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Galaxy Note5 battery life benchmark: Outperforms the Note 4 despite smaller battery

By Chris P.

Updated: Aug 17, 2015, 2:56 AM

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Galaxy Note5 battery life benchmark: Outperforms the Note 4 despite smaller battery

Most of you probably won't remember, but as it was our job to pay attention back then, we do. When the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 arrived on the scene last year, critics and consumers alike were worried that Samsung used a battery with essentially the same capacity as its predecessor, the Note 3, and that this time around it would have to power a hungrier, Quad HD display instead of a more frugal, 1080p panel. So you can imagine we were all pleasantly surprised when our custom battery life benchmark showed that the Note 4 is significantly more resilient than its predecessor.

Fast-forward to last week, and similar outrage could be seen across the web, though perhaps a little understated in comparison to last year, what with Samsung committing 'sacrilege' by going microSD card slot-free and without a removable battery. In any case, people were seriously worried that with its smaller battery (3,000 mAh, a 220 mAh drop), the Note5 would prove less enduring than its predecessor, though there was obviously a glimmer of hope that Samsung will pull out yet another small miracle. Well, now that our strenuous battery life test has been completed, we can confirm that it did: the Note5 does better than the Note 4.

How much better, though? Well, not too much, but that's still something considering the drop in capacity — 9 hours and 11 minutes. That's nearly half an hour on top of the Note 4's score of 8 hours and 43 minutes. Of course, that's still below the extraordinary results the Galaxy S6 Active (3,500 mAh battery) achieved, or the Motorola DROID Turbo (3,900 mAh), but better than other competing, high-profile devices like the HTC One M9, the LG G4, and the iPhone 6 Plus.

That's not all, however, as the Note5's 3,000 mAh cell is also very fast to go back to 100% when charged using the included accessory in the box. We measured 81 minutes, which is extremely fast on the whole, and puts the Note5 at the number six spot in our all-time ranking. In fact, it's only Asus' ZenFone 2 (also a 3,000 mAh battery) which proves quicker in this particular regard. See for yourself:

UPDATE: Our Samsung Galaxy Note5 review is now up!

We measure battery life by running a custom web-script,designed to replicate the power consumption of typical real-life usage.All devices that go through the test have their displays set at 200-nit brightness.

name	hoursHigher is better

Samsung Galaxy Note5	9h 11 min(Good)
Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+	9h 29 min(Good)
Samsung Galaxy Note4	8h 43 min(Good)
LG G4	6h 6 min(Poor)
HTC One M9	6h 25 min(Poor)
Sony Xperia Z3+	7h 15 min(Average)
Sony Xperia Z3	9h 29 min(Good)
Motorola DROID Turbo	10h 42 min(Excellent)
Google Nexus 6	7h 53 min(Average)
Apple iPhone 6 Plus	6h 32 min(Average)
Asus ZenFone 2	7h 34 min(Average)

View all

View Full Bio

Chris Panayotov is a former mobile tech reviewer of phones, tablets and wearables at PhoneArena. However, his contribution to PhoneArena content includes not just reviews, but all kinds of regular and experimental features, such as news stories, buying guides, and an exclusive column on the most notable phones out of Asia.

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Galaxy Note5 battery life benchmark: Outperforms the Note 4 despite smaller battery

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Samsung Galaxy Note5	1h 21 min
Samsung Galaxy Note4	1h 35 min
LG G4	2h 7 min
HTC One M9	1h 46 min
Sony Xperia Z3+	3h 9 min
Sony Xperia Z3	3h 55 min
Motorola DROID Turbo	2h 6 min
Google Nexus 6	1h 38 min
Apple iPhone 6 Plus	2h 51 min
Asus ZenFone 2	0h 58 min