How to Improve Battery Life of the Samsung Galaxy S9/S9+
Let's face it, both the Samsung Galaxy S9 and the S9+ have an extremely mediocre battery life. Even though Samsung has been making amazing innovations in camera tech, it sadly has been rather poor with the battery life of its flagship phones.
When I started using the Galaxy S9 as my primary phone, it barely saw me through 75% of the day on a single charge. In fact, one day the phone discharged 10% during the time it took me to reach office.
Even though the Samsung Galaxy S9 is powered with the battery-efficient Snapdragon 845, the mediocre battery life can be blamed on the larger-than-life display and the power-heavy features. So it's only natural that the 3,500mAh (3,000mAh in case of the Galaxy S9) battery unit won't be able to keep up for too long.
If you are one who is annoyed by this poor battery life, worry not, help is near. The following short and practical fixes will help you have a better battery life on your Samsung Galaxy S9/S9+.
1. Take Advantage of the Super AMOLED Display
Super AMOLED displays not only offer a better viewing experience but is also power-efficient. Throw a black theme into the mix and it'll be a match made in heaven.
As you may already know, the power consumption of an AMOLED screen is uneven since it only focuses on the number of active pixels. This means that inactive or black pixels do not consume power.
Meanwhile, do switch the Automatic Brightness mode on, which would adjust the screen brightness depending on the ambient light condition.
2. Do You Really Need the WQHD+ Screen Resolution?
Yes, the high-res WQHD+ display can really work wonders, with the pictures appearing more vivid and sharp. But, such incredible picture quality comes at the cost of battery life.
The 2K display resolution guzzles more battery juice than FHD+. So, in case you aren't watching any video content on your Galaxy S9, the FHD+ screen resolution would be your best bet. To lower the screen resolution, head to Settings > Display > Screen resolution.
3. Turn the Intelligent Scan Off
One of the highlights of the Galaxy S9/S9+ is the Intelligent Scan feature. As cool as it may seem, this authentication method eventually ends up eating a lot of your phone's juice.
Every time you press the power key, the iris scanner turns on. So, if it fails — and it happens most of the time — the face unlock takes over.
This combination eventually ends up burning more battery power. So, our recommendation would be to turn this feature off and use the fingerprint unlock method, now that its sensor is located more conveniently.
4. Customize the Performance Mode
The Samsung Galaxy S9 sports a number of preset performance modes that are to be used as per the need of the hour. The good news is that these modes can also be customized.
So, if you feel that the brightness or the screen resolution could be tweaked, don't hesitate to do so. Another nifty method to extract a few minutes of extra battery life is to reduce the Screen time-out. Smaller the time-out, shorter the time the screen stays on.
5. Turn Nearby Device Scanning Off
Nearby Device Scanning uses both Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and microphone to scan for nearby devices. If you're not a frequent user of this quick transfer feature, it'd be wise to disable this, even though it uses a low amount of energy, its still some battery saving for you.
To do so, head over to Settings > Connections > More Connection Settings and toggle the option off. Additionally, you can also keep the Wi-Fi disabled when not in use. Instead, keep the Turn On Wi-Fi automatically feature on, found in the advanced Wi-Fi setting.
6. Utilize the App Monitor
From effective memory to storage management, Samsung's App Monitor has a plethora of options. However, the most useful part of this package is the battery analyzer.
This mode lets you see if any app is consuming more power than it should. Other than that, a periodic optimization (Fix Now button) will tell you if frequent app crashes are the reason behind the abnormal power consumption on your phone.
If you see an app making a frequent appearance on this list, your best bet is to uninstall such power-hungry apps.
Enjoy the Experience Without Worrying About Your Battery
You can try putting the infrequently-used apps to sleep. This makes sure that these apps won't run in the background, saving you both battery and cellular data.
What's more, live wallpapers are another reason for a poor battery life on the Galaxy S9. I tried using one for a few days. But, seeing the alarming drop in the battery percentages made me reconsider my decision.
At the same time, do follow a couple of best practices for charging your device such as using only the charging cable that came with your device along with the supplied charger. Also, it doesn't hurt to keep a power bank (like the Anker PowerCore Speed 10000 QC) to back you up when the phone battery ditches you.
How has your Galaxy S9 experience been so far? Do let us know in the comments section below.