How to improve the battery life of your Samsung Galaxy S10

If you are an early adopter of one of the Samsung Galaxy S10 models, you might not be overly impressed with battery life, especially on the Exynos versions. S10 models powered by Samsung's in-house developed chipset have generally proven to last less than their Snapdragon 855 counterparts, not to mention the recently uncovered bug that further diminishes battery life on Exynos Galaxy S10s.

With that said, if you're finding it difficult to get through an entire day without recharging, there are some things you can do to improve battery life on your Samsung Galaxy S10. It's also important to note that, if you just got your hands on one of the models, battery life is expected to improve a bit as you use the phone, due to Samsung's "AI-powered" software that's supposed to learn from your usage patterns and optimize power consumption accordingly. Still, if you want to get to the bottom of why your battery is draining faster than you're expecting, and improve its longevity, here's a handful of helpful tips!

Reminder: You can easily search for all the options mentioned below by going to Settings and using the search field to find what you need. Still, we are going to mention where each setting can be found in the various menus.

Use one of the power saving modes

If you're not watching a movie or playing a demanding 3D game on your Galaxy S10, it may be wise to check out the various power modes built into One UI. Enabling "High performance" may sound tempting, but unless you really need all the power right now, you may be better off opting for one of the others instead. "Optimized" is probably what you should try out first as it offers a good balance between performance and battery life.

If you want to squeeze a bit more screen-on time from the phone, then check out the "Medium" power saving mode, which limits the CPU speed to 70%, turns off the AOD display, restricts background data, and lowers the brightness and resolution of the display. The latter two measures can be adjusted from the menu. Once the battery hits 15%, your phone will urge you to switch to "Medium" power saving even if you're using "Optimized" or "High performance."

The last option is "Maximum power saving," which should be reserved for the most desperate of scenarios. This mode is meant to provide only the most basic of functions and make your phone last much, much longer.

Last (but not least), there's the "Adaptive power saving" mode, which is supposed to optimize battery life based on your usage patterns. This is Samsung's "smart" energy saving mode, and we'd advise you to at least try it out. It's supposed to learn from your usage over time, so don't expect immediate results.

Tweak the Always On Display (AOD)

The AOD could be a useful feature, especially considering that none of the Galaxy S10 models have an LED notification light. However, it could also decrease battery life on your device. In fact, due to a recently discovered bug, leaving the "Tap to show" option ON in the AOD settings is almost sure to trigger while carrying the phone in your pocket.

The best way to cut down on power consumption from the AOD is to disable it entirely. However, if you still want to use it, you can set a schedule and have it on at certain times. Additionally, you can also limit how bright the AOD is by switching off the "Auto brightness" toggle and setting the brightness yourself. Of course, you can also leave "Tap to show" on and monitor if your battery life is significantly affected by accidental taps.

Disable "Double tap to wake up" and "Lift to wake"

Double tapping the screen to turn it on may be convenient, but it's been the source of battery woes for Galaxy S10 owners due to the bug we mentioned above. Basically, if you leave this setting on, and carry the Galaxy S10 in your pocket with the display facing your leg, the phone is likely to interpret touches against your thigh as finger taps and turn on the display. This can happen at a different frequency, depending on many things, such as your walking pace, the size of your pockets, and the material of your clothes.

"Lift to wake" is similarly likely to turn on the display of your Galaxy S10 while you're carrying it in your pocket or in a bag. As you can probably already guess, the phone misinterprets random motions as deliberate and wakes every time it does so. Many users have discovered that leaving these two options on decreases battery life while the phone is seemingly not in use. No wonder, when the screen is constantly being turned on while you're carrying your phone around. We're hoping that Samsung will address these issues in an upcoming update, but for the time being, we'd suggest turning both off.

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