S4 is now a 4yr old phone. That's like 120 in cell phone years. Even with a limited budget there are many good options out there for a replacement. And virtually all android phones have some version of quick-charging which dchall is referring to. It's built in to the basic chipsets.

One of the biggest battery drains I've found is the GPS function. When not using the phone to navigate somewhere, go to Settings, Location, and make sure it's set to Battery Saving and not High Accuracy.

dchall, I have never heard of OnePlus phones. My carrier doesn't have them. Sounds like a good possibility.

freeoscar, my phone has been in use only 2.5 years. I won't be ready to replace it for at least another six months.

Elmer J, I was unaware of that setting. I have changed it. However, I don't think it will affect my infrequent/intermittant problem.

Today I woke up with a 69% charge on my cell. From there, it takes less than an hour to charge.

Can you check your phone before bed and see what apps are open? Maybe something is being left open sometimes that drains more battery power.

tox, as far as I know I have all apps turned off when not in use.

Any app that pushes notifications to your phone, especially social media apps like Facebook tend to suck up battery life. Email can do the same thing, if possible turn "down" the frequency in which the phone checks for new messages.

One thing I read, and it won't solve your battery problem, is to let the phone's battery completely die. That "resets" the how the phone calculates battery life. It won't improve your battery but rather give you a more accurate reading.

OnePlus is a Chinese company that makes unlocked phones that approach "flagship" quality at a more modest price point. Kind of like buying a Buick or Oldsmobile instead of a Cadillac. The biggest advantage to unlocked phones is that you can typically use them on any carrier and you won't be locked into any service agreements because you're buying the phone upfront. They also tend to be free of any "bloatware" the carrier may add. The biggest drawback is that the carriers don't support them so if you have a problem, you'll have to get support from the manufacturer. Unfortunately what can happen is the carrier blames it on the phone, the phone manufacturer blames it on the carrier leaving you in the middle.

I have an unlocked Google Nexus that I use on AT&T. The phone cost about $400 and my service is about $44 per month. I've only had one problem, several years ago, where the phone wouldn't make calls on LTE (on 3G it worked just fine). I never got an answer to the actual problem but from what I could gather, AT&T was testing new software or something on their network and the phone couldn't handle it. AT&T blamed Google, Google blamed AT&T but the problem disappeared about 3 weeks later and the phone has worked perfectly since.

Could the battery itself be getting close to end of life? Some phones can have their battery replaced.

OP said that she replaced the battery already (one nice thing about an older phone like the Galaxy 4 is they still came with easily replacable batteries.

mike_kaiser, I don't do social media or email on my phone. Still, my phone might be checking. However, it seems this would be an every day thing and not intermittent/now and then.

My Samsung S4 was purchased unlocked but had T-Mobile bloatware on it. It has been a good phone for my purposes and at the cost of about $150 new for leftover old tech, it was a good deal. In spite of the $10 a month penalty for not buying from them, my Metro PCS is only $35 a month.

I am leaning towards the Samsung J7 that Metro PCS has for $149 (T-Mobile has the same phone for $225 - they are basically both the same company ??). Metro PCS also has the Samsung Galaxy S6 for $299, but you can't change the battery or add memory with that one.

Under Settings - Connections - you'll find Data Usage or similar. See what the usage is by App and then check again tomorrow. That will show you what App is using connect time and hopefully will allow you to take some action.

Salti, it is too late now. Somehow during Irma the phone self destructed. I am now the happy owner of a Samsung J7

So that ends that saga. Here's hoping the new one has better battery life. If it makes you feel better, the newer phones have much more sophisticated operating systems as well as hardware. What this means is you don't have to pull the battery to reset the phone like you used to have to do. They don't completely lock up anymore. I happen to restart my Oneplus 3 about twice a week to clear up any of the issues that might be happening as I mentioned earlier.

Mike pretty well covered the Oneplus advantages/disadvantages. To summarize it works like the Samsung flagship phones with some slight differences, but the cost is about 1/2 the cost of a Samsung. I paid $430 for mine a year ago. The disadvantage is it does not work on Sprint or Verizon and if it breaks you better have your own insurance (I do). The cost of insurance is about 1/2 the cost of buying through Sprint or ATT. I went from a $260 per month plan (Sprint) to a $30 per month plan (Cricket Wireless), so the phone was paid for in 3 months by the savings on Cricket.

And it is not too late to do what saltidawg suggested. Try it on the new phone.

This one is great. I have to charge it only about twice a week. I like that. This phone came with very few pre-loaded apps. Hard to improve on that.