Samsung Galaxy S III has above average battery life. Yes, Samsung Galaxy S3 battery life can last for half day on moderate usage. But you still can further improve Samsung Galaxy S3 battery life with some tweaks and hacks. How to increase Samsung Galaxy S3 battery life? In short, disable those stuffs that you don’t use.
How to increase Samsung Galaxy S3 battery life?
Turn on all Power saving settings
Samsung Galaxy S3 has several power saving settings like CPU power saving, screen power saving, background colour and turn off haptic feedback. Turn on those that acceptable to you only because performance will be decreased and user experience will be affected too.
Reduce display brightness
By default, Samsung Galaxy S3 has lower auto brightness value. This help to improve battery life as HD Super AMOLED eats lot of battery. However, you can further improve by set brightness to the lowest level that acceptable to you.
Remove unused widget
Widgets are nice on Android. But they are battery eaters especially those widgets that use data connection and auto sync based on schedule. Therefore, only keep those widgets that you really need.
Poor signal decrease battery life
Phone will use more power when signal is weak because it uses more power to increase signal strength. Always make sure that your phone has a good signal reception. Switch to 2G if 3G connection signal is poor at your area.
Use Wi-Fi when available
Always gets connected with Wi-Fi when available and turn off 3G data connection. 3G data connection eats more battery compare to Wi-Fi connection. Turn off both of them when not needed.
Disable / reduce auto-sync
Data connection eats battery life. Disable or reduce background scheduled auto-sync applications like Gmail, Twitter. And reduce the frequency of auto-sync will also help to improve battery life too.
Turn off Bluetooth, GPS
If you don’t use Bluetooth or GPS, turn them off. Turn them on when needed only.
Turn off motion sensor
Samsung Galaxy S3 has lot of Motion features like Direct call, Smart alert, Tap to top, Tilt to zoom, Pan to move icon, Pan to browse images, Shake to update and Turn over to mute/pause. Only activate those you need.
Use solid black static wallpaper
Samsung Galaxy S3 HD Super AMOLED uses less power on solid black wallpaper because less backlight is output. And try not to use beautiful live wallpaper. Why? Lovely animated live wallpaper costs you more CPU power usage == lower battery life.
Fully close application that not use
SGS3 is a great multitasking machine. But by letting lot of applications running at background actually increase battery usage because they still require CPU processing. So fully close those applications that not needed. Example, GPS navigation application.
Disable unused built-in system applications
You can disable Samsung bundle software like ChatON, S Voice, Game Hub if you don’t need them with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich disable application feature. Why? Some of them are running as service even you are not using them at all.
Undervolt and underclock CPU
Besides display, SGS3 CPU is the second biggest battery eater. If you don’t need 1.4 GHz processing power, underclock it. And undervolt Samsung Galaxy S3 with SetCPU.
Any other tips and tweaks to increase Samsung Galaxy S3 battery life that I missed out? Let me know. Thanks.
Hi Jayce,
Your quote of “Samsung Galaxy S3 battery life can last for half day on moderate usage”, is that tongue in cheek or are you being serious ?? As I would expect it to last more than a day on moderate use ?
My current S2 can comfortably run all day, so now I’m getting worried about the S3.
Cheers,
Ian
https://www.jayceooi.com/2012/06/18/samsung-galaxy-s3-battery-life-test/
I bought one about a week ago. Before I throttled down literally EVERYTHING on it, my phone would go completely dead in approximately 8 hours if I let it sleep the entire time, I would get about 4-6 hours with approximate use. My wife’s gets about 3 times that, so I think mine may have a bad battery.
yeah.. i think that is not correcy, my s3 lasted for 11 hours on full throtle heavy usage..
hmmm I don’t know if the US sprint version is much different… but mine’s lasting about 10 hours with power savings turned on… and only listened to music for about 3 hrs.
Hi Jayce,
I am confused whether to buy the one x or the s3, can you please tell me which one would be better? Normally I use whatsapp on the phone and text people. Listen to music and sometimes play games. Design wise I know one x looks better but I’ve seen alot of people report hardware problems with one x and thats scaring me. Please help me out, I’m in a bit of a hurry so reply at the earliest! 🙂 And if i buy the s3 it will be with 1gb ram as I am from India so 2 gb really isnt available here! Btw is it possible to root and unroot the one x? Thank you.
Overall, I prefer Samsung Galaxy S3. But HTC One X screen is better.
Yes, you can root HTC One X but warranty will be voided even you unroot it.
Hi All,
I have a S3, and with moderate use (~2 hours of internet, 20mins of wifi, 10mins of 3D gaming, music player for 40mins, camera use for 15mins, and around an hour of playing with the settings; so around 4 hours of actual use) I used 46% of the battery. To get to 54% battery took 8hrs 59mins 22 seconds in total. I do pay attention to what is open in the task manager – the stock system is pretty good at managing it all. In normal use I would say you would get a complete day of use out of it with enough to spare. I wouldn’t throw away any travel chargers if you don’t expect to find juice within a 18-24hours though!
I have had my S3 since the first day of release, and to say that the battery lasts half a day of moderate use is completely wrong. With heavy use (thats including watching two hours of blueray quality films on my journey to and from work) it will last a day and a half. The battery is the best of any smart phone I have ever had.
I would say that the points above on how to save battery are all valid however. One thing I don’t think was noted is that there is a fault on certain international models that severely limits the battery, read here for a fix:
http://global.christianpost.com/news/samsung-galaxy-s3-release-runs-into-battery-problems-solution-and-how-to-fix-77482/
with pretty heavy use I’m able to get 12-13 hours out of mine so yeah…it last much longer then just half a day….from morning to the time u get home the phone will still be working fine assuming u work 8hrs and still have 4hrs of play with it
What’s the point in even having this phone?? I have one… and now I am regretting it
Sell it then. I would recommend :
http://www.ebay.com.au/sch/i.html?_nkw=nokia+3310
It will do everything a “phone” needs to do. Also, the battery life is awesome. And people will flock to your ring tone.
As a heavy smartphone user, going from an Iphone 4s to galaxy S3 was a big difference with battery life. I didn’t realize how much the battery drained even when it was on standby on this phone. I downloaded the juice defender app and it was wonderful. I immediately upgraded to the juice defender ultimate and my battery lasts 8 times longer. I highly recommend this app to all the S3 users.
And to the last comment, that’s okay, the only way I will ever use that nokia phone is as a paper weight.
Do you have the International version? With heavy use I get ~7 hours out of mine. I have not owned a iPhone of any kind, so I cannot compare them. A quick Google seems to show that the S3 is better, but you would know. I do not generally heavily use my phone. I get easily a day out of it with moderate use. I did leave it on standby a lot recently, and the result was 1 day 20 hours with about 40% battery left.
As such I see no need for J.D but whatever works for you.
And after writing this I went and looked on YouTube for the “Nokia ringtone dieing” sound to install on the phone!
I have the U.S version.
I disabled a couple of built in system applications and they disappeared. I can’t find them in case I want to enable them again. Can someone tell me where they are? Or are they gone for good? How do I get access to them again?
No worry, stephanie. Those disabled applications are listed down below now (after all active apps).
Oh thank you ! LOL I guess I didn’t look for them very well after all. And thanks for your quick reply Jayce!
how do you disable your apps. i would like to try that out?
I was reading that poor signal decrease battery life, does that include being underground for example, train station?
Yes if underground train station has poor signal. Else no.
When I’m underground (subway) I alway put my phone on airplane mode.
Hi Joice, I got the s3 8 days ago and I am getting very furious from the battery. If am lucky I would have 4 hours of normal use !!! It drains overnight by around 20%. With no wifi, no gps, no sync. I learned that this is a common problem.. And there should be a fix soon. Yet Samsung do no confess that there is a battery issue with their new s3 and xda dvpls found the downturn and released a patch, yet you have to root the device to get it installed … I did so but the patch didn’t work.
Is there any official release for this fix ? What’s the benifit then to have a device with all these feature that I have to disable them to use it. This is crazy !
Karim
I don’t have serious battery issue with official stock firmware. Try to factory reset. Maybe applications that you installed are causing it.
happy to find this resource for all matters S3 …
With regard to this; i cannot see a disable button when i click on a certain app from within app manager, I see a Stop button instead. What am i missing ?
Thanks.
Is there uninstall button?
I bought this phone to enjoy these options…but to get any decent use from this thing I have to disable all the things I bought the damn phone for? This is bullshit…
I had the same battery drain problem, but i FIXED it!!!!!!. The phone has a lot of widgets installed
like weather app, diff kind of clocks…….. u can disable them by going to settings>application manager>All, select and disable……….i hope it helps!!!
I don’t understand most of you people. Are you iPhone fanboys just trolling or do you actually have a galaxy s3?
Since i bought my galaxy, i charge it twice.
With the first charge, my battery lasted exactly 2days,14 hours and something.
Now my battery is at 33% and the phone is on battery since 1day, 18 hours and 25 minutes.
I don’t know what you people do with your phone, but all those 8 hours of battery life, 12 hours, 14 hours is ridiculous.
I use my phone with wifi disabled (enable it only when i need it), gps disabled (enable it only when i need it), bluetooth disabled (enable it only when i need it), screen brightness at low, power saving setting on and 3G disabled (enable it only when i need it).
I play maybe 20 minutes of games, i make few calls, i send few messages, i use wifi at least 2 hours a day, mostly at home, i use 3G network when i’m at work and i use the browser to search stuff, news and watch with colleges few funny clips on youtube in my lunch break.
In the end, the battery life of this phone is perfect for my needs.
2 days? That’s even too much if you ask me and i remember when i had the iPhone…
Dear Joice. I sew you are very defendive dor the s3. But actually there is a serious battery issue. Is it normal to have a drain from 100% to 80% overnight without touching it with gps, wifi, bluetooth, mobile data, CLOSED then whats thw use of sucha fancy mobile while rurning of all its options again ??
There must be something wrong and u must be lucky ro have a good batt performance
No, there must be some background applications are causing this issue. Try factory reset. And test it without any software installed. If still the same, your battery has issue then.
There is nothing wrong. At least with the international version. I tried to save my battery to see if it dies without any work done and it did not. It managed to live 9 days and still had to spare 20% of battery life without any charging.
Hi Jayce,
What are the widgets with auto sync that you mentioned? Is it the S-suggest box that keep poping those applications ads ?
Lot of them. Example, weather. stock widgets…
Cheers for the reply and sorry for bothering again; How should I charge the galaxy S3 for the first time just bought? Should I leave the battery charging overnight – before turn on the phone to use? Or should I turn it on, use up the battery until it drains and then charge until it says 100%? There are so many different answers on the forums its confusing…
No need to fully charge new battery overnight nowadays. But no harm to do so if you want. 😉
sure wish you would have included the instructions or link to instructions telling us how to do these things. That would have made this article way more useful instead of having to google each of your recommendations to find out HOW to do these things.
I charge my phone over night every night and it is completely dead by 5 in the evening every night. I sure would like to figure this out so that I don’t have to keep worrying whether or not my phone will be charged all the time. BTW, I only recently purchased this phone less than 2 weeks ago and so far I’m not too happy with the short battery life I have been experiencing. Seriously considering returning the phone at this point if they will take it back since I have been unable to figure out why the battery will not last through the day.
I bought my phone 3 days ago and my battery only last about 6 hours the max..I have disabled everything and still dies quickly
hi Jayce
if I do factory reset on my rooted s3 will it cause any harm to the pre-installed drivers like video and audio. cos I want to know if an application which I installed is eating up my battery please help cos this phone is precious to me thanks.
All users apps and data will be deleted. Make a backup first.
Ok thanks Jayce
My S 3 has been terrible at battery management and battery life overall. It sometimes runs out of power in less than two hours, making no phone calls, one or two minutes of internet use/search, no nothing in the way of gaming or video or music playing. the battery has been replaced and the operating system as well. what a hunk of junk.