2016 smartphone battery test reveals many surprises

[Achtung!]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Czo...9251f7a38fb&src_vid=f90z3L1bvQ8&feature=cards

This is an intense web browsing test for 1hr and 2hrs, respectively.

This is probably the most practical reflection of real-life battery usage since most people tend to browse the Internet/check emails/use social media on their phones, with relatively less time spent calling and playing games.

After 1hr

After 2hrs

Smartphone battery life rankings (1= best, 6= worst)
1. HTC 10
2. Samsung Galaxy S7
3. Huawei P9
4. Sony Xperia Z4
5. LG G5
6. iPhone 6S

I know some of my friends need to charge the iPhone 6S's during the middle of the day and they miss a lot of important messages/calls due to this.

The iPhone 6S still has the 2nd best camera in the smartphone industry atm, but it still doesn't excuse the poor battery life.

Quite surprised with the HTC 10. But only if it had a decent screen and better camera..

 

[ChronoReverse]

The Htc 10 has the same camera score at DXOMark as the GS7 and is using the same sensor as the Nexus 6P but with OIS. It's good enough.

 

[KeithP]

I know some of my friends need to charge the iPhone 6S's during the middle of the day and they miss a lot of important messages/calls due to this.

Why would anyone have to miss a call because the phone is charging? That just doesn't make any sense.

In the text explanation they said all the phones were set to full brightness but that seems like a flaw in the test. The screen brightness should be measured and each phone set so the screen is producing the same brightness level.

-KeithP

 

[Raduque]

In the text explanation they said all the phones were set to full brightness but that seems like a flaw in the test. The screen brightness should be measured and each phone set so the screen is producing the same brightness level.

-KeithP

I think full brightness is a fair test. Almost everybody I know just cranks up the brightness on their smartphone. Then complains about the battery life.

 

[QueBert]

Why would anyone have to miss a call because the phone is charging? That just doesn't make any sense.

In the text explanation they said all the phones were set to full brightness but that seems like a flaw in the test. The screen brightness should be measured and each phone set so the screen is producing the same brightness level.

-KeithP

I'm not sitting static at a desk during the day, I plug my phone in and I won't hear it ring or have access to it unless I'm around exactly where it's plugged in, which is rare.

 

[tsupersonic]

You can't generalize smartphone battery life. Everyone uses their phones differently and there's too many damn variables.

While I'm thankful for quick charging, I wish we had better battery life in general.

Sent from my Nexus 6P

 

[nerp]

My 6s battery life isn't the best but it isn't bad. I work from home and I own a car so I can charge it basically whenever I want. I also spent $10 for an ANKER portable charger thingy that charges my phone two times so if I'm ever stuck without a charging port nearby, I'm all set. And even that never happens since I tend to have my laptop with me on the road and that thing has dual batteries (including a 9-cell swappable battery) and gives me 20 hours of battery life on its own so that's basically a portable power pack.

I guess battery life is a major concern for people who don't drive and have very long commutes. Or can't bring themselves to buy a spare charging cable or get off the couch.

 

[Oyeve]

I think full brightness is a fair test. Almost everybody I know just cranks up the brightness on their smartphone. Then complains about the battery life.

My gf does this and it drives me nuts. She has to charge her phone 3 times a day. I leave my phones on auto.

 

[JAG87]

Oh look, a bunch of phones with a 3000 mah battery have longer battery life than a phone which has a 1700 mah battery... I wonder why they didn't compare the 6S plus in this test, that would have made a lot more sense.

Another Achtung thread, move along people nothing to see here.

 

[gorcorps]

My gf does this and it drives me nuts. She has to charge her phone 3 times a day. I leave my phones on auto.

My gf does this too. Even at night, it's so obnoxious. I have no idea how her eyeballs still work.

I will say my nexus 6p auto brightness doesn't work nearly as well as my note 4 did, but I still leave it on auto

 

[lopri]

Maybe that iPhone 6s has a Samsung-made A9 in it.

 

[WelshBloke]

Oh look, a bunch of phones with a 3000 mah battery have longer battery life than a phone which has a 1700 mah battery... I wonder why they didn't compare the 6S plus in this test, that would have made a lot more sense.

Another Achtung thread, move along people nothing to see here.

What does it matter what size the battery is?

It's not like you can ask for a bigger one.

Phones are reviewed and judged on what they are not what they might be if things were different.

 

[Commodus]

The problem, as with most things Achtung posts, is that he's cherry-picking the stories that fit his preconceived narrative (Samsung is divine, Apple must die) and hoping we're not smart enough to search for the other stories that show the full truth.

In practice, the iPhone 6s battery is fine. An intense web browsing test actually isn't completely realistic, because rendering web pages constantly demands different resources than a native social networking or text messaging app. The 6s owners I know tend to get through a day just fine, if not much more than that. Take this test into account if you're constantly surfing the web on your phone, but don't expect it to reflect a day of checking Facebook, writing email and taking the occasional Instagram photo.

I do agree that it'd be odd to include the 6s Plus. It has superb battery life, but Techradar is clearly testing mid-size phones here.

 

[JAG87]

What does it matter what size the battery is?

It's not like you can ask for a bigger one.

Phones are reviewed and judged on what they are not what they might be if things were different.

Of course it matters, it's like claiming that a car with a bigger gas tank can drive more miles. No shit sherlock... That says absolutely nothing about fuel efficiency. If you are buying an iPhone 6s for its smaller size, you know you are making sacrifices when it comes to battery life. You don't even need to be tech savvy to know that, Apple states right in their specs that the Plus has much better battery life.

Most of the phones compared here have 2800-3000 mah batteries, so it would only make sense to use the Plus in the comparison. If anything the Plus would be at a small disadvantage due to the slightly bigger screen. You can do a non-scientific approximation yourself, take the drain of the 6s and half it, as generally the Plus has twice as good battery life. The Plus would be on par with the other devices if not above.

As always, this is a cherry picked bs achtung article that has no relevance, without even discussing the point that this is not a realistic usage scenario just like Commodus said: the most important thing in a mobile device is standby efficiency, as that is where it spends most of it's time.

 

[ChronoReverse]

I don't necessarily disagree with everything else you said but standby efficiency isn't really a concern for modern phones. They're not going to lose more than 20% over the course of the daytime on standby.

 

[Herr Kutz]

I'm not an apple fan boy by any means, but my 6 (normal, non S) doesn't drain nearly that except for maybe if I'm using GPS.

 

[dawheat]

Of course it matters, it's like claiming that a car with a bigger gas tank can drive more miles. No shit sherlock... That says absolutely nothing about fuel efficiency. If you are buying an iPhone 6s for its smaller size, you know you are making sacrifices when it comes to battery life. You don't even need to be tech savvy to know that, Apple states right in their specs that the Plus has much better battery life.

Most of the phones compared here have 2800-3000 mah batteries, so it would only make sense to use the Plus in the comparison. If anything the Plus would be at a small disadvantage due to the slightly bigger screen. You can do a non-scientific approximation yourself, take the drain of the 6s and half it, as generally the Plus has twice as good battery life. The Plus would be on par with the other devices if not above.

As always, this is a cherry picked bs achtung article that has no relevance, without even discussing the point that this is not a realistic usage scenario just like Commodus said: the most important thing in a mobile device is standby efficiency, as that is where it spends most of it's time.

I don't like the methodology of the test (absolutely should be normalized for brightness) but I have no issues with the phones being compared as they are the mainstream choices from these OEMs. The S7 competes against the 6S against the G5 and so on. The 6S Plus competes against the S7 Edge, Note 5 and so on in size, and is quite a bit physically larger than its competitors to boot.

Battery size and efficiency are meaningless in isolation, a consumer only cares about the combination for what real world battery life they get.

The 6S is fine for a moderate user like my wife but it's definitely out of juice by nighttime. I use my phone probably 2X as much per day and wouldn't be able to get through the afternoon without a recharge.

And standby is IMO the least important statistic these days as even phones with Always On Displays still only lose about 1% an hour. That 16% through an entire waking day isn't nearly as important as usage efficiency outside of niche users who never look at their phone.

 

[MarkizSchnitzel]

Of course it matters, it's like claiming that a car with a bigger gas tank can drive more miles. No shit sherlock... That says absolutely nothing about fuel efficiency.

We only care about fule efficiency because GAS COSTS MONEY. Electricity for charging a phone does not.

If you are buying an iPhone 6s for its smaller size, you know you are making sacrifices when it comes to battery life. You don't even need to be tech savvy to know that, Apple states right in their specs that the Plus has much better battery life.

Screen is the biggest expender of power in a phone. So it also makes sense to expect a smaller screen to make up for the smaller battery. Problem is, Apple wrongly puts emphasis on thinness. And yet they loose even there in the end.

Most of the phones compared here have 2800-3000 mah batteries, so it would only make sense to use the Plus in the comparison.

No, because this is not the model that most people go for. It's it a completely different model. By that logic, one could also take Galaxy A9 Pro with 5000Mah battery instead of Galaxy S7.

As always, this is a cherry picked bs achtung article that has no relevance, without even discussing the point that this is not a realistic usage scenario just like Commodus said: the most important thing in a mobile device is standby efficiency, as that is where it spends most of it's time.

Standby is good enough on pretty much every phone that i ever used.
it's when you use it what matters.
An hour long browsing session is a very good testcase.

the only problem is that they should have used a fixed brightness for scientific results, and auto for realistic.

 

[WelshBloke]

Of course it matters, it's like claiming that a car with a bigger gas tank can drive more miles. No shit sherlock... That says absolutely nothing about fuel efficiency.

Why does 'fuel efficiency' matter in a phone?

What matters is how long it lasts off the charger. How they manage that (assuming that it doesn't impinge the working of the phone) doesn't matter.
Why should the end user care how big the battery is if it gives you X# of hours of use?

 

[Demo24]

I'm not an apple fan boy by any means, but my 6 (normal, non S) doesn't drain nearly that except for maybe if I'm using GPS.

Same with mine, but I also don't go full brightness most time because it's usually too bright.

In real world experience I do think that iOS/iPhone are better at handling battery life, especially at standby. I could leave it all day with everything turned on getting emails, texts, etc and it still only drains a few percent. Heck, even using gps tracking apps doesnt seem to bother it that much (also rarely gets hot to the touch using that), and I've been able to navigate 4 hours using google maps with the screen on.

Whereas my androids I can watch the battery tick down every 10 minutes. 6.0 really only seems to help if you don't have any apps on it. And I've done this test with 2 note 5s. One sits on my desk and lasts 15 days accepting the random phone call, the other is my work phone that loses 30-40% a day even if I barely use it.

 

[gorcorps]

Why does 'fuel efficiency' matter in a phone?

What matters is how long it lasts off the charger. How they manage that (assuming that it doesn't impinge the working of the phone) doesn't matter.
Why should the end user care how big the battery is if it gives you X# of hours of use?

Very true. If phone A gets 1 more hour of total usage despite having twice the battery capacity of phone B, phone A still has better battery life. Nobody I know shops for a phone based on how many minutes per mAh it's rated for... that's just absurd. Knowing that phones are making efficient use of their battery is nice and all, but an efficient phone that lasts has less runtime in a day is still inferior to an inefficient phone with a larger battery that lasts longer (all other things being equal).

The gas we put in our vehicles is a lot more expensive than the insignificant cost of charging our phones, regardless of battery size.

 

[Compman55]

Regardless of all the debate and bantering, we all are in need of better battery life regardless of how you slice it. Regardless of if they need better battery tech, or lower power consumption hardware, they need to get moving on it, and RIGHT NOW!!!!!

I have found myself in distress when going to auctions, in the bright daylight, you NEED to keep screen at full brightness. Then by the mid day, I have to scramble to find a way to charge.

On the flipside I have a Dell Latitude E6510 with an extended battery, and an additional bottom battery slice, I can get 11 hrs of constant use out of this non ergonomic behemoth!

 

[thesmokingman]

Of course it matters, it's like claiming that a car with a bigger gas tank can drive more miles. No shit sherlock...

That's not true Sherlock. More efficient cars actually in general have smaller tanks, but that comment probably felt good to write.

Exclaiming that we can't compare any phone on battery life just because one has a smaller battery is moronic. How else is a consumer supposed to compare them. Go around making excuses for each product?

I have found myself in distress when going to auctions, in the bright daylight, you NEED to keep screen at full brightness. Then by the mid day, I have to scramble to find a way to charge.

Bring an ext battery to top off your phone?

 

[sm625]

I can forgive the G5 for being lower because you can just pull out the battery and pop in another and you're good to go. All phones should be like this. But they also need a small internal 300maH battery so you can remove and replace the battery without interruption.

 

[Elganja]

i use my phone a ton (iphone 6) and i always have to charge it at least once a day in the afternoon ... i use auto brightness

i recently "invested" in one of these ... hope it ends atleast one of the charging cycles for me daily!