Social Android Imaging: Samsung's Galaxy Camera

Battery life is definitely something users wonder about when considering a connected device such as the Galaxy Camera. Because the camera is constantly connected to a cellular network, it’s always using some battery power. In order to get a feel for how long the camera might last, we put the Galaxy Camera through our standard HotHardware web browsing test. This is the same test we use for smartphones and tablets. Although the Galaxy Camera will obviously be used in a much different way than a smartphone or tablet, the test provides a frame for comparison.

In our Hot Hardware web browsing test, we set up a webpage with a mix of graphics, Flash media and text. The page automatically refreshes every three minutes, we loop the page and disable sleep and hibernate modes.  Battery life is measured down to the minute the tablet shuts down. 

In an effort to simulate the mode in which we believe most users are likely to operate the Galaxy Camera, we enabled Wi-Fi, cellular, GPS, and synchronization while running this test. The stock browser was used. For the test, we set the Galaxy Camera’s display to 50% brightness, which is still plenty bright and easy on the eyes.

In our battery test, the Galaxy Camera lasted for 6 hours and 11 minutes. This puts it in the upper half of the chart in terms of longevity compared to many of the smartphones we've reviewed recently. In real-world use, we had no problems making it through a few days of moderate use on a single charge. Of course, the Galaxy Camera’s battery life will vary considerably depending on how much you’re using the screen, sharing photos, uploading, editing, etc.