Why battery tests suck

Smartphones have been with us for quite a while now, and back in the day when Android was young we all cursed the screen and video play back times. HTC back in 2010 were on a roll with their handhelds, remember the HTC Desire ?! Humm 1400 mAh battery in that bad boy and it was shocking, hardly any time to spend enjoying the (at the time) gorgeous screen.




Fast forward to 2013 and we are spending more time than ever on our phones, so wouldnt we have found a way to measure the battery life in real life conditions ?


One site will tout that its one hour of surfing, one hour of video and one hour of calling is enough to emulate real life, then they supply a final endurance rating, our issue here is I can think of people using their handsets to work in the train doing so much more. Using whatsapp, online dating, texting, reading the news, looking at pictures - all while listening to music. Wrap that up into a 90 min public transport torture ride and you get real life. No GPS is mentioned either, who has tried using their handset to get from A->B over a 2 hour drive, only to be notified by your handset is drinking more than its being topped up ?

Looking elsewhere another site, simply turns up the brightness and audio to 100% puts on wireless and drains the battery playing video. Thats just a video endurance test ?!

Only Motorola have addressed the issues from a hardware point of view and made their RAZR Maxx handsets to have decent battery life, however thats a few years old now and the new Ultra Maxx is stuck on a crappy provider in the US, which wont see the light of day else where.

The new Sony Xperia Z1 hasnt been subject to these tests just yet however one site claims the life of the battery is limited to just 5 hours of video playback, but what does that mean ?! Using the same tests the S4 lasts 11 hours which has 600mah less - really !? While this isnt a scientific tests it does raise questions about the testing which should be grouped into the same chip set maybe. Taking that a step further the LG G2 will last a good day, of heavy use however thats what we are told - not backed up in anyway. 

So while our handsets have evolved - the tests around the battery have been stuck in 2009 or even earlier. While the need for consistency is needed to have a clear and concise benchmark, its not keeping with the real world which has changed so fast. 

What is a good test ?! Ah thats the 1,000,000 mah question !

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