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To further update this:

I started running at 70% brightness and I'm happy with that level, it's only slightly dimmer than my previous 80%. At 70% yesterday I got almost 9 hours of screen on time, that seems like an acceptable compromise to me. Sure I could stretch it to 10 or even 12 hours but it would be at the expense of screen brightness to a level I'm not comfortable with. Besides 9 hours easily gets me through a day with plenty to spare.
 
My reception is actually not that great. 1 or 2 bars for the most part. I'm lucky if I'm at 3. I do use a lot of wifi but you're right--if your reception is bad even with wifi it will drain your battery.

Other than that, my main battery drain is IG. I can see the percentages come down when 30 likes start coming in all at once and keeps going for 3 hrs. #

Ya, that explains like I do mostly texting and emails as those two tasks take up majority of my usage so that is probably why I get way better battery life than you.

Also my coverage is always 3-5bars.
 
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