The straightforward replaceability of the 4200 mAh battery in the Fairphone 5 is certainly one of the highlights of the smartphone’s features, but DxOMark’s detailed analysis now reveals the disadvantages of this design.
Hannes Brecher (translated by Jacob Fisher), Published 🇩🇪
The inferiority of the battery life of the Fairphone 5 was already evident in our extensive review, and now a detailed analysis by DxOMark reveals the weaknesses of the removable 4200 mAh battery in detail.
With a score of 83 points, the midrange smartphone ends up in 165th place on the best list, with only five smartphones scoring worse, including the European Samsung Galaxy S22 with its Exynos 2200. The Qualcomm QCM6490, based on the Snapdragon 778G, is simply too inefficient in some scenarios, as the battery runs out in less than two hours when using the camera, and just under five and a half hours of gaming is also far worse than most competitors.
The Fairphone 5 only achieves near-competitive battery life under very light load, such as when making calls or streaming music, but even demanding social media apps are enough to reduce the battery life to around five hours. GPS navigation is only possible for four hours on a single charge. Only in moderate use is a runtime of over a day likely to be possible.
The Fairphone 5 is charged via USB-C and only reaches a maximum output of 30 watts. A full charge thus takes 02:19 hours, while the Samsung Galaxy A54 5G, for example, can be charged in 01:40 hours despite its larger battery and significantly longer runtimes. Nevertheless, a charge from 0 to 80% is possible in just over an hour.
Editor of the original article: Hannes Brecher – Senior Tech Writer – 14233 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2018
Since 2009 I have written for different publications with a focus on consumer electronics. I joined the Notebookcheck news team in 2018 and have combined my many years of experience with laptops and smartphones with my lifelong passion for technology to create informative content for our readers about new developments in this sphere. In addition, my design background as an art director at an ad agency has allowed me to have deeper insights into the peculiarities of this industry.
Translator: Jacob Fisher – Translator – 656 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2022
Growing up in regional Australia, I first became acquainted with computers in my early teens after a broken leg from a football (soccer) match temporarily condemned me to a predominately indoor lifestyle. Soon afterwards I was building my own systems. Now I live in Germany, having moved here in 2014, where I study philosophy and anthropology. I am particularly fascinated by how computer technology has fundamentally and dramatically reshaped human culture, and how it continues to do so.
Hannes Brecher, 2024-01-25 (Update: 2024-01-25)