This one Samsung setting was keeping my phone's display awake far longer than I realized

Published Aug 11, 2026, 7:30 AM EDT Hamlin has been in the tech field for over nine years. Since 2017, his work has appeared on MakeUseOf, Android Police, OSXDaily, Beebom, and more. He served as the Senior Editor at Valnet's MakeUseOf for over two years before joining XDA. He uses a high-end gaming rig for desktop use and a MacBook for traveling, but dislikes some of the quirks of macOS. You're more likely to catch him at the gym or on a flight than anywhere else. Battery life on my Galaxy Z Flip 5 has never been particularly amazing, but I also don't expect it to last as long as flagship slab phones because there's only so much battery you can fit inside a compact foldable. Still, it hasn't given me any trouble until recently, which isn't surprising considering I've been using it for nearly three years. That's why I've been looking for ways to improve its battery life, from disabling One UI features I don't really use to reducing background processes. But while digging through One UI's settings, I realized that for the longest time I had overlooked how long my phone stays awake after I put it away. I rarely press the power button to lock my phone manually, so I rely on the screen timeout to do it for me. But my Z Flip 5 wasn't turning the display off anywhere near that quickly. While changing that, I noticed another setting in the same menu that kept my screen on longer. I had forgotten that I'd changed these settings when I first got my phone, and that was probably draining my battery all along. Screen timeout was the obvious fix 10 minutes was just way too long for no reason The default screen timeout on my Galaxy Z Flip 5 is 30 seconds, which is a little too aggressive for my liking. I vaguely remember changing it when I first got the phone because the display would sometimes turn off while I was reading a long Reddit post without constantly scrolling. But instead of bumping it up to a minute or two like a normal person, I apparently went straight to 10 minutes and then completely forgot about it. In hindsight, I can't think of a situation where I'd actually need my screen to stay awake for that long, but 30 seconds still feels a bit too short. That's why I immediately set it to one minute by going to Settings -> Display -> Screen timeout. Of course, depending on how you use your phone, you can set it to 15 or 30 seconds, but if you tend to read a lot, you're likely better off sticking with a longer timeout unless you're okay with constantly touching the screen when it dims. Either way, there's no point leaving the screen on for several minutes after you've already put your phone down. Changing this alone helps, but another setting in the same menu can keep your display awake regardless of the timeout you choose. The front camera can still keep your phone awake Keep screen on while viewing can override your screen timeout Right below the screen timeout setting, I noticed another option that I hadn't really paid much attention to. Keep screen on while viewing is actually a feature that helps with the exact problem I mentioned earlier with setting your screen timeout too low. It uses the front camera to detect whether you're looking at your phone, and as long as it can see that you are, the display stays awake. That means you can read something for as long as you want without having to constantly touch the screen. The only problem I have with this feature, though, is that I keep my phone on my desk whenever I'm on my PC. So if I glance over at a notification or leave something open on my phone while I'm working, the front camera can detect that I'm still looking at the screen and keep it awake beyond my usual timeout. That's exactly why I decided to toggle it off from Settings -> Display -> Screen timeout. I'd rather have my screen reliably turn off after a minute, rather than letting the front camera decide when it should stay awake. I get why Samsung gives us this option Still, I'd rather keep my phone awake manually when I need to Keep screen on while viewing isn't just for reading, to be fair. For example, when you're using Google Maps without turn-by-turn navigation, you might want to keep the map visible on a phone mount while driving, rather than repeatedly waking and unlocking your phone. Or if you're following a recipe and don't want to touch your phone with messy hands, having the screen stay awake while you're looking at it can be genuinely useful. All in all, it addresses the biggest annoyance with setting a shorter timeout. That said, I don't run into these situations often enough to justify leaving the feature enabled all the time. Most of the time I'm on my phone, I'm just scrolling on Instagram, texting friends, or watching YouTube, so I'm already interacting with the screen frequently enough to keep it awake. And if I do need to keep my screen on for a specific purpose, I'd much rather extend the timeout manually. I believe that's what I did when I first changed the default timeout setting, except I completely forgot about it afterward. The obvious settings are still worth revisiting If there's one thing I learned while optimizing my phone's battery life, it's that you don't always need to dig through obscure One UI features to find something worth changing. Screen timeout is about as basic as it gets, but there's a chance you changed it at some point and forgot about it afterward, as I did. The same goes for Keep screen on while viewing, especially since it's one of those features you can enable once and barely think about again. Of course, these settings won't make your phone last an hour longer, but, when combined with other tweaks, they can add up to a noticeable difference over the course of the day.