The Windows Phone 7 Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi & Brian Klug on October 20, 2010 7:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Windows Phone 7
- Microsoft
- Mobile
Battery Life
With everyone sharing the same base hardware and software there are only two items that will ultimately impact battery life between vendors: screen type and battery size. The pecking order is pretty easy to follow. Smaller LCDs will be the best on battery, larger Super AMOLED screens will be the worst. The battery scale is even easier to define: bigger is better, but heavier.
We’ve been testing three Windows Phones: HTC’s Surround, Samsung’s Focus and the LG Optimus 7. The HTC and LG use standard LCD displays, while the Focus uses the same type of Super AMOLED screen we saw in the Fascinate and Epic 4G.
The LG uses a 5.55Whr battery compared to 4.55Whr on the HTC Surround. As a result LG gets the best battery life out of the three with the Focus coming in last due to its Super AMOLED display.
Microsoft mandates three discrete display brightness settings on all phones: low, medium and high, coupled with an automatic brightness mode. The three phones delivered very different levels of brightnes at each setting:
Brightness Comparison (White Point) | |||||
Phone | Low | Medium | High | ||
HTC Surround | 10.4 nits | 183.1 nits | 405.7 nits | ||
LG Optimus 7 | 130.4 nits | 259.1 nits | 381.2 nits | ||
Samsung Focus | 61.9 nits | 143.1 nits | 234.3 nits |
Brightness Comparison (Black Point) | |||||
Phone | Low | Medium | High | ||
HTC Surround | 0.03 nits | 0.39 nits | 0.88 nits | ||
LG Optimus 7 | 0.28 nits | 0.56 nits | 0.82 nits | ||
Samsung Focus | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Overall battery life of these Windows Phones ranges from average to above average in the case of the LG Optimus 7. The use of Qualcomm’s 65nm SoC definitely doesn’t help battery life, but Microsoft appears to have done a reasonable job with power management.
The first Windows Phones won’t be in the same realm of battery life as the iPhone 4, but it’s a reasonable starting point. Given a normal/light workload you can easily make one of these things last a full day on a single charge, but heavier users will probably find themselves charging once in the early evening. As with most aspects of the platform, we need to see significant improvement in the next 6 months for Microsoft to be taken seriously. Luckily for Microsoft, where it is today isn’t a bad place to be.
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AstroGuardian - Thursday, October 21, 2010 - link
Everything is displayed fine. Dunno what to tell younumberoneoppa - Thursday, October 21, 2010 - link
Could have something to do with your reply coming a day after the article was posted. :PKashmire - Wednesday, October 20, 2010 - link
Hardware review website goes political? Good way to irritate your viewers by sneaking in the Obama advertisement (phone's screen on AnandTech homepage). Why make your readers suffer through your political statement to read tech hardware reviews? Wrong place for this.bdattilo - Wednesday, October 20, 2010 - link
That is a Pepsi billboard...dreamlane - Wednesday, October 20, 2010 - link
BeautifulDonkey2008 - Thursday, October 21, 2010 - link
LOL. Seriously, just ROLMAO.earthzero - Thursday, October 21, 2010 - link
Are you serious? You know that is a Pepsi Cola "get out and vote" ad, right? That's a Pepsi logo.lwatcdr - Thursday, October 21, 2010 - link
I also thought that was a Pepsi bill board.Welcome to the polarization of America.
fernando.gomes@ydreams.com - Thursday, October 21, 2010 - link
Geez... I'm guessing you're the only one who noticed it, and I'm betting you're the only one who gives a crap, let alone accusing the authores of political biasing. Get a life, will ya?Smilin - Thursday, October 21, 2010 - link
BWAAHAHA. Oh boy what a tool you just made yourself out to be. Do you really hate Obama so much that you have PTSD like flashbacks of him everywhere? You see "hope" symbols where others see "pepsi".