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Samsung Galaxy S5 Update

Samsung Galaxy S5 Update

In my previous post where I found the Samsung Galaxy S5 unsatisfactory because, for me, battery life is my prime concern.  I chose the Samsung Galaxy S5 because reviews stated that it had a very good battery life.  My experience found the phone to be quite awful.  I had to charge the phone one or two times to achieve usable service in an 8 hour period.  After poking around at the cell phone settings, I think I found a usable configuration.  My cell phone lasted the whole day.  Here are my setting changes:

Go to Settings.

Choose Power saving.

Turn Power saving mode “ON”.  You are then given 3 options:

  • Restrict background data (Turn ON)
  • Restrict performance (Turn ON).  This in turn has four sub menu items:
    • CPU performance (Turn ON)
    • Screen output (Turn ON)
    • Turn off touch key light (Turn ON)
    • Turn off GPS (for some reason this was greyed out and I could not change this.  So I guess it was on).
  • Grayscale mode (Keep OFF)

I did have to go into the Settings again and turn “Display” > “Brightness” > Automatic brightness off and revert to manual screen illumination because the screen went way too dark.

I did NOT turn Ultra power saving mode on.

Now if you think that the Samsung Galaxy S5 is now the best cell phone for extended battery life, think again.  I compared my cell phone with my son’s HTC One M8 just before dinner time and my phone had about a 38% charge while my son’s HTC had a 57% charge.  He uses his phone all day long and plays video games on his phone.  And, he did not have to cripple his phone at all to get such good battery performance.

Samsung Galaxy S5 Product Review

Samsung Galaxy S5 Product Review

Samsung Galaxy S5 Review

I have been greatly annoyed with my Samsung Galaxy S3 for not lasting a day’s worth of charge.  I finally realized I qualified for a phone upgrade recently and spent about two days doing research to find the best phone that would last, hopefully a whole day on a single battery charge.  My son tried to talk me into buying the HTC One M8 which he said was a better phone for the reason it lasts more than one day on a single charge.  My Internet research and looking at Consumer Reports seemed to point to the Samsung Galaxy S5 so I went into T Mobile and did the upgrade to that phone.  The results were very disappointing.  My opinion is that the Galaxy S5 has the same battery life as the Samsung Galaxy S3!  The S5 does have some nice new features but one of them is NOT better battery life.  If you are looking for a phone that can retain a decent charge for one full day, I do not recommend the Samsung Galaxy S5.  You might look closely at the HTC One M8.