HTC U Ultra battery life test result serves us a surprise

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The HTC U Ultra is a stunning looker: with its shiny back, slim profile and sleek design, it is clearly a premium design and it feels like one. However, a phone is about more than just its looks, and one of the most important aspects of an enjoyable phone experience is good battery life.

So how does the HTC U Ultra do in terms of battery life?

After all, the HTC U Ultra is a 5.7-inch phone with a Quad HD (1440 x 2560 pixel) resolution and only a 3,000 mAh battery on board. Such a battery definitely seems small for such a demanding display, but we were hopeful that HTC has squeezed the most out of it.

Well, we have some good news: the HTC U Ultra is far from a disaster in terms of battery life, it in facts handles itself well. With its screen set to 200 nits, a luminance level comfortable for indoor use, we got a battery life score of just below 7 hours. Just slightly worse when compared to the Galaxy S7 Edge and the Google Pixel XL, and better than the OnePlus 3T.

Battery life(hours)Higher is better
HTC U Ultra6h 56 min(Average)
HTC 107h 10 min(Average)
Apple iPhone 77h 46 min(Average)
Apple iPhone 7 Plus9h 5 min(Good)
Samsung Galaxy S76h 37 min(Average)
Samsung Galaxy S7 edge7h 18 min(Average)
Google Pixel7h 45 min(Average)
Google Pixel XL7h 19 min(Average)
OnePlus 3T5h 41 min(Poor)
LG G66h 9 min(Poor)

At the same time, while the HTC U Ultra is just slightly below the mark when compared to other flagships, we have recently noticed that all of these phones fail much shorter of the amazing battery life that much more affordable phones provide. We have just recently tested the sleek and very affordable Lenovo P2 and got slightly south of 12 hours on the same test! There is clearly something more that flagship makers could do since even those cheaper phones get much better life. Maybe a Quad HD display is not the best idea for a phone after all?

Full Charge(hours)Lower is better
HTC U Ultra1h 40 min
HTC 101h 40 min
Apple iPhone 72h 21 min
Apple iPhone 7 Plus3h 17 min
Samsung Galaxy S71h 28 min
Samsung Galaxy S7 edge1h 39 min
Google Pixel1h 59 min
Google Pixel XL1h 58 min
OnePlus 3T1h 25 min
LG G61h 37 min

Another key aspect of the battery experience of a phone is the time it takes to fully recharge its battery from 0 to 100%. The HTC U Ultra does well on this test: it fully recharges its battery in just 1 hour and 40 minutes, almost exactly as long as it takes to recharge the Galaxy S7 Edge, and much faster than the slow-to-charge iPhone 7 and 7 Plus.

We are also hard at work on our full HTC U Ultra review that should be coming up soon. There we will look at the performance, camera quality and more about the U Ultra.
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