Disapointing Battery Life - Mearly 23hrs with 2hrs screen time

[TheSkyProd]

I reviewed a lot of articles about the S23 Ultra when making the switch, the biggest factor was it's extended battery life with users stating they were reaching about 10+ hours of Screen on Time (SOT). I let the weeks pass to let the battery usage adapt and after 3 weeks the best I can get is not even 3 hours. I am extremely disapointed and restrict from using my phone when I should not for the price I paid.

I turned on light settings for the CPU but I do not want to remove 120hz and the display quality as I paid to have such quality.. How are people able to reach 10 hours of sot? Could it be that I got a deffective device?

One thing I saw online is that bad  LTE signal/overlapping can cause issue, I am in a remove location so I would assume my signal is bad but can it affect my phone that much?

Screenshots below of my best battery time so far with usage, all apps like SNAPCHAT, INSTAGRAM, MESSENGER are put to deep sleep as they had the highest background usage, but now I do not receive notifications and miss out on messages a lot of time so I have to open the apps to verify if I received any messages.

Bluetooth is connected at all time to my Garmin Venu 2.

I added the last 7 days showing at max 3hrs of sot

Galaxy S23 

[PaulC59]

I find my battery performance varies depending on what I'm doing ranging from a few hrs to over 24hrs. One of the biggest battery eaters is low signal so if your in a remote location that will affect the signal strength. One thing you could do is turn off anything that needs a connection that you are not using such as NFC, if no WiFi turn off WiFi, and if no network signal turn off mobile data etc etc just remember to turn back on when needed. Other things that will impact battery are notifications, background data gathering etc so review your privacy and ads settings in your apps and accounts that gather and send your data etc the worst power hungry app on my phone is Instagram, if I'm bored and scrolling through video reels, it wipes out my battery within a couple of hrs. A lot is based on developing habits that suit how you use the phone e.g if your not using it for an extended period you could enable flight mode etc to turn off searching for networks etc I'm sure there are many more tips to extend the life of your phone so always worth researching. In my experience my S23u gets a stronger network signal compared to other devices in remote locations e.g my son's iPhone 14 with no signal but I get a couple of bars from same mobile network but the price to pay is faster battery drain where signals are weak. I hope this helps

[Fizzo]

Ill try this tomorrow and get back to you, thanks

[TheSkyProd]

Just an update after a whole day at the office with barely any screen on time, already down 30%... This is not looking promising

[GoanGeek]

Social media apps are battery guzzlers.

Simply because they load videos and photos in the background and not to mention location and stuff.

Also you mentioned poor signal which will further drain and stress the battery.

Few suggestions if you wanna try.

1. Check each app permissions for your social media apps and either turn off location or keep it as when app open only.

2. Check background data and if possible turn it off. (This might affect notifications)

3. Under each app settings turn off auto load for videos .

4. Instead of dark mode try light mode with 50% or less manual brightness instead of adaptive. ( Only use adaptive of driving)

5. Try fhd+ with adaptive 120htz

Also check some videos on YouTube about seeing your phone.

Streaming apps like YouTube, Netflix etc give the best battery life.

[Kirstyl0u]

Hi, hope you don't mind me jumping in, but I thought dark mode better than light mode for battery etc?

[GoanGeek]

Yes . But I realised that if you use extra dim when in dark mode and your brightness is below 30% or something it will drain more battery as the phone will be continuously on 120htz instead of adaptive.
Which can both be good and bad as to how you you look at it.
And Yes that will drain your battery with continuous 120htz.

[Kirstyl0u]

So my phone is on dark mode, and the brightness is always beneath 30%.is this bad for my battery? I don't use adaptive, and I'm not sure what 120htz is?

[GoanGeek]

Adaptive make the phone go as high as 120htz and low as 10htz.
120htz uses more battery but makes your phone smoother while 60htz or less will feel janky especially while scrolling.

Try keeping your brightness over 30% if using dark mode and see if it makes a difference in battery life.

[PaulM1]

Any updates on whether the tips suggested here (and in the guides) have helped bolster your phone's battery life, @Fizzo and @TheSkyProd?

[TheSkyProd]

Haven't noticed much of a difference

@PaulM1 

1d6h used, 4 hour sot with 26 hours drained with screen off. That's not what I expect from such an expensive phone