Android (Samsung) battery

B0bbyEwing

With iPhone there's a feature in the settings that will tell you your battery health/life in percentage. I'm not talking about charge until it runs out that day. 

When I was an iPhone user I always found it represented my experience pretty accurately. 

Is there a feature on Android I've missed without the need to install a 3rd party app? 

Also with iPhone I could go to an Apple store or Apple approved store & say I'd like a new battery in this phone, hand over the money and job done. 

How do you go about getting a new battery in a Samsung without visiting a side street in the town centre? 

Emmia

B0bbyEwing said:

With iPhone there's a feature in the settings that will tell you your battery health/life in percentage. I'm not talking about charge until it runs out that day. 

When I was an iPhone user I always found it represented my experience pretty accurately. 

Is there a feature on Android I've missed without the need to install a 3rd party app? 

Also with iPhone I could go to an Apple store or Apple approved store & say I'd like a new battery in this phone, hand over the money and job done. 

How do you go about getting a new battery in a Samsung without visiting a side street in the town centre? 

With the Samsung's/android phones it can be less about the battery, and more about the security updates. 

That said, I have a iPhone for work, and until recently a Samsung for personal use, both lasted 6 years with the same batteries. I replaced the Samsung (with a Pixel)  mainly as there were no security updates., but I did always have a large capacity external battery in my bag to charge either phone 

If you're looking for an android phone you can maintain yourself, you should look at Fairphone - the batteries, camera, screen etc., are all user replaceable (and designed to be so).

https://www.fairphone.com/en/

400ixl

The best way to look at battery condition on Android is with a 3rd party app such as Accubattery which will give you far more detail than you can get from either native Android or iOS on the iPhone.

Saying that Samsung does have a very useful feature you can switch on which is to stop charging at 80%. If you do this and don't let it drop below 20% before re-charging (and don't leave it on a charger overnight) then you will be optimising the battery.

Looked after properly then the battery will last the lifetime of the phone. However, if you want to pay Samsung rates for a battery change then you can go through their repair network https://www.samsung.com/uk/support/repair/

born_again

Have a look in settings.
Every Android phone I have owned has a setting to show battery % at top of screen.

400ixl

born_again said:

Have a look in settings.
Every Android phone I have owned has a setting to show battery % at top of screen.

That only shows the % of current charge and expected time that charge will last. It doesn't show the battery health, recharge cycles etc which is what the OP appears to be asking about.

RumRat

B0bbyEwing said:

With iPhone there's a feature in the settings that will tell you your battery health/life in percentage. I'm not talking about charge until it runs out that day. 

When I was an iPhone user I always found it represented my experience pretty accurately. 

Is there a feature on Android I've missed without the need to install a 3rd party app? 

Also with iPhone I could go to an Apple store or Apple approved store & say I'd like a new battery in this phone, hand over the money and job done. 

How do you go about getting a new battery in a Samsung without visiting a side street in the town centre? 

On your Samsung phone open the 'Members' app - Tap on 'Support' at the bottom of the screen - Then you can check your battery status through 'Phone Diagnostics'. If it's only battery you are interested in scroll down and tap 'Battery'.
If you set it to carry out all diagnostics then it takes a while and needs your involvement, so make sure you have some time to spare....
For repairs you can book through Samsung for an authorised repair to be carried out. Or, if you have a phone that's included you can use the self repair programme. l wouldn't recommend that though unless you were very handy. Also it's not much 
cheaper than going the authorised repairer route. The reason it's so expensive is the use of genuine parts. if you go to your local repair shop they probably won't use a genuine Samsung battery for instance.
Hope that helps.

B0bbyEwing

Thanks RumRat & others. I'll take a closer look after work. 

Also as 400ixl says - I said in the OP I'm not referring to how much life my battery has off its last charge, I'm talking about it's health which can cause it to run out of juice faster than it used to. 

For example.... 

In the past I've gone on 3hr, 4hr bike rides & had my phone paired to my cycle computer as it allows my wife to track where I'm at - makes her feel more comfortable. 

I get home & there's not even a thought that my battery may run out. I'll be 50% or so from an 85% charge. Absolutely zero concerns. 

Yesterday I went out for my first long (3hr) ride in just shy of 3 months which is also roughly thr time I've been wondering if my battery is draining quicker. 

My phone was at about 5% when I got home. Never happens. I did nothing different either - took a few photos, sent a few whats apps but I do that during rides anyway. 

Over the Xmas period I even blitzed my phone & got rid of many apps that I just didn't use in case they were doing anything in the background. Clearly that didn't make a difference. 

400ixl

Accubattery will do all of what you need. Give it your original battery capacity and over a few charges it will give you a view of how degraded it is and allow you to monitor it going forwards.

It may have been a one off high battery usage event, but worth tracking.

B0bbyEwing

@400ixl - I've installed AccuBattery. It says my Design capacity is 3,880.0 mAh, the Estimated capacity is 2,899.0 mAh. 
Yet according to Wikipedia, my battery is 4,000 mAh.

Apparently I can edit it but I'm more curious why it's saying the design is 3,880. I suppose it's close but surely it should be able to pull accurate info?

@RumRat - do you have any trouble with Accidental Touch Protection? I'm having an absolute nightmare with it lately.
When I finish work I like to stick on Waze or Google Maps, just in case there's any nasty surprises on the way home. 

I couldn't get in to my phone tonight because of it. Slide up was a non starter. It just wouldn't do a thing no matter how much I did it. It was only once I got home in better lighting was I able to get in to my phone via face unlock.

I know there's a lot of people that suffer with this. Early on in my Android journey (Galaxy S10) I had no problems at all. I was running either version 10 or 11. Then it upgraded to the next one & that's when all the trouble started. 

400ixl

I would leave it as is at the moment and give it a few days to settle on what the current battery capacity is. It needs a week or so of charges and use to get accuracy.

No idea why it shows less, it gets my Pixel original capacity spot on at 5003 mAh.

After 26 months my battery is showing as 4,900 mAh (98%). I typically charge to 80% in the evening, then unplug and let it run all the way through to the following evening unless it needs charging because it will go below 20%, but that is rare.

Can't say I have seen accidental touch protection on the Pixel or the OnePlus I had before that.

Not had a Samsung for years due to so many issues with them and the bloatware installed, so it could be a Samsung thing.

B0bbyEwing

400ixl said:

I would leave it as is at the moment and give it a few days to settle on what the current battery capacity is. It needs a week or so of charges and use to get accuracy.

No idea why it shows less, it gets my Pixel original capacity spot on at 5003 mAh.

After 26 months my battery is showing as 4,900 mAh (98%). I typically charge to 80% in the evening, then unplug and let it run all the way through to the following evening unless it needs charging because it will go below 20%, but that is rare.

Can't say I have seen accidental touch protection on the Pixel or the OnePlus I had before that.

Not had a Samsung for years due to so many issues with them and the bloatware installed, so it could be a Samsung thing.

Yeah from what I've read it seems tied to Samsung's (the accidental touch issue).

I will put my phone on charge at night (cable these days having moved away from wireless) & it will stop charging automatically at 85% ... but it stays plugged in through the night.

I'll take it off charge, having a bit of a browse at breakfast, go to the gym. As I come to leave the gym it'll be on 69%. 
I put it on charge as I drive & by the time I get to work it'll be somewhere between 80-85%.

Then by the time I leave work about 5:30 it'll be 20-35% ... depending how much I've used it through the day.

I know all that means nothing because you could have the same usage on your phone & be at 60%, someone else could do the same & be at 10% on their phone. I don't think what I use is particularly 'a lot'. I do feel the battery runs down fairly quickly.