Samsung Galaxy S8
Justin Denison, Samsung senior vice president of Product Strategy, introduces the Galaxy S8 and S8+ smartphones during the Samsung Unpacked event in New York City, United States March 29, 2017. Reuters/Brendan McDermid

The Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus is arguably the world’s best smartphone right now. The Huawei Mate 9, meanwhile, is a flagship that’s widely considered to be one of the best Android handsets, although it has a long way to go before reaching the top of the mountain. One device has a surprisingly bigger battery than the other, but which flagship lasts longer when it counts the most?

Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus - Battery specs and features

The new S series handset is powered by 3,500 mAh non-removable lithium ion battery. With that kind of cell capacity, one would think that the S8 Plus should last about a couple of days. The 6.2-inch device, however, can only manage a full day’s worth of moderate use.

For those who want to extend the phone’s battery life, sacrificial adjustments to the display resolution and brightness must be made. Turning off the Video Enhancer and turning on the battery-saving modes also help avoid the chore of nightly charging, which usually lasts for an hour and 40 minutes when the phone is totally drained. Wireless charging is also an option, but it stretches charging duration by an extra 30 minutes.

Huawei Mate 9 - Battery specs and features

The 5.9-inch Huawei flagship, on the other hand, houses a non-removable lithium polymer battery that packs in more cell power than the larger Galaxy phone at 4,000 mAh. It’s unfortunate, however, that the Mate 9 has no wireless charging support of any kind. The Chinese electronics giant makes up for it with its very own SuperCharge technology

SuperCharge allows Mate 9 users to use the handset for a full day even after just 20 minutes of charging. The handy energy-saving feature likewise extends the smartphone’s battery life and provides users more than two days of uninterrupted use.

Huawei Mate 9
Richard Yu, Huawei CEO Consumer Business Group, talks about their Huawei Mate 9 smartphone just released to the U.S. market and displayed behind him during his keynote address at CES in Las Vegas, January 5, 2017. Reuters/Rick Wilking

Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus vs Huawei Mate 9 – Battery performance test

When both flagships underwent the same chain of strenuous battery performance tests, the new Galaxy handset came out on top despite having a lower battery capacity and a larger display. The two devices went through an hour and a half each of web browsing, all-out gaming, YouTube video playback and native video playback.

After enduring half dozen hours of rigorous tasks, the S8 Plus still ended up with 18 percent battery muscle, which is pretty impressive. The Mate 9, on the other hand, wasn’t even able to finish the whole thing. The Huawei flagship was completely drained after only four hours and 20 minutes of work.

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