The brand new flagship smartphone from Sony, the Xperia Z3, has a 3100mAH battery pack which is slightly lower than its predecessor the Xperia Z2. However, Sony claims that it has done some wizardry to give a battery backup of about two days with normal usage.
The Z3 comes with a number of power saver modes like many other smartphones. Firstly there is the Stamina mode which saves power when the screen is off by temporarily disabling Wi-Fi, mobile data and most of the applications. Once you turn on the screen, the smartphone works normally. There also has an Extended standy mode which saves power by restircting hardware perforamnce. Then we have the Ultra Stamina mode which completely shuts everything except only basic functions like phone and messaging. Then there is the Low Battery mode where you can select what all features should be de-activated once this mode is on like mobile data, deisplay brighness, bluetooth, etc. You can also queue background data for efficient battery usage as the phone only syncs at set intervals.
So we carried out some tests to check out if the Xperia Z3 really is good on battery backup. First, we played a full-HD video on the device for one hour with full brightness and the battery charged to 100%. We found that there was a drop of 15% which is quite decent. Comparing it to the Galaxy S5 it is low as the S5, on a similar test, showed a battery drop of just 5%.
Here are some results of the smartphones from our standard battery test:
Video Test
| Sony Xperia Z3 | 15% |
| Sony Xperia Z2 | 16% |
| Samsung Galaxy S5 | 5% |
| HTC One M8 Eye | 11% |
| Moto X (2nd gen) | 10% |
Now this test proves that video playback does consume a lot of battery. But the Xperia Z3 does come with some additional display enhancing technologies which probably drain more juice.
Stress test
After running the video we recorded some full HD video, played some games for about an hour and after about 7-8 hours of heavy usage we were left with about 68% of battery. We went on to use the phone as our daily driver and using the battery saver and other methods to save the battery and we managed a total battery life about 1 and a half day.
Conclusion
The battery on the Z3 is actually commendable, if you go by certain tests, it might not be seem impressive, but on daily usage it proves to be one of the best smartphones for a longer battery life. The various power saving modes are actually useful and help in having a prolonged battery life.
Also Read:
Analysis: Sony Xperia Z3 display quality and comparison
Analysis: Sony Xperia Z3 & Z3 compact design and build quality
Sony Xperia Z3 Review
Sony Xperia Z3 Compact Review
Sony launches Xperia Z3 & Z3 compact flagship smartphones in India