The ultimate guide to fix overheating and battery drain on all Galaxy S21 smartphones

So, I’ve been using the all-new Galaxy S21 Ultra for quite some time now. It’s an amazing phone with amazing battery life and a beast of a processor.

I’ve been recently facing some overheating and battery drain issues. So, I looked it up on Reddit and other forums and there are hundreds of Galaxy S21 series smartphone owners who share the same fate with me.

I couldn’t find a reliable guide on how to fix the overheating and battery drain problems of the Galaxy S21 series smartphone. After a lot of research and testing, here’s a guide on how to fix it.

For those who are new to Android, overheating and battery drain is a very common problem in new smartphones. This is because they usually sport new hardware like a next-gen processor (as is the case with the S21 series). So, app developers take some time to optimize the apps to take full advantage or at least optimize the app’s code to run smoothly on the new hardware.

Also, overheating and battery drain are directly related as heat is a battery killer. Not only heat kills the battery life but it also affects the life of the smartphone battery (battery health). So, it’s recommended to do something about your overheating smartphone.

Alright, back to the guide, in this troubleshooting guide I’ll be covering the things that helped me fix the overheating and battery drain problem on my Galaxy S21 Ultra.

Check for battery draining apps

In most cases, this is the primary reason for abnormal battery drain. A lot of users found Samsung’s own smart devices app to be the culprit. But, based on your usage it could be any app. So head over to settings and click on apps to find out which apps are affecting the battery life and performance of your flagship smartphone.

Keep your apps updated

This point is actually a part of the first point. Let’s say you found that the Facebook app is taking up a lot of resources and draining a lot of battery on your Galaxy S21.

Now, you can either remove the app or update it in the hope the developer has fixed the bugs.

I always recommend updating the app in these cases but you need to be smart about this. Before heading to the PlayStore to update the app, you need to check the user reviews of the latest update for your device. In case, you don’t know how to do that. It’s pretty easy. Just click on the reviews section of the app and tap on show reviews for your device. You can refer to the screenshots attached below.

But, what if there’s no app update on Play Store. Well, in that case you can simply disable the Background Data Usage and Notifications of the said app. This will ensure the app does not eat your battery life and resources when you’re not using it. You can go the extra mile and add the app to Samsung’s Sleeping App feature.

Check for a Software Update

Samsung has been very quick to push software fixes when it comes to flagship smartphones. In fact, while writing this I just received a notification for a new software update for the Galaxy S21 Ultra. Therefore, always make sure to check for a software update.

Check your charger

Since, Samsung did not supply a fast charger in the box so a lot of users are trying to use a cheaper 3rd party fast charger. I wouldn’t recommend that. Make sure to get the right fast charger for Galaxy S21 smartphone. Samsung has a dark past when it comes to smartphone batteries and with the wrong charger things could easily go South.

Also read: Best Wireless Chargers for Galaxy S21 series

Switch to Dark Mode

Since all S21 smartphones sport AMOLED displays, the dark mode works significantly better on them as compared to any smartphone with an LCD display. The advantage with AMOLED displays is that all OLED pixels are controlled individually and do not require backlighting which is the case with LCD displays. When you enable dark mode and scroll through a timeline with a black background, the pixels showing black color don’t light up at all. This makes OLED displays more power-efficient than LCD displays when displaying black colors. Moreover, Samsung has used the next-gen OLED panels in the flagship series which is more power-efficient than older AMOLED displays.

You can also read the rest of the troubleshooting guide on how to fix the battery drain and overheating issues on Galaxy S21, S21 Plus and S21 Ultra here.