Galaxy S6 Active battery life test shows how far can 3500 mAh go

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Galaxy S6 Active battery life test shows how far the 3500 mAh battery goes
Our review bee is working hard on outing their first impressions from the Galaxy S6 Active, and we know what you are most curious about - this phone has a much larger battery than the Galaxy S6 itself, after all, right? With a 3500 mAh unit, how do Samsung's frugal screen, chipset, and software optimizations fare, when compared to the 2550 mAh unit in the S6?

Well, our proprietary battery life benchmark has been done on the phone, and it shows exactly how good has Samsung gotten at optimizing its flagships for a great ratio of battery capacity and longevity. We got a bit over 12 hours of screen-on time in our demanding test, which jibes with Samsung's stated 16 hours of video playback on a charge, and the phone's 40% larger battery capacity. On the minus side, it takes 103 minutes to charge the battery to its full potential, compared to 78 minutes for the Galaxy S6, yet this is still an incredibly fast charging time. 

Last but not least, Samsung managed to achieve this excellent battery life result, and ace the drop and waterproofing tests in the process, while keeping the thickness of the tough handset at the reasonable 8.6 mm only - a far cry from the usual chubby ruggedized handsets we are used to seeing. The Galaxy Note 5 is rumored to have a sizeable battery as well, so we can only imagine what its battery life will be, if the rumors hold water.

Battery life (hours) Higher is better
Samsung Galaxy S6 Active 12h 9 min (Excellent)
Samsung Galaxy S6 edge 8h 11 min (Average)
Samsung Galaxy S6 7h 14 min (Average)
Sony Xperia Z3 9h 29 min (Good)
LG G4 6h 6 min (Poor)
HTC One M9 6h 25 min (Poor)
Huawei P8 7h 12 min (Average)
Charging time (minutes) Lower is better
Samsung Galaxy S6 Active 103
Samsung Galaxy S6 edge 83
Samsung Galaxy S6 78
Sony Xperia Z3 235
LG G4 127
HTC One M9 106
Huawei P8 180
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