LG G6 review (battery life)
The LG G6 is powered by a 3,300mAh battery - a significant upgrade over last year's G5 and its 2,800mAh. The G6 has a larger display, you'll counter, but the battery capacity has been upped by 18% while screen area is just 8% more now. In fact, the G6 packs more juice than the V20 (3,000mAh), which has a larger display to light up - 5.7" in 16:9 is more area than 5.7" in 18:9, plus the V20 has that ticker screen on top. The G6's battery, however, is sealed in, unlike both the G5 and the V20.With that in mind, the G6 is good for 22 and a half hours of voice calls on a single charge in our testing environment - 5h more than the G5, and 3h more than the V20. In both comparisons the endurance is actually better on the G6 than the proportional increase in capacity - so great, then.
The G6 also manages to outlast its two siblings by an hour in Wi-Fi web browsing - 8:31h for the new G vs. 7:35h for both the G5 and the V20. It's not a tiny improvement, but it's not amazing either - the Pixel XL can keep reloading web pages for another hour after the G6 has quit, and the Galaxy S7 edge's time in this test is 10:35h (though, for rather obvious reasons, we don't have the numbers for the S8). The OnePlus 3T is close to the G6 in this test - 8:43h.
In video playback the G6 will last a whopping 6 minutes more than the G5. Seriously, though, 10 and half hours is a pretty good number, especially when you put it up next to the V20's 8 hours. The Pixel XL can do 11:09h, which is like an extra TV episode or so, so it's not that big of a deal. The OnePlus 3T's 13:23h time does mean significantly better binge-watching capabilities, but the champ remains the Galaxy S7 edge, which lasted over 15 hours of looping videos, and that's after Nougat sliced a large chunk off its surreal Marshmallow stamina.
Dialing in those numbers in our formula produces a 72h overall Endurance rating with the always on display turned off. Switch on the feature and you're looking at a lower number, because stand-by consumption gets higher (duh) and it is included in the calcs even if it doesn't get a field in the score card.
However, and we've always tried to point that out, the effect of the always on display consumption can vary wildly depending on usage - it's one thing if the phone is held in your pocket (where it will eventually turn off the AOD on its own), it's completely different if it stays on the table in front of you and the ambient lighting is strong enough that it needs to crank up the brightness higher. That, as it turns out, is also a setting in the always on display menu - you can actually tell the phone to keep the always on feature brighter unlike with the G5. Whatever you decide on that, the overall effect of the AOD on your battery life is probably not that big of an issue as it may appear so just deal with it and enjoy the extra functionality. Okay, we got that out of our system.
LG states that the G6 is Qualcomm QuickCharge 3.0 compatible and bundles a charger to go do the job. It's rated at 9V/1.8A and a 30min charging session gets the G6 from flat to 47%. LG has also optimized its charging algorithms to fine-tune the charging process depending on the battery's age and current temperature thus improving the battery's long-term life. We get the feeling it might be something along the lines of Qnovo tech implemented in Sony Xperia phones.
Our unit also happens to be the US version, so we're blessed to have wireless charging support built-in. Since there's no wireless charging pad bundled, we tried a few we have lying around and it's a painfully slow process best suited to overnight charging. We don't have a Samsung fast wireless charger handy, and even then we're not really sure if the two devices would communicate that higher speed charging Samsung can deliver to its own phones. So until LG comes out with a fast wireless charger of its own, just assume that wireless charging is not for those of you who maybe in a hurry.
The G6 also manages to outlast its two siblings by an hour in Wi-Fi web browsing - 8:31h for the new G vs. 7:35h for both the G5 and the V20. It's not a tiny improvement, but it's not amazing either - the Pixel XL can keep reloading web pages for another hour after the G6 has quit, and the Galaxy S7 edge's time in this test is 10:35h (though, for rather obvious reasons, we don't have the numbers for the S8). The OnePlus 3T is close to the G6 in this test - 8:43h.
In video playback the G6 will last a whopping 6 minutes more than the G5. Seriously, though, 10 and half hours is a pretty good number, especially when you put it up next to the V20's 8 hours. The Pixel XL can do 11:09h, which is like an extra TV episode or so, so it's not that big of a deal. The OnePlus 3T's 13:23h time does mean significantly better binge-watching capabilities, but the champ remains the Galaxy S7 edge, which lasted over 15 hours of looping videos, and that's after Nougat sliced a large chunk off its surreal Marshmallow stamina.
Dialing in those numbers in our formula produces a 72h overall Endurance rating with the always on display turned off. Switch on the feature and you're looking at a lower number, because stand-by consumption gets higher (duh) and it is included in the calcs even if it doesn't get a field in the score card.
However, and we've always tried to point that out, the effect of the always on display consumption can vary wildly depending on usage - it's one thing if the phone is held in your pocket (where it will eventually turn off the AOD on its own), it's completely different if it stays on the table in front of you and the ambient lighting is strong enough that it needs to crank up the brightness higher. That, as it turns out, is also a setting in the always on display menu - you can actually tell the phone to keep the always on feature brighter unlike with the G5. Whatever you decide on that, the overall effect of the AOD on your battery life is probably not that big of an issue as it may appear so just deal with it and enjoy the extra functionality. Okay, we got that out of our system.
LG states that the G6 is Qualcomm QuickCharge 3.0 compatible and bundles a charger to go do the job. It's rated at 9V/1.8A and a 30min charging session gets the G6 from flat to 47%. LG has also optimized its charging algorithms to fine-tune the charging process depending on the battery's age and current temperature thus improving the battery's long-term life. We get the feeling it might be something along the lines of Qnovo tech implemented in Sony Xperia phones.
Our unit also happens to be the US version, so we're blessed to have wireless charging support built-in. Since there's no wireless charging pad bundled, we tried a few we have lying around and it's a painfully slow process best suited to overnight charging. We don't have a Samsung fast wireless charger handy, and even then we're not really sure if the two devices would communicate that higher speed charging Samsung can deliver to its own phones. So until LG comes out with a fast wireless charger of its own, just assume that wireless charging is not for those of you who maybe in a hurry.
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