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The Samsung Galaxy Note 5 battery life was controversial, even before the phone was officially announced. Rumors that it had no removable battery turned out to be true.
This is a deal breaker for power users who routinely swap out their battery at will, and carry around a spare. After all, the Note series has always appealed to enterprise clients.
Everyone else shouldn't have a problem, though. Yes, the battery capacity is pared down, from 3,220mAh in the Note 4 to 3,020mAh in the Note 5, but Samsung's hardware and software optimizations more than make up for that.
I was able to eke out more than a full day of battery with heavy use in real-world tests, and our lab tests proved that the Note 5 drained 14% when running our looped 90-minute HD video. The Galaxy S6, with its smaller 2,550mAh battery but also smaller display, dropped 16% in the same amount of time.
These aren't on the level of the Samsung Galaxy S6 Active, which boasts a 3,000mAh battery and drained only 7% running the same 90-minute video. That's the one you want to go with if you really want an ever-lasting battery. However, everyone's concerns for the Note 5 battery are a little overblown.
Battery recharging is even less of an issue, because the Galaxy Note 5 charges faster than previous Samsung phones. The company's Fast Charging standard can fully replenish dead the battery in 1 hour and 20 minutes. Plug the same Note 5 in a normal USB charger and it takes 4 hours and 20 minutes.
That's a huge advantage to carrying around Samsung's slightly bulkier charger. Through tests, I found that Qualcomm-backed QuickCharge 2.0 chargers from Motorola, LG and Google Nexus phones also do the trick.
The Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 Edge+ also support "fast" wireless charging in addition to the slower wireless charging standard. Samsung says this new method takes just 120 minutes to fully charge the new phones, but requires its awkwardly named "Fast Charge Wireless Charging Pad." What's more inconvenient than saying that name? Paying its $70 (likely £70) asking price.
