Samsung Galaxy Tab Battery Drain

[Jared]

I brought a Galaxy Tab last week and I think I've got a problem but I cant find any other info on the web about it. Basically every time I switch it off, if I come back to it a day or later the battery is drained flat. I then have to spend 2 hrs charging the thing to be able to use it again. I am fully turning it off and I'm not using any stand-bye or sleep mode.

I first noticed the problem because I gave it to my wife to set it up for me as I was busy. She already has the Galaxy phone so I got her to change the settings back to English and a few other things. The next day I went to switch it on and the battery was completely flat. So i put in the charger and the empty battery screen comes up and then starts to charge. I accused the misses of not turning it off properly, which didnt go down to well.

I charged it and had a little play with it. I then switched it off correctly and then I came to turn it back on today, 2 days later and the bloody thing is flat again. Each time the battery has been fully charged, the tab has been on for about an hour or so and then completed switched off for about 2 days. Anyone else got one of these and had the same problem?

Thanks

[Caliguy]

well I just read your post again and if you're fully turning it off then seems to be a bad battery. I guess you'll have to send it to Samsung for a battery replacement? I'm not sure about the tabs. I'm an iPad user

Are you sure you're turning it completely off? I heard Samsung galaxy phones and tabs have a huge problem with battery draining apps that overuse the "wake" function.(some apps keep the tab "awake" for as long as 20 minutes per hour!)

[orosee]

This seems to be a general issue with the Galaxy-S and Tab. If I compare battery performance to my ancient iPhone 2G, in flight mode (since one cannot use the 2G in Korea, it now basically doubles as an iPod), I can get at least 2 weeks standby/listening mix from the iPhone (about 90-120 minutes a day, screen off - I'm an audiobook guy). Switched off entirely, there seems to be around 10-20% battery drain per month. My typical charging cycles with the iPhone were one full charge every 10-14 days; it would also last through an entire 11 hour flight back to Europe with at least 25% battery to spare for calls etc.

Now the Galaxy... and I say that as a happy owner, this is a beautiful phone (so much that I'm considering buying a Tab as well) - I use it more often and more intensive, of course, since I'm on an unlimited data plan, it also works as a phone being 3G, runs Android where your apps are often updated (and need to be downloaded) 2-4 times in a week, has Gmail, Facebook and other auto-syncing apps running - I know that you cannot compare one gadget in flight mode with another in full operation, but even with everything shut off, I see 15-25% battery drain overnight (for me that's 6 hours) which would end up to one full charge per day. So I wouldn't be surprised if in flight mode the phone would deplete the battery 100% in 3-5 days max.

I'd imagine there will be a similar situation with the Tab, both being from the same Samsung engineers. I've been living in Korea long enough to know that the Korean engineering paradigm is often more around how things look rather than how thinks work - here I give huge credit to Apple, who lost out this time because the iPhone 4G was just too similar to my 2G to be worth buying (and there's the issue of Android, which I just had to try) - most of the time this materializes in weird (to a Western standard) user interfaces but clearly the phone was made for a Korean infrastructure and usage pattern: You live with the phone always in your hand, always have 1-2 spare and charged batteries in your pocket, and there are free chargers in every coffee shop (which also provide free wireless internet and electricity outlets). The Galaxy-S is actually the first Korean phone I own that did now want to make me throw it into the nearest body of water after a week. If you still need to experience Korean usuability weirdness, there's always Kies - I never liked iTunes but after trying to use Kies, I would marry the design/programming team of iTunes be they men or women.

I've seen the iPad in use by a kid (movies, games and music through an 11 hour flight, some nap time) and it was working on departure and on arrival. Good battery life.

I don't really have a solution except to try Juice Defender and see if that helps. Also, look for apps that show you which service was using how much battery. See if there are options to sync manually or prevent them from running all the time. Unfortunately I found that under Android, some apps are impossible to prevent from running and cannot be removed from the autostart list. If possible, replace these apps with something else and send a quick email to the developer to notify them of the issue. At the most basic, a task manager culd help you shoot down some of the apps that won't provide a proper exit option, for example Skype.

Yeah, and join me in wishing for a fix in Android 2.x (provided that Kies allows for a smooth upgrade, or someone invents a proper replacement for that POS software).

Maybe you can update your experiences ever so often?

[Jared]

Thanks for the replys. I was definitely switching it completely off, When you click the off button on the side it comes up with a few options, stand bye, flight mode, off etc. I took it back to the Samsung shop and explained the problem the best I could. They told me they would keep it for a night and see if they could see the problem. The wife got a call the next day saying that they have sent it to get check out and I should have it back by Saturday. As I had only had the thing for a few days I would have thought they could of just replaced it for me and sent the other one back to get repaired but no. Ill wait and see what they say on Saturday, if there's a problem with it then surely they have to replace it, if not ill ask for a refund.

On another note Ive just had a phone call from DHL and my Ipad is 5 minutes away from being delivered

Jared

[MunterHunter]

How's the iPad?

I've got a Galaxy tab and i dont have any of the problems you mentioned, sounds like you got a defective one.

[Caliguy]

Thanks for the replys. I was definitely switching it completely off, When you click the off button on the side it comes up with a few options, stand bye, flight mode, off etc. I took it back to the Samsung shop and explained the problem the best I could. They told me they would keep it for a night and see if they could see the problem. The wife got a call the next day saying that they have sent it to get check out and I should have it back by Saturday. As I had only had the thing for a few days I would have thought they could of just replaced it for me and sent the other one back to get repaired but no. Ill wait and see what they say on Saturday, if there's a problem with it then surely they have to replace it, if not ill ask for a refund.

On another note Ive just had a phone call from DHL and my Ipad is 5 minutes away from being delivered

Jared

Welcome to the iPad You'll be amazed at the battery life(of course the apps and other features!) and also if its not already on 4.2(most likely it will be on 3.2.2) i would suggest upgrading to it as soon as you get it out of the box. Do you want to JB it? I can help you

[exbelg]

just reading this and hoping the OP is getting updates... so is your problem fixed? did you get a new battery ?

once I bought a netbook and the battery also seem to suffer the same problem... as this is Thailand, I guess I was being ripped off in the way, I guess they gave me an old used almost dead battery

my thing also drained to 0 after a few days of being switched off

[Crushdepth]

I had a galaxy tab for a few weeks and the battery life is outstanding. Suspect you have a broken or misconfigured app keeping the phone awake or syncing too frequently.