Nokia Lumia 900 (AT&T) battery life test is completed, results inside

Windows Phone running handsets are generally perceived to go easy on their batteries, due to the relatively modest hardware ticking inside them. The AT&T exclusive Nokia Lumia 900 however, has added LTE connectivity to the list of typical Windows Phone hardware specifications. Therefore, we were a bit cautious with our initial predictions.

As always, we will take a look at the smartphone’s talk time first. The Nokia Lumia 900 achieved the rather unimpressive 5 hours and 53 minutes before calling it quits. This results puts it quite close to the bottom of the chart of devices we’ve tested.

Talk time

• Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX
  20:24
• Samsung Galaxy Note
  12:14
• Samsung Wave 3 S8600
  11:07
• 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
• 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 Galaxy S Blaze 4G
  7:14
• Samsung i937 Focus S
  7:25
• 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
• Nokia Lumia 900 for AT&T (LTE)
  5:53
• LG Nitro HD (LTE)
  5:16
• BlackBerry Bold 9790
  5:00
• Pantech Burst
  4:46

Things improved marginally in the web browsing section of our test. Here, the smartphone managed to 4 hours and 10 minutes on a single charge – a result which is 3 minutes longer than Nokia Lumia 800‘s achievement.

Web browsing

• Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX
  7:23
• HTC Radar
  7:17
• Apple iPhone 4S
  6:56
• 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
• Samsung Wave 3 S8600
  5:34
• Samsung Captivate Glide
  5:33
• Samsung Galaxy Note LTE
  5:24
• HTC Sensation XL
  5:20
• HTC Rezound
  5:16
• HTC Rhyme
  5:08
• Samsung I9103 Galaxy R
  5:07
• 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
• Nokia Lumia 900 for AT&T
  4:10
• Nokia Lumia 800
  4:07
• HTC One S
  4:03
• BlackBerry Bold 9790
  4:02
• LG Nitro HD
  4:00
• Nokia Lumia 710
  3:51
• Samsung Galaxy Note
  3:35
• Samsung Galaxy Nexus
  3:01

While 3 minutes might not seem like much of an improvement over the Lumia 800, keep in mind that the AT&T smartphone packs a bigger, 4.3″ screen with more sub-pixels than the PenTile unit of the Lumia 800.

Video playback time did not blow us away either. It took 5 hours and 18 minutes of continuous playback to deplete the handset’s battery – hardly a result which dreams are made of.

Video playback

• Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX
  14:17
• Samsung Rugby Smart I847
  9:34
• HTC One S
  9:28
• Apple iPhone 4S
  9:24
• 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
• Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G 7:33
• Samsung Galaxy Note LTE
  7:30
• Samsung I9103 Galaxy R
  6:21
• HTC Sensation XL
  6:12
• Samsung Captivate Glide
  6:04
• Samsung Galaxy Nexus
  6:02
• HTC Vivid
  6:00
• HTC Radar
  5:54
• Nokia Lumia 800
  5:52
• BlackBerry Bold 9790
  5:47
• Sony Ericsson Xperia Pro
  5:44
• Pantech Burst
  5:38
• Meizu MX
  5:27
• HTC Rhyme
  5:23
• Nokia Lumia 900 for AT&T
  5:18
• BlackBerry Curve 9380
  5:09
• HTC Rezound
  5:03
• LG Nitro HD
  4:17
• Nokia Lumia 710
  3:27

The overall endurance score of the Nokia Lumia 900 for AT&T in our battery test was 29. This means that you need to charge you smartphone every 29 hours if you use it for an hour each of telephony, web browsing, and video playback every day.

So, the AT&T Nokia Lumia 900 did not exactly impress us with its battery endurance. The handset however, managed to get into the full day bracket on a single charge – a result, which makes its battery performance acceptable for an LTE packing device.