Early S6 users, how's your battery life?

[berdinkerdickle]

That isn't really good advice. Just to ignore the bad for .. what reason? I am posting my true thoughts / usage. I still absolutely love the phone because I have battery packs, I work at a desk job so I have a plug there easily all day, and at home I got wireless charging since I keep my phone in the same spot. So for me it isn't as concerning but .. I am still posting real-world usage.

I was attempting humor.
Never been really good at it.

 

[KarlDag]

gsmarena updated their review today and battery life falls in line with most other flagships. It has improved with final software... I guess tmobile users will see an eventual update.

Samsung Galaxy S6 review: Subject Zero - page 3 - GSMArena.com
Battery life tests - GSMArena.com

Better than S5 active, better than note edge, better than OnePlus One, better than G3, iphone 6, M9, etc.

 

[Stanley Kubrick]

I've got to believe that Samsung tested this stuff thoroughly before putting a smallish battery in their new flagship(s). I am quite sure that the issues will be worked out with updates. Sure it would be nice to not need the updates but...well that's the way it is. For Samsung to put out a phone that is such a radical departure from what they usually put out, and then risk a massive failure on battery endurance is just too ridiculous to contemplate.

 

[Inders99]

Slightly obtuse post but I just put a new battery in my GS3 since it wouldn't make it past lunch anymore.

 

[berdinkerdickle]

Slightly obtuse post but I just put a new battery in my GS3 since it wouldn't make it past lunch anymore.

Yeah my oldest Swappable Battery only lasts about 6 hours. But it's an easy swap to keep me going through the rest of the day. I only need an external power source when I get home and charge up my extra battery.

 

[clevin]

gsmarena updated their review today and battery life falls in line with most other flagships. It has improved with final software... I guess tmobile users will see an eventual update.

Samsung Galaxy S6 review: Subject Zero - page 3 - GSMArena.com
Battery life tests - GSMArena.com

Better than S5 active, better than note edge, better than OnePlus One, better than G3, iphone 6, M9, etc.

well, im glad they updated the results. Most changes is from standby performance. New number brings s6 on par with s5, which is good.

One thing though, it seems they now post exactly same results for S6 and S6E, which is .... impossible, since S6E has bigger battery.....

 

[KarlDag]

well, im glad they updated the results. Most changes is from standby performance. New number brings s6 on par with s5, which is good.

One thing though, it seems they now post exactly same results for S6 and S6E, which is .... impossible, since S6E has bigger battery.....

View attachment 169445

2% bigger battery and it has a little bit more pixels... Not going to change much in my book.

 

[Almeuit]

1 hour of streaming music and light browsing on auto brightness

After that... 3 hrs of streaming HD twitch.tv with 80 percent + brightness.

All streaming / data on LTE. All syncs on (Google Calendar, notes, etc.). All audio going over bluetooth. ANT+ disabled and wifi calling shut off. WiFi radio also off. Location services on.

 

[clevin]

2% bigger battery and it has a little bit more pixels... Not going to change much in my book.

and produce EXACTLY same test results in all three task rundowns?

nonono, I think they took a lazy route and tested Edge only. lol

 

[KarlDag]

and produce EXACTLY same test results in all three task rundowns?

nonono, I think they took a lazy route and tested Edge only. lol

http://www.gsmarena.com/battery-test.php3

12 mins difference. What do you expect? the different between both and be more than 2% anyway...

 

[warpdrive]

1 hour of streaming music and light browsing on auto brightness

After that... 3 hrs of streaming HD twitch.tv with 80 percent + brightness.

All streaming / data on LTE. All syncs on (Google Calendar, notes, etc.). All audio going over bluetooth. ANT+ disabled and wifi calling shut off. WiFi radio also off. Location services on.

Really not bad for your usage. A big thank you for constantly updating and giving us all this info.

Off topic: I just finally played with both the Edge and normal today in best buy. I'm going to think about it overnight as I forgot to test something, but otherwise I enjoyed the experience.

Maybe you can help me as again I forgot something... When the brightness slider is on auto, can you still adjust it to make it dimmer or brighter? If so, I'm ordering it tonight or tomorrow.
(Oh, and my best buy still had the wireless charger available for pre-ordering. Woot)

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[clevin]

Battery life tests - GSMArena.com

12 mins difference. What do you expect? the different between both and be more than 2% anyway...

Since you asked, truth is what I expect.

 

[DLK1]

It's been posted that the biggest majority of people buying these phones don't know or care about swappable batteries.
These same people aren't going to know to disable a bunch of stuff so their battery will last longer. They buy the phone and use it. If it gets poor battery life, that's how they'll see the S6 - A phone that gets poor battery life.

Well said!!!

 

[STEVESKI07]

Really not bad for your usage. A big thank you for constantly updating and giving us all this info.

Off topic: I just finally played with both the Edge and normal today in best buy. I'm going to think about it overnight as I forgot to test something, but otherwise I enjoyed the experience.

Maybe you can help me as again I forgot something... When the brightness slider is on auto, can you still adjust it to make it dimmer or brighter? If so, I'm ordering it tonight or tomorrow.
(Oh, and my best buy still had the wireless charger available for pre-ordering. Woot)

Posted via the Android Central App

Yes you can. I'm coming from an S3 so this is a really cool feature that I'm excited about.

 

[hawkeye16qb]

It has to be better than my OG Moto X right?

I have a couple battery packs to get me through in a pinch. Hate the thought of gimping features just to save the battery.

 

[ibcop]

It's been posted that the biggest majority of people buying these phones don't know or care about swappable batteries.
These same people aren't going to know to disable a bunch of stuff so their battery will last longer. They buy the phone and use it. If it gets poor battery life, that's how they'll see the S6 - A phone that gets poor battery life.

But on the same token, one shouldn't have to cripple their device in order to make the battery last a day. And it's really not a full day for most people. Say it comes off the charger at 5am and goes back at 11pm (give or take). The majority of the battery will be depleted for this "days" use.

 

[osiris355]

It is sad. ART ended up not living up to expectations as far as performance goes. Android is still behind iOS and (lol)WP8 in OS responsiveness. Not by much but it is. There's only so far you can take a linux based OS and I daresay we've reached that plateau judging by 3 major attempts (JB, KK, L) to surpass it.

Project Volta doesn't seem to be getting anywhere.

Timely updates to carrier phones haven't made any headway to really speak of since 2011. There's been some duct tape efforts but not nearly enough. The closest they came was moving some OS functions into Play Services and making the the Moto X and that didn't last long. I find it funny how well behaved some brands were with update schedules after Google bought Moto and how quickly they relapsed back into their old habits after Google sold it.

Major bugs take far too long to address. iOS 8 had a cluster-F at launch rendering some users phones unusable. That was pretty bad. But... it was fixed and patch out to everyone in 2 days, as opposed to 3+ months.

Sammy did a bad by using this battery size for the S6. Considering what a hog Google's OS services are on battery life and some under the hood problems with Lollipop they should never have went with that battery on a 5.1" QHD display. A medium-heavy user will be plugging that phone in a lot.

I agree with you completely except for the Moto part. Moto has once again done a very good job. They had lollipop out almost immediately on vzw and pure Moto X, Moto g 2014.

Yes turbo and 2013 X are still waiting but that is more so googles fault since 5.0 was junk and Moto ended up ditching it.

 

[GWaLL13]

But on the same token, one shouldn't have to cripple their device in order to make the battery last a day. And it's really not a full day for most people. Say it comes off the charger at 5am and goes back at 11pm (give or take). The majority of the battery will be depleted for this "days" use.

I wouldn't say disabling nonessential features is necessarily crippling the device, but more to optimize it. For instance on the S5 all of these gesture features that were pretty lack luster, if active would just slow the device down, so by disabling them, the performance would in turn increase. Do the same for a dozen other features you could care less about and you've got a more useful piece of hardware.

-via Android Central App on GWaLL's S5

 

[GWaLL13]

I also agree that with new updates, the bugs will get worked out. I hardly see Samsung leave commonly voiced issues unaddressed.

 

[Gray Area]

1 hour of streaming music and light browsing on auto brightness

After that... 3 hrs of streaming HD twitch.tv with 80 percent + brightness.

All streaming / data on LTE. All syncs on (Google Calendar, notes, etc.). All audio going over bluetooth. ANT+ disabled and wifi calling shut off. WiFi radio also off. Location services on.

I consider that in line with what I was expecting which is average to slightly above average battery life. These days almost 4 hours screen time plus streaming an hour of radio that's solid.

Posted via the Android Central App on my Galaxy S5