The battery life on the Samsung Galaxy S6 seems to drain quite fast. But before you go blaming the device’s low battery capacity, its unibody design, or any other new features on the 2015 flagship that may not be to your taste, consider this: The device’s software can be just as troublesome as its hardware.
Critics have been blaming Samsung as the most obvious culprit for the abysmal battery life on the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge, which can sometimes struggle to last a full 8-hour work day, before desperately needing juice.
But one major contributor to this issue can be found within the Android 5.0 Lollipop code. Many savvy users have reported to Android Open Source Project issue tracker, a flaw, which keeps a mobile data connection running on the Galaxy S6, even after an application is no longer in use. Users open an app, which begins a data connection to that app. But once the users closes that app, the data connection may keep running for some time as if the app is still in use, facilitating battery drain. Applications affected by this issue include Google Play Services and Google Now.
It’s not just the Galaxy S6 suffering from battery drain issues. Many smartphones including the Xperia Z3 and OnePlus One have begun experiencing worst battery life since updating from Android 4.4 KitKat to Android 5.0.2 in particular, according to tech publication SamMobile.
Currently, Google has not implemented any fixes for this issue, but tech company does seem to be aware there is a problem. Reports indicate that battery issues continue in Android 5.1.1, along with other problems like impromptu reboots, connectivity issues and lagging on the user interface.
Prior Samsung flagship models like the Galaxy S5 and the Galaxy S4, which launched with older systems like Android 4.4 and Android 4.3 Jelly Bean, had no problem going an entire day or more on a single charge. Of course these devices had massive batteries to aid that battery life, as well as removable back panels that allowed users to add even more power to their phones.
The Samsung Galaxy S5 and Galaxy S4 don’t run Android 5.0 out of the box, but the Android 5.0 updates have hit many models of the Galaxy S5 and Galaxy S4. If you haven’t yet installed the new software on your device, you may want to hold out for Google to address this issue. In fact, any phone slated for and Android 5.0 update could be affected with this problem.
