Sony Xperia XZ battery life test score is out

posted by Victor H.

Sep 20, 2016, 3:29 AM

Sony Xperia XZ battery life test score is out

The Xperia XZ is Sony's new flagship phone: a 5.2" Android device with a brand new 'loop' design, the latest Snapdragon 820 system chip under the hood and a 23-megapixel camera with improved focusing and stabilization.

All of this is great, but what about battery life?

The Sony Xperia XZ features a 2,900 mAh battery that is not easily user removable as on most modern phones. Sony made it clear that it is introducing some clever tricks to keep it healthy in the long run by preventing it from overcharging and damaging its chemistry. However what most users will be really interested in is actual battery life in daily use.

That's why we put it through its paces in our standardized battery test that puts all phones on equal playing ground: we set their screens at 200 nits of brightness, a level comfortable for indoor use, and run a custom script that measures typical phone use with no off-screen time. So how much did the Xperia XZ score?

No miracles from Sony's new flagship

Don't expect miracles: its 2,900mAh batteries scored a good, but not great 6 hours and 41 minutes, practically on par with the Samsung Galaxy S7. While not outstanding, the Xperia XZ battery still lasted longer than the one on the LG G5 and Nexus 5X, but less than the battery of the iPhone 6s.

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	hours Higher is better

Sony Xperia XZ	6h 41 min (Average)
Apple iPhone 7	7h 46 min (Average)
Apple iPhone 7 Plus	9h 5 min (Good)
Apple iPhone 6s	8h 15 min (Average)
Apple iPhone 6s Plus	9h 11 min (Good)
Samsung Galaxy S7 edge	7h 18 min (Average)
Samsung Galaxy S7	6h 37 min (Average)
LG G5	5h 51 min (Poor)
HTC 10	7h 10 min (Average)
Huawei P9	6h 51 min (Average)
Google Nexus 5X	6h 25 min (Poor)
Google Nexus 6P	6h 24 min (Poor)

View all

Another interesting thing we test is charge times: how much does it take to fully recharge the phone from 0 to 100% using the wall charger and cable provided in the box?

In the case of the Xperia XZ, there is a 5V 1.5A (7.5-watt) wall charger and a USB-C cable provided. As you can see, this is no quick charger with such a low power output, so expectation for fast recharging were not high, but it was quite a shock to see such a slow charge.

It took us an appalling nearly three hours to fully charge the Xperia XZ! The exact charge time stood at 2 hours and 54 minutes, more than all modern phones. The Xperia XZ was even slower to charge than the notoriously slowly charging iPhone 6s Plus.

name	minutes Lower is better

Sony Xperia XZ	174
Apple iPhone 7	141
Apple iPhone 7 Plus	197
Apple iPhone 6s	150
Apple iPhone 6s Plus	165
Samsung Galaxy S7 edge	99
Samsung Galaxy S7	88
LG G5	76
HTC 10	100
Huawei P9	146
Google Nexus 5X	100
Google Nexus 6P	89

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So there you have it, the Sony Xperia XZ scores in the middle of the pack in terms of battery life, and it is appallingly slow to recharge. All of this hopefully should mean that battery health will remain excellent in the long run, but for users looking for the daily charging results, the score is really nothing to write home about.