How we test: GSMArena Battery Life Test 2.0

08 November 2023
The way we use our mobile phones has evolved, and so has our new Battery Life test.

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Smallworld, 08 Nov 2023Good thing. Thank you for the improvement, the older test ... moreYes. It isn't that great if focusing on web browsing, video. But it's still 1,5 hours better than S23 base which was also hailed as the battery champ but now looks much worse. On the other hand iPhones now look really good. Oh well

    Turning on Airplane mode means Cellular activity is turned off. But it is one of the biggest causes of battery drain.

    I hope GSMarena will reflect on their day-to-day experience of battery life in the smartphone reviews.

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      • Adam
      • Jd7
      • 08 Nov 2023

      Anonymous, 08 Nov 2023LOL, still using WiFi to test web browsing. Ridiculous. They are measuring what they can measure, not what needs to be measured as this would be to hard and inconsistent.

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        • Adam
        • Jd7
        • 08 Nov 2023

        I am not so sure that new results make sense. They contradict with results from many other sources.

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          • PhilB
          • nGq
          • 08 Nov 2023

          I suspect the main reason they've done this is because phones like Xperia 10 V and many others were getting to more than 150+ hours endurance rating on their old test, while many mid-range and flagship phones are topping 100+ hours. Probably the old test was just taking too long to run - they needed something which can be finished in 1 day.

          It's a bit sad I agree with what other's have said - standby time and time browsing over 4g/5g is important for normal people - still I guess the relative trends and differences between devices should still show up OK with the new methodology.

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            • Anonymous
            • 0x%
            • 08 Nov 2023

            Wi-Fi for web browsing? really?

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              • Tjam
              • mMu
              • 08 Nov 2023

              This new score is useless as long as doesn't include standby time.

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                • Anonymous
                • NMv
                • 08 Nov 2023

                It's a shame this test didn't cover cellular data, because that's one of the main reasons for owning a smartphone at all. Now importantly, the modem's efficiency can have a huge impact on battery life.

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                  • Anonymous
                  • Tmf
                  • 08 Nov 2023

                  I wish "web" test would also be extended to mobile data (with 4g and 5g separately), not just Wi-Fi. Pixel 8 seems to have battery drain issue with 5g mobile data usage, but that's not reflected in your tests.

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                    • Anonymous
                    • snH
                    • 08 Nov 2023

                    Maybe I am a somewhat unusual mobile user, but for me, the stand-by endurance (power draw) is still very important! Why did you not let it be as 5th category of your new test? Especially if people can now choose the metrics of the subcategories individually...
                    No reason, other than to speed up the test I think, which is sad.

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                      • Smallworld
                      • JgF
                      • 08 Nov 2023

                      Good thing.
                      Thank you for the improvement, the older test was getting hard to use for comparisons.
                      But your new test can also be a bit weird...
                      For example with the old test, the iPhone 15 Pro was rated at 86h and the Zenfone 10 at 109h with every reviews praising it's battery life.
                      With the new test, the Zenfone 10 is rated 13:05h vs 12:58 for the iPhone 15 Pro and the Z10 does poorly on the browsing and video streaming test compared to the iPhone. It only does better on the call test.
                      Would that mean that the battery life on the Zenfone 10 (which was said to be on par with the Xperia 5 V, which is rated at 16h) isn't that great?

                        UH!!
                        " It doesn't factor in any time during which you may put down the phone and have only stand-by power draw."
                        This makes it pretty useless to me.... On my devices a substantial amount of the battery is burned while the device is supposed to be idle. No matter that I kill all the bloat I can, and disallow as many apps as possible from running in the background - and has done so for many years and many phones.

                        But these days it is hard to get a phone substantially under 30mA, so for a 3000mAh battery, that is about 1% point per hour where it is supposed to be idle. Or about a quarter of the capacity a day.....

                          It was about time. Been asking for gaming in the test for years.

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                            • Mikwe
                            • yat
                            • 08 Nov 2023

                            No 4 g/5g usage test (browsing web and streaming), that's a missed opportunity.

                            Standby drain could also be really important.

                              So... this new test does not measure the stand-by time of each phone *at all*?
                              Also we can't read the Battery Life Test V2 description article because it seems to be set to admin-read only at the moment.

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                                • M
                                • nUk
                                • 08 Nov 2023

                                You should test display PWM too..

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                                  • Anonymous
                                  • 0BG
                                  • 08 Nov 2023

                                  LOL, still using WiFi to test web browsing. Ridiculous.

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