Samsung S21 ultra poor battery life

[jezza2]

I got a new S21 Ultra this week. I was disappointed with battery life initially, but have been letting it bed in and learn my usage. I'm still not happy - compares poorly to my old P30 Pro. 

The phone was bought from Samsung, a clean UK install, latest firmware, and I've attached a screenshot of the first battery report post calibration - limited 5G usage, but nothing major running apart from that huge screen and a bit of Spotify.

 

Is this what others have been experiencing? I am minded to return - my results are out of line with the reviewers. I'm not interested in tinkering with the screen or brightness - for this price my view is it should just work.

And - thinking out loud here - could phone companies be jiggering their review models' battery life to give better results, like VW did with the emissions scandal?

Thanks.

[M3st3ru]

If this repeats, send it back!

[adamlee]

No need to send back. It's the may update... Several have complained about poor battery life.. myself included. Just got to wait for Samsung to fix with update. I know my phone doesn't have a faulty battery as when I 1st got the phone and got the Feb update or march update... Can't exactly remember but I was getting 3 days standby and 3-4 hours screen time which is amazing.

[M3st3ru]

Mate I had 6-8 hours screen time with my s21 ultra.
3-4 hours is clearly a problem.

[M3st3ru]

https://youtu.be/aWlSEARQnHk

[Fiona26]

Yes, but he's saying he's had 3 days standby, with 3-4 hours sot.

[M3st3ru]

Does it matter how much a phone stays in standby if the minute you start using it, the battery drains quicky?
We we all want is how much we can use a phone without charging it!

[Fiona26]

I think that having decent battery while in standby is just as important. As I've seen others with issues also battery draining whilst in standby.

[adamlee]

Apparently there's been a wakelock since the device was released called cameraService_worker that keeps the camera still when it's moving in your pocket. It activates the AF to keep it in place. I don't understand why they need to do this when device is moving in pocket. That's when I noticed the drain my self. Past few months I've just been at-home but now I'm back at work and on the go the drain is worse (standby) and Samsung say that it's normal for the camera to behave this way when in pocket but it's clearly not. If I shake my device it rattles anyway so it's clearly not working and just draining the battery like crazy.

https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/cameraservice_worker-partial-wakelock.4234161/

[Pugs1957]

Of course it does. When a phone is in standby it doesn't mean it's not doing anything. In fact it's doing lots.