Battery Life - Wanting a New Phone

SaberX on 24/04/2017 - 19:50
Last edited 24/04/2017 - 19:53

Just curious on how anyone gets a standardized view of battery life these days? I'm currently perusing the optus sim + mobile plans bundles due to this deal on the BYO sims:

https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/303462

It made me wonder if I should go back to the good old days of a phone + sim card in one per month. I had always been on plan as back 10,15 years ago it was a lot cheaper per month, and generally worked out cheaper than the 'outright' phone cost. Things seem to have changed where BYO sim only plans are on par or even cheaper when buying the phone outright.

In this case however, the S8 is $85 sim plan + $9 handset repayments. Contrast this to my $50 for amaysim - 9 GB data, and it's $44 a month for the handset.

It raised the question though: I was happy with my sony xperia z3 when I received it back then. It lasted a good 6 or so screen on time with general web browsing, using phone apps and functions - but never close to thos eonline reviews of say 10,12 hours watching videos or browsing (how they ever get this beats me). So I wanted to at least set the benchmark and buy a phone better than this.

The only standardized comparison I've found is GSM arena's endurance test ranking:

http://www.gsmarena.com/battery-test.php3?idPhone=8313#show

The xperia z3 comes in at 85H, or more importantly to me 12 hr web browsing, 11:47 video. Again this does not fit my 6-8 hours browsing reality when I first got the phone.. but then again I don't know if these are real world tests, where they use no cell signals, all wifi, everything turned off…

Based off this there is no s8 endurance test, but the s8+ comes in at 88h too, with similar and slightly better web browsing/video time.

Just curious therefore out of the current phones that are all the rage now, can anyone recommend one similar or superior to the sony xperia z3? What's the best way to benchmark and ensure that one gets said phone?

I'm happy with the 5.5" on the z3's screen, so my worry is s8's 5.8" and other 'new' hot phones are all about screen size and QHD etc. which to me, greatly reduces battery life. Any recommendations or tips and tricks? I would hate to land a new phone that lasts a few hours (like my s3 used to) as it drives me nuts when web browsing on the go e.g. holidays/travel.

edit: Iphone isn't an option.

Besides the s8 it appears optus only pushes the s7 and s7 edge. No endurance rating on gsm arena for S7, but the s7 edge lands overall 92H. The only other phones they have like the sony z5 premium have low endurance ratings etc.

Am I better off just buying outright? And also am I correct that the sony xperia z3's cover that 850MHZ which optus uses (band 28??). I do struggle in what I consider reasonable suburban areas, and I believe its the colourbond roof. I'm thinking buildings and colorbond roofs would be a lot easier to deal with with good bands, but I don't know much about what bands I need to ensure I have (if running with optus network). Looking for a phone that works overseas. So far my z3 (and Samsung s3 before it) all worked fine whenever I travelled to asia - e.g. kuala lumpur, Tokyo, korea, Taiwan etc, decent enough 4G. Even America, albeit it seemed one band was different as sometimes it was abit sketchy, still decent for a holidays.

Mobile

Comments

  • Braintrain1000 on 24/04/2017 - 20:30

    I have a xperia Z3 since last two years. It was an Vodafone ex display unit when i bought it.

    If you want great battery life on thos phone you will have to stick to Android 4.4.4 to get the maximum SOT. In my case, I get about 5 to 6 hours of screen on time.

    Dont install lollipop or marshmallow at all.

  • Braintrain1000 on 24/04/2017 - 20:37
    +1

    I think there no such thing as a "benchmark test" because everyone use their device in a different way. You will have to buy that phone (S8) to see if fits your requirements.

    I kept this Z3 and bought a new S7 edge exynos variant but i noticed the battery life wasn't that great as mentioned by some "famous" youtubers and xdaforum. Eventually, I sold the S7E and used the Z3 again.

    Its you are looking for a samsung phone, make sure you check out their Exynos chip variant as they have better battery life than snapdragon ones but the only problem is that yoi will have to import it.

    • Halsmich on 24/04/2017 - 20:50

      I thought S7s in Aus were the Exynos ones, and that the Snapdragons were the ones you had to import.

    • Diji1 on 25/04/2017 - 11:31

      It has apparently escaped you that the reason benchmarks are used is because it in theory keeps everything equal other than the property being bench marked thereby avoiding the uncertainty of user behavior etc.

  • crentist on 25/04/2017 - 03:07

    check out the huawei mate 8 (or 9). best battery ive seen. after i dropped my z3 compact i wanted a replacement with a good battery too, and tried a mate8 for a couple of weeks. 2 day battery life, easy. its a big phone with a big battery, but the screen doesnt try to cram in an ungodly number of pixels so its efficient. i think youd have to try really hard to kill it in a day.

    when i first got it i wanted to test it out so i used it a bunch all day, had the gps going in the car etc, and didnt charge it overnight. it lasted from around 9am until 11pm the following night. if charged in the morning i dont think i saw it fall below 50% at night, but it also charges really quick, so i started to lose my battery anxiety and regular charging habits. 30mins would fill up around 50% which would last all day, so there was barely any need to pay attention to it

    i was after a smaller phone, otherwise i would have kept it, it was pretty great. i also tried a samsung s7, battery on that was kinda okay, not great.

    the mate 9 is out now, which seems like it might have an even better battery, plus all the other new phone stuff, but both phones are fast.
    could also check out the moto z play if you have something against huawei. good battery but otherwise not as good

    • dqtl74 on 30/04/2017 - 14:57

      I second this completely. I'm using a Mate 9 at the moment and the battery life is incredible. It could probably easily last me 3 days on a single charge with light to moderate usage (but I'm one of those people who charges their phone regularly). The automatic brightness is probably the best I've ever used. It seems to know exactly what brightness you need for any situation, even in direct sunlight I have no problems seeing the screen. The quick charging is also great but it does slow down as you get closer to 100% however this is the same case for all flagship phones. Having that amount of battery would easily last you the day regardless.

      If you're looking for something with truly epic battery life, try the Lenovo P2. I have no idea if they even sell them in Aus but that monster has a 5100mAh battery.

  • [Deactivated] on 25/04/2017 - 09:44
    +1

    Mi-Max
    Definately the best battery vs price and performance SD 650 + 3gb of Ram / 32 GB Storage + Dual 4G Sim Slots + SD expansion
    Easy 12 SOT + 2 days battery life
    the thing is almost a powerbank on its own accord
    Average - Good camera in daylight
    Obviously no Sony but good enough for me

    • Diji1 on 25/04/2017 - 11:27

      Yes except most people find a 6.4 screen inch phone to be a dumb idea. Also isn't that missing Band 28?

  • Kangal on 25/04/2017 - 12:29
    +1

    Probably the best battery life you could get would be the Samsung Note 4.
    Use Custom Roms (SoT around 5 hours)
    And carry around a fully-charged spare battery.
    This is probably the best option, as its the best flagship phone that has a removable battery.

    Besides that, you're stuck with a phones that have Non-Removable batteries and more bulky Power Packs.
    I'm not a fan of those mid-range phone with (>4,000mAh) really big battery capacities (Gionee Marathon, Xiaomi Mi Max, Zenfone Max). One can't be too careful ever since the Note 7 fiasco.

    I heard the Huawei Mate 9 Pro gets great battery life (like SoT of 8 hours) and it has Band 28 (700MHz).
    There's also the Huawei P10 Plus which is slightly better than the Mate 9 Pro, but slightly worse battery life (~7hrs SoT).
    The OnePlus 3T is great (SoT 7 hrs) but lacks Band 28.
    The Google Pixel XL is meh, but has good battery life (SoT around 6 hours).

    ….I should recommend the Huawei's once again:
    https://forum.xda-developers.com/mate-9/development/recovery…

    https://forum.xda-developers.com/p10-plus

  • [Deactivated] on 27/04/2017 - 17:53

    The s7 had a smaller battery and the endurance rating was lower. The original android version that came out with the first batch of s7e had a nice acore eith close to or just over 100hrs.

    If you really want battery life get a zerolemon battery for a handset that has a femovable battery like the s5 that i have and i get 14hrs screen on time in one charge doing various things… plus calls in the hours total and so forth.

  • iridiumstem on 27/04/2017 - 18:03

    If batery life is the only concern you have, look into mid range phones. They wouldn't be as fast, but if your main concern is battery life and only require the phone for light browsing and such (no mobile games and such), the performance wouldn't matter as much. Besides, because Snapdragon 801 is old, a lot of midrangers would perform as well (or even better) in CPU department (GPU tend to be weak on midrangers though, so yeah).

    Mid range devices tend to have lower resolution, slower processor and larger battery (depends on the device of course). Flagships have to be sleek, thin, have to have the best performance and the best resolution there is. All that usually adds up to worse battery life than midrange phones usually (again, depends on the device itself). So you'd likely find longer lasting phones in mid range than in flagships.

    As with your question why the benchmarks tend to be better, they'd probably turn anything other than what they are testing for off and create an optimal condition like low brightness, no GPS, nothing else running on the background, new battery or new device etc etc etc. The benchmark in my opinion is just to see how the phone lasts in same condition, so for comparison only.

  • Super8Tab on 27/04/2017 - 18:24

    People would laugh but i get 1.5 days from $200 my Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 ( With Nitrogen OS) which is more than my Z3/Z5 premium and of course all my previous iphones.

    Custom Roms is where it's at, something like RR or Nitrogen OS should give you at least 5 hrs SOT easily, don't stay stock.

    • Kangal on 01/05/2017 - 19:19
      +1

      It's okay to stay stock if you can root it, remove all the bloat, and restrict the background tasks/prolong deep sleep state.

      This applies well to the SONY Z3> as they're probably the most stable OS out there, and SONY's Battery Saver actually works unlike similar things from other OEMs. Most phones can get 1.5 days usage these days, some even 2… however there have been many Z3 users who had 3 days battery life.

      Which is a relevation in the age of only getting 1 day battery life (eg HTC One M9, LG G5).

Login or Join to leave a comment
Login Join