Last week, Samsung announced and made the Galaxy S6 Active official. Exclusive to AT&T, as was the Galaxy S5 Active and Galaxy S4 Active in 2014, and 2013 respectively. Last Friday, the Galaxy S6 Active went on sale at AT&T, and actually is about the same price as the Galaxy S6. But it’s much more durable, and also has a much larger battery. If you asked a panel of tech reviewers what Samsung needed to fix in the Galaxy S6, they’d all say the battery life. The Galaxy S6 featured a 2550mAh battery inside, with its Quad HD display, it definitely wasn’t going to last all day without some magic. However the Galaxy S6 Active has a much larger 3500mAh inside.
The folks over at Phone Arena have done their battery test on the Galaxy S6 Active, and have found that it blows away the competition. Even the Sony Xperia Z3, which usually tops the list. According to their battery life test, the Galaxy S6 Active lasted about 3 hours longer than the Xperia Z3, topping out just over 12 hours. On the charging side, it blows it away, likely thanks to Samsung’s Quick Charge technology that’s being used with the Exynos processor. Charging time for the Galaxy S6 Active is about 103 minutes, while the Xperia Z3 is the longest at 235 minutes. Although part of me wonders if that was with Quick Charge or not. Considering both devices use Quick Charge, that’s a huge gap between them considering it’s a 3500mAh battery and a 3100mAh battery in these devices, respectively.
We do have a Galaxy S6 Active in hand, and have been using it since Friday. We are knee-deep in our review of the device and should have a review ready for you by the end of the week. So make sure to keep an eye out for that one. So far we’re pretty impressed with the durability and the battery life of the device. Even though it’s not the most beautiful looking smartphone ever made, especially next to the Galaxy S6. The Galaxy S6 Active is available now from AT&T, if you’re looking to pick one up.