Sony Xperia Z battery can run for 16 hours in talk time, but only 5:30 in video playback

Remember how freaked out we were of HTC Droid DNA’s apparently meager 2,020 mAh battery at first? And how we thought the 5-inch Full HD panel, quad-core Krait CPU and 2 GB of RAM will squeeze the juice out of that “ticker” in no time?
Only our concerns proved illegitimate soon after the big guy’s release, courtesy of a GSM Arena battery test. Well, today is time to bust another myth, aided by the same online publication. The myth that the 2,330 mAh battery inside the Xperia Z won’t be capable of holding its own for a very long time due to a similarly snappy hardware configuration and a pretty much identical display.
As usual, the battery test has been split into three to evaluate the autonomy in continuous talk time, video playback and web browsing.

The first part of the test is by far the most flattering for Xperia Z’s battery. Here, the 5-incher has lasted a full 16 hours, which is very close to Galaxy Note 2’s performance. It’s even two whole hours more than Sony’s official rating of the 3G talk time, which is probably a first.
And if we pit the Z against the Droid DNA, it’s a win by knock-out for the new guy – 16 hours vs just 11.
The second number is far less impressive and actually seems to signal a pretty big issue – only 5 hours and 39 minutes of autonomy in video playback. That’s not only three times less (!!!) than Razr Maxx’s result, but also less than half of GNote 2’s autonomy and two hours beneath DNA’s performance.

And it’s not even the fault of the Mobile Bravia engine, because even with that turned off the Z didn’t considerably boost its numbers. Meaning the DNA can get back on its feet now and push the battle to the last round.
A last round that we’re forced to call a tie. The Z ran for 6 hours and 37 minutes in web browsing, just three minutes less than the Droid DNA back in November of last year. That’s an average result, putting the two ahead of the Galaxy S3, BlackBerry Z10 or Oppo Find 5, but below the iPhone 4S, HTC One X+ or Galaxy Note 2.

On the whole, the Xperia Z got a 48-hour endurance rating from GSM Arena, which is almost tied with DNA’s 49h score. Disappointing? Definitely not. But not very impressive either. In fact, this kind of makes the DNA look better than before, considering the Z had a 310 mAh battery capacity edge and failed to prevail.
It also makes the 2013 battle for supremacy wide open, at least as far as battery life is concerned. Because if neither of these two can impress, maybe the HTC One and/or Samsung Galaxy S4 will. Remember, the One has a 2,300 mAh battery packed into a 4.7-inch body, while the GS4 is rumored to come with a 2,600 mAh ticker in tow. It’s so on!