Samsung Galaxy S22 Battery Life Test: Is 3700mAh enough for 1 day of use?

In order to take the most detailed look at the Samsung Galaxy S22 battery life, Techtoyreviews has taken some time getting used to the device and compiled the following reviews, inviting you to follow along.

Equipped with a powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 top chip, many high-end features, 8K video recording capability, but Galaxy S22 is only equipped with a 3700mAh battery with 25W charging capability. Is this modest battery capacity enough to meet the needs of a day’s usage?

Samsung Galaxy S22 Battery Life Test Conditions

• Battery capacity: 3700 mAh
• Display: Dynamic AMOLED 2X, 120Hz, HDR10+, 1300 nits (peak)
• Processor: Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 (4 nm) (1×2.8GHz + 3×2.50GHz + 4×1.8GHz)
• Use 1 physical 4G SIM
• Galaxy S22 battery life test room temperature: 23 – 27 degrees Celsius
• Test charger in the charging speed test: Type-C 61W charger

Samsung Galaxy S22 Battery Life Test with Software

To evaluate the battery life of the Galaxy S22, we first used the familiar PCMark software, which will simulate some real user tasks and run continuously from when the device is full at 100% until 20% remains. Because the Galaxy S22 has two settings for screen refresh rate, Adaptive Frequency (the display changes itself to 120Hz according to the content) and 60 modes, we tested in both of these modes, with the brightness set to 70% (enough for daytime use) here are the results.

First with adaptive frequency mode:

And here are the test results when set at 60Hz:

It is easy to see when switching to 60Hz mode, the battery life tested on PCMark increased to more than 1 hour. If you want to extend the battery life of the device, then you will have to make some sacrifices in terms of visual experience.

Actual Galaxy S22 Battery Life Test

Similarly, in the actual test we also used in two cases with 60Hz screen and adaptive frequency, the brightness was still at 70%. In the PUBG playtest, the settings were set to Extreme and HDR, in the video test, we shot at 1080p @30fps.

First with adaptive frequency mode:

And here are the test results when set at 60Hz:

It’s easy to see when watching videos (which is only 30 – 60fps), so turning the adaptive frequency on or off doesn’t affect battery life much, but when playing games, the difference is significant.

In regular web browsing tasks, the battery life of the device is quite good, so it is good enough for you to use it for around 6-8 hours of continuous use. However, when playing the game, you can only play continuously for more than 3 hours, which is a modest number.

Another very interesting factor is the ability to manage the battery in standby mode of Android in general, including the Galaxy S22, which is not good, when not in use, from morning to night, it has lost about 20% of the battery, to overnight also dropped about 15% (turn on network and notifications). So the onscreen time of the device usually only reaches about 4-5 hours in actual use. If you turn off the network and limit notifications, this number will be slightly improved, but in general, this is still not the ideal choice for those who need to be online and in constant communication.

The device will be suitable for those who need to use not too much, 2-3 hours online a day, and rarely play games. And if you play a lot of games, this is really not a good choice. Not to mention, with the small size of the device, the ability to dissipate heat is also limited, when playing PUBG the device gets very hot, causing the battery to drop faster, and the hand-holding experience is not pleasant at all. And when using common tasks, the device is not too hot, only slightly warm in the upper half of the back (where the CPU is located).

Charging Speed Test

Unlike my two bigger devices, the Galaxy S22 only supports 25W charging capacity, to ensure maximum exploitation of the device’s charging capacity, we used a Type-C 61W charger for testing.

Here is the process of charging Galaxy S22 from 0% to 100%:

Looking at the chart, it is easy to see that the charging speed of the S22 is quite stable and not reduced too much in the final stage, so it only takes about 75 minutes to fully charge the 3700 mAh battery. For comparison, the iPhone 13 mini supports 20W charging, the battery capacity is just over 2400 mAh, but it takes about 90 minutes to fully charge, this is mainly because Apple reduces the charging speed in the final stage quite a lot.

Final line

In fact, the Galaxy S22’s battery life isn’t quite as we expected, with the actual experience being worse than the iPhone 13 mini we previously reviewed on the battery. Although we know the Galaxy S22 has a bigger screen, 120Hz, its capacity is one and a half times higher. The main reason is probably that this year the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor is quite hot, the operating system is not really optimized. If you often go online, listen to calls, play games, then this is not a proper option, instead, you should consider Galaxy S22+ for a bigger screen, longer battery life.

Samsung Galaxy 2022 prices and availability

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra price started from $1,199.99 for the 128GB variant, $1,299.99 for 256GB variant, and high-end 512GB model cost $1,399.99.

Coming to Samsung S22 price, $799.99 for the 128GB variant, and $849.99 for the 256GB variant. Samsung S22 Plus price starts from $999.99 for the 128GB storage and $1049.99 for the 256GB model.

Samsung Galaxy 2022 series is already available to buy via Amazon.com, Bestbuy.com, and Amazon.co.uk online stores. Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra release date is February 25, 2022, and the same for the rest of the two devices.