Does anyone else prefer big 720p phones for the battery life benefit?

[jaycrewz]

So now I am looking for another 5.5 to 5.7 inch screen with a better CPU, but only a 720p screen. The Samsung Galaxy J7 has my eye right now. I was wondering if others out there favored the amazing battery life of 720p screens on a big battery phone?

I easily have been getting 6 hrs screen on time and two days of usage out of the Zmax2 with moderate usage. And while the phone is ok, the CPU isn't up to snuff. I really only got this cheap phone because I wanted to test out if I liked a phablet sized phone before dropping a lot of cash on a phone with 4GB Ram and at least a 1080p screen. After using the Zmax2 I realized I much prefer all the battery benefits of 720p.

Every 1080p or Quad HD phone I look at doesnt get anywhere near that. For me, 720p isnt terrible on a 5.5 inch phablet...and while Id love 1080p or Quad HD...those resolutions dont seem to be consistently hitting 4 hrs of screen on time in the reviews I read for multiple phones.

So just curious if anyone is like me and enjoys the battery life of big 720p phones. And could you recommend any right now phones with at least 5.5 inch screens that get great battery life?

 

[Aquila]

Not sure on the HD screen, but the Moto G 4 Plus with 4GB RAM gets 6 hours SOT pretty easily for my wife. It's 5.5" 1080p. It sounds like the OnePlus 3 is in that range as well.

 

[skstrials]

For me, yes 720p is good enough.

I would take the extra battery life + frame rates of a 720p screen.

The battery tech has lagged behind other technologies in phones.

 

[D13H4RD2L1V3]

I don't mind a 720p display on a 5-inch phone or smaller, but anything above and it looks a little grainy and pixelated to me.

Yeah, I get the bonus of better battery life, but honestly, a lot the current 1080p midrangers have good battery life anyway.

Though that depends what qualifies as "good" battery life in your own books.

 

[kramer5150]

I wish there was a way to chose the resolution... leave it up to the user to pick whatever resolution they want. 1080p home icon screen is probably not needed for most users.

Pebble smart watches use that "paper LCD" display and get 8-9 days of screen-on, compared to my moto 360 which gets about 2 days. I wonder if paper LCD technology could be used with phones?

Being forced one way or the other... I would chose the 1080p. I just have to buffer the power with extra batteries or external battery banks.

 

[Almeuit]

Today with Quick Charge and such -- It doesn't bother me. I can plug in on a drive from point A to point B and gain 30%+. That is fine for my needs.

 

[Aquila]

Flagships will pretty much all knock out 4+ easily, 6+ seems to be conditional but I'm not aware of any phones that just straight up can't do it.

 

[jaycrewz]

For me, yes 720p is good enough.

I would take the extra battery life + frame rates of a 720p screen.

The battery tech has lagged behind other technologies in phones.

This is true and its so sad.

We keep getting more pixels and more power hungry cpus, gpus, and chipsets....yet the battery technology is ignored.

I wish there was a way to chose the resolution... leave it up to the user to pick whatever resolution they want. 1080p home icon screen is probably not needed for most users.

Pebble smart watches use that "paper LCD" display and get 8-9 days of screen-on, compared to my moto 360 which gets about 2 days. I wonder if paper LCD technology could be used with phones?

Being forced one way or the other... I would chose the 1080p. I just have to buffer the power with extra batteries or external battery banks.

You must realize that choosing resolution wouldn't much effect battery life, as its the amount of pixels present that has the biggest effect.

 

[Aquila]

This is true and its so sad.

We keep getting more pixels and more power hungry cpus, gpus, and chipsets....yet the battery technology is ignored.

While I agree battery tech is nowhere near it should be (we should have phones that last weeks by now, not hours) - SoC and display tech is both getting MORE power efficient, not less. That's one reason we haven't seen battery sizes jump much above the 3000-3500 monster batteries we already have (with rare exception) - because making the device bigger to house a larger battery won't pay off nearly as much as using more efficient technology, such as Samsung's latest generation screens and for the Snapdragon and Exynos processors every generation is getting better.

 

[kramer5150]

Yeah I was thinking about the technology in the future would be able to turn off every other or every 4th pixel as a central setting in the OS. And link resolution to the app or the function at the time.

 

[belodion]

Do anyone else prefer big 720p phones for the battery life benefit?

Yeah I was thinking about the technology in the future would be able to turn off every other or every 4th pixel as a central setting in the OS. And link resolution to the app or the function at the time.

I seem to recall trying an app that mimics that....perhaps to save battery on an OLED display. I don't remember much about it. It may have been some sort of black masking of some of the pixels. But to be able to do it properly would indeed be useful when you don't need high resolution.

 

[kramer5150]

It doesn't seem that difficult to my simplistic mind. Just turn off every other pixel or every third pixel... Why couldn't a graphics processor and its controlling algorithm do this ? Its just pixels... each is either on, off or colored according to the program code being fed.

 

[Almeuit]

yet the battery technology is ignored.

I highly doubt it is ignored .

 

[Billy Bob Jimmy Joe]

HELL NO! 720p on a 4.6" Z5C didn't look good at all to me. Imagine that on a bigger display. I decided then that I'll never buy a 720p device ever again.

Google Nexus 6P

 

[mohit9206]

HELL NO! 720p on a 4.6" Z5C didn't look good at all to me. Imagine that on a bigger display. I decided then that I'll never buy a 720p device ever again.

Google Nexus 6P

Five years in the future you will say

HELL NO! 4K on a 7" Z10 didn't look good at all to me. Imagine that on a bigger display. I decided then that I'll never buy a 4K device ever again.

It's all relative. 720p is perfect for phones. Most of you are just spoiled by 1440p phones with 2 hour battery life.

 

[Billy Bob Jimmy Joe]

It's all relative. 720p is perfect for phones. Most of you are just spoiled by 1440p phones with 2 hour battery life.

The battery life on my phone is great. If anything, better than the Z5C.

Google Nexus 6P

 

[mohit9206]

The battery life on my phone is great. If anything, better than the Z5C.

Google Nexus 6P

Yeah but imagine if your Nexus 6P had a 5 inch 720p display instead of 5.7 1440p.Battery life would probably hit 10 hours or more. So i would love to see more phones in market with 5 inch 720p displays and more than 4000mah batteries. Slimness of the phone be dammed.

 

[jaycrewz]

The battery life on my phone is great. If anything, better than the Z5C.

Google Nexus 6P

5.5 to 6 hours of screen time great? Because I can consistently do that on a 720p phone with a 3000 mah battery. My coworker has the Nexus 6P and rarely hits 4 hours screen on time.

 

[Aquila]

5.5 to 6 hours of screen time great? Because I can consistently do that on a 720p phone with a 3000 mah battery. My coworker has the Nexus 6P and rarely hits 4 hours screen on time.

I can consistently get 5+ on the 6P with bad signal, with a good signal 6+ is easy. The Moto G4 with 1080p 5.5" and 3000 mAh battery gets 6 without any problems every day.

 

[Tsepz_GP]

I get ~6-7hours SOT on my Note 4 with 5.7inch QHD display and 3220mAh battery, so nope, don't want anything with less than a QHD display.

I do a lot of web browsing, Social Media (FB, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest etc...), I'd hate to be viewing all that on a large low density display after being spoilt by my Note 4.