Battery life test shows Galaxy S8+ runs for 8 hours between charges, is second only to iPhone 7 Plus which runs for 9 hours, 5 minutes between charges
We already know that the Samsung Galaxy S8+ is an incredible phone: it has the stunning, futuristic design, it has the camera and it has the performance …
Context & Ripple Effects
Samsung's battery record has long trailed its design and silicon story: the 2015 Galaxy S6 review found battery life effectively unchanged from the S5 even as Exynos led Android performance. The S8+ result closes part of that gap — eight hours in PhoneArena's test is genuinely competitive — but Apple's large-battery flagship still leads.
The timing matters because the S8 hands-on coverage already framed the phone as winning on screen, design, and build while leaving Bixby unproven; this test adds battery as a category where Samsung is strong-but-second rather than dominant.
First-order effects
- Shoppers choosing between the two big-screen flagships now have a concrete endurance differentiator: the iPhone 7 Plus runs about an hour longer per charge, which matters most to exactly the power users both phones target.
Second-order effects
- The battery edge compounds the iPhone 7 Plus's existing commercial momentum — it outsold the smaller iPhone 7 in the US at launch and ties for second in American Customer Satisfaction Index rankings — giving Apple another durable talking point against the new Galaxy.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, battery life stays a persistent Apple advantage at the top of the market: the following year's Galaxy S9+ review again flagged merely average battery life despite strong design and speed, suggesting Samsung keeps prioritizing display and performance over endurance.
The trend: Flagship smartphone competition is settling into a split where Samsung leads on display and industrial design while Apple holds the battery-life crown generation after generation.