One UI 6 brought a much-needed design revamp to OneUI. We got a new design for the Quick Toggles, with more Gaussian Blur in the design language. You can quickly swipe from the top right to bring up the Quick Toggles, similar to the Control Center on iOS.
There’s also a new feature where you can assign a specific wallpaper and home screen combo for the Do Not Disturb mode. There are also some changes to the animations. However, the update is causing battery drain for some users.
Why is there a battery drain on One UI 6?
It’s mostly an issue with optimization from Samsung’s software developers. Also, One UI 6 is a new skin with new aesthetics and features. It will probably take a while to optimize completely. Fortunately, you can try the below workarounds to fix the battery life problems.
7 ways to fix battery drain on One UI 6
1: Basic workarounds
Most smartphones these days ship with AMOLED/ OLED screens, and dark mode will save around 10% of battery life at the end of the day. This is because the individual pixels turn entirely off instead of lighting up to show whites in light mode.
You can also try using the Low Power Mode feature. It limits background processes and maximum brightness. It also limits the CPU capacity and slightly improves the overall battery life.
If you use Always On Display, we recommend turning it off until Samsung addresses this issue. This should add another 5% overall to your battery, probably increasing it by at least 20 or 30 minutes of screen time.
2: Turn off GPS, Mobile Data, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi if unnecessary
GPS and mobile data; both heavily drain your phone’s battery. You can turn GPS off if there’s no use of Location Services currently. Similarly, turn off mobile data in areas with Wi-Fi connections. If you don’t have any Bluetooth accessories, turn that off too. Finally, please turn off the hotspot when it’s not in use.
3: Drop refresh rate and resolution
While a high 120Hz refresh rate helps keep things smooth and a 2K (1440P) resolution is exceptionally crisp, they’re both severe battery drain contributors. If you don’t see much use of either feature, you can turn them off.
This isn’t ideal, but we recommend using the standard 60Hz refresh rate and the 1080P resolution until Samsung addresses this problem. You could gain several extra minutes from this.
4: Close background processes and power-draining apps
File uploads and downloads, sync, background updates, etc, can impact your battery life. Make sure you don’t have too many going on simultaneously. To check,
- Tap the recents button or pull up the app drawer with the swipe gesture.
- At the top right, you can see the number of active apps in the background. You can see a list of the apps currently performing background tasks.
- Press the stop button if you see an app that doesn’t have to run these processes. This should improve the battery life of your phone.
5: Check your phone’s brightness settings
Like refresh rate and resolution, brightness also drains the battery a lot. Slide down to reveal the notification center. Here, you can find the brightness slider. If it’s consistently over 50%, try pulling the slider down. We recommend leaving it on auto-brightness, which could increase the brightness outdoors.
6: Check for software updates
Software updates usually include several bug fixes and optimizations. Open the Setting app, and navigate to the Software Updates section. Download and install if an update is available. After it restarts, there’s a chance of battery life improvement. Moreover, if this is a major Android version update, we recommend resetting the phone to factory settings to help with any bugs or glitches.
7: Switch off Auto Sync
One UI’s auto-sync feature consistently checks for new emails, notifications, and other updates. It runs in the background even when you’re not using your phone. To disable this,
- Open the Settings app on your phone.
- Tap on the option that says “Accounts and backup.” You can also search for Auto Sync in the search bar.
- Tap on Manage Accounts.
- Turn off the toggle for Auto-Sync Data.
Conclusion
Those were the several ways in which you can address the battery draining problem on One UI 6. If battery drain problems persist, you may have to reset your phone to factory settings. If that doesn’t help, contact Samsung’s customer support or visit an official service center.
