Nokia 808 PureView takes part in our battery triathlon

When we reviewed the Nokia 808 PureView a lot of our time was spent on the camera. Now that the review is done, we’ve had time to test out the battery – it’s a fine balance between Symbian’s low requirements and the relatively small 1400mAh battery.

The 808 PureView is far from the most compact phone around, so it’s natural to think that Nokia could have fit a bigger battery. But maybe they didn’t need to, find out after the jump.

As usual, we begin with our talk time test. The official talk time in 3G is 6 hours and 50 minutes though we only managed to squeeze out 5 hours and 16 minutes. Neither result would have put the 808 very high up on our chart but we’ve seen worse performers.

Side note: since the result charts were getting pretty long, we made them show only a few results by default (the best and worst ones, plus a few results close to that of the phone in question). You can hit the Expand button to view all phones.

Talk time

• Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX
  20:24
• Huawei Ascend P1
  12:30
• Samsung Galaxy Note
  12:14
• Samsung Wave 3 S8600
  11:07
• HTC One X (AT&T, LTE)
  10:35
• Samsung I9300 Galaxy S III
  10:20
• HTC One V
  10:00
• HTC One X
  9:57
• HTC One S
  9:42
• Samsung I9103 Galaxy R
  9:40
• HTC Sensation XL
  9:30
• Nokia Lumia 710
  9:05
• HTC Vivid
  9:02
• HTC Rhyme
  8:48
• LG Optimus 3D Max P720
  8:42
• Sony Ericsson Xperia neo V
  8:41
• Meizu MX
  8:39
• Samsung Galaxy S II
  8:35
• Nokia Lumia 800
  8:25
• Samsung Galaxy Nexus
  8:23
• Samsung Captivate Glide
  8:20
• HTC Rezound (LTE)
  8:10
• Samsung Galaxy Note (LTE)
  8:02
• Apple iPhone 4S
  7:41
• Samsung i937 Focus S
  7:25
• HTC Evo 4G LTE (LTE)
  7:21
• Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G
  7:14
• Samsung Rugby Smart I847
  7:09
• Sony Ericsson Xperia Pro
  6:57
• Nokia N9
  6:57
• HTC Radar
  6:53
• BlackBerry Curve 9380
  6:52
• Samsung Galaxy Pocket
  5:54
• Nokia Lumia 900 for AT&T (LTE)
  5:53
• Sony Xperia P
  5:33
• Nokia 808 PureView
  5:16
• LG Nitro HD (LTE)
  5:16
• HTC Titan II (LTE)
  5:10
• BlackBerry Bold 9790
  5:00
• Pantech Burst
  4:46

Next up is web browsing – always an issue with phones that use AMOLED screens since those consume the most power when they display a white image, which is the case with most webbsites. The Nokia 808 PureView lasted 4 hours and 14 minutes of browsing over Wi-Fi. That’s comparable to the Samsung Galaxy S II and HTC One S, which have slightly bigger AMOLED screens (4.3″), but also slightly bigger batteries (1650mAh).

Web browsing

• Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX
  7:23
• HTC Radar
  7:17
• Apple iPhone 4S
  6:56
• HTC One V
  6:49
• BlackBerry Curve 9380
  6:40
• Samsung i937 Focus S
  6:15
• Samsung Rugby Smart I847
  5:53
• Pantech Burst
  5:51
• Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G
  5:45
• HTC Evo 4G LTE
  5:41
• Samsung Wave 3 S8600
  5:34
• Samsung Captivate Glide
  5:33
• Samsung Galaxy Note LTE
  5:24
• HTC Sensation XL
  5:20
• Samsung I9300 Galaxy S III
  5:17
• HTC Rezound
  5:16
• HTC Rhyme
  5:08
• Samsung I9103 Galaxy R
  5:07
• HTC One X (AT&T)
  5:03
• Sony Ericsson Xperia Pro
  4:50
• HTC Vivid
  4:46
• Meizu MX
  4:35
• Nokia N9
  4:33
• Samsung Galaxy S II
  4:24
• Sony Ericsson Xperia neo V
  4:20
• HTC One X
  4:18
• Nokia 808 PureView
  4:14
• LG Optimus 3D Max P720
  4:10
• Nokia Lumia 900 for AT&T
  4:10
• Nokia Lumia 800
  4:07
• HTC Titan II (LTE)
  4:05
• HTC One S
  4:03
• BlackBerry Bold 9790
  4:02
• LG Nitro HD
  4:00
• Sony Xperia P
  3:59
• Nokia Lumia 710
  3:51
• Samsung Galaxy Pocket
  3:47
• Samsung Galaxy Note
  3:35
• Huawei Ascend P1
  3:23
• Samsung Galaxy Nexus
  3:01

Watching videos would probably be a common use case for the 808 PureView – videos you’ve shot yourself or otherwise. With 9 hours and 53 minutes of constant video playback, the Nokia is one of the best performers in this test.

Video playback

• Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX
  14:17
• Samsung I9300 Galaxy S III
  10:01
• Samsung Rugby Smart I847
  9:34
• Nokia 808 PureView
  9:53
• HTC One S
  9:28
• Apple iPhone 4S
  9:24
• HTC Evo 4G LTE
  9:07

• Nokia N9
  8:40
• Samsung Galaxy Note
  8:25
• Samsung Galaxy S II
  8:00
• Samsung i937 Focus S
  7:55
• Samsung Wave 3 S8600
  7:52
• Sony Ericsson Xperia neo V
  7:45
• Huawei Ascend P1
  7:38
• Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G
  7:33
• Samsung Galaxy Note LTE
  7:30
• HTC One X (AT&T)
  6:26
• Samsung I9103 Galaxy R
  6:21
• HTC Sensation XL
  6:12
• Samsung Galaxy Pocket
  6:06
• Samsung Captivate Glide
  6:04
• Samsung Galaxy Nexus
  6:02
• HTC Vivid
  6:00
• HTC Radar
  5:54
• Nokia Lumia 800
  5:52
• HTC Titan II
  5:50
• BlackBerry Bold 9790
  5:47
• HTC One X
  5:45
• Sony Ericsson Xperia Pro
  5:44
• Pantech Burst
  5:38
• Meizu MX
  5:27
• HTC Rhyme
  5:23
• HTC One V
  5:20
• Nokia Lumia 900 for AT&T
  5:18
• BlackBerry Curve 9380
  5:09
• HTC Rezound
  5:03
• Sony Xperia P
  4:30
• LG Nitro HD
  4:17
• LG Optimus 3D Max P720
  3:28
• Nokia Lumia 710
  3:27

The final endurance rating for the Nokia 808 PureView is 34 hours. That rating indicates how long the phone will last if you do an hour of 3G calls, an hour of browsing and watch videos for an hour each day.

The Nokia 808 PureView holds its own against a lot of current Android phones. Talk time could have been higher, but the phone should last you a whole day even with heavier usage.