Samsung Offering Battery Replacements to GS4 Users

News
By Jane McEntegart
published

Samsung's flagship Galaxy smartphone is having battery issues.

While smartphones have allowed us to do so much more with our phones than we ever could have imagined, battery life is one of the biggest complaints amongst smartphone users. However, some Galaxy S4 users were having battery issues that extended beyond having to charge their phone every night.

 

Last week, reports emerged that folks in Germany were returning their GS4 phones because the battery was depleting extremely quickly. Not only that, but customers were also reporting instances of swollen batteries. Samsung has since acknowledged those issues in a statement to TrustedReviews and is offering customers experiencing problems a new battery.

"We are aware of this issue, which has affected a limited number of customers," Samsung told TR in a statement. "We ask all affected customers to please visit their nearest Samsung Electronics service centre, where they can receive a replacement battery for free of charge. We remain committed to providing the best possible user experience for our customers."

The Samsung Galaxy S4 boasts a 5-inch 1080p (441 ppi) Super AMOLED screen, and it is powered by the quad-score Snapdragon 600 processor, running at 1.9 GHz. It also has a 13 MP camera, a removable 2,600 mAh battery, 16 GB of storage (expandable with an open microSD slot), and runs Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean.
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Jane McEntegart
10 Comments Comment from the forums
  • chewbakaats58
    haven't had any issues with mine...a lot of use and battery lasts for 12 hours...otherwise it is good for 15-16 hours until my nightly charge
    Reply
  • JD88
    Good thing the battery is removable. Easy fix.
    Reply
  • jimmysmitty
    11745998 said:
    Good thing the battery is removable. Easy fix.

    This is one of the reasons I went with it over some of the other phones or instead of waiting for the HTC One to come to Verizon. That and the expandable storage is a big plus.

    I also haven't had any issues but will have to check on it. I know when I first got my phone the battery would get to 60% by the end of the day and that was after pretty heavy use, since it was new and exciting.

    I haven't had it die one me yet by the time I go to bed and I use it quite a bit for work and play.

    But its nice to see that kind of customer commitment. I have seen a lot of companies ignore user issues until it gets blown up in the media. I didn't even hear about this until now and Samsung is already fixing the issue which is great honestly.
    Reply
  • razor512
    I ended up moving from using a smartphone, to using an older flip phone and a tablet.

    If I need more advanced functionality, I use the tablet, but for basic calls I use the flip phone. I prefer this since I only have to worry about the batteries once a week.

    With infrequent use tablet with a good battery can go a few days between charges (eg, I use mine for mainly taking notes and recording lectures)

    wifi coverage is good and I have a VPN so those are fine, bu tif there is an emergency, I can tether the tablet to the flip phone using bluetooth and get about 1.5mbit/s.

    Hopefully one day these companies will figure out a way to make these phones go a week on a single charge with normal use. or at least add a second board that is essentially a PCB used in a dumb/ feature phone, then offer a way to switch to them if all you need to do is make calls and do other very basic things.
    Reply
  • house70
    I've got a Seidio extended battery for it, and along with Android 4.3 (Google Experience), I only have to charge it about twice per week, that is without even having to remember to switch radios on/off according to location.
    Samsung should do like they did for SGS2 and offer a larger capacity battery (3000-3500mAh) as an option. It would add very little to the overall size of the phone.
    Reply
  • computernerdforlife
    I have this exact phone but the problem is: I upgraded the battery of the phone to a new one that has 4800mAh and it still sucks the battery dry doing nothing unless it's in power save mode, then it lasts days. I'll get used to the dim power save screen, I suppose... not very cool.
    Reply
  • super-smashman
    I've been impressed with the battery life of my GS4.

    I can forget to charge it overnight and it will last into the next no no problem. If it does get near dead I just put it in Power Saving mode and then the battery doesn't budge...

    It also charges REALLY fast. I use the wall charger that came with it and it's full from a day's use in like an hour.
    Reply
  • rantoc
    Atleast its not late excuses like "your holding it wrong!", some companies don't piss on their (stupid?) customers but rather fix the real issue!
    Reply
  • jewie27
    I called Samsung yesterday and they have no clue and said "third party" articles not from Samsung are not official. They refused to give me a battery.
    Reply
  • del35
    Nice to have an exchangeable battery.Imagine this problem with an HTC phone or the iCrap phone.
    Reply