Update 13/4/2023: Samsung has acknowledged that the Samsung Keyboard app is causing excessive battery drain on devices running One UI 5.1. As stated on Thailand’s community forum, the issue concerns additional qualifying processes that consume more battery. However, Samsung released an updated version (v5.6.10.31) of the Samsung Keyboard app on March 2, 2023. The latest version fixes the problem. Users of Galaxy devices should update their Samsung Keyboard app to the latest version to resolve the battery drain issue.
The original story, published on February 19, 2023, follows…
One UI 5.1 came out a couple of days ago for many Samsung phones. There were tiny refinements throughout, making the experience more consistent. The animations are smoother, and the UI feels lighter to use.
The Gallery app is more intelligent and takes cues from iOS 16. Using AI, your phone can conveniently crop out an object from a photo and paste that object elsewhere. There’s a new battery widget and a new ecosystem feature that they’re calling “Multi Control.”
Finally, One UI 5.1 also brings Expert RAW integration to the camera app. The Samsung Galaxy S23 series was the first to ship with the new One UI 5.1 software skin. Eventually, all phones that support One UI 5 will also get One UI 5.1.
Most of the latest Samsung phones have already got One UI 5.1. The S21 and S22 series, the Z Fold 4 and Z Flip 4, and the FE lineup all have One UI 5.1 ready to go in many regions. Sometimes, the update frequency depends on your carrier and region, though.
Samsung’s developers are pushing out updates so fast. With that, we naturally get optimization problems. One UI 5.1, unfortunately, plagues many devices with battery life problems.
Several users across Reddit and the Samsung Forums report a significant reduction in overall screen-on-time after One UI 5.1. According to SamMobile, many of their followers reached out regarding battery problems.
People wonder why optimizing such a tiny update is so tricky. Since it isn’t a significant update with tons of features to optimize, it’s disappointing for S22 Ultra users who have lost battery life from this update.
The S22 Ultra is barely one year old, and this isn’t how a company should treat high-end flagship phones. Some people report laggy lens switching as well.
It gets worse; since One UI 5.1 introduces heating problems with everyday use for some units, these problems weren’t there before.
We can’t pinpoint why this is happening, but One UI 5.1 is the cause since the phones ran fine before. The battery was pretty stable on One UI 5 for a majority of units. We can assume Samsung is facing optimization trouble.
Due to these problems, people who updated to One UI 5.1 seriously regret it and want to downgrade to One UI 5.
Other people also convey problems with Samsung Keyboard. After One UI 5.1, the usage has shot up for no proper reason. This might cause a worse battery life.
Samsung’s live chat suggests clearing cache data for Samsung Keyboard. This will erase custom languages or layouts that you’ve previously set. You may try switching to another keyboard, seeing if that helps, and performing a restart afterward.
There are a few workarounds to deal with battery drain issues. You can try putting all apps to sleep, closing all your background apps, temporarily turning off Always On Display, or running the device on dark mode to conserve battery.
You may try disabling auto sync and temporarily turning off haptics as well. While these methods are not convenient, they do help with battery life.
If you’re on a version of One UI that’s stable and has no problems with battery life, we suggest sticking to it instead of updating your phone to One UI 5.1.
Samsung didn’t officially acknowledge the problem till writing this article. However, we hope the developers take this issue seriously and provide a solution as soon as possible.
Battery drain problems severely affect daily use, which isn’t the experience people paid a premium for in the flagship segment. We’ll update you if there’s anything else.