Why Can't They Fix This?
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2019-05-06
·
1,824 words · ~9 min read
0:00
So here's my problem. I get subpar battery life out of Samsung phones specifically,
0:08
and it's something that has been an ongoing issue for me for years. Sometimes it happens right away,
0:17
but other times it takes a while. So in my Galaxy S6 video, for example, I talk about how it has
0:22
better battery life than its predecessor. With the S6 Active, I was impressed that it had enough to
0:28
get me through the day when other people are reporting the damn thing gets them through two
0:32
days. With the S7, I did end up with 30% battery at the end of each day, which is about right
0:38
given my use, except that I started having the issue after I recorded my review to the point
0:45
where looking back over the last three years, I realized it's not Android phones. That's what I
0:54
thought it was. It's Samsung specifically where I run into the problem. I don't know if it's
0:58
these issues. And I even talked about it at a video back at CES this year that went up on
1:05
Unbox Therapy. Which smartphone is in your pocket and why? So I'm on the Pixel 2 XL. My Galaxy S8,
1:11
something I have installed on it is making the battery drain really fast. I haven't had the time
1:15
to deal with it. You sound like the most reluctant Pixel user I've ever heard in my life.
1:20
So Samsung actually reached out after having seen that video on Unbox Therapy. For whatever reason,
1:26
they didn't notice any of the things that I've said.
1:28
On this channel, the S8 had middling battery life from the get-go. Battery life on the phone that
1:34
can do it all is just not that impressive. And asked to help. But even though it's been over
1:41
six months since then, we still haven't come any closer to answering the question of why is it
1:48
that every time I pull this thing out of my pocket, it's hot. So we came up with an idea
1:56
for how we can find it.
1:59
And we'll tell you about it after this message from our sponsor, CableMod. CableMod's configurator
2:08
now lets you select your own customizable RGB backplates for your SSDs and GPUs to help
2:14
enhance the look of your system. Check out the link below to learn more. So we devised a test.
2:28
I didn't want to give up my daily driver S9 Plus because even with my issues, it was still getting
2:33
me through the day the vast majority of the time. So we reached out to our buds over at Dbrand to
2:38
send us a couple of skinned phones.
2:40
One of them is a brand new Galaxy S9 Plus, camo skin, of course, because Dbrand. And the other one is a brand new Pixel 2 XL.
2:48
I picked these two phones specifically because of their very similar specs and feature set, even down to little things like the fact that they both
2:56
have always-on displays.
2:59
Also, I had been using the Pixel 2 XL before working on my S9 review and had not had any battery drain
3:06
issues with it, even with the same app loadout.
3:09
So,
3:09
let's walk through what we did to these phones.
3:12
I actually handed my daily driver S9 Plus over to James and he loaded both of them up with as
3:18
close as we could get, at least just kind of looking at them and comparing, to what I use on my daily driver.
3:24
So all the same apps, logged into the same accounts, always-on display, on
3:30
wake screen when you receive notifications,
3:32
same screen timeouts, even similar
3:35
wallpapers to make sure that if there's a difference in power consumption between one
3:39
color or another on their OLED displays, that's not going to affect our data.
3:44
The only problem is that when we ran our test the first time in our controlled environment,
3:50
we got a result that didn't really add up with my experience.
3:55
So our Pixel died
3:58
when our S9 Plus still had double digit battery life left.
4:04
So we thought, okay, why don't we go back to the drawing board?
4:07
Maybe we were a little bit lazy here,
4:09
because we had actually left both of the phones in Wi-Fi only mode.
4:13
Neither of them actually had a SIM installed, and when I did hear from Samsung about my issues,
4:18
that was one of the first things they asked about. What kind of data connection do you have?
4:22
So we were like, okay, well, why don't we just run to the corner store and get a couple of SIMs and pop them in here?
4:30
So it was like 30 bucks and
4:33
we got exactly nothing for our effort, because once again,
4:37
the Samsung phone beat the Pixel 2 XL.
4:44
Finally, we went, okay, I guess let's bite the bullet and run out and get more expensive SIMs with data,
4:51
which actually adds some inconvenience to this whole thing.
4:54
Like we've actually been working on this video for almost two months now.
4:57
First, we had to spend more money.
4:58
Then we had to wait for the phone's billing cycle to refresh so that the data would come online.
5:03
The point is, after all that, the results were still the same.
5:09
So finally I gave in and I said, okay James,
5:13
here's my daily driver S9+,
5:16
why don't you compare it to yours?
5:18
When we did that,
5:20
my phone died while the other ones still had 80% battery.
5:27
So,
5:28
it's not in my imagination then.
5:31
Because the only other explanation here would be that my S9+,
5:36
which, and this is really interesting, when you actually
5:38
actually use it heavily,
5:40
doesn't seem to drain any faster than any other phone,
5:43
but my S9 Plus, when it idles,
5:47
either has like a craptastic battery
5:50
with basically no real world capacity,
5:53
or there is something about my specific way of using it
5:58
that triggers this behavior.
5:59
And unfortunately, we're at the point now
6:02
where we kind of have to just go to you the public with this
6:06
and see if we can get some kind of action from them,
6:09
because I can tell you guys,
6:11
I haven't actually heard back from Samsung
6:13
in over two months,
6:16
even though they were corresponding with me before
6:18
and asking me questions that seemed like they might care,
6:22
like, oh, well, how are you connected to data?
6:24
And can you send a screenshot of your battery usage?
6:27
Because that's the most frustrating thing
6:30
about this entire experience,
6:33
the fact that we can't pull any useful data
6:36
off of the phone.
6:38
When we look at the battery usage,
6:41
sometimes we might get a hint,
6:42
like here's a screenshot that shows Facebook pages manager
6:46
using about 1.something percent battery per hour,
6:50
but that still doesn't account for the difference
6:53
and the whole thing still doesn't add up to 100%.
6:57
Plus, I also have screenshots
6:59
that I have also provided to Samsung
7:02
that do not have any kind of indication
7:06
of what's consuming it.
7:08
So the TLDR is this
7:10
over the years I've thought that there were either issues with
7:15
Android battery life management or
7:17
Samsung's battery life management, but every person that I've talked to is having a perfectly good experience
7:25
Samsung doesn't seem to have any helpful information to provide on the subject and so
7:30
Without rooting because that shouldn't be necessary
7:34
I'd love to know from you guys or if Samsung can finally take a serious interest in helping me solve this problem
7:41
How we can fix this because otherwise
7:43
Both the s9 plus and the galaxy note 9 depending on whether you want a stylus and a bigger battery
7:49
Which of course is a big deal for me because this issue persists for me with the note 9
7:54
This one's sitting at 53% even though I charged it last night
7:58
I've hardly touched it today
8:00
And I don't even know if it's working or not
8:00
I don't even have my SIM in it
8:01
So like honestly, I feel like I'm rambling a little bit now because I'm just I'm just frustrated
8:07
You know, we were really hoping to come to you guys with like aha
8:11
Here's the one app that kills your battery
8:13
I mean who wouldn't click on that video right or like here's the perfect storm of apps that kills your battery life
8:18
But without endless trial and error, we just can't seem to get there like I just got nothing else. I'm just sad
8:25
I just want to use this phone and have it work properly speaking of working properly. You know what works properly?
8:30
Dbrand skins, I mean, they're just a piece of high-quality 3m vinyl. How can they not work properly you go on their configurator?
8:38
We'll have that linked in the video description you pick which device and they've got all kinds of stuff
8:43
They support phones game consoles game controllers laptop computers all kinds of great stuff
8:48
You select which colors and textures you want you order them
8:51
They've got worldwide shipping and it's affordable and then you apply it to your device with one of their very helpful
8:58
Instructional videos and now all of a sudden boom
9:00
you look cooler and your device is protected from incidental scrapes and
9:05
Scratches actually it's been great for my Nintendo switch, which I often slide in and out of my bag and would otherwise totally get dinged up
9:12
Oh, yeah, they support the Nintendo switch now
9:14
Which you would know if you watch scrapyard wars and got annoyed by all the Dbrand product placements
9:18
But anyway, that's neither here nor there. What's here is a link to Dbrand. We're gonna have that down below
9:24
So thanks for watching guys. If you just liked this video, you can hit that button
9:27
I see you Samsung employees if you liked it
9:30
Hit like get subscribed or maybe consider checking out where to buy the stuff
9:33
We featured at the link in the video description also down
9:35
There's our merch store which has cool shirts like this one and our community forum
9:39
Which you should totally join to be very clear. I still love the s9 plus. I still love the note 9
9:44
I still use the note 9 now as my daily driver, but the s9 plus quite frankly is not far behind it
9:49
I just I just want them to be even better
9:53
For me because everyone else seems to be fine with it