The S23 Ultra is a phone that’s praised for excellent battery life. Unfortunately, following the One UI 6.1 update, several reports on X and Reddit show that the One UI 6.1 update is causing battery drain problems. It’s not specific to this model; even the base S23 has issues. However, a majority of the reports are from the S23 Ultra.
They mention a decline in overall screen-on-time due to excessive battery drain. When the phone is left on standby, it causes even more battery drain than usual, leading to a decline in the overall battery experience.
With regular usage on Full HD+ resolution, the battery dropped from 85% to 50% in under 3 hours of usage, which is unusual for the phone. According to the user, the drop from 57% to 50% was also rapid. Under the same thread, others report that the battery drain has been poor since the February security update.
Reports of battery drain date back to Android 14 and One UI 6.0. Some people speculate that Samsung is doing this on purpose. As a result, more people will upgrade to newer models. We hope this isn’t the case. Battery drain complaints aren’t limited to the S23. Users of the S24 and S22 have also reported similar issues. Users claim a factory data reset solves the issue, but this is not ideal.
Posts suggest that phones only get about 4 hours and 30 minutes of total screen time. This is barely worth one day of use, and it’s about half of what this phone is typically capable of. It’s contradictory since many reports say that One UI 6.1 improved the battery life of their units.
This makes it confusing because two sets of people have polar opposite experiences. We’re not sure if the scale of this problem is large enough for Samsung to consider seriously, but we hope subsequent patches will address the issue. There’s also a chance it’s just in the early days, so the software needs more time to settle down and optimize.
The One UI 6.1 update brought Galaxy AI to the S23 lineup, and it’s a large update, about 3GB in size. It’s available in the UK, Europe, North America, and the UAE. The update rollout depends on your carrier and region. You can check it from your Settings app under the Software Updates section if you didn’t receive it.
There are mixed reports about battery life on the S23 after the One UI 6.1 update. While some users enjoy good battery life for the first few days, others are experiencing faster drain.
At the first 2 days of using my s23 with one ui 6.1,I see the battery is so good.
I am using sim WiFi all the day and the result is very good#Samsung pic.twitter.com/OTFl5BTKVz
— Invisible Man (@xbd9522) March 29, 2024
The One UI 6.1 update brings Circle to search, Live call, text translation, the Summarize feature, transcription, image editing features, and more. Almost all the important Galaxy AI features from the S24 series are now on the S23 series and the Z Fold 5 and Flip 5.
While the new Galaxy AI features offer exciting possibilities, it will be interesting to see their impact on battery life.
