Samsung is known for its commitment to extended and reliable software support. All flagship phones beginning with the S21 series, are to get four years of major Android updates and five years of security patches. Samsung also has the same policy for several midrange phones, which is impressive.
Despite mostly reliable updates, the S22 Ultra has its fair share of poor optimization via updates. The problem with the abnormal battery drain on the S22 Ultra isn’t new. We found reports that go as far back as March 2022. Since then, there have been plenty of reports, and people still have this problem in August 2023.
Some speculate that it’s an issue with the Samsung foundry. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and Exynos 2200 use Samsung’s 4nm fabrication process. This process is inefficient, and the chips also suffer from heating issues. As a result, many people didn’t have an excellent battery experience. The S22 Ultra has strictly average battery life at best, and these updates are making it even worse.
It’s so bad that the phone isn’t even lasting an entire day of regular use. This isn’t the experience people expect after paying that kind of money. Samsung should prioritize the quality of updates before the quantity, and we hope Samsung takes this problem with battery drain seriously since it seriously hinders the user experience of a flagship phone.
Over the months, we’ve seen several reports on battery drain. While some sources say that Samsung is aware of the issue, we can’t confirm the authenticity of it.
Samsung’s One UI 5.1 update fixed the issue for some users, but others report that mediocre battery life persists. The battery indicator begins dropping randomly and is at an unnaturally quick rate. The problems do not appear restricted to only the Exynos variant since there are reports from both sides.
While mobile data typically consumes more battery than Wi-Fi, some users allege the drain is too high. They claim that the old S21+ is better than the S22 Ultra, which means this is a software issue.
Once the battery drops below 10%, it begins to fall too fast and shuts down quickly. While we cannot confirm if the scale of this issue is prominent, there are too many reports for this to be a one-off case.
The latest reports in August 2023 are mostly about random battery dips when the phone drops under 10% battery.
People on Reddit suggest a complete factory data reset to help with battery problems. Poor screen on time, abnormal battery drain, random drops in signal- all these can apparently be solved with a factory data reset. It’s generally recommended to completely wipe your phone to factory settings after a major Android update (like One UI 5 and the upcoming One UI 6).
