Just did a video test - still impressed with the battery life

[Rev2010]

With so much complaining about battery life I decided to do a test. *This is not by any means scientific or meant to argue against other users usage*. I know some people are on their phone all day with push email, sending texts, navigating, making phone/video calls, etc. I honestly feel any super power user living that fixed to their phone will have a hard time with battery life with basically any phone out there minus maybe the Razor Maxx with it's super battery.

Anyhow, I just ran a 1280x720p (full screen usage) movie through my phone and recorded the battery life. I didn't do any lame 30% brightness nonsense - the settings I used were brightness at 100% and volume at level 13 in MXPlayer which was at the volume I would listen to the movie at, loud but not ear blowing. The movie was also a brightly lit sunny california movie, not something dark like the Matrix or Trueblood which would save on battery life. Below are the times I checked on the video and the battery life as well as the specs:

Battery fully charged to 100% then phone restarted to start fresh. 4G LTE mobile data connection left on, wifi off (I would like to further test another day using airplane mode to see the difference).

9:18pm time in linux phone was at 100% phone battery

At 20 minutes in - 97%

At 40 minutes in - 93%

At 70 minutes in - 87%

At 80 minutes in - 85%

At 85 minutes in - 84%

Movie ended. By this math, if I'm not mistaken and given the phone could drain to zero which I am certain it can't, I should be able to get 8.854 hours of video playback. Again, this is if the phone could drain all the way to zero which I seriously doubt. Even still, 8 hours straight of 100% brightness video and loud audio is pretty damn impressive for a screen this size. And to wrap it up... the battery is removable unlike other phones so I can just buy a spare to keep handy on long trips, though I've never needed one with any phone so far luckily.


Rev.

 

[Lolanerd]

Yeah honestly I haven't seen much of a battery difference between max brightness and half brightness

 

[jostnyc]

good write up. this has been what all non android users complain about. seems like that battery can hold up which was one of my fears coming to android. but like you said if users are on their devices hardcore their battery would drain no matter what.

 

[beh]

While I haven't done any testing in my actual use I don't have any problem with battery life on my S3.. Until you have lived with a Droid Bionic you have no clue as to "battery drain". I am talking 3 hrs. on standby before battery is dead.
I also have to chuckle at posts about how battery life is short when streaming games and music and movies and tweeting and blogging for hours on end at work because the company doesn't allow personal use of company network. Why is an employee getting a pay check to not work in the first place??

 

[Brett636]

Battery life on this phone is pretty amazing when coming from the original Evo 4g. On my Evo i would have it attached to the charger all day since I am always streaming something through my phone, and on a light day the Evo might be good for 4-5 hours. On my first day with my S3 I decided to see how long it would last before i needed to put it on charge, and it lasted the entire day with me streaming audio, downloading apps, surfing the internet, etc. Never once did I need to stick on charge.

 

[Rev2010]

Yeah, when you really look at it... even if the phone only managed 8 hours of playback at 100% brightness and good audio level - that is my whole work day! Look at the thing, look at the size of the screen. Pull out the battery and hold it in your hand - that little thing can power the phone playing an HD 1280 x 720p video for the length of my entire work day, I am impressed to say the least! GSMArena.com tested the quadcore version and listed the length of video playback at 10 hours.

Rev.