That headline is quite self-explanatory, but it is noteworthy regardless as this phone is outlasting any other flagship smartphone by at least 40 to 50% at times. And let me be clear, this phone doesn’t just have great battery life for a flagship phone, but it simply has stupendous battery life for a modern smartphone.
Flagships usually have middling to disappointing battery life
Flagship phones always tend to sacrifice battery life in order to have a bunch of PR friendly things that over a long term sully the experience. Usually, the size of the battery is compromised in order to keep the phone slim and trim. The faster processor drains the battery faster — this further gets amplified because on a fast phone you’re often using it more for things like gaming and multitasking. Flagship phones usually have the sharpest and largest screens which are a further drain on the battery.
What has Huawei done to change this paradigm?
Huawei might be getting criticised a little for just putting a full HD+ screen on the P30 Pro, but the reality is that it is a very nice curved OLED screen which is sharp enough. It also reaches 700 nits of brightness which is great for sunlight legibility and has HDR 10 support. You really don’t need a 2K screen on a phone. In fact, even the iPhone XS Max screen resolution is overkill, leave alone the stunning yet power in-efficient OLED screens on Samsungs. Furthermore, Huawei has tuned the Kirin 980 processor in a very power efficient way that it works in sync with EMUI eking out the best possible battery life. And last but not the least, Huawei packs in a 4,200mAh battery which is basically the largest battery you can find in a flagship phone right now.
One secret advantage?
The biggest secret sauce is the way the antennas have been designed on the phone and how they work in tandem with the network infrastructure around the city — a lot of which has been made by Huawei which means this phone hunts less for a network than say an iPhone which is using an Intel baseband. I used this phone on a Vodafone network and I was able to make clear phone calls from even my basement. I couldn’t do the same on the iPhone XS Max which admittedly was also on an Airtel SIM. The rule on this is simple — the more the phone hunts for a signal — the worst the battery life. Bad network connectivity is a battery life anathema. Huawei’s technology manages its battery than anyone else because it doesn’t only design the antenna and modem on the phone apart from the software, chances are the tower from which you’re getting the cellular signal is also made by them so there are multiple layers of vertical optimisation happening.
What’s more?
This phone is an absolute champion in the battery life space because it also comes with cutting edge fast wireless charging and reverse wireless charging which first came on the Mate 20 Pro 6 months ago. The charging speed is also best in class with a 40W Super Charger that comes bundled. So it can charge other phones too, that too faster and when the time comes to juice up the large 4,200mAh battery, you can hit the 100% figure in under 150 minutes. You can reach 50% in under 40 mins.
How’s the battery life in actual use?
Superb. In my day to day usage I use a couple of things all the time — Soundcloud, Spark, Microsoft Kaizala, Chrome, YouTube Music, YouTube, HotStar, WhatsApp, F1 2018, Dead Trigger 2, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, apart from the calling facility. In addition to these apps, I also occasionally use photo editing apps like Snapseed and VSCO Cam which feed in images from the stock camera app which I use for almost 1 hour every day clicking random photos, in addition to photos and videos at gigs. The end result is with these 15 odd applications I was consistently charging the phone only once in two days.
