Our Samsung Galaxy S6 edge battery life test shows flagship-worthy endurance

13. Dattack (Posts: 61; Member since: 09 Jan 2013)

What bloatware?

34. JMartin22 (Posts: 2013; Member since: 30 Apr 2013)

Yeah, what is he talking about?

35. rd_nest (Posts: 1656; Member since: 06 Jun 2010)

Bloatware?? Then why does nexus suck at batterylife?

41. TechieXP1969 (Posts: 14501; Member since: 25 Sep 2013)

Because it wasn't made by Samsung.

43. Bjray (Posts: 187; Member since: 29 May 2014)

Well, the Nexus 6 is up there with everything else (7hr 53min).
Most of it's loss compared to the Note 4 come from the previous gen AMOLED display tech plus it's larger.

The Nexus 5 is just bad... Don't know what went wrong with that one.

9. TyrionLannister (unregistered)

The difference doesn't make sense to me. It's too big. Even the benchmarks posted by PA of S6 were noticeably worse than edge. I think the guys were more excited about the edge and did not pay enough attention reviewing the regular sibling leading to this result.

The difference between them should be in minutes.

11. Neros (Posts: 1016; Member since: 19 Dec 2014)

Their testing prpcedures are flawed. Do you actually believe that s6 edge gets 2hrs of battery life more than note 3? Because that what PA claims. We all know this isn't right. Look at gsmarena's battery tests. Base s6 gets over 3hrs of on-screen time.

14. TyrionLannister (unregistered)

Please tell me what tells you that S6 gets 3 hours on-screen time acc. to GSMArena.

1. GSMArena tested pre-release S6. It's written in at least 10 places in their review. Go check the review again. They'll re-do the test when they get retail model.

2. Regular S6 got 8 hour 44 min web browsing in GSMArena test.

I have no idea how did you get that 3 hour on-screen time from.

Oh, and even the S5 outlasts the Note 3. S6 edge should last easily more than that.

20. Neros (Posts: 1016; Member since: 19 Dec 2014)

Ok, the on-screen time I provided for the s6 was wrong, but I thought I found that number on gsmarena. Anyway, why none of those reviews provide us with the on-screen time? It's more important than those useless wifi/3g/movie numbers. Note 4 can hit 7h mark. I doubt the s6 edge can break 5.5h mark.

21. Chris.P (Posts: 567; Member since: 27 Jun 2013)

Our script keeps the display on until the battery dies.

22. TyrionLannister (unregistered)

Can you confirm that S6 is on final firmware. As the number seems absurdly low compared to edge.

Or any battery killing app was running.

24. Neros (Posts: 1016; Member since: 19 Dec 2014)

S6 display was set to 200nits of bightness, edge's to 180 nits. So it's prettu much pointless. 7hrs and 40minutes is a more plausible score of set to 200nits. Of course it wasn't PA's fault. Then again it's a bit unfiar to compare edge's results to other phones which had their screens set to 200nits.

26. TyrionLannister (unregistered)

20 nits won't even make a 20 min difference.

23. Neros (Posts: 1016; Member since: 19 Dec 2014)

And could you kindly go to the setings and show us the on-screen time? Are you saying that the score of over 8hrs is the on-screen time or is it some average value calculated from numerous tests (3G/movies/etc.)?

If this device hit over 8hrs of on-screen time, that'd be pretty remarkable.

54. Chris.P (Posts: 567; Member since: 27 Jun 2013)

All I'll say is that it's not an abstract average that we siphoned out of somewhere. The screen was on for 8 hours and 11 minutes, just not necessarily always doing something as hard on the battery as streaming a movie or playing a game. Hence the "mimics real life use" part.

71. robertkoa (Posts: 87; Member since: 27 Apr 2014)

Understood.
But before I invest in one (and I greatly appreciate the Reviews) I need to know some SOTs on an LTE Network at about 20% to 30 % ( indoor legible brightness ) .

A S6 Pro at 7.6 mm thick with 3100 Mah Battery for Power Users would solve a lot of problems.

72. robertkoa (Posts: 87; Member since: 27 Apr 2014)

Chris - are you saying that you can Web Browse on an S6 at similar brightness on LTE for 6 to 7 hours including Screen On ?

OR is 7 hours figure using Wifi only NOT on a Network.

16. Kumar123 (unregistered)

I think we should take into consideration that when they do the battery life test of S6 edge the display brightness is set at 180 nits not at typical 200 nit. It gives this phone a "edge" over regular S6. Nevertheless, PA's battery life test is unreliable. They have history of retesting the battery life test. If they retest the battery life, the number will surely go down.

31. maherk (Posts: 4845; Member since: 10 Feb 2012)

And why are you this sure that the numbers will go down if a retest was done? Why not up?
Seriously Sony boy, knock it off with your pathetic attempts to degrade what is shaping up to be the best smartphone of 2015.

58. Joeypogs (Posts: 4; Member since: 27 Mar 2015)

To make all your arguments to rest about the battery life of s6 edge i did the simplest of math calculation, let me expound:

1. Standard screen luminance is supposedly set to 200 nits, however, the edge can only reach to 180 nits max according to PA. Therefore there's a 10% difference to all other test subjects.

2. Extrapolationg the anecdotal 8h11m endurance of the edge and subtracting the 10%, which is roughly 49m, difference equates to an adjusted endurance of 7h25m.

3. Thus, if we take into account regular s6 endurance of 7h14m and compare it to the now adjusted s6 edge endurance of 7h25m, we can clearly see that both devices have an almost exact endurance. Giving a slight, albeit, negligible advantage of s6 edge roughly in part due to a 50mah boost battery specs compared to regular s6.

4. This gives credence to PA's methods in calculating endurance ratings because of the consistency it produces when other people try to analyze the numbers posted in public and coming out of their own analogy and recalculations.

5. Im a fan both of gsma and PA, they just do different battery life statistics. However, either websites do their best in testing new phones so that us consumers, are well-informed before we make the purchase with our hard-earned money. Because frankly, regular joes like us don't have the resources to buy every single flagship on release and later on finding out that it didn't meet our expectations.

That is why PA and GSMA are here to help us all out.

So enough with your bashing trolls, be appreciative of all these guys and gals efforts to keep us consumers well informed.

Thanks PA! :)

60. TyrionLannister (unregistered)

Do you really think 10% less brightness makes for 10% less endurance. ROFL.

So in your opinion a 4X dimmer screen at 50 nits should get 32 hour web browsing time.

Yes, you can do math dude but in web browsing most of the load comes from CPU and GPU, and as usual Android system and the app itself. Screen may play a 20-30% difference, so you'll have about 1/4th factor or so.

So the 10% less brightness will likely result in about 2-3% difference which will be about 15 minutes less for edge or about 8 hours.

Sorry dude, multiplication doesn't cut it in real life.

25. james_fuston (Posts: 7; Member since: 26 Mar 2015)

It's all in the brightness setting. S6 Edge could only reach 180 nits manually, all the other phones were set to 200 nits. That completely explains the disparity.

32. j2001m (Posts: 3005; Member since: 28 Apr 2014)

It's 2 things, 1 the bigger battery and 2nd you note the edge is faster then the s6 due to the size and glass being used this will help with the battery as it also does not get as hot a the s6 as its not as thin and as per above

67. robertkoa (Posts: 87; Member since: 27 Apr 2014)

Yes...maybe on the Edge the Photons sliiiiide around the curves and save energy..

...So does this Test mean 7 plus hours of SOT at 180 nits ?
Usually turning brightness all the way up on a Samsung is very bright- right ?

8. walkman800 (Posts: 113; Member since: 26 Aug 2014)

are you sure Note's gonna have a bigger battery? Considering how Samsung opened a new page in their flagship development (beautiful, thin, shiny), I think that Note will be similarly constructed of premium materials, and considerably thinner.

19. aortia (Posts: 3; Member since: 04 Mar 2015)

yes, i think it will increasing from 3220 mAh to 3300 maybe? but if it's not sammy will optimize the device with using smaller architecture processor and more efficient storage like s6 and s6 edge. I hope note 5 can touch z3 compact battery life above 10h usage time

27. james_fuston (Posts: 7; Member since: 26 Mar 2015)

I'd be skeptical that the Note 5 will reach the Z3 compact's battery life since the Note 4 had 4x the resolution of the Z3C. I think Samsung will push the resolution even further with the Note 5.