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

posted by Chris P. / Mar 26, 2015, 10:06 AM

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

When you have a 5.1-inch display that curves to the sides whilst holding as many as 1440 x 2560 pixels (a massive 576 ppi), and only a 2,600 mAh cell to keep things moving along, you're allowed to be skeptical. And skeptical we were about the Galaxy S6 edge, at least in terms of battery life – seemingly the only unknown variable in the lengthy equation that is Samsung's latest flagship. Fortunately for you and us both, the electronics giant knows what it's doing.

We put the Galaxy S6 edge through our arduous battery life test that attempts to mimic the average person's usage patterns. The result? 8 hours and 11 minutes of battery life, and 83 minutes needed to charge from zero to full – an (ostensibly) excellent showing! Still, there's one caveat to this score that we have to mention, for it played a part in S6 edge's achievement.

As some of you know, we always set the display brightness of the phones that go through our custom battery life test to 200 nits. This is done to ensure as close to an even playing field as possible. Unfortunately, in the case of the Galaxy S6 edge, we had to green light the test at 180 nits, as that's the highest brightness the display can reach when manually set. This gives the S6 edge a small... well, edge, over the competition that had to play by the rules. Still, even keeping that in mind, we still have to give it to Samsung's top new smartphone – its battery life is great.

Samsung Galaxy S6 edge 8h 11 min (Excellent)

Motorola DROID Turbo 10h 42 min (Excellent)

Motorola Moto X (2014) 5h 45 min (Average)

Samsung Galaxy S6 7h 14 min (Good)

HTC One M9 6h 25 min (Average)

Sony Xperia Z3 9h 29 min (Excellent)

Apple iPhone 6 5h 22 min (Poor)

Apple iPhone 6 Plus 6h 32 min (Average)

Samsung Galaxy Note 4 8h 43 min (Excellent)

Samsung Galaxy S5 7h 38 min (Good)

LG G3 6h 14 min (Average)

Samsung Galaxy S6 edge 83

Motorola DROID Turbo 126

Motorola Moto X (2014) 176

Samsung Galaxy S6 78

HTC One M9 106

Sony Xperia Z3 235

Apple iPhone 6 147

Apple iPhone 6 Plus 171

Samsung Galaxy Note 4 95

Samsung Galaxy S5 122

LG G3 120

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Samsung Galaxy S6 edge

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View Full specs

PhoneArena Rating:

9.3

Read Full Review

User Rating:

8.8

Based on 36 Reviews

Display 5.1" 1440 x 2560 pixels

Camera 16 MP / 5 MP front

Processor Samsung Exynos 7 Octa, Octa-core, 2100 MHz

Storage 128 GB

Battery 2600 mAh(26h talk time)

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75 Comments

1. mrej201

Posts: 226; Member since: Feb 04, 2015

impressive I guess with all the bloat remove that what you get... hey phone arena how about removing any bloat app and doing the test again

posted on Mar 26, 2015, 10:10 AM 2

13. Dattack

Posts: 61; Member since: Jan 09, 2013

What bloatware?

posted on Mar 26, 2015, 10:28 AM 10

34. JMartin22

Posts: 2355; Member since: Apr 30, 2013

Yeah, what is he talking about?

posted on Mar 26, 2015, 12:21 PM 6

35. rd_nest

Posts: 1656; Member since: Jun 06, 2010

Bloatware?? Then why does nexus suck at batterylife?

posted on Mar 26, 2015, 12:46 PM 8

41. TechieXP1969

Posts: 14967; Member since: Sep 25, 2013

Because it wasn't made by Samsung.

posted on Mar 26, 2015, 3:37 PM 2

43. Bjray

Posts: 199; Member since: May 29, 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.

posted on Mar 26, 2015, 3:54 PM 0

2. tech2

Posts: 3487; Member since: Oct 26, 2012

The difference is rather significant between S6 and Edge considering its only 50mah more. Were the edge/s of the displays being used during testing ? PS. I think these are just software quirks and even S6 will have equivalent or better battery life then Edge after the final firmware is released. All those gsmarena trollers can just stfu.

posted on Mar 26, 2015, 10:11 AM 0

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.

posted on Mar 26, 2015, 10:20 AM 4

11. Neros

Posts: 1016; Member since: Dec 19, 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.

posted on Mar 26, 2015, 10:24 AM 0

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.

posted on Mar 26, 2015, 10:28 AM 4

20. Neros

Posts: 1016; Member since: Dec 19, 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.

posted on Mar 26, 2015, 10:43 AM 0

21. Chris.P

Posts: 567; Member since: Jun 27, 2013

Our script keeps the display on until the battery dies.

posted on Mar 26, 2015, 10:51 AM 3

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.

posted on Mar 26, 2015, 10:56 AM 0

24. Neros

Posts: 1016; Member since: Dec 19, 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.

posted on Mar 26, 2015, 11:10 AM 0

26. TyrionLannister unregistered

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

posted on Mar 26, 2015, 11:16 AM 3

23. Neros

Posts: 1016; Member since: Dec 19, 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.

posted on Mar 26, 2015, 11:02 AM 0

54. Chris.P

Posts: 567; Member since: Jun 27, 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.

posted on Mar 27, 2015, 2:07 AM 0

71. robertkoa

Posts: 88; Member since: Apr 27, 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.

posted on Apr 02, 2015, 12:13 PM 0

72. robertkoa

Posts: 88; Member since: Apr 27, 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.

posted on Apr 04, 2015, 2:31 PM 0

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.

posted on Mar 26, 2015, 10:33 AM 6

31. maherk

Posts: 6749; Member since: Feb 10, 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.

posted on Mar 26, 2015, 11:33 AM 7

58. Joeypogs

Posts: 4; Member since: Mar 27, 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! :)

posted on Mar 27, 2015, 4:56 AM 1

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.

posted on Mar 27, 2015, 5:16 AM 3

25. james_fuston

Posts: 7; Member since: Mar 26, 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.

posted on Mar 26, 2015, 11:14 AM 0

32. j2001m

Posts: 3061; Member since: Apr 28, 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

posted on Mar 26, 2015, 11:48 AM 0

67. robertkoa

Posts: 88; Member since: Apr 27, 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 ?

posted on Mar 29, 2015, 8:07 PM 0

3. aortia

Posts: 3; Member since: Mar 04, 2015

This time optimization beat bigger battery, good job sammy. Can't wait for note 5 battery life with 14nm processor and bigger battery :)

posted on Mar 26, 2015, 10:12 AM 12

8. walkman800

Posts: 113; Member since: Aug 26, 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.

posted on Mar 26, 2015, 10:20 AM 0

19. aortia

Posts: 3; Member since: Mar 04, 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

posted on Mar 26, 2015, 10:40 AM 0

27. james_fuston

Posts: 7; Member since: Mar 26, 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.

posted on Mar 26, 2015, 11:17 AM 0

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