Fix: Battery idle drain on Samsung Galaxy S21/S21+

The Samsung Galaxy S21 and Samsung Galaxy S21+ are truly remarkable flagship devices and great successors to a somewhat underwhelming S20 series. Of course, the Ultra model being the top-of-the-line device. There are no many things to like about these phones but, there are some temporary issues. Today, we’ll try and suggest ways to improve battery life on these two devices, as users are reporting battery drain on the S21 and S21+. Learn more below.

Table of contents:

1. Disable background applications
2. Disable Always-on Display
3. Use Battery Saver
4. Disable Location, Bluetooth, and NFC
5. Disable haptic feedback
6. Update your device
7. Switch to Dark Mode and disable auto-brightness

Improve battery life on the Samsung Galaxy S21 and S21+

1. Disable background applications

The first thing to do is to disable applications. The system should do that for you, with the Adaptive battery feature. It tracks your usage and puts to sleep apps that don’t need to work in the background. Although it’s definitely improving battery, some users are not happy as it can Adaptive battery optimization can get too aggressive.

Either way, you can check the list of optimized apps and add a few more to the list. The focus is on the apps that don’t need to work in the background. So, instant messengers, email clients, and similar apps that you rely on to get push notifications should be off the list.

You can find the list in Settings > Battery > Sleeping apps. Alternatively, you can boot into Safe mode and, if the drain isn’t present, uninstall recently-installed third-party apps that are using too much battery in the background.

2. Disable Always-on Display

One of the biggest battery consumers is AoD (Always-on Display). This is a great feature and it can come in handy to glance at all the important things without waking up or unlocking your device. However, you need to know that it will deplete your battery severely. So, before Samsung addresses battery issues (it seemingly does with the March update), consider disabling AoD.

Here’s how to disable Always-on Display on the Samsung Galaxy S21 and S21+:

1. Open Settings.
2. Tap Lock Screen.
3. Select Always-on Display.
4. Disable Always-on Display.

3. Use Battery Saver

This tip applies in situations where you just need to get some extra battery life while being unable to recharge it. But you can also use Battery Saver to get an extra mile even as soon as your battery drops to a certain percentage. Again, hopefully, updates will fix this so, for the time being, this is something you can try.

You can enable Battery Saver on your Samsung S21 or S21+ in Settings > Battery > Battery saver.

4. Disable Location, Bluetooth, and NFC

This goes without saying but, if you are not actively using Location, Bluetooth, or NFC, consider disabling them. Especially overnight when the device isn’t used. By doing so, you’ll reduce the idle drain significantly.

Of course, when the need arises, you can re-enable them back again, use them, and turn them off. This is something many people neglect but these sensors and radios affect the battery life big time.

5. Disable haptic feedback

Haptic feedback (device vibration in general) is one of the most prominent differentiators between the top and budget devices. Samsung definitely uses high-quality vibration motors on their devices and they have great haptic feedback. However, the vibration motor is, besides display and some other internals, the biggest battery consumer.

So, you can navigate to Settings > Sound and disable it from there. We are aware that this isn’t exactly a pinnacle of user experience but, until that update kicks in, disabling it should reduce battery drain on the S21 and S21+.

6. Update your device

Based on user reports on different public forums, the March update improves battery life significantly. Not only that, but it also reduces battery drain on the S21 and S21+. So, make sure that your device is up to date before doing something radical, like resetting it to factory settings.

Follow these steps to check for updates on your Samsung Galaxy S21/S21+:

1. Open Settings.
2. Tap Software update.
3. Download and install updates if available.

7. Switch to Dark Mode and disable auto-brightness

Finally, we can only recommend enabling the dark mode and manually setting screen brightness. That way, you’ll improve the battery life. Again, we are aware that users that pay good money for a premium device don’t expect a lackluster battery Screen-on time or battery drains. But, software should fix that as hardware is more than capable of much better results.

You can locate both options in Settings > Display.

That’s it. Thank you for reading and feel free to follow us on Facebook and Twitter. In addition, make sure to post questions or alternative tips in the comments section below.