For the past week, I’ve been playing around with the Lumia 630. I already shared unboxing photos and gave my first impressions of the device. Today, I will be reviewing the battery life.
The Lumia 630 comes with a removable 1830 mAh battery. Nokia claims it will get you through 600 hours (25 days) on standby, over 13 hours straight talk time (on 3G) and 58 hours of playing music non-stop. This figures don’t really mean anything to the average smartphone user. Nobody uses their smartphone in real life like these. Let’s get some real-life usage figures shall we?
Endurance Test
The biggest culprits of smartphone battery hogging are the display and internet. The Lumia 630 is capable of playing High Definition (720p) videos. I got the phone playing 720p resolution videos in a loop under the following extreme conditions:
- Loud speakers at full volume, brightness set to high, battery saver mode off and 3G mobile internet on – 5 hours
- Earphones plugged in, brightness set to medium, battery saver mode off and 3G mobile internet on – 10 hours
Not bad, not spectacular either. Remember this is a budget phone. I find it interesting, though, that just by reducing the brightness and choosing to use earphones over loudspeakers, you get double battery time on video playback.
Remember that this is an endurance test where I’m trying to push the battery to its limit. There are a couple more real-life usage tests I’m looking to pass the Lumia 630 through:
Gaming: This is where I use the phone at a stretch for nothing other than gaming, brightness set to high (because we like to see all the details when gaming) and mobile internet off. It will be interesting to see how long the battery will last.
Intensive Everyday Usage: This is where me and the phone are clingy best buddies for a whole day. It will hardly leave my hands. I will use it intensively for regular stuff like browsing the web, instant messaging, calling, gaming, taking photos and listening to music.
I should have these other battery times by the full review on Thursday.
In the meantime, judging by the results above, what’s your impression of the Lumia 630’s battery life? Will 10 hours of continuous high resolution video playback be enough for you? Any other thing you’d like to know about the battery life? Let me know in the comments.
