The Samsung Galaxy SIV Is The Best Smartphone For Battery Life

In one of its typically rigorous tests, Which?, the UK consumer association, has found that Samsung's latest flagship handset not only lasts the longest between charges, its battery life is almost double that of the iPhone 5C.
OK, it may not have a 64-bit processor or fingerprint sensor, run the latest version of its platform's operating system or use anything other than plastic in its exterior design, but Samsung Galaxy SIV owners finally have a comeback when teased by their iPhone wielding (or any other brand of smartphone, for that matter) friends.
In simulated tests designed to examine talk time and web use, the SIV has beaten all-comers. In fact, its owners can chat for 1,051 minutes — 280 more than the second-placed HTC One (771 minutes) and 400 minutes more than an iPhone 5S (651 minutes, fourth place). Of the new handsets tested, the Nokia Lumia 1020 came in eighth and final place, managing just 460 minutes of talk time before the battery needed charging. Still, that is only marginally less than the seventh-placed iPhone 5C's 564 minutes.
Although talk time is a good indicator of battery life, the fact is that smartphones are no longer primarily used for voice calls. But, in simulated web use (via wi-fi) tests, the SIV was still top dog albeit with a much smaller margin of victory. It offered 405 minutes of surfing, just beating the SIV Mini's 394 minutes. The HTC One Mini came third in this test with 385 minutes and its bigger brother, the HTC One, fourth (339 minutes). In this test the Nokia also redeemed itself with 306 minutes, putting it in sixth place ahead of the iPhone 5S in seventh place (298 minutes) and the iPhone 5C in last with just 252 minutes.
Of the results, Which? technology researcher Jon Barrow wrote in an accompanying blog post: "Our tests prove that while the batteries in the new iPhones last longer than those in the old iPhone 5, they still can't match the capacity of those in the best Android phones."
However, he also stressed that better battery life came with a trade off. The iPhone is much more portable than the Galaxy SIV and the HTC One: "You'll have to choose what's more important — a compact iPhone that can be slipped into your pocket, and is easy to use one-handed, or a bigger, heavier Android-alternative that'll keep on going long after the iPhone has run out of juice."
The results in full:
Call time
1 Samsung Galaxy SIV: 1051 minutes
2 HTC One: 771 minutes
3 Samsung Galaxy SIV: 746 Mini minutes
4 Apple iPhone 5S: 651 minutes
5 BlackBerry Z10: 600 minutes
6 HTC One Mini: 592 minutes
7 Apple iPhone 5C: 564 minutes
8 Nokia Lumia 1020: 460 minutes
Internet use
1 Samsung Galaxy SIV: 405 minutes
2 Samsung Galaxy SIV Mini: 394 minutes
3 HTC One Mini: 385 minutes
4 HTC One: 339 minutes
5 BlackBerry Z10: 335 minutes
6 Nokia Lumia 1020: 306 minutes
7 Apple iPhone 5S: 298 minutes
8 Apple iPhone 5C: 252 minutes.