Best battery life? Samsung tests Galaxy S7, iPhone 6S and others in ultimate deathmatch
Looking for a new handset, and hoping to base your purchasing decision on the back of a phone’s battery life credentials? This might help.
Samsung’s German division has posted a new video on YouTube that compares the battery life of seven of the latest flagship smartphones, including the Samsung Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge. Also competing are the LG G5, the Huawei P9, the Sony Xperia X, the HTC 10, and the iPhone 6S.
Read also: iPhone 7
The test is a simple battery rundown, where all of the phones are charged to full, given a task, and set against the clock. The phones die one by one until there’s a winner, which in this case turned out to be the Samsung Galaxy S7. Here are the times, from worst to best, in HH:MM:SS format:
- LG G5 (2,800mAh) – 06:31:49
- Huawei P9 (3,000mAh) – 06:51:43
- Sony Xperia X (2,620mAh) – 07:15:35
- HTC 10 (3,000mAh) – 08:00:03
- Apple iPhone 6S (1,715mAh) – 08:13:57
- Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge (3,600mAh) – 10:30:14
- Samsung Galaxy S7 (3,000mAh) – 10:59:11
Watch the full video here:
Related: iPhone 7
So it’s clear that Samsung’s Galaxy S7 is the winner by a decent margin. But what’s more interesting is comparing these rankings to a list of the same phones ordered by the capacity of their batteries, from lowest to highest:
- Apple iPhone 6S – 1,715mAh
- Sony Xperia X – 2,620mAh
- LG G5 – 2,800mAh
- Huawei P9 – 3,000mAh
- HTC 10 – 3,000mAh
- Samsung Galaxy S7 – 3,000mAh
- Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge – 3,600mAh
When you look at it this way, some other observations become obvious. For instance, the Huawei P9 has a bigger battery than three of the phones, and the same battery as three of the phones, and yet it came second to last in the battery tests, suggesting sub-par optimisation.
Perhaps the biggest achievement is the Apple iPhone 6S, which came second only to the Samsung phones in terms of battery performance, despite having the smallest cell by far. That’s no surprise, mind. The iPhone always performs well for battery life compared to battery size due to the optimisation of its software and hardware – Apple designs one OS for one phone, and builds its chip to suit that OS. It’s also worth noting that display pixel density has a significant effect on battery life, and the iPhone 6S has the lowest screen resolution of all the phones on the list.
Related: Best Android Smartphones 2016
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What phone that you’ve owned had the best battery life? Let us know in the comments.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
