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How to Get Better Samsung Galaxy S4 Battery Life

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The Samsung Galaxy S4 is a nice phone, but the huge screen and 4G LTE connectivity can quickly drain battery life. We’ll show you a few quick tips and tricks to get better Galaxy S4 battery life.

Samsung designed the Galaxy S4 so that users can replace the battery, but so far there are no extended Samsung Galaxy S4 batteries and spare batteries are hard to come by.

With a few small changes in how you use the Samsung Galaxy S4 it will be easier to last a full day without sacrificing much in terms of performance and usability.

Here are 5 tips to get better Samsung Galaxy S4 battery life.

Here are 5 tips to get better Samsung Galaxy S4 battery life.

Thanks to Samsung’s Touchwiz skin on top of Android, most of these battery saving tips are accessible from the Notification pull down, with no need to dive into the settings.

While it’s tough to find a Galaxy S4 extended battery, users can quickly top up with a USB cable and the ZAGGsparq 2.0, a small portable battery with two charges worth of power.

Turn on Power Saving Mode

The easiest way to get better Galaxy S4 battery life is to turn on the built-in Power Saving mode. Samsung makes turning this on easy thanks to a toggle in the notification area.

One tap for better Galaxy S4 battery life.

One tap for better Galaxy S4 battery life.

Tapping once will toggle Power saving mode on and holding will open the menu for the Power saving options. From here users can pick and choose which power saving features to enable and disable. When you really need to save power its a good idea to leave these all on. The changes they make add up to better battery life and don’t impact usability.

Turn Off the Extra Features

The next best way to get batter Galaxy S4 battery life is to turn off all the extra Galaxy S4 features like Air View etc. These features are great for showing off what the Galaxy S4 can do or for productivity, but when you need more battery life it’s not the ideal time to run two apps next to each-other or use eye-tracking technology.

Turn off extra features to save battery life.

Turn off extra features to save battery life.

Rather than turn all of these off in the settings menu, pull down the notification bar with two fingers to see a full screen of the settings to toggle. From here tap and turn off the following features,

  • Air view
  • Multi window
  • Air gesture
  • Smart stay
  • Smart scroll

When you have a full charge, go ahead and reverse this to quickly turn them on. Quick and effective.

Screen Auto Brightness

The Samsung Galaxy S4’s large HD display is often the biggest battery life user. Turning on Auto Brightness, combined with the changes made in Power saving mode, will deliver better battery life.

The Galaxy S4 screen is the biggest battery hog.

The Galaxy S4 screen is the biggest battery hog.

Pull down the notification menu and make sure Auto is tapped in the screen brightness menu. If you really need to control battery life, you can turn it off and dial the brightness down, but this can make using the Galaxy S4 outdoors very difficult.

Another tip is to use a black or dark Wallpaper and to avoid Live wallpapers. The Live wallpaper uses more power than a static image and the black backgrounds don’t use as much power from the Samsung Galaxy S4’s Super AMOLED display.

Turn Off Bluetooth & WiFi & More

After hitting the big fish, we recommend turning off WiFi and Bluetooth when not in use to help conserve battery life. The savings here will be minimal, so if you use Bluetooth in your car or rely on WiFi for better location services you may want to skip this step.

Again, it’s possible to toggle most of these settings right from the Galaxy S4 notification screen, which is very handy. Here are some items that may use more battery life.

  • WiFi
  • Bluetooth
  • S Beam
  • NFC

Turning these off will limit some functionality so if you use them often it may be worth leaving them on.

Limit Widgets on Home Screen

All those widgets are nice for seeing constantly updated Facebook, Twitter and other updates, but they also contribute to faster battery drain.

When possible limit widget usage and look for settings that limit how often the widget is getting new information. If the widget is just using the same update cycle as your twitter app, the app is the source of power draw rather than the widget, so keep that in mind as you look at these more granular Galaxy S4 battery life settings.

Widgets and apps can also cut battery life.

Widgets and apps can also cut battery life.

Go to Settings -> More-> Battery to see which apps are using the most battery life. This can identify the biggest offenders quickly.

Read: Samsung Galaxy S4 Problems: Battery Life & Display

If these better Galaxy S4 battery life tips fail to fix the problem it may be worth reseting the device. This gives you a fresh start and if you choose not to set up from a backup you get a clean slate. This is a last resort, but sometimes needed.

23 Comments

23 Comments

  1. nick

    05/09/2013 at 3:09 pm

    I bought the phone to use feature. If I have to close All these feature due to save battery life. Then why I bought iT.

    • Jack

      05/09/2013 at 5:09 pm

      You don’t have to do it, they are nice by giving you instructions if you want to save battery life or if you are away from home or car to charge it.
      Hope longer life batteries come out soon or at least regular batteries at an affordable price.

    • oBIGTo

      05/11/2013 at 6:27 am

      Exactly! Don’t make a phone with bad battery life. I have the Galaxy Note 2 I get great battery life, and I have everything on.if I have to shut everything off to be able to use a phone then it’s not worth buying! I was thinking about trading my Galaxy Note 2 for the Galaxy s4 but I don’t want to sacrifice battery life!

    • Basoy cui

      05/30/2013 at 7:41 pm

      I just bought SG S4 and it’s sucks actually… The moment I had the mobile in my hand i don’t have this good feeling that this phone might give me disappointment… Then I’m not wrong…i just have it 2 days in my hand and i started to hate it… Heating issues of this mobile are true. When it is full charge… I tried not to use it for about 3 hours then when i hold after…the phone is so hot reaching about 44C and the battery 100% drop to 60%.. So i realized how much more if used it…. Later i’ll try to visit samsung shop and listen their remedies……

  2. iKonqer

    05/11/2013 at 7:04 am

    Samsung I9505 Galaxy S4 battery life tests updated with final firmware, check out the new scores

    https://www.ikonqer.com/2013/05/samsung-i9505-galaxy-s4-battery-life.html

  3. Adx

    05/14/2013 at 9:43 pm

    Precisely! this doesnt make sense at all. Samsung has to work on fixing the root cause of the battery performance .

  4. adx

    05/14/2013 at 9:58 pm

    To give a better picture of the real situation. I full charge my phone before going to bed. When i wake up 8 hours later..battery is left iwth 45%. I consciously did a restart to clear out all active application before going to bed. this is certainly not acceptable. Btw, this is based on the recent firmware patch which suggest improve battery performance. how sad…

    • SHiFF

      05/17/2013 at 2:45 pm

      Same problem here..how tomextend the battery life then..

  5. Rakesh

    05/19/2013 at 10:00 pm

    I’m planning to buy SGS4 but after reading the user reviews I’m having second thoughts over buying the phone, those who have bought a galaxy s4 please help me out with these queries,

    • Does the phone get overheated? (SGS4 international version)
    • -when I enquired the Samsung customer care said that after the update of the phone is free from the such overheating issues

    • Is there issue with the battery life?

    • Mark H

      05/25/2013 at 5:00 pm

      Hi, got the S4 a month ago. Overall, it is very impressive. Voice commands a little shaky, but bodes well for the future. No overheat issue at all. Battery not great, lasts about 22 hours for me, but charges quickly. Optic recognition rather silly, but the navigation is simply brilliant. A mixed bag of excellence and the not-quite-there.

    • William

      07/15/2013 at 4:58 pm

      theres is no big problem with battery life, nor overheating problems.

  6. imtiaz

    05/23/2013 at 12:58 am

    s4 is nt nice phone keep gve problem i dnt like that phone plz dnt thik of 2buy s4 i maq a big mistek to buy s4 imti

    • Brett

      06/24/2013 at 4:01 pm

      What??

  7. Marchy

    05/23/2013 at 2:04 pm

    I have an S3. The biggest drain on battery life for me is mobile data. Turn it off and use wifi instead wherever possible. You can still text and make calls. I would say it easily doubles battery life. I tried everything, killing apps etc, this was the only thing that did the trick. Try it on the S4 tonight. Maybe you’ll be 80% battery by the morning….
    I got a HTC one today BTW. Dont like it and it’s going back. The lack of controllability through the notification bar is a no-no for me. Plus the screen is actually smaller than my S3. It has about 3-4mm going around the side that doesnt actually display anything. I got the black aluminum finish also. Bad idea. Shows all the finger prints. It’s fast and sounds great and the keyboard is so much better than the S3 (what’s the S4 one like?), but it has to go back I’m afraid.

  8. Mwamba Kandimba

    05/28/2013 at 11:29 pm

    I got one 4 days ago, great phone, but the battery factor is killing me!! The screen alone eats up to 80% of battery life. Keep charging every day!!. Cellphone companies must invest in producing a battery that last at least 3 days of non-stop use.

  9. Shaya Z.

    06/27/2013 at 7:59 am

    S4 is amazing and the battery life is actually pretty good when in use. However when it is on standby it uses almost as much battery as when you’re using it, which is plain ridiculous (it can lose up to 40 percent in around 8 hours). It can still last me through the day usually until around eleven.

    • Shaya Z.

      06/27/2013 at 8:01 am

      Also no overheating issues for me :)

  10. Brittany

    07/16/2013 at 10:28 am

    I charged my phone to 100 percent last night,I took it off of the charger at 10pm. I went to bed around 1015 and I woke up at 5 this morning and my battery was at 59 percent.. I haven’t used it all day, besides sending about 5 texts and my battery is at 7% right now. I just bought the phone 3 days ago and I can’t even use it because it dies way to fast

  11. Steve Milliamps

    07/30/2013 at 3:33 pm

    I’ve seen so many tips & tricks for the S4 and saving it’s battery.. But the bottom line is, all of them work is very small portions, and help just a tad bit. I guess you’re right, all these little tweaks do add up, but i decided to go big and just purchase the extended battery for the S4. https://www.accessoryswamp.com/galaxy-s4-battery.html

  12. J

    10/03/2013 at 2:39 pm

    Samsung is a cheap rip off, if you want a real, good original and amazing smartphone, get an iPhone 5S! Samsung is just a wannabe of Apple.

  13. kiwismurf

    10/11/2013 at 12:44 pm

    Im lucky to get 4 hrs of battery brought the seperate battery pack and that battery the same. .. 8 hrs 2 batteries everything turned off except data I need a better battery for ph…. im excessive user gone thru 4 cables from chargers too its only 3 months old always from day dot been the same

  14. SimSimma

    04/13/2014 at 11:42 pm

    all uguys are fags..The title of the article says How to Get Better Samsung S4 Battery Life..It doesn’t say lets complain about something we already know. The battery is shitty but since u have the phone already might as well learn some ways to save battery. I have the Mophie Juice Pack, with that battery lasts from morning till midnight at least.

  15. Mandy

    07/12/2015 at 3:11 pm

    Using an extended battery for your galaxy s4 is a really good idea since the battery life on the stock battery is not good at all which is the same problem the galaxy s3 had. This is a top rated on amazon galaxy s4 battery https://fliptroniks.com/shop/fliptroniks-samsung-galaxy-s4-6200mah-extended-battery-black-back-matte-finish-cover/

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