Two of the hottest smartphones right now are undoubtedly the just-released Apple iPhone 5 and the Samsung Galaxy S3 (S III), launched earlier in the year. We’ve given comparisons of these two smartphones before but today we want to concentrate on battery power. With more and more of us increasingly using our smartphones for everyday activities, battery life is growing in importance so today we’re looking at the iPhone 5 vs. Galaxy S3 in a battery life confrontation.
We’ve already posted many articles about the iPhone 5 and also the Galaxy S3 and so if you want more details on other specs and features, insights and more, then hit the above links. One of the concerns that some had about previous iPhone iterations was battery life being not up to scratch so this time around many were looking for Apple to improve in that department. The iPhone 5 has a built-in rechargeable lithium-ion battery while the Galaxy S3 has a 2100mAh battery so let’s see how they stack up.
Firstly the Galaxy S3 has been the subject of many reviews and the battery life seems to have gathered a lot of praise. This TechRadar review speaks about the “excellent battery life” of the Galaxy S3 after tests on the battery life as shown in a video. Although the screen is said to draw a lot of juice the Galaxy S3 still fared extremely well in tests (that didn’t involve the iPhone 5) and of all the devices that TechRadar has tested it had the second highest battery performance.
At the conclusion of their tests the HTC One X still had 60% power, the iPhone 4S had 74% and the Galaxy S3 still had a whopping 80% left, an impressive result. The test involved heavy use with both video and photography being used and still the Galaxy S3 held out for around 8 hours. All pretty good news then for Galaxy S3 owners.
Now on to the battery performance of the iPhone 5 and Apple has already touted this as having a better battery life than any previous iPhones. NBC reports on some Laptop Magazine tests included in an iPhone 5 review. The tests were extremely comprehensive and included one that involved continuous Web browsing over WiFi. It seems that Apple’s claims weren’t over the top as in this test the iPhone 5 on Verizon lasted 7 hours and 13 minutes before the battery was drained while its predecessor, the iPhone 4S on Sprint, lasted for 5 hours and 54 minutes. The Galaxy S3 on Verizon was also tested, among other phones, and lasted 6 hours and 55 minutes.
As the Galaxy S3 has had a lot of praise for the excellence of its battery performance it seems we can safely say that potential iPhone 5 customers have nothing to worry about when it comes to the battery life of the device, as it lasted even longer. In case you’re wondering, the phone that came out tops in this test was the Droid RAZR Maxx, lasting a total of 8 hours and 25 minutes. You’d imagine then that it would all be cut-and-dried as the tests seem to indicate the iPhone 5’s battery performs better than that of the Galaxy S3 but it seems there are some doubts.
Although the Laptop Magazine report concludes by saying the iPhone 5 has a “fairly good battery life,” it is also noted that some forum threads have arisen with customers concerns about the battery performance. In the meantime Smarthouse has come up with an article about iPhone 5 issues including inadequate WiFi and also the battery life. It seems many people are reporting a poor battery performance after their iPhone 5’s are being drained within a few hours. The report goes on to mention plenty of other issues being reported by iPhone 5 users including the build quality that we have touched upon ourselves.
To be frank it’s a rather confusing picture as far as the iPhone 5 battery life is concerned as the initial tests seem positive while consumer anecdotes are saying otherwise. That’s where we’d like to hear from readers on this. If you already have either the Galaxy S3 or the iPhone 5 are you completely satisfied with the battery performance of your device? If you had a previous iPhone and now have the iPhone 5 how does the battery life compare? Let us have your comments on this.