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

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

View all

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.

Sony Xperia XZ first look

View more + 5 images

Related phones

View Full specs

PhoneArena Rating:

7.0

Read Full Review

User Rating:

9.4

Based on 7 Reviews

Display 5.2" 1080 x 1920 pixels

Camera 23 MP / 13 MP front

Processor Qualcomm Snapdragon 820, Quad-core, 2150 MHz

Storage 32 GB + microSDXC

Battery 2900 mAh(17.5h 3G talk time)

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44 Comments

2. VVayne

Posts: 103; Member since: Oct 01, 2015

3 hours charge. What a joke.

posted on Sep 20, 2016, 3:33 AM 7

23. bur60

Posts: 981; Member since: Jul 07, 2014

Probably the standard sony charger. Sony doesn't give a quickcharger along with their phones which is very odd.

posted on Sep 20, 2016, 7:35 AM 0

26. bur60

Posts: 981; Member since: Jul 07, 2014

Probably the standard sony charger. Sony doesn't give a quickcharger along with their phones which is very odd.

posted on Sep 20, 2016, 7:55 AM 0

30. dcwt2010

Posts: 74; Member since: Feb 01, 2013

The real joke is Phonearena basing their charge time on a non quick charge adapter; granted Sony should've provided one but it means they are unintentionally hobbling it. Also, my Z3 still reigns supreme for battery life...I might keep it for a bit longer now as it seems aside from camera quality, not a lot has improved. Honestly, why would we need faster processing? It's a smartphone... you do some emails and so light games, it is not going to replace your laptop/desktop!

posted on Sep 20, 2016, 1:19 PM 1

44. wishmaster71

Posts: 1; Member since: Sep 13, 2017

Yeah Thats Joke. im charging my phone by Orginal Charger : 0-40 in 30 min " 40-90 in 60 min and 90-100 in 15 min >>> Thats take about 105 min>>>> 2 hours and 54 minutes lool ...

posted on Sep 13, 2017, 9:12 AM 0

3. femiRicHkiDD

Posts: 15; Member since: Aug 21, 2015

With the fact that you accepted that your galaxy s7 edge initial battery test was wrong , you still came back to to use the Old wrong Data #shameonyou iphonearena

posted on Sep 20, 2016, 3:35 AM 11

20. Finalflash

Posts: 4063; Member since: Jul 23, 2013

Yea, but you have to take the phonearena battery test with a grain of salt since the site is heavily biased towards Apple. Most other battery tests including screen on time tests on YouTube show exactly the opposite of the tests done by PA. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sC0gQMwBSI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Czofcz7e0sI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=073f1xGhqbo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROHctDywyaQ (in this last test the iPhone only lasted because the GPU has to work on 1/4 or 1/2 the pixels of the other phones)

posted on Sep 20, 2016, 6:18 AM 1

4. monoke

Posts: 1172; Member since: Mar 14, 2015

Almost 3 hrs less than the mighty z3!? Hmm. Seems that Sony has lost its touch the last few phones. Really sad.

posted on Sep 20, 2016, 3:47 AM 5

19. nh1402

Posts: 138; Member since: Oct 30, 2013

Well the battery capacity has been dropping for years, from the Z3 onwards.

posted on Sep 20, 2016, 5:43 AM 0

5. shield

Posts: 852; Member since: Sep 12, 2015

Z5 is better. And Z3 is best.

posted on Sep 20, 2016, 3:51 AM 2

6. maple_mak

Posts: 953; Member since: Dec 18, 2013

This score was jokes.

posted on Sep 20, 2016, 3:52 AM 0

25. buccob

Posts: 2975; Member since: Jun 19, 2012

I wonder if PhoneArena took into account the "Charging Optimization" introduced by Sony in Marshmallows... My old Z3 Compact enabled by default after upgrading and it basically reduced the TOTAL battery capacity for a single charge, so that instead of topping at a full 100% you are actually charging your device about 20% less (but the readings are adjusted)... Anyway I disabled it because my total battery life was not as special as it used to be.. PhoneArena, if you are reading, please go into Settings > About Phone > Status > Charging Optimization, and disable it... and re-do the test... you will probably have a 20% increase....

posted on Sep 20, 2016, 7:54 AM 3

28. maple_mak

Posts: 953; Member since: Dec 18, 2013

Agreed, I have Xperia Z3 and I tried "Charging Optimization", it decreased 5% of my battery for the longer lifespan.

posted on Sep 20, 2016, 8:27 AM 0

7. pyradark

Posts: 895; Member since: Jun 10, 2012

I believe there is soft charging thing with Xperia, have you even try to turn it off

posted on Sep 20, 2016, 4:02 AM 4

9. Plasticsh1t

Posts: 3109; Member since: Sep 01, 2014

Snapdragon 820 comes with quick charge 3.0. Why it's taking that long to charge.

posted on Sep 20, 2016, 4:10 AM 0

21. romeo1

Posts: 816; Member since: Jan 06, 2012

It's charging to 90% fast and is waiting for thelast 10% until you wake up its a phone that learns while using. So the batterylife will improve after some usage.

posted on Sep 20, 2016, 6:29 AM 0

10. R3DgRu

Posts: 55; Member since: Jun 10, 2015

"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. " and "It took us an appalling nearly three hours to fully charge the Xperia XZ!" so, there you have it. Simple physics, can't have both; fast charge and long durability. We need some kind of new battery technology.

posted on Sep 20, 2016, 4:18 AM 5

15. Settings

Posts: 2943; Member since: Jul 02, 2014

Why dont PA put the battery benchmark result of LG X Power in every chart? It will make the iPhone 6s plus looks like it ran on penlight batteries.

posted on Sep 20, 2016, 4:39 AM 0

17. Ezio2710

Posts: 548; Member since: Aug 22, 2015

Redmi Note 3 aslo

posted on Sep 20, 2016, 5:25 AM 0

32. AmashAziz

Posts: 2934; Member since: Jun 30, 2014

So you want them to include lg x power in the results just to put iphone 6s plus to shame??

posted on Sep 20, 2016, 5:13 PM 0

34. Settings

Posts: 2943; Member since: Jul 02, 2014

Yes and no.

posted on Sep 20, 2016, 9:16 PM 0

35. AmashAziz

Posts: 2934; Member since: Jun 30, 2014

BE SPECIFIC!

posted on Sep 21, 2016, 2:11 AM 0

37. Settings

Posts: 2943; Member since: Jul 02, 2014

Yes, I want others to know that ip6s+ shouldn't be on the top of the list regarding battery stats. No, just gut feel no.

posted on Sep 21, 2016, 10:16 AM 0

38. AmashAziz

Posts: 2934; Member since: Jun 30, 2014

Then you must know you are one of the few, unlucky retards lurking here. Jealousy isn't it??

posted on Sep 21, 2016, 10:52 AM 0

39. Settings

Posts: 2943; Member since: Jul 02, 2014

Calling someone a retard doesn't make you wiser at all. Someone who engages with retards are considered retards too.

posted on Sep 21, 2016, 6:06 PM 0

41. AmashAziz

Posts: 2934; Member since: Jun 30, 2014

Someone who tries to correct a retard is a generous person, not a retard himself. There was a reason I called you that. Otherwise the adjective could have been better.

posted on Sep 22, 2016, 3:16 AM 0

42. Settings

Posts: 2943; Member since: Jul 02, 2014

And what exactly did you corrected, oh generous one!

posted on Sep 22, 2016, 3:25 AM 0

16. hansip87

Posts: 228; Member since: Nov 10, 2015

charging time doesn't bug me too much, when i charge it all night. Even when i'm on the office, charging it in for top up doesn't have to be fast. When you really need fast charging, new QC adapter is not that far away. Plus with Qnovo tech and battery care software, Sony battery will be better for more than 3 years of usage. (Even my Xperia Z Ultra still kicking with its original battery after 3 years)