Samsung Health running in the background & using battery 28 October 2022 at 4:04PM in Techie Stuff 6 replies 162 views

B0bbyEwing

So I woke up at 1:30am this morning & took my phone (Samsung Galaxy S20) off charge as I saw it was at 100% (usually have it set to cap at 85% but turned that off last night).

Got up at 5am & the battery was 91%.

Opened up the settings to see what had used so much juice in such a short space of time - Samsung Health running in the background.

Now I do use SH for tracking things. 

Steps - recorded on my watch and then synced to the app.
Exercise - again, I'll select the activity on my watch which then syncs to SH when I'm done.
Sleep - watch again.
Body composition - whenever I use the Renpho scales it'll send the info to SH.
Heart rate - again from the watch

And that's about it.

I don't know if it does anything in the background that's helpful, which is why I'm here. I don't want to turn it off & then find features I use suddenly stop working.

Good to turn off background use or do I need it on really? Say I record an activity and then press finish - will it sync to SH still or would I then have to start opening the app to sync it?

RumRat

Mine uses a similar amount overnight (S21 and Watch 5). Sleep tracking would be the major culprit I guess as the watch is updating the phone constantly, especially if you have 'snore' detection turned on. Turn it off on the phone overnight and see if everything still works OK. 
Does losing the battery power overnight impact on your daily usage? Mine still lasts a full day with some in reserve even with the overnight usage.
 

B0bbyEwing

RumRat said:

Mine uses a similar amount overnight (S21 and Watch 5). 
 

How are you getting on with the Watch 5? What do you think of it?

Question is a little useless if you have no previous Galaxy Watch to compare it to I suppose.

I currently own the Galaxy Watch 3 Classic 45mm (or whatever the larger size is). There's parts of it I really like and others not so much - which is why I'm a bit of a nerd at the moment as I make the switch to a Garmin (currently wearing a watch on either wrist - not so bad at this time of year as long sleeves stop others from seeing how much of a nerd you are. lol). The Garmin I have at the moment is a Venu 2 (not the 2S or the Plus, just the 2).

Sleep detection is night & day (no joke attempted!) - the Samsung wins hands down. The Garmin is actually really quite poor. From reading in to it, I think a lot of Garmin's suffer this. I suspect sleep isn't an area that Garmin are prioritising where they spend money developing.
If you've ever checked out The Quantified Scientist on YouTube, he says the GW3 isn't that accurate for sleep detection either compared to other devices but while I have no way of verifying sleep stages (other than awake - which Gamin fails miserably at). I have to say the GW3 is very accurate in terms of time I went to sleep & woke.

I love the fitness tracking of the Garmin though and the challenges as well as the Body Battery. These are big reasons why I bought it.

Notifications obviously better on the Samsung.

I watched a video (again from the Quantified Scientist) about the GW5 and the overall view seemed to be for the price, the GW4 was the better selection as any 'improvements' were either non existent on the GW5 or just not significant enough.

RumRat said:

Sleep tracking would be the major culprit I guess as the watch is updating the phone constantly, especially if you have 'snore' detection turned on. Turn it off on the phone overnight and see if everything still works OK. 
 

You could be on to something there. I've recently turned that on. Never thought about that.

RumRat said:

Does losing the battery power overnight impact on your daily usage? Mine still lasts a full day with some in reserve even with the overnight usage.
 

When I'm not at work, yes - but then I can charge it any time I want.
When I'm at work, no probably not.

But you may have hit the nail on the head with that snore detection though. I'll try it out.

RumRat

I had the GW4 for a short period now the 5 and it seems to be slightly more accurate than the 4. I stuck with Samsung as it works seamlessly with the phone and suits how I use it better. The battery lasts longer on the 5 as well, it will be far better than the 3.
I guess the choice would be determined how and what you use it for. Good idea to try them side by side in real world tests..

flaneurs_lobster

Probably know this but the GW5 has temperature sensors added (but not yet activated).  

B0bbyEwing

RumRat said:

I had the GW4 for a short period now the 5 and it seems to be slightly more accurate than the 4. I stuck with Samsung as it works seamlessly with the phone and suits how I use it better. The battery lasts longer on the 5 as well, it will be far better than the 3.
I guess the choice would be determined how and what you use it for. Good idea to try them side by side in real world tests..

There's another question - how do you get on with the thickness of the GW5?

You're the only one I know with one so can't really ask anyone else.

I saw DC Rainmaker's review video & it looks like a chunky beast.

RumRat

I have the Watch 5 at 44mm which is the same size as my normal digital watch, both diameter and thickness, so I find it to be the perfect size....The Watch 5 Pro was much larger (46mm and thicker) and when I tried it on it's definitely a chunky beast, but has a slightly bigger battery, so, personal choices to be made there.