Samsung has now reportedly responded to recent complaints about a battery problem many users had noticed with their Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus handsets, effectively dismissing the issue. Specifically, the was responding to user complaints about higher than expected battery drain with the company’s Exynos 9810-powered international version of the flagships. According to Samsung, the Galaxy S9 series is intended to provide the very best experience possible for users and the rate of discharge is entirely dependent on users. It is going to vary based on how they use their device, what apps are installed or running, and what settings they’ve enabled. Moreover, the company’s internal tests have shown no issues outside of the parameters that were expected. So it’s a “problem” that just doesn’t exist in the strictest sense of the word, as compared to some others the company has faced with the devices.
Meanwhile, the issue was not affecting the U.S. variant of the devices, which are powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 SoC. That may, in fact, provide some clue as to what the underlying cause of the battery drain is. It goes without saying that the Snapdragon SoC is absolutely cutting edge and is currently considered by many to be the premier chipset in mobile. However, it’s also true that Samsung’s proprietary chip is quite a bit more powerful. The trade-off for that extra performance is, of course, power efficiency – which is rated up to 50-percent less by some reports. So users of the more robust Exynos-powered Samsung Galaxy S9 or Galaxy S9 Plus are basically agreeing to a shorter battery life in exchange for more power.
With that said, the response from the company also means that there won’t likely be any kind of fixes implemented any time soon. That obviously doesn’t mean the company won’t take the feedback under advisement as it engineers future flagships – possibly even working some changes into the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 phablet that has yet to be announced. In the meantime, it seems as though users who are experiencing unbearable battery drain concerns will need to enable their power-saving features or contact the company directly for support.