Are you looking for a compact smartphone? You may notice that your options are becoming very limited. The shift to larger screen phones was subtle at first, but now they represent the vast majority of the market. Consumers demand good battery life on their devices and it’s easier to push for a larger capacity cell when there’s more screen space. With the exception of the Apple iPhone lineup, the Android world hasn’t really mastered the formula of compact design with a long-lasting battery.
The Samsung Galaxy S23 (Review), which was launched earlier this month, may seek to change that perception. Our review of the device emphatically stated that the S23 is “Best small Android phone on the market right now. I spent a full day with the Galaxy S23 as my primary device, and this is what I found out about battery life.
Battery capacity and usage
The Galaxy S23 packs in a 3900mAh battery inside, which is a fairly small capacity cell compared to the standard 5000mAh we usually see on smartphones these days. Last year’s Galaxy S22 had disappointing battery life, with the phone barely getting through a day of moderate use. Samsung has made great strides to improve on this particular shortcoming with the Galaxy S23. Having Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Gen 2 SoC running under the hood also works in the device’s favor in terms of power efficiency.
Above, I’ve shared some screenshots that make up my day with the S23. I should note that this can be considered particularly heavy use given that I used about three hours of Netflix and about an hour of Call of Duty: Mobile. There was also an hour of navigation included too although it was mostly running in the background. Aside from that, there was also quite a bit of time spent watching YouTube and scrolling through my Instagram feed. I should also note that most of my time on Netflix has been on 5G, not Wi-Fi.
With all of this in mind, I started my day around 9 am with my S23 on a full charge. My screen was at full brightness for the most part since I was watching content on the go in bright sunlight. By the evening, when I got back from the office, I still had about 60 percent battery left. After that, I raised the graphics and frame rate settings to Max on CoD: Mobile And I played several rounds on the phone.
By about midnight, a full 15 hours after I unplugged the S23 from the power source, I still had 26 percent in the tank. The screen runtime was 6 hours, which is likely more than the average user. Extrapolating with the battery remaining in the S23, I think you can push around 8 hours of screen time without a problem. After waking up in the morning, I checked the S23’s battery and found it to be at 18 percent, indicating that the phone had very low drain on standby.
I’ve also only done some testing with games using several GPU intensive titles like BGMI And PUBG: New Country. In both games, with the highest possible presets, the phone dropped somewhere around 20 percent after an hour. From here I can gather that you can at least run three to four hours of hard gaming before looking for a charger.
PCMark and charge time
I also ran a PCMark battery test that returns a time score based on how long it takes for the battery to get from 100 percent to 20. In the case of the Galaxy S23, the final result was 15 hours and 3 minutes, which I think is pretty reasonable for the device. For comparison, the Galaxy S22 from last year only got 10 hours.
The only noticeable problem is that the S23 is a slouch when it comes to charging speeds. With the charger provided by Samsung, the device can go up to 25W, which isn’t even close to what other OEMs offer in this price range. In my tests, it charges the phone from 20 to 75 percent in less than 50 minutes, while a full 100 percent takes about another 30 minutes.
to rule
Analyzing my time with the Galaxy S23, I can safely say that the device’s battery life is very good for its small size. Yes, the phone may not necessarily charge at super fast speeds. However, the average consumer will find their needs well met with the S23’s battery capabilities.