How to Keep Galaxy S5 Screen Longer

The Samsung Galaxy S5 has tons of features that are enabled right out of the box, but not every setting will be right for every user. We all have different needs, wants or preferences when it comes to using a smartphone and one of them is how long the screen timeout period lasts.

Screen timeout is the time from the moment you stop interacting with your Galaxy S5 until the screen decides to go black and eventually turns off to save battery life. The Galaxy S5’s “Screen timeout” option is set to 30 seconds by default, which is not enough for most people, including me, so we’ll explain how easy it is to change it here.

If you’re tired of the Galaxy S5 screen turning off after only 30 seconds of inactivity and you constantly have to wake it up again, there’s an extremely simple setting you can change to change it to 1 minute, 3 minutes, or even 15 seconds. if you want it to timeout even faster to increase battery life.

Of course, messing around with a setting that changes how often or how long that bright 5.1-inch 1080p HD display stays on will have consequences, of course, but these are pretty minor. However, this can affect battery life, which we talked about abundantly in our Galaxy S5 Battery Life.

We were all there. You use your phone and stop paying attention for 30 seconds or a minute to answer a question or buy something, then you go back to your device and it turns off. Here you have to stroke the power button again, enter your password or security pattern most of the time, then continue. It’s getting annoying.

Some users may be fine with the 30 second timeout for the screen, but others may want 3 or even 5 minutes. If so, below are a few images that show you how to quickly customize it to suit your needs.

Instructions

To change the Galaxy S5 screen timeout setting, you just have to go to the settings, go to the viewing section and change the amount of time you want. It’s that simple. For those new to smartphones, here are a few photos showing exactly where to go and what to touch.

Pull down the notification bar and tap the gear-shaped settings button at the top right, or go to the app drawer and find the same gear-shaped settings button. From here, you’ll notice that just above the second row, there’s the “Display” option shown below. Tap the screen, then tap “Screen timeout” and choose the one that works best for you.

Once in the display options of the settings menu, navigate to the “Screen timeout” option as shown above and select it. From here, users will be able to set the duration they want. From the phone going black and the screen turning off in seconds, to leaving it on for 5 minutes or more. As a reminder, the higher you set this, the more it can affect battery life.

That’s it and you’re done. Just choose which setting or option is right for you and you’re done. Now the Galaxy S5 screen will only go black and time out after the amount of inactivity you selected.

Alternatively, above the same menu is the “Stay Smart” option, which allows the phone to actively turn the screen on and off based on eye recognition. Using the front sensors, your Galaxy S5 can detect when the user is looking the other way and dim or turn off the screen, then turn it back on when you look at the screen again. However, this only works in certain use cases and inside certain Samsung apps.

Give the above steps a try and set the screen timeout and wake time to the one that best suits your needs and enjoy.