Introducing: GSMArena Battery Life Test 2.0 and the new Active Use Score
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- DFranch
- xwW
- 08 Nov 2023
Akashraj, 08 Nov 2023The issue with this new system is idle drain is not taken i... moreYou nailed it. My S23+ has really good battery life, but I was thinking there is no way I could get 9+ hours of gaming in on my phone. Mostly because I would never take it off the charger and play games for 9 straight hours. Adding an idle score would help in that regard.
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- Vic.arena
- 3SZ
- 08 Nov 2023
Adam, 08 Nov 2023I only partially like the new system. Phone calls are not t... moreMaybe in some countries phone calls are not that relevant nowadays, unfortunately in some contries, like Portugal were i´m from, people from India, Angola and Cape Verd are always talking loud on the phone for hours and hours straight.
In England / U.k is exactly the same suffering.
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- Dolle
- mrr
- 08 Nov 2023
T the Tinkerer, 08 Nov 2023Where I work, phones and electronic devices are not allowed... moreTotally agree. In the old test, a 80hr score vs a 100hr score, meant approximately you could go one extra day, or 20hrs more, before charging. It's not possible to determine this now, and it's really the only thing that counts! Not impressed.
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- T the Tinkerer
- 0p}
- 08 Nov 2023
Where I work, phones and electronic devices are not allowed. Heck, metal spoons and forks aren't permitted. So the phone sits in my truck for 12.5 hours. Knowing a phone's standby time will be greatly missed. Not everyone is a social media, smartphone addict. Some of us still operate and enjoy hobbies in the real world i.e non digital.
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- Anonymous
- n95
- 08 Nov 2023
This is great, amazing improvement!
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- Anonymous
- 7k3
- 08 Nov 2023
Please test Realme 11 Pro Plus, and Motorola Edge 40 and Samsung S21 fe 2023 (SD 888 Edition) with this new protocol as all these are top sellers right now in Indian Mid-range market...
People reading this comment and having experienced or used the above phones can tell me which phone should I buy.. My priorities are camera quality and battery endurance (Screen-ON Time SOT endurance)
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- Ottonis
- gDg
- 08 Nov 2023
Great news! GSMArena has gotten that perfect mixture of consistency and innovation that makes great sites actually great.
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- Anonymous
- uH$
- 08 Nov 2023
Anonymous, 08 Nov 2023Why do iPhones have lower call scores and higher video stre... moreit is so obvious. It dont have high refresh screen.
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- Adam
- Jd7
- 08 Nov 2023
I only partially like the new system. Phone calls are not that relevant nowadays but idle battery drain is extremely important factor. It was a very bad idea to remove this from testing procedure.
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- Minu
- ter
- 08 Nov 2023
Anonymous, 08 Nov 2023Why do iPhones have lower call scores and higher video stre... moreApple phones have a huge connectivity issue with their wireless modems, including the LTE, 5G and Wi-Fi, hence why it's impossible to place or receive a call inside a sealed room
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- Topofan
- mDe
- 08 Nov 2023
1. Please add web browsing via 4G/5G mix.
2. Now this one is tricky, but we really need a standby test that is realistic. Meaning standby once on 4G/5G and once on Wifi. And each standby test needs to be with a smartwatch connected that shows notifications via bluetooth - control that notifications actually arrive (and put a notice if they don't arrive at all - hello Vivo - or put a notice if they arrive with delay and degrade accordingly - e.g. more than 20-180 seconds = -20% (hello Huawei, Honor and some more) or over 180 seconds = -50% (hello especially to Vivo). Those notices should come from a standard set of apps - including 2 email accounts that you send 20-30 mails to per day, and Whatsapp, Instagram, Facebook, Signal, Telegram as the most used messengers and each receiving 10 messages per day. Send them randomly.
The current way that most phones show standby time in test is usually not at all adapted to real life. Testers do not put their personal accounts on the phones, it's usually done on wifi only - so has no actual comparison with real life.
Especially China ROMs tend to fail with notifications and other problems giving them really low standby times (even more if used like in China with wechat and Co. which burn through batteries literally)
3. Camera usage - with 80% of time taking pictures in standard resolution - so usually 10-20MP (5 per minute or so) and 20% taking 4G video.
You don't need to rundown the battery fuly - if you calculate from 70-50% and extrapolate it will be fine. Just really make sure to exclude 100-90% as well as 15-0% as they tend to differ.
4. as a general notice - please make sure that when reviewing software you not only talk about the UI - test very common things like can you replace the default launcher without running into problems, but even more important - during the test install all kind of messengers and so on, write on the full set of limiations of china roms (you never managed even closely) so try Android Auto, Google Assistant (including conversation), the general AI assistant which will show up from 2024 on basically all phones - at least in English, Nearby Share (doesn't work on China ROMs), Google Wallet, mention if any app can show notifications on AOD (again not possible on China ROMs), mention if there is a limit off apps that can send notificions (hello Oppo), connect your smartwatch, and really use the phone as if it were your own. Test if you can replace the messenger app with google messenger, phone app with google phone, or use any media player while still using the playback controls in the top down menu (or if this only works with the default music app) Just listing what the launcher (homescreen, app drawer, AOD) looks like is not helpful. Try to report/research about security updates interval - especially on China ROMs even for flagships they only arrive once a quarter - and when arriving are already a month old. Yet I have never really seen a degrade in the China ROM phones on software section - even though they miss plenty of functinons - and only likely to get more.
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- Anonymous
- nDE
- 08 Nov 2023
There's too much weighting put on calls. 10 maybe 15% is more than enough.
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- Anonymous
- XWS
- 08 Nov 2023
Seems good.
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- Anonymous
- Tqc
- 08 Nov 2023
Really nice work, this seems like a considerable leap in battery life analysis compared to the previous system. Especially considering the customisable bar.
I hope the list is expanded not just with new devices but also with older ones. How would smaller phones like the iPhone 12 mini and the 13 mini compare in this new system, for example? (Considering we already have the S23 in the list, which is the closest thing still in production in the Android side of things)
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- BangBang
- tDR
- 08 Nov 2023
walkman8, 08 Nov 2023Now that's more like it. You didn't mention how i... moreThats good, i sold my s21 fe and m21 then bought s23u about 1½ month ago, im very surprised that i can get 12h SoT, well i did applied light performance mode and adjust some settings just like my s21 fe's settings but make sure the refresh rate and the screen resolution on the adaptive QHD mode, then in 1 month i can get 10h-12h SoT.