We put the Fairphone 5 through our rigorous SBMARK Battery test suite to measure its performance in terms of battery life, charging and efficiency. In the results of these tests, we will analyze how it performed in a series of tests and in several common use cases.
Overview
Key Specifications:
- Battery capacity: 4200mAh
- 30W charger (not included)
- 6.46-inch OLED display, 1224 x 2700, 90 Hz
- QualcommQCM6490 (6nm)
- Tested ROM/RAM combination: 256GB + 8GB
Pros
- Excellent overall charging efficiency
- Low residual power consumption regardless of whether the device is still connected or not
Against
- Less than two days of battery life in moderate use
- The battery drains very quickly in outdoor test scenarios, except for calls
- Poor autonomy recovered from the 5-minute quick charge
- High discharge currents when idling with the screen on, gaming and video streaming
The Fairphone 5’s overall battery performance ranks in the bottom half of our database, despite showing impressive charging efficiency.
Powered by a 4200 mAh battery, the device’s battery life lasted more than a day and a half after moderate use, a result that ranks on the low end of our database. When evaluated in individual test cases, the Fairphone 5 was behind most other devices in our database. But its battery life was relatively decent at idle with the screen off, or while streaming music or video in 4G and music streaming, compared to other test cases. In outdoor tests, the Fairphone 5’s battery life delivered commendable performance in the calling use case, although it still ranked in the bottom half of our database. Other outdoor use cases also contributed to the performance of other devices.
The Fairphone 5 supports a wide range of charging adapters and cables currently available on the market, but for our evaluations we used the original Fairphone charger and cable. It took 2 hours and 19 minutes to fully charge the device’s battery. A 5-minute quick charge yielded an additional 2 hours and 12 minutes of battery life, which is less than most devices we tested.
The Fairphone 5 demonstrated its strength in charging efficiency, measured at an impressive 77.6%, meaning that less than a quarter of the energy is lost during a full battery charge. This places the device in the top half among those we have tested. Furthermore, the residual power consumption, regardless of whether the device was plugged in or not, was relatively low. The Fairphone 5’s discharge currents, however, were generally higher than those of most other devices we tested, except for scenarios such as sleeping with the screen off and streaming music.
Compared to other devices in the Premium segment, the Fairphone 5 finds itself in the bottom half due to its poor performance in terms of battery life and charging.
Test summary
Information on SBMARK battery tests: For scoring and analysis in our smartphone battery reviews, SBMARK engineers perform a series of objective tests over a period of one week both indoors and outdoors. (See our introduction and how we test articles for more details on our smartphone battery protocol.)
The following section brings together key elements of our comprehensive testing and analysis performed in SBMARK laboratories. Detailed performance evaluations in the form of reports are available upon request. Do not hesitate to contact us.
| Drums | Battery charger | wireless | Screen | Processor | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fairphone 5 | 4200mAh | 30W (not included) |
– | AMOLED 1224 x 2700 |
QualcommQCM6490 |
| Google Pixel 7a | 4385 mAh | 18W (not included) |
– | OLED 1080 x 2400 |
Google Tensor G2 |
| Samsung Galaxy A54 5G | 5000mAh | 25W (not included) |
– | AMOLED 1080 x 2400 |
Exynos 1380 |
How the autonomy score is composed
The battery life score is made up of three performance subscores: Home/Office, On the Go, and Calibrated Use Cases. Each subscore includes the results of a full range of tests to measure battery life in all types of real-life scenarios.
56 hours
Light usage
Active: 2h30/day
37h
Moderate use
Active: 4 hours a day
10pm
Intense use
Active: 7 hours a day
Home office
A robot housed in a Faraday cage performs a series of touch-based user actions during what we call our “Typical Usage Scenario” (TUS) (making calls, streaming video, etc.) – 4 hours of active use over the course of 16 hours. -a period of one hour, plus 8 hours of “sleep”. The robot repeats this series of actions every day until the device runs out of power.
In movement
65
Samsung Galaxy M51
Samsung Galaxy M51
Using a smartphone on the move puts a strain on battery life due to additional “hidden” needs, such as the continuous signaling associated with cellular network selection. SBMARK Battery experts take the phone outdoors and perform a series of well-defined activities following the same three-hour travel itinerary (walking, taking the bus, subway…) for each device
Calibrated
79
Samsung Galaxy M51
Samsung Galaxy M51
For this series of tests the smartphone returns to the Faraday cage and our bots repeatedly perform actions related to a specific use case (such as gaming, video streaming, etc.) at a time. Starting from an 80% charge, all devices are tested until they have consumed at least 5% of their battery charge.
In charge
94
Realme GT Neo 5 (240W)
Realme GT Neo 5 (240W)
How the charging score is made up
Charging is a full part of the overall battery experience. In some situations where battery life is at its lowest, knowing how fast you can charge becomes a concern. The SBMARK Battery Charging Score is made up of two sub-scores, (1) Full Charge and (2) Quick Boost.
Full charge
ninety two
Realme GT Neo 5 (240W)
Realme GT Neo 5 (240W)
Full charge tests evaluate the reliability of the battery charge indicator; measure how long and how much energy the battery takes to charge from zero to 80% capacity, from 80 to 100% as shown by the user interface, and until actually fully charged.
The charging curves, in wired and wireless mode (if available) show the evolution of the battery level indicator as well as the energy consumption in watts during the charging phases towards full capacity.
The time to full charge table breaks down the time needed to reach 80%, 100%, and full charge.
Quick push
96
Realme GT Neo 5 (240W)
Realme GT Neo 5 (240W)
With the phone at different charge levels (20%, 40%, 60%, 80%), the Quick Boost tests measure how much charge the battery receives after being plugged in for 5 minutes. The graph here compares the average battery life gain with a 5 minute fast charge.
Efficiency
83
Oppo Reno6 5G
Oppo Reno6 5G
How the efficiency score is composed
The SBMARK Energy Efficiency Score is composed of two sub-scores, charging speed and discharging speed, which combine both data obtained during a typical robot-based usage scenario, calibrated tests and charging evaluation, taking into account battery capacity of the device. SBMARK calculates the annual energy consumption of the product, shown in the graph below, which is representative of the overall efficiency during a charge and when in use.
Charge Up
129
Nubia Red Magic 7 Pro
Nubia Red Magic 7 Pro
The charging subscore is a combination of four factors: the overall efficiency of a full charge, related to the amount of energy needed to fill the battery compared to the energy the battery can provide; the efficiency of the travel adapter when it comes to transferring power from an outlet to your phone; the residual consumption when the phone is fully charged and still connected to the charger; and the residual consumption of the charger itself, when the smartphone is disconnected from it. The graph below shows the overall efficiency of a full charge in %.
Discharge
67
Apple iPhone 14 Pro
Apple iPhone 14 Pro
The discharge subscore evaluates how quickly a battery discharges during a test, which is independent of the battery’s capacity. It is the ratio between the capacity of a battery divided by its autonomy. A small capacity battery may have the same battery life as a large capacity battery, indicating that the device is well optimized, with a low discharge rate.
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