March 2014 – Argus Insights, Inc.

1.21 Gigawatts: Consumer Perceptions On Smartphone Battery Life

When searching for a smartphone with the best battery life, there are countless blogs, articles, and reviews out there that provide the top smartphones on the market. If there were 20 lists online giving the best smartphones for battery life, there would be 20 different lists of smartphones. Battery life test tend to be stress based, how long running Netflix or playing Spotify, but typically are not reflective of actual consumer usage. It all varies differently from methods of testing, style of survey that’s conducted, or how the hours are being measured. At Argus, we don’t have a methodology for testing, nor do we conduct vague test procedures, what we do is listen to the consumers. After all, consumers drive market success, not experts. In the end, user experience determines what products get sold in the market. Below are the top ten smartphones for long lasting battery life as determined by you, the consumers.

The graph above shows that, for example, the BlackBerry Z30 has close to 30% of its consumers expressing delight with only a minor percentage expressing negative opinions when it comes to battery life. The Nokia Lumia Icon had the fewest complaints among their consumers in regards to their smartphones having enough juice to go the distance. In terms of overall net sentiment in our consumer data, we quote the Energizer Bunny that these phones will “keep going, and going, and going…”

To address the elephant in the room, or maybe the lack, Apple and Samsung are not on this list. The top two companies that dominate the smartphone market and sell more than all their competitors combined fall short according to consumer data. Apple and Samsung for all their strength and glory, like Achilles, has a short life span when it comes to perceived battery performance.

What’s also interesting to point out is that half the products on the list are non flagship phones. Flagship phones don’t always rank high when it comes to battery life due to the power that flagship phones require (with the exception of the Z30). Many components within the smartphone also play a factor to the longevity of the device. Within any brand, the strongest/fastest processor, highest storage, best screen resolution, loudest speakers, and best camera quality are found in the flagships and those components place a heavy stress on the battery. This post is purely focused on battery life and we viewed phones that drove the highest sentiment, buzz, and what made consumers most happy.

In the future we will be analyzing other aspects of smartphone usage. Let us know what other features or uses you’d like us to share insights on. Below are details from consumers, sharing their love and hates of smartphone usage in their own words.

1) BlackBerry Z30
5″ Super AMOLED Display, Qualcomm Snapdragon, with a 2,880 mAh battery
“Easily last moderate users 12 to 15 hours of use, heavy users will still get an all day experience”
“On weekends with a little lighter usage, I can get through two days on one full charge”
“The battery life is just as good if not better than the LG G2″

2) Motorola Droid Maxx
5” Super AMOLED Display, Qualcomm Snapdragon, with a 3,500 mAh battery
“If you are looking for a work horse phone with a battery to get through the day, look no further”
“The battery life is the best, I don’t have to worry about where my charger is all day using it all day as a GPS from 6am to 6pm the battery only used 25% which is awesome in my book”
“The battery lasts all day from the time I get up until I go to bed the lowest I’ve had is 20%, charges really fast also”

3) LG G Flex
6″ Curved P-OLED Display, Qualcomm Snapdragon, with a 3,500 mAh battery
“The first feature which jumped out to me was the excellent battery life”
“They can’t compare to it when it comes to battery”
“This thing easily outlasts my friends that have iPhones, even those with a bulky add-on battery case”

4) Nokia Lumia Icon
5″ AMOLED Full HD Display, Qualcomm Snapdragon, with a 2,420 mAh battery
“So far I can get away with charging my phone every other day”
“The battery life seems infinite”
“The battery life is quite good, I would say it’s better than my HTC in that regards”

5) HTC One Max
5.9″ Super LCD Full HD Display, Qualcomm Snapdragon, with a 3,300 mAh battery
“With the Max I’m not worried about rushing home to find a charger towards the end of the night”
“Battery life is exceptional”
“With the One Max, I have successfully left it off the charger for 15 hours”

6) ZTE Max
5.7″ IPS Display, Qualcomm Snapdragon, with a 3,200 mAh battery
“Battery life is awesome I simply love this phone”
“It has awesome battery life, I used to have to bring my charger to work with me with my ZTE Warp Sequence”
“The battery lasts almost 2 days before recharge”

7) Google Nexus 5
5″ IPS Full HD Display, Qualcomm Snapdragon, with a 2,300 mAh battery
“The battery life is a lot better than my last phone”
“Battery life is pretty standard”
“It charges fast too”

8) LG G2
5.2″ IPS Full HD Display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 800, with a 3,000 mAh battery
“The features of the phone are excellent, the battery life is the best ive ever had”
“Outstanding battery charge length as well as a very quick charge up”
“The battery has been superb, especially as much as I use my phone”

9) Sony Xperia Z1s
5″ LCD Full HD Display, Qualcomm Snapdragon, with a 3,000 mAh battery
“With moderate to heavy use I get almost 16 hours of battery life”
“The battery is amazing for a screen this big”
“Great battery, especially with that Stamina mode”

10) Motorola Moto X
4.7″ Display, Qualcomm Snapdragon, with a 2,200 mAh battery
“The battery life is fabulous”
“I get on average 13-17hrs of battery life on mildly heavy use “lots of web browsing”
“Battery life is surprisingly good and an android”

Green Beer, Closed Parades And Other “Authentic” Saint Patrick’s Day Observations

Yup, I’m Irish, at least partly. No really! Feland comes from O’Phaolin, which means “Son of Wolf.” My family migrated from Scotland in 1726, so the family lore (and rather detailed genealogy records) state. When I became of age (ahem) I found I liked to indulge in a pint of that elixir of the ages, Guinness Irish Stout. When I was deployed to England in 1999, I even made the pilgrimage to St. James Gate in Dublin to see where my favorite brew was, well, brewed!

Not one to miss an opportunity to connect the consumption of beer with a holiday, Budweiser and others found they were lacking an offering in their portfolio to compete with the Irish Stouts on St. Patrick’s Day. Not all American palates are refined enough to enjoy the rich robustness of the heavy stouts, preferring the lighter lagers and ales, limiting the target market the other 364 days of the year. Literally borrowing a page of Dr. Seuss, we all cut our teeth on a copy of Green Eggs and Ham, bars and breweries alike began offering green beer to quench the thirst of patrons not partial to the pickings plundered from the Emerald Isle. Suffice to say, this took off like gangbusters in the United States over the past several years. Guinness and other stout brands have worked hard to make inroads into the global market to be the “official” brew of St. Patrick’s day through decades of clever marketing campaigns designed to extend demand throughout the year (with decidedly more success than those merchandising 4th of July trees or Thanksgiving fireworks).

Question is, where do the hot spots remain for Green Beer vs. Irish Stouts on that most holy of beeridays, St. Patrick’s Day? We went to Twitter to found out.

Location of Green Beer and Irish Stout Tweets during St. Patrick's Day 2014 — Location of Green Beer and Irish Stout Tweets during St. Patrick’s Day 2014

As you can see, the middle of the United States is awash with the green tweets of Green Beer drinks while the major urban areas, both the United States and Europe, tend to be drinking more of the authentic stouts on the day the saint drove the snakes from Ireland. What is interesting is how the notion of drinking green beer on St. Patrick’s day has expanded beyond the US borders, rearing it’s food safe tinted head in central Europe and Scandinavia. Could Green Beer be the best way to track Red States? Could Guinness become the beverage of choice at Democratic fundraisers? Reach out if you want to know more. We analyze real people using real data to drive real insights. And yes, I did quaff a Guinness on Monday to celebrate my heritage and my love of beer you can chew!