New contract, bad battery?

froud

I have just started a new mobile contract. The phone is a Samsung Galaxy A35. When it arrived without a charger, I used my Huawei 10w charger as it fit and the instructions said that a charger between 10-25w would be ok.

It then took 3 hours to charge from 30% to 100%. I thought maybe because it's new and its the first charge. But it's been 3 days now and I've had to charge it 3 times already. It's draining so fast even though I'm hardly using it. I have WiFi on, that's all I can see that's in use.

My questions are, is this normal?
Should I buy a genuine Samsung charger and see if that helps?
Should I speak to the contract provider (Three) and try to get it replaced instead?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give.

Abbafan1972

Was this a new phone? If so, why was there no charger and how come you didn’t raise it with three? 

froud

Yes it was new, apparently they don't come with the plugs or earphones anymore, just a cable.

Ayr_Rage

Abbafan1972 said:

Was this a new phone? If so, why was there no charger and how come you didn’t raise it with three? 

Pretty much normal these days, no charger to reduce electronic waste.

@froud have you checked which apps are running in the background?

Is it a 5G phone? If so limit the connection to 4G as that may use less power.

Veteransaver

It's a fairly standard 5000mah battery in an A35. 
You could try installing the accubattery app and it should let you known the health of the battery.
Phones do tend to do a lot of updates when you first get them and that can drain the battery more than usual.
Can you see in the settings how long the screen has been on (probably on the wellbeing setting?), that is usually what will drain the battery. Ie how many hours of screentime

froud

Ayr_Rage said:

Abbafan1972 said:

Was this a new phone? If so, why was there no charger and how come you didn’t raise it with three? 

Pretty much normal these days, no charger to reduce electronic waste.

@froud have you checked which apps are running in the background?

Is it a 5G phone? If so limit the connection to 4G as that may use less power.

Nothing running in the background. Yes it's 5g so I'll try that, thank you!

Veteransaver said:

It's a fairly standard 5000mah battery in an A35. 
You could try installing the accubattery app and it should let you known the health of the battery.
Phones do tend to do a lot of updates when you first get them and that can drain the battery more than usual.
Can you see in the settings how long the screen has been on (probably on the wellbeing setting?), that is usually what will drain the battery. Ie how many hours of screentime

Thank you I'll give that a try. I charged it to 100% last night, screen off time 9 hours, Screen on time says 1hr 30 mins. And it's at 77%. Does that sound about right?
For the past 5 years I've had an Huawei p30 lite and that seemed to last way longer.

flaneurs_lobster

Doesn't sound too out of whack with my A54. You could try turning on battery saving mode which will do things like turn off 5G (which you've already done), reduce the screen brightness and refresh rate etc. 

The battery (& it's associated management software) will take a week or so to adjust to your usage patterns to allow the thing to optimise.

400ixl

Changing the charger for a faster one will only speed up the charge time, not how long it takes to drain the battery. So if it is the speed it recharges at you want to improve, then a higher power charger will be a worthwhile investment, but it doesn't need to be from Samsung (far cheaper to get another brand like Anker).

You will usually find that for the first few charges and week or so of use will see the charge last longer each time. How long have you had the phone? Samsung do come with a lot of bloatware apps that run in the background. Some can be uninstalled, others can't.

EnPointe

Abbafan1972 said:

Was this a new phone? If so, why was there no charger and how come you didn’t raise it with three? 

Masjority of phones   don't come with a charger these days 

froud

flaneurs_lobster said:

Doesn't sound too out of whack with my A54. You could try turning on battery saving mode which will do things like turn off 5G (which you've already done), reduce the screen brightness and refresh rate etc. 

The battery (& it's associated management software) will take a week or so to adjust to your usage patterns to allow the thing to optimise.

I didn't know it needed a week to adjust! Hopefully that will solve my problem as it's only been 3/4days. Thank you!

400ixl

That adjustment relies on you using it as normal during that period though, not trying to get as much out of the battery as possible.