[Updated] Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra abnormal battery drain noticed by many users

Here’s the crux of the article in video form

New updates are being added at the bottom of this story…….

Original story (published on March 04, 2022) follows:

A few weeks ago, Samsung unveiled its latest flagship devices at the Galaxy Unpacked event. The S22 series consists of three phones, namely, the Samsung Galaxy S22, S22 Plus, and the S22 Ultra.

That being said, the Galaxy S22 Ultra is the largest and most expensive phone in the series. It has the highest battery capacity amongst all and also features an embedded S-Pen.

But like every other recently released smartphone, Galaxy S22 Ultra users have had their fair share of bugs and issues such as camera shutter and performance lags and crackling sound issues.

And now, Galaxy S22 Ultra users are complaining (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10) about abnormal battery drain. Device owners say the battery sometimes drops percentages extremely quickly.

A few reports suggest that the battery backup on the phone is worse than Galaxy S21 Ultra. While the Exynos processor variant might not be as power-efficient as the Snapdragon variant, users say the problem persists on both versions.

You can see in the image below how quickly the battery drains for some.

Below are some reports from Galaxy S22 Ultra owners complaining about battery drain.

Tbh, really poor. I have to charge twice a day if I drain my battery all the way. If I don’t let it get below 30-40 percent (because it takes a while to charge and sometimes I want less consecutive time with it stuck on the charger) I would have to top multiple times a day. I get about 3-4 hours sot going from 100 to 0, with relatively light or moderate usage. Still couldn’t eek out more than 4 with battery saving mode on, wifi all day, and 60hz. Everything else about the phone is great.. but the battery life is a bummer and once the battery degrades in a couple years it’ll probably be unusable tbh.
(Source)

My battery life sucks compared to my last phone which I used heavily for 2 years. I’ve only had the s22 ultra for 2 days and I have battery saver turned on, but it still depletes way faster than my last phone. Especially when the screen is turned off, there is no reason for the battery to be tanking so fast. Location, wifi, bluetooth, etc is all turned off, but when I wake up in the morning it has lost 30% at least overnight. My old phone would lose maybe 5% at most.
(Source)

Since the phone is relatively new, it is still uncertain if the battery drain is related to the hardware or a software issue. We hope Samsung sheds some light on the matter and releases an update that fixes the problem.

Nonetheless, we will be keeping tabs on the matter and let you know once we come across new information so keep checking this space.

In the meantime, make sure you check out our Samsung Galaxy S22 series bug tracker to see similar issues affecting users.

05:55 pm (IST): According to some users (1, 2, 3), the latest May 2022 update on Galaxy S22 has improved the battery life of the device.

01:18 pm (IST): A Galaxy S22 owner running the August 2022 patch has managed to fix the battery drain issue by trying some workarounds. You can check them out below.

03:44 pm (IST): Some Galaxy S22 users are again reporting (1, 2) battery drainage issue after updating to December 2022 patch.

01:00 pm (IST): A recent report from a Samsung Galaxy S22 user indicates that the January update has significantly improved their phone’s battery life.

Installed the January patch, battery life improved by hours instantly and charging is back to normal! I hope to enjoy this phone now, love the camera and the speed, plus the screen is amazing
Source

01:00 pm (IST): Geekyranjit, a popular YouTuber, recently started a Twitter thread where some Samsung S22 Ultra users (1,2) shared their mostly positive thoughts on battery life especially after the recent couple of updates.

It appears that the battery-related issues started getting better after the second December patch and the January update.

05:27 pm (IST): One of the reasons for the low energy efficiency of the Galaxy S22 Ultra (and some other 2022 flagships) is related to the Samsung chipset factories.

The Galaxy S22 series uses Exynos 2200 or Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipsets (depending on territory). Both chips are made by Samsung on their 4nm process, which is unfortunately inefficient.

An inefficient process results in chipsets with poor battery and thermal management. Although both are affected by the issue, it seems to be more evident on the Exynos one.

In fact, Samsung teamed up with AMD to develop a powerful GPU (RDNA 2 architecture) with the aim of making the Exynos 2200 the mobile chipset with the most powerful GPU.

Unfortunately, the Exynos 2200 inefficiency plus the powerful GPU caused severe thermal throttling during internal testing. This forced the company to reduce the GPU clock speed (from 1.9GHz to 1.29GHz).

This is also the reason why the Galaxy S23 series will not use Exynos chipsets. It is also reported that the high-end Exynos chips will return in 2025, when their battery and heating problems have been resolved.

12:09 pm (IST): As mentioned in the previous update, the Exynos 2200 chipset is especially affected by both low power efficiency and heating issues.

Now we have Galaxy S22 Ultra users reporting both battery drain and heating, even during normal use (1, 2). In both cases, the device is powered by the Exynos 2200 chipset.

01:07 pm (IST): Some users have noticed that the battery on their Galaxy S22 Ultra drains faster during video calls (1, 2, 3).

06:00 pm (IST): Here is a list of tips from Samsung that will help you extend or improve battery life.

02:11 pm (IST): A user has managed to improve their phone’s battery by turning off background activity for the apps they don’t use more often and only keeping it on for the necessary ones.

Also, disabling RAM Plus feature seems to have helped some. Hence, you can try these potential workarounds and see if they work for you.

12:23 pm (IST): A Redditor has suggested that turning off ‘Adaptive battery’ feature has helped them improve battery life on their Galaxy S22. Here’s how to do it:

Open Settings > Battery > Adaptive Preferences > Toggle off ‘Adaptive battery’

12:30 pm (IST): According to a Redditor’s experience, even taking the device to an authorized technical service does not help to fix the issue.

They reportedly only offer to do a factory reset, then recommend the user to wait a couple of weeks for the smartphone to learn their usage patterns.

Apparently, they only do something else if the battery is obviously damaged. But if the battery is healthy and the draining is due to software or hardware (chipset), they can only apply basic troubleshooting.

1:00 pm (IST): Geekyranjit, a popular YouTube creator, recently revisited the the S22 Ultra and shared his thoughts on the battery life after the Android 13 update.

According to him, battery life has improved significantly ever since the update. Overheating issues have gotten better and the phone also feels a lot smoother in general.The comments under his video reflect a similar image.

11:08 am (IST): A redditor said that they were able to fix battery drain issue by doing a complete factory reset. Moreover, they manually installed all the apps and did not use Smart Switch or any other backup and restore app.

Hence, you can also give it a try and see if it improves the battery life on your device as well.

Just did a complete reset to factory settings and did not use smart switch or any sort of backup and restore app. I have manually installed each app I used from the play store and the phone feels COMPLETELY different then how it was before. The battery life has literally almost doubled . I don’t know what’s up with smart switch or Google restore but it does something to make the phone run like shit. (Source)

03:14 pm (IST): There’s another potential workaround that could help you mitigate the issue:

Messages seems to be taking quite a bit considering only 3 mins? You could perhaps try a few of the following…

1. Disable Ram Plus

2. Enable ‘Suspend Execution for Cached Apps’

3. Go into Recovery Mode, Wipe Cache Partition, then Repair Apps

4. Restrict certain apps that you believe may be hogging data in the background

Source

02:19 pm (IST): According to some reports (1,2,3), battery drain on Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is minimal when watching content without interruptions.

However, when using apps that require a lot of scrolling (Instagram, Twitter, TikTok), the phone uses a lot more battery. The adaptive refresh rate is consequently raised steadily to 120.

go to developer options and enable the option to display the refresh rate. you will see that e.g. for youtube the refresh rate drops to 60 or even 30 after a couple of seconds. when you touch the screen it instantly goes back to 120.

if you do nothing on the homescreen or in apps like twitter or reddit it drops to 24/18.

instagram for example keeps 120 hz up for very long and as said before, every time you touch the screen or anything on the screen is moving it keeps 120.
Source

11:50 am (IST): Some users report that their battery drains overnight even when the device isn’t in use. While some say it’s due to Always-on-display (AOD), others point out that it drains even with AOD turned off.

01:54 pm (IST): Getting frustrated by the battery drain issue, some Galaxy S22+ users are even considering (1, 2, 3) upgrading to Galaxy S23+.

12:36 pm (IST): A redditor recommended a combination of settings that reportedly could help you get past 10 SOT (screen-on time) battery life.

powersave mode on always , Hd+ , Lte only, sync off, location off, always fingerprint off, animated lockscreen off, always dark mode, 60Hz. All apps deep sleep except WhatsApp.
Source

12:10 pm (IST): Samsung has begun pushing out the February 2022 patch, which should be available shortly for S22 users as well. So, you can update your devices to see if that helps the power drain problem.

01:16 pm (IST): A redditor has shared some tips to fix the abnormal battery drain problem and get up to 6 hours of SoT (Screen-on-time). You can check them out below.

12:06 pm (IST): Samsung is now rolling out One UI 5.1 for Galaxy S22 users. Hence, you can install the latest update and see if it fixes the battery drain problem.

12:07 pm (IST): The battery drain issue on Galaxy S22 reportedly persists even with the latest One UI 5.1 update.

09:58 am (IST): The battery life on Galaxy S23 is reportedly (1, 2) better than Galaxy S22. So those looking to upgrade due to battery drain problem can go for it.

01:46 pm (IST): Although the battery drain issue persists with One UI 5.1, some Galaxy S22 users reported that the new version has improved the battery life for them.

And thus, you can update to the latest version if you haven’t yet and see if this is still an issue.

02:04 pm (IST): A user noted that keyboard is consuming a lot of battery on their Galaxy S22. However, Samsung support allegedly suggested some troubleshooting steps to fix it. You can check them out below.

10:19 am (IST): A user has alleged that Samsung is aware of the battery drain issue caused by One UI 5.1 update and they will address it soon.

However, we recommend our readers to take this info with a pinch of salt as there is no official confirmation on the same.

05:07 am (IST): Some users point out that using mobile data on the Galaxy S22 series drains the battery very quickly (1, 2).

It’s worth pointing out that, normally, using mobile data consumes more battery than using Wi-Fi. However, affected users claim that the battery drain is higher than expected.

03:32 pm (IST): We have come across some tips that can potentially help improve your battery life on Galaxy S22 Ultra.

Mine is even better after the update. Here are some tips

• Use Samsung app Booster to optimize all apps
• Clear cache of Google Play Services
• Wipe the cache partition of your device using recovery mode and then reboot

Source

Note: We have more such stories in our dedicated Samsung Section so be sure to follow them as well.

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