In one of the biggest leaks so far, a source in Korea has revealed that the battery in the Galaxy S6 is actually smaller in capacity than the one in the current S5. According to the rumour, the S6’s battery has a 2,600mAh capacity, compared to 2,800mAh in the S5. Now that’s not a huge difference, less than 8%, but it is surprising given that smartphone batteries have consistently increased in size over the last few years.
We’re not sure there’s that much to worry about here. The increase in battery size was in part due to rapidly increasing screen sizes, with the S2, S3, S4 and S5 screens measuring 4.3, 4.8, 5.0 and 5.1in respectively. At present we believe the S6 to have a screen that also measures 5.1in, though the matter is somewhat blurred by the extra display on the curved Edge variant of the handset.
With a screen the same size as the previous handset, the S6 should perform significantly better than it in day-to-day use thanks to its more efficient 14nm chipset, which Samsung claims has a ‘35% power reduction’ over the 20nm chip in the S5. If that proves to be anything near true it could easily offset the 8% difference in battery capacity.
The S5 was hours ahead of the HTC One Max, the Note 3 and every iPhone
Then there’s the fact that the S5’s battery life was very impressive to begin with. It was the fourth best battery in our tests throughout 2014, as you can see in our Best Smartphone Battery Life graph. With 17 hours and 30 minutes of constant video playback, it was hours ahead of the HTC One Max, the Note 3 and every iPhone. Hardly a phone with a battery life problem.
Based on our experience the S6 will have an equal or better battery life than its predecessor, the more power efficient chipset should easily offset the slightly smaller battery. A bigger issue, for a small number of users will be the fact it’s unlikely to be replaceable. For all the details on the S6, see our Samsung Galaxy S6 release date, specs, price rumours & news.