Is your Galaxy S21 Ultra battery life shorter while on the move? Here's a culprit...
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There is no denying that the Galaxy S21 Ultra and Note 20 Ultra are Samsung's pinnacle Android phone achievements so far. Record-breaking camera set, adaptive LTPO display, amazing battery life, S Pen support and fast charging are just a few of its defining features, yet the phones are not without flaws.
What to do if you have an unit that dies on you while keeping the S20 Ultra, Note 20 Ultra, and S21 Ultra in your pocket and covering serious mileage around the cityscape? Not much, really, as, first, it's not clear if the OIS system is the issue (it could be, as the rest of this and last year's S-line gang don't have this problem), and, second, the culprit might be something else, as these things go.
We are not talking the gargantuan size and weight of the S21 Ultra here but rather Samsung's camera software which seems to keep both the Ultra and the Note awake while the phone is moving and shaking, aka by just walking around.
Needless to say, these wake commands that are never stopped can drain a unit's battery pretty fast as the phone is always in an alert state even though it's not being used but rather simply moved around. You can follow this thread for the coding details, but, in essence, the OIS anti-shake camera system may be the culprit:
So here's something "fun" about the S20 Ultra (possibly), Note20 Ultra, and S21 Ultra: bad battery life when the phone is in motion.
— Zachary Wander (@Wander1236) June 5, 2021
Why? Because otherwise, the camera might make a rattling noise.
Samsung has been made aware of the problem, and if they investigate to conclude that the anti-shake stabilization system wakes that keep the sensor from rattling while in motion is behind this, it will be sure to issue a fix. We feel for them, as otherwise people would be complaining that something in their phone is rattling, there's no winning this war.
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