Galaxy Note 3 battery tests show its strengths and weaknesses

Great battery life is one of the leading selling points of the Galaxy Note series. The Galaxy Note 2 is among the few devices you don’t have to charge every night (power users need not apply) — will the Galaxy Note 3, with its slightly larger 3200 mAh battery, outdo its predecessor?

Korean website Playwares did some interesting tests, revealing that, when it comes to battery life, the Note 3 (SM-900, Exynos 5420) is a bit inconsistent, depending on how you utilize it. To standardize its benchmarks, Playwares set the devices it tested at a similar brightness, using a professional color analyzer. The results are below.

Web browsing

With AMOLED screens, the brighter and lighter the image they display, the more power they consume. Problem is most websites have white or very light backgrounds, which takes its toll on the battery, and this is visible in Playwares’ Wi-Fi browsing test. The Note 3 ranks mediocrely, both in the standardized brightness test (around 230cd/m2 for white) and in the full brightness test. Curiously, the Note 2 outperformed the Note 3 by 2h:40m in the full brightness test.

Video playback

Things are much better in the video playback test. Playwares tested the devices at a standardized brightness of 280 cd/m2 (R/G/B) and at maximum brightness. The Galaxy Note 3 lasted significantly more than the Galaxy Note 2, and left the other competitors in the dust in both tests. For instance, the LG G2 lasted a little over eight hours at full brightness, compared to almost 15 hours for the Note 3.

3D gaming

For the final test, the Korean website ran the Egypt HD benchmark from the GLBenchmark 2.5 suite. The Galaxy Note 3 did very well, though it lagged behind the Note 2 by almost an hour.

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