Samsung Galaxy Note7 battery life test

The Galaxy S6/Note5 generation was a bit short on battery capacity, but this year Samsung did better. The Galaxy S7 has as big a battery as the Note5 (3,000mAh) and the new Samsung Galaxy Note7 got an even bigger battery, 3,500mAh.

Galaxy Note7 battery life: Exynos 8890 version • Snapdragon 820 version

So, what's battery life like? Better than the Note5, sometimes much better. Battery capacity is up around 16% and improvements in battery life are on that scale too.

Endurance

• Galaxy S7 edge (Exynos)
  98
• Galaxy Note7 (Exynos)
  90
• Galaxy S7 edge (Snapdragon)
  87
• Galaxy Note5 (Exynos)
  85
• Galaxy Note7 (Snapdragon)
  81

Endurance (Always On screen)

• Galaxy S7 edge (Exynos)
  67
• Galaxy S7 edge (Snapdragon)
  63
• Galaxy Note7 (Exynos)
  59
• Galaxy Note7 (Snapdragon)
  55

There are two versions of the Galaxy Note7 and we tested both - the one with Exynos 8890 has 10% to 20% better battery life compared to the one with Snapdragon 820. The talk time and web browsing time show the biggest deviations, by 2 hours and almost 2 hours respectively.

The two versions of the Galaxy S7 edge (powered by the same chipsets) also show different results, but the Note7 variants are more consistent. For example, the Exynos-based S7 edge browsed the web 30% longer than its Snapdragon twin, while the Notes show only 20% difference. Similarly, the gap in video playback times is 20% vs. 10%, for calls it is 15% vs. 9%.

Talk time

• Galaxy Note5 (Exynos)
  28:34
• Galaxy S7 edge (Exynos)
  24:29
• Galaxy Note7 (Exynos)
  23:45
• Galaxy S7 edge (Snapdragon)
  22:32
• Galaxy Note7 (Snapdragon)
  20:48

How does the new Galaxy Note7 stack up against the old Note5? Looking at the Exynos Note7 version with Always on screen disabled, you get a minor 6% improvement, that's less than the increase in battery capacity.

Web browsing

• Galaxy S7 edge (Exynos)
  13:32
• Galaxy Note7 (Exynos)
  11:08
• Galaxy Note5 (Exynos)
  10:43
• Galaxy S7 edge (Snapdragon)
  10:09
• Galaxy Note7 (Snapdragon)
  9:25

The new Note7 beats its predecessor by a 20% margin in video playback but loses by nearly as much in talk time. They are equal in web browsing endurance.

Video playback

• Galaxy S7 edge (Exynos)
  20:08
• Galaxy S7 edge (Snapdragon)
  16:54
• Galaxy Note7 (Exynos)
  16:46
• Galaxy Note7 (Snapdragon)
  15:23
• Galaxy Note5 (Exynos)
  13:51

In conclusion, the Samsung Galaxy Note7 doesn't greatly improve the battery life of its predecessor. Especially if you want the Always on screen, which drops Endurance to around 60h. If you want the best battery life a Galaxy flagship can offer, the Galaxy S7 edge is currently the best pick.