Samsung's Galaxy S9+ has the same battery capacity as the Galaxy S8+— 3,500 mAh — so we didn't expect a sizable boost in endurance. And we didn't get one, either, even though the Snapdragon 845 chip inside Samsung's new flagship is supposed to be more power-efficient.
We put the Galaxy S9+ through the Tom's Guide Battery Test, which involves surfing the web over 4G LTE (in this case, on T-Mobile's network). We set each phone screen we test to 150 nits of brightness and turned off Auto-Sync (for notifications) and GPS. In this particular case, calibrating the screen to 150 nits meant setting the brightness of the S9+'s screen to 50 percent.
Galaxy S9+ Battery Life vs. the Competition
| Phone | Battery Life (Hours:Minutes) |
| Huawei Mate 10 Pro | 14:33 |
| Google Pixel 2 XL | 12:09 |
| iPhone 8 Plus | 11:16 |
| Galaxy Note 8 | 11:11 |
| Galaxy S8+ | 11:04 |
| Galaxy S9+ | 10:59 |
| iPhone X | 10:49 |
| Category Average | 9:50 |
The Galaxy S9+ turned in a runtime of 10 hours and 59 minutes, which is comparable to the 11:04 that the Galaxy S8+ turned in last year. The iPhone X was slightly behind, at 10:49. The Galaxy S9+'s runtime is comfortably ahead of the smartphone category average of 9 hours and 50 minutes.
However, other current flagship phones deliver longer battery life. For instance, the iPhone 8 Plus lasted 11:16 on the same test, and the Google Pixel 2 XL didn't give out until 12:09.
The absolute longest-lasting phones we've tested, such as the Asus ZenFone 3 Zoom and the ZenFone 4 Max, can keep going for up to 15 or 16 hours. And the underrated Huawei Mate 10 Pro beats the Galaxy S9 and all other premium flagships with its great runtime of 14:33.
In everyday use, the S9+ stood up well. One day after I streamed music for over an hour on my morning commute, taking several photos and shooting a slow-mo video, the S9+ had 60-percent charge left by 12:49 p.m. I had unplugged the phone at 6:50 a.m.
After lunch, I used the S9+ a ton, shooting our review video for it and making additional comparisons with other phones. Then, I uploaded a bunch of photos and videos to Dropbox. By 8:12 p.m., I was down to 6 percent, so you should expect even better battery life with light to moderate usage.
MORE: Smartphones with the Longest Battery Life
It's also worth noting that the S9+ supports Samsung's quick charging. And unlike with the iPhone X, the quick charger comes in the box. After 15 minutes, the S9+ was already at 19 percent, and it reached 38-percent capacity after 30 minutes. At 60 minutes, the S9+ got to 75 percent.
Make sure you check out our full review of the Galaxy S9+ and see our full range of S9+ benchmark results.
Credit: Tom's Guide
