenshots of the last 3 days. today and yesterday I have used Theme Park a lot too making custom Themes, using 3% - 5% which of course isn't a daily task. the shot of the 2nd Feb includes 40 mins SoT from the evening before, but battery right down to 1% ( unfortunately 😬 ) I do not normally let that happen.

[Kasim2409]

that's pretty interesting, i'm upgrading from the S10+ so i'm still getting used to using 120hz but when i do i usually keep my resoloution at WQHD+ as i'm mostly watching YT videos the hz will most likely be capped at 60hz as it is but the resoloution could go upto 1440p so i'm probably in the minority when i say this but i don't mind using 60hz at WQHD+ over 120hz at FHD+ not that i dislike the adaptive refresh rate..it's very appealing but as someone who uses their phone daily for the past few years at 60hz i will probably be switching to 60hz on the S21 Ultra a lot more now.

you mentioned you don't normally let your battery life go as low as 1%, how do you usually go about charging your devices and what's the best way to preserve battery health over time? i've seen a lot of people have different thoughts about this so i'm curious to hear yours

[GalaxyAsh]

Honestly, I don't notice a huge difference between 60hz & 120hz, but as this is adaptive, I'm happy to leave it on for now. in my opinion charging overnight is a big No. I charge late evening between 10pm & 11pm usually, with my previous 25 watt charger, and I rarely let my battery drop below 10%, 15% - 20% if possible. I sometimes disable mobile data and WiFi overnight too, reducing drain a little, but this S21 Ultra ( exynos ) doesn't drain as much as my S20 Ultra ( exynos ) overnight, i still have it and it is halved, but the S21 Ultra still uses at least 2% - 3% overnight with WiFi on, at least 1% - 2% with both WiFi and mobile data off ( calls still come through ) my S20 Ultra often drains 6% - 7% overnight.

[Kasim2409]

True. i turned on the refresh counter via developer options on the S21 Ultra and from adaptive it only goes upto 120hz when you touch the display but after a few seconds will go back to 60hz (adaptive meaning it can go down to atleast 10hz on a still image such as gallery but i don't think the counter recognises it going lower than 60.) I agree about overnight charging, at first when i got my S10+ i didn't let it charge overnight but slowly over time i just didn't bother preserving the battery health so i used to let it charge overnight but i'm trying not to do that with the S21U! Hopefully i don't succumb to that this time round lol. Do you have Always On Display enabled? I used to have it on all the time way back when i had my S8+ however that suffered terrible screen burns (keyboard among other things) so i just keep that off.

[GalaxyAsh]

yes I turned "display refresh rate" in developer options too and it didn't move from 60hz or 120hz for me either, it probably isn't reliable/real time anyway. No I don't use AoD often either, I occasionally turn it on as "tap to show for 10 seconds" but rarely. don't let your phone charge overnight, people believe these phones don't suffer from it as much now, and while that is true to an extent, it still degrades the battery. if it is essential for you to charge while sleeping, you can by a timer plug and just set it to power for an hour or so, even down to 5%, that should charge to at least 85%/90%. and doesn't put power through when off. I don't know this for a fact, but I know these plugs do lose power after their set time as expired, so it should be the same for charging a phone.

[Bradleigh]

enable developer options and find the option to show refresh rate & you can check what HZ refresh rate YouTube uses 😉

[Kasim2409]

that's one of the first things i did👀 oddly enough normal videos play at 60 but when i play a purchased video on YT or a video from my gallery it stays at 96hz (not sure if that's accurate though)

Edit: i just checked and instead of 96hz it says 48 for purchased YT Videos and videos downloaded on my phone. i did just recently do an update last night so perhaps it's changed because of that?