Here’s how much of an impact 5G has on battery life

Just how much of an impact does 5G have on a phone's battery life over 4G?

We've learned via Android Authority that Lu Weibing, general manager of Xiaomi sub-brand Redmi, took to Chinese microblogging site Weibo to explain.

In his post, he points out that the power consumption of Qualcomm's 800 series of chips is about 20% greater than that of the 700 series, and a 5G phone consumes 20% more power than a 4G phone.


Mr. Weibing’s statement comes only days after the 5G-capable Redmi K30 Pro was announced. The phone is powered by a Snapdragon 865 chip, and despite that huge 4700mAh battery inside it, Redmi’s estimates are rather modest, saying that the phone is designed to last one day.

The Samsung Galaxy S20, Galaxy S20+, and Galaxy S20 Ultra are also among the newest Snapdragon 865 phones with 5G support. They have battery capacities of 4000, 4500, and 5000mAh respectively – a significant boost compared to last year’s S10 series, and surely one related to increased power demand by the 5G hardware inside them.

As 5G is making great global progress compared to 4G LTE in its early days, phone manufacturers will need to start adapting to the overall increase of power consumption required for this new technology. And while 5G matures and Qualcomm strives to optimize the power consumption of their 5G chips, things are bound to get better with time.