Frandroid Galaxy S6 Review - Let's talk about battery life

[ibcop]

For what it's worth... I just got back from BestBuy and was testing both the standard and edge S6. The regular S6 had been unplugged for 4 hours and had a screen on time of 1:40 and still had 75% battery on it. That's putting it around 6-7 hours of screen on time if that held up.
I made sure it had not been plugged in and checked all the battery stats and was pleasantly surprised.
FYI - The Samsung rep told me Samsung directly told him to expect 17-19 hours of standard daily use. Obviously usage time depends on the user but all the evidence I've seen points to a very respectable to possibly great batter life. Finger crossed!

The problem is Samsung can say you can expect 17-19 hours of standard use. What is their definition of standard use? This is where the problems will come into play - people will expect 17-19 hours of use based on what they are/were told. Based on what I have read thus far concerning the battery, I can't see anyone getting that battery life. Heck I have the Turbo - they claimed 48 hours of use. No way I can ever get that - and the Turbo has a 3900mAh battery.

I guess what I'm saying is I wouldn't hold your breath with the battery life. Hopefully you can get a "out of bed, back to bed" day out of it.

 

[Inders99]

It's just that the S6 Edge is very seductive and I'm trying to resist buying one. I got a hands-on preview in Galaxy Experience Store in NYC recently and I genuinely think there's nothing else like it in the market in terms of looks and feel.

I have two concerns with the Edge, breaking it is the big one with the exposed curved glass, my phones get dropped more than they're held, and the second is that it looks a bit dorfy with a case on it, at least in the pictures.

 

[Jdroids]

For what it's worth... I just got back from BestBuy and was testing both the standard and edge S6. The regular S6 had been unplugged for 4 hours and had a screen on time of 1:40 and still had 75% battery on it. That's putting it around 6-7 hours of screen on time if that held up.
I made sure it had not been plugged in and checked all the battery stats and was pleasantly surprised.
FYI - The Samsung rep told me Samsung directly told him to expect 17-19 hours of standard daily use. Obviously usage time depends on the user but all the evidence I've seen points to a very respectable to possibly great batter life. Finger crossed!

That's pretty good. When S5 launched one year ago, the general consensus from early users were about 5~6 hours of screen time. Of course your mileage will vary depending on location, how it's used.

 

[gamblor77]

Yeah for sure their battery estimates are dependent on a lot of things. With heavy use on any phone the estimated time is gonna be run into the ground. But like I said the phone already had 1:40 of screen on time and had been on for 4 hours and still had 75%. My Note 3 doesn't even get that kind of mileage so I was really happy to see that.
Regardless of all the benchmarks and splitting hairs on whether it lasts 14 hours or 14.5 hours of real world use... I was honestly expecting it to get 3-4 hours of screen on time and last 8-10 hours of normal use, so I was pretty happy to see some evidence to the contrary. I don't game on my phone but I do have a few emails syncing and Facebook and Twitter running all day... So my expectations are pretty low I feel.... I want a phone that lasts 14-16 hours of messaging, emails, Web browsing, maybe a few YouTube videos and 20-30 mins of a time waster game - probably 5-6 hours of SOC with basic things, not games. I guess what I'm saying is I don't expect to play first person shooters on the phone for 6 hours, then watch the Lord of the rings trilogy without a recharge. If it used very little battery in standby time that would make a world of difference.

 

[Alex_NJ]

Yeah for sure their battery estimates are dependent on a lot of things. With heavy use on any phone the estimated time is gonna be run into the ground. But like I said the phone already had 1:40 of screen on time and had been on for 4 hours and still had 75%. My Note 3 doesn't even get that kind of mileage so I was really happy to see that.
Regardless of all the benchmarks and splitting hairs on whether it lasts 14 hours or 14.5 hours of real world use... I was honestly expecting it to get 3-4 hours of screen on time and last 8-10 hours of normal use, so I was pretty happy to see some evidence to the contrary. I don't game on my phone but I do have a few emails syncing and Facebook and Twitter running all day... So my expectations are pretty low I feel.... I want a phone that lasts 14-16 hours of messaging, emails, Web browsing, maybe a few YouTube videos and 20-30 mins of a time waster game - probably 5-6 hours of SOC with basic things, not games. I guess what I'm saying is I don't expect to play first person shooters on the phone for 6 hours, then watch the Lord of the rings trilogy without a recharge. If it used very little battery in standby time that would make a world of difference.

I'm in the same situation as you, sounds like we use our phones for similar usages.

One thing you should be aware of is that full gaming battery life, or movie playback etc is a completely different battery estimate to the usage you are suggesting.

So the S6 may be fantastic for battery life when gaming, but stand by times and web browsing may be terrible, and other phones may outlast the S6 for your usage.

Something you may already know but just making sure

 

[Almeuit]

I'm in the same situation as you, sounds like we use our phones for similar usages.

One thing you should be aware of is that full gaming battery life, or movie playback etc is a completely different battery estimate to the usage you are suggesting.

So the S6 may be fantastic for battery life when gaming, but stand by times and web browsing may be terrible, and other phones may outlast the S6 for your usage.

Something you may already know but just making sure

Usually it would be the opposite in your example since games take more processing / GPU power.

 

[Jdroids]

One thing you should be aware of is that full gaming battery life, or movie playback etc is a completely different battery estimate to the usage you are suggesting.

So the S6 may be fantastic for battery life when gaming, but stand by times and web browsing may be terrible, and other phones may outlast the S6 for your usage.

Something you may already know but just making sure

I keep hearing this on this forum. But it doesn't make much sense technically. If the processor is very efficient for gaming, videos, it should be good for background apps too. Apps in background, stand by are not using screen and power draw is mainly from processor, radio chips. And we know this Exynos is has LITTLE cores for running light apps. I haven't seen any phone that has great screen time but poor stand by time. Usually both go hand in hand.

 

[Chun Liang]

Anyone can tell me how is the battery with this rom on a normal day. SOT, standby time... I'm just looking a custom rom with the best battery life and performance.

 

[John Kar]

Anyone can tell me how is the battery with this rom on a normal day. SOT, standby time... I'm just looking a custom rom with the best battery life and performance.

The same as the S5.
You should get around 5-6 hours SoT with 17-19 hours of use without any charging in-between.

 

[John Kar]

I'm in the same situation as you, sounds like we use our phones for similar usages.

One thing you should be aware of is that full gaming battery life, or movie playback etc is a completely different battery estimate to the usage you are suggesting.

So the S6 may be fantastic for battery life when gaming, but stand by times and web browsing may be terrible, and other phones may outlast the S6 for your usage.

Something you may already know but just making sure

Considering the data we have right now, it seems like the S6 beats other phones in all battery life measurements.

 

[neo905]

For what it's worth... I just got back from BestBuy and was testing both the standard and edge S6. The regular S6 had been unplugged for 4 hours and had a screen on time of 1:40 and still had 75% battery on it. That's putting it around 6-7 hours of screen on time if that held up.
I made sure it had not been plugged in and checked all the battery stats and was pleasantly surprised.
FYI - The Samsung rep told me Samsung directly told him to expect 17-19 hours of standard daily use. Obviously usage time depends on the user but all the evidence I've seen points to a very respectable to possibly great batter life. Finger crossed!

I've never had a Samsung phone so hopefully someone else can answer it. I've never found battery life to be linear. Meaning, if I got 12 hours battery life including 3 hours on screen time and the battery was at 50% I wouldnt expect another 12 hours with 3 hours being on-screen time for a total of 24 hours with 6 hours on screen time. I find battery life is better at the beginning of the charge and slopes down after that. Would that be the case for the S6.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[clevin]

I've never had a Samsung phone so hopefully someone else can answer it. I've never found battery life to be linear. Meaning, if I got 12 hours battery life including 3 hours on screen time and the battery was at 50% I would expect another 12 hours with 3 hours being on-screen time for a total of 24 hours with 6 hours on screen time. I find battery life is better at the beginning of the charge and slopes down after that. Would that be the case for the S6.

Posted via the Android Central App

System tries its best to produce a linear calibration curve. But the battery percentage report is never accurate.

In the beginning, with new battery, the linearity is better, it's gets worse with battery degradation over time.

So yes, at least in the beginning, it would be good.

@T-Mobile GN3

 

[jcp007]

Immediately after the MWC, battery result estimates were all over the place. Now almost three weeks, it would appear that we are starting to devices with updated firmware and more consistent battery results. A point to keep in mind that we are hearing that we should be able to get a good days use out of this device with a more energy efficient QHD display and 30%+ more efficient faster chipset as well as a boat load of other goodies powered by a smaller battery cranking enlightened power with up times comparable to it's bigger brother which was powering last years device with a less energy efficient and lower resolution screen as well as a less energy efficient and slower processor. In that context, comparable battery life is good enough. Let's put the battery issue to bed and look forward to more juicy issues so that can really get our arms wrapped around what could be the sexy beast of a smartphone for 2015.

 

[BullGuard8]

Samsung has to spoil it! they just can't make a perfect phone! now they up the specs but give us a tiny battery!

 

[jcp007]

Samsung has to spoil it! they just can't make a perfect phone! now they up the specs but give us a tiny battery!

That smaller battery by most recent accounts is doing as well as its bigger brother in the GS5. The GS6 as you are probably aware has a huger resolution and faster processor, both of which are more energy efficient than their predecessor. The smaller battery also benefits from a lighter UI. We are getting a lot even with a smaller battery.

 

[tcdude]

Not sure if anyone else on this thread mentioned this but I read the S6 has the ultra power saving mode feature from the S5 I use it pretty often and I think it may prove to be especially useful for the S6

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[jcp007]

Not sure if anyone else on this thread mentioned this but I read the S6 has the ultra power saving mode feature from the S5 I use it pretty often and I think it may prove to be especially useful for the S6

Posted via the Android Central App

It's definitely come up in the video reviews. That, rapid charging, power banks, and dual wireless charging make swappable batteries less necessary. Here's an analogy...heads up display versus analog display on your dash...while you may miss the aesthetics and presences..HUD also you to keep your eyes on the road. Granted, it is a problem if you smash the windshield but the transmitter would be in the top of the dash.