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. 

[LukaSam]

So after a while, it hasn't became better. Here's my SOT. 1h 29min with pretty regular use - some social media, a bit of camera and actually no games. Think it should have been a lot better

 

[K Dimov]

That's pretty bad considering from your graph that you even had charging during the usage period recorded...

[marwanamsh]

i used smart switch from my old S10 to S21 Ultra, this is the third day  and the battery says learning usage pattern and it only lasts 23 hours and only 5.5 SOT not more so what should i do ?

[lee815]

They recommend you don't use smart switch because some of the apps are not compatible with the new software causing the apps to drain your battery quicker. 

[Beef_Stockholm]

i've just re-installed my Ultra and will see if it improves things (No smartswitch this time). 
I'm just wondering regarding the learning that people are talking about. 
How does that actually work? Like others have said, iPhones just seem to cut it. My wife's nearly 2 year old basic iphone 11 has always around 65% left at the end of the day with similar screen time to me of around 2.5 ours whereas I've been going down to around 35%. Hoping this re-install will help. I have an Exynos Ultra 256GB

[Juan greenfield]

Hi guys once again here, the phone was working just fine and suddenly with the last update I have no network conection at all, no even 0 bars I have a cross sign, and ot sayis No network conection, I tried resetting network conections, wiped cache partition, turn off for a few hours, airplane mode, taking of the sim card and putting it back on, the sim card works fine in other devices, and here in the S21ultra is not working at all, I tried everything that I can to solve this issue, did anyone experienced the same thing? And what solutions did you find here you can see in the picture whats in the top bar: 

 

[Beef_Stockholm]

So I did the re-install without smartswitch about 2 weeks ago so given it time to learn as others have advised on.  This SOT is really poor and I didn't listen to spotify once today and PC addict for around 30 mins too so something weird there. Even taken that into consideration this is bad...

[Members_73Ek3Et]

thank you everyone,i have been looking at upgrading my S10 to the S21 ultra, all your posts have made my mind up for me no to waist my money, sadly to as i loved the look of it, might look at going to the dark side with  the iphone 13 pro 

[Mtm1401]

So I think you have to take things with a pinch of salt, negative stories are easier to come byband lots of this chat (including mine) was much earlier on in the phones life and Samsung definitely released a phone that wasn't fully 'market ready' from a software perspective.

I came from an s10+ and the battery life is way better on my ultra (in my use case) whilst having a screen with twice the refresh rate. I doubt you'll find a better android flagship for battery life (pending the release of Pixel 6 Pro).

That said the iPhones to seem to be killing it with battery life this year, so if that's your main concern and you aren't fussed about the tradeoffs (worse ergonomics, weight, locked down IOS) then it's hardly a bad choice

[lee815]

Not all of them are bad. I've got the Ultra & it's the best phone I've ever had with the best battery life.