The Xperia Z comes with a 2330 mAh battery. On paper, this is a bit disappointing, considering the fact that the phablet’s coms with a 5 inch full-HD screen which is capable of supporting 1920 x 1080 and a pixel density of 443PPI. More disappointing is the fact that the battery is non user replaceable.
Having said this, I have to say that the battery performance of the Z is not bad at all. Being only an average user, I normally only charge the phablet once every two days. Still when I charge the phablet, the charge is usually still at 70%. This might be a surprise to some; however the reason is that I only switch on the Wi-Fi for a few minutes per day, just to synchronize my Exchange mailbox and calendar. I don’t send a lot of messages and I don’t do a lot of calls and more important than that, I don’t play games on my phablet and I don’t use my Xperia Z for Facebook, Twitter or any other social networking sites.
I also rarely use my Xperia Z for email communication and for internet browsing. The thing is that when I am not at home, I am not really interested in replying to work related emails, reading my other personal email accounts and doing any social networking stuff. When I am at home, my desktop PC is obviously more suitable for that kind of stuff.
Obviously, heavy users like those who spend hours talking on the phone per day, sending personal messages and replying to email messages cannot expect to get the same amount of battery life. This also applies to people who spend a lot of time browsing the internet, people who like to play games on their smartphones and people who spend a lot of time on Facebook and Twitter. Obviously, there is no need to say that using the Xperia Z as a GPS causes a lot of drain on the battery.
Those who spend a day using pretty much everything on the phone (browser, GPS, watching movies, playing games, making calls, etc.) at 50% brightness will find that the phone hardly lasts for six and a half hours. According to some reviews I read, lot of power is consumed when playing games on the Xperia Z, especially when compared to other smartphones in the same range. However I did not test this and so I am unable to verify whether this is indeed the case.
The Xperia Z has a feature called STAMINA mode for those who want the battery charge to last longer. This setting is one of the first options I turned on when I got my Xperia Z. STAMINA mode disables mobile data and Wi-Fi access when the screen is off. At the same time, most of the applications will be inactive; however you will still receive messages, notifications and alarms. The music and FM radio will still work and so will any active uploads and downloads. However, emails will no longer be downloaded in the background unless you include it in the list of allowed applications.
According to Sony, stamina mode provides up to four times more battery life. However the truth is that this figure is a bit over exaggerated. When using the phone heavily, the battery will serve about seven hours and a half or about one hour more than the expected battery life with stamina mode turned off. Therefore, power users might find that stamina mode will not bring a lot of benefit. However, stamina mode can be very useful if you are not a heavy phone user like me. Another feature is Low Battery Mode, which disables functions in order to save power when the battery level is low.
