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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soaringrocks - Thursday, October 21, 2010 - link
I find it amusing that for a 'phone' there is often little to no discussion on call quality, reception, and ability to maintain connection in a difficult environment. We know that all phones are not equal on that score...It's like you don't expect people to actually make phone calls.
beefnot - Thursday, October 21, 2010 - link
Making phone calls with your smart phone is just so passe.strikeback03 - Friday, October 22, 2010 - link
They said they have reviews of the actual phones coming, that is the type of info that would be in a review of the phone, not the OS.thartist - Thursday, October 21, 2010 - link
sick amount of quality work. the only WP7 review on the web so far as it had to be done.Anand, keep that quality work that puts you so above from the rest.
softdrinkviking - Thursday, October 21, 2010 - link
The lack of "change on the fly" micro SD is a deal killer for me.It's a shame too, because I really like everything else about this phone.
Smilin - Monday, October 25, 2010 - link
Curious: Why do you need such a feature?softdrinkviking - Friday, November 5, 2010 - link
whoa, i don't know if anyone else, or even you will get back to reading this but...i use SD cards to store music on. i have a situation where i can't always sync with my home pc very often, and i can't always carry around a laptop, so bringing along a handful of different SD cards with a variety of tunes has been important to me.
what i'd really like is for card-swapping to get more convenient, like in cameras.
btdvox - Thursday, October 21, 2010 - link
In your review you guys say the LG Optimus 7 has a MicroSD slot that we can expand on, yet nowhere else does it say that on the web. Can you verify this? If it does than this phone is a clear winner for me, It's also avail in Canada btw. I'd hope we're just as important as Asia and Europse but I suppose were not haha.softdrinkviking - Friday, October 22, 2010 - link
the trick is that the microSD card gets treated like part of the built-in memory, and you cannot replace it without completely erasing your phone and starting over.so you basically have to choose a single SD card and stick with it, there is no changing on the fly like in android phones.
btdvox - Friday, October 22, 2010 - link
Wasnt really my question but thanks.But still unanswered is, I dont think LG Optimus 7 has a microsd slot, Engadget just reviewed it and stated it doesnt have a memory slot. Can you guys confirm this?