Biggest Galaxy Note 8 Surprise? The Battery Life

You could almost hear the collective groan from prospective Galaxy Note 8 buyers across the web when one key spec became official: 3,300 mAh.

The battery inside Samsung’s new phablet has less capacity than both the Galaxy S8+ and the previous, ill-fated Note 7 (both 3,500 mAh). As it turns out, there's no need to worry.

We’ve put this 6.3-inch beast through the ringer in our full Galaxy Note 8 review, and it turned in quite and impressive runtime on the Tom’s Guide Battery Test. It involves continuous web surfing over 4G LTE (in this case, on T-Mobile’s network) on 150 nits of screen brightness.

Galaxy Note 8 Battery Life vs the Competition

The Note 8 lasted a strong 11 hours and 11 minutes before conking out. That edges out the 11:04 the Galaxy S8+ turned in, as well as the 10:39 offered by the Galaxy S8.

To put that endurance in perspective, the iPhone 7 Plus lasted 10:38 on the same test, and the Moto Z2 Force hit 10:23. The LG G6 turned in a lowly 8:39, and the smartphone average is around 9:40.

So why did the Note 8 last so long despite its relatively small battery? Samsung didn't reveal many details, but it has apparently made some optimizations for efficiency to go along with the fast and efficient 10nm Snapdragon 835 processor inside the device.

There are certainly other phones that last longer on a charge. For instance, the Asus Zenfone 3 Zoom is the marathon runner of Android handsets, as it endured for an epic 16:46. The OnePlus 5 is another handset with excellent battery life, lasting 13:06 in our test.

Still, by surpassing the 11-hour mark, the Note 8 makes our list of the longest lasting phones. And it’s seemingly small battery shouldn’t deter you from investing in this device.

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