Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 vs Nokia 8 vs OnePlus 5T: Detailed Battery Performance Comparison

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When someone is in the market for a new smartphone, they have certain expectations in mind. And for the most part, those expectations are based on the amount of money the buyer intends to shell out. After all, it’s obviously ludicrous to expect a top-of-the-line silicon and premium camera experience from a decidedly mid-range handset.

However, there’s one important ‘feature’ that just about everyone expects their new smartphone to have, regardless of the price, and that’s great (or at least good) battery life. And that’s how it should be, given how much time we spend using our smartphones on a daily basis.

A bevy of smartphones launched last year, and among them are OnePlus 5T, Nokia 8 and Xiaomi Mi Mix 2. Priced in close vicinity of each other, the three ‘affordable flagships’ offer a lot among them, including everything from premium design to blazing-fast performance. (To know more about how they perform against each other in terms of the latter, you can check our in-depth gaming and performance comparative review of the three).

But what about battery life? When it comes to the hardships of day-to-day usage, which one works the longest, before needing to be connected to the charger? Read our Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 vs Nokia 8 vs OnePlus 5T battery performance comparison to find out.

Important Notes About Testing Procedure

Note 1: All three smartphones were tested with their respective system updates and/or security patches installed.

Note 2: For testing their battery endurance, all three smartphones were subjected to (nearly) identical test routines, comprised of tasks like gameplay and video recording.

Note 3: Through the entire test run, all three devices were almost always kept connected to Wi-Fi, with screen brightness set to ‘Automatic’.

Battery-related Specifications

Smartphone	Nokia 8	OnePlus 5T	Xiaomi Mi Mix 2
Battery Capacity	3,090mAh	3,300mAh	3,400mAh
Charging Standard	Quick Charge 3.0	Dash Charge	Quick Charge 3.0

Performance With Mixed Usage

We use a lot of different things on our smartphones these days, such as handling calls and consume multimedia content. To get an idea of the performance of Xiaomi Mi Mix 2, OnePlus 5T and Nokia 8, we subjected the three smartphones to our mixed usage test routine. This involves activities like Full-HD resolution video streaming on YouTube, calls, messaging (on apps like WhatsApp), random browsing on popular websites like Facebook, listening to music and playing a game or two, with each task lasting around 15-30 minutes.

With these usage conditions, the Screen-on Time (as measured by AccuBattery app) on Nokia 8, Xiaomi Mix 2 and OnePlus 5T was approximately 5 hours, 5 hours 40 minutes and 5 hours 30 minutes respectively. Check out the comparative screenshot below:

These are largely good numbers, given the three smartphones’ respective battery capacities. Still, overall the Mi Mix 2 is the better among the three in this regard.

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Extended Video Recording/Playback And Gameplay

Considering all three of them pack in top-tier processing hardware and capable cameras, it’s no surprise that OnePlus 5T, Nokia 8 and Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 can not only handle the most demanding of mobile games, but also record great videos. These two activities generally take quite a toll on battery life, so how do they affect our three test subjects?

Under our extended video recording/playback and gameplay test routine (which involves Full-HD video recording/playback and gameplay of a heavy, graphics-intensive title, each performed for at least 30 minutes at a stretch), the following results were obtained:

Activity / Smartphone	Video Recording (30 minutes)	Video Playback (30 minutes)	Gameplay (30 minutes)
Nokia 8	14% drop	4% drop	10% drop
OnePlus 5T	10% drop	4% drop	9% drop
Xiaomi Mi Mix 2	10% drop	5% drop	9% drop

It’s evident that all three smartphones perform nearly the same when it comes to intensive tasks like video recording and gameplay. But strictly adding the above number, OnePlus 5T comes out at the top, followed by Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 and Nokia 8, in that order. The slightly more battery consumption of Nokia 8 (compared to Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 and OnePlus 5T) during video recording and gameplay could possibly be because of 360-degree OZO audio capture, as well as the higher resolution screen.

So if your smartphone usage involves watching a lot of videos and playing games frequently, the 5T would definitely be the best choice.

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From 1% To 100%: The Nitty-Gritties

Given how fast-charging is increasingly making its way to even mid-range smartphones, it should come as no surprise that all three of our test handsets include the technology. While Nokia 8 and Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 support Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 3.0 standard, OnePlus 5T comes with its proprietary Dash Charge standard. The core difference between the two is simple – Quick Charge 3.0 increases power output by upping the voltage, Dash Charge does so amping up (pun intended) the current. Mentioned below is the maximum power output (W) delivered to the three smartphones by their respective chargers. Take a look at the associated image as well.

 

As indicated by the above combo image, Nokia 8 and Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 chargers (both rated at 18W) manage to deliver around 15W and 16W power output respectively. On the other hand, OnePlus 5T’s charger delivers close to 17W power output, increasing current instead of voltage.

Talking about fully charging the battery (from 1% to 100% in case of all three devices), OnePlus 5T’s charger did it in around 2 hours 15 minutes. Similarly, Nokia 8’s charger took about 2 hours and 40 minutes. As for Xiaomi Mi Mix 2, its charger did the job in 2 hours and 35 minutes.

However, bear in mind that these numbers aren’t exact. That’s because the during testing, the chargers were feeding power through a USB-based power-measurement gadget that we hooked onto them. Actual charging times on all three smartphones are a bit lesser than those figures.

Nevertheless, if you’re the kind of person who’s always on the move and rarely has the time to fully charge their smartphone’s battery, OnePlus 5T is going to be the best for you. Dash Charge really works wonders!

Verdict

Based on the above, it’s clear that the battery backup of all three smartphones – Nokia 8, Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 and OnePlus 5T – is very good. Wherever the differences in numbers are, they are really minor.

However, of the three, OnePlus 5T is clearly the winner as the smartphone with the best battery life. Probably some of the factors that help its battery performance are the energy-efficient AMOLED screen, under-the-hood optimizations. Then, of course, its Full-HD screen isn’t as heavy on the battery as Nokia 8’s Quad-HD panel is. And even though Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 has the biggest battery among the three, it appears that MIUI affects battery life, even if only a little.

If battery life is of utmost importance to you and you’re confused between Xiaomi Mi Mix 2, OnePlus 5T and Nokia 8, we recommend the 5T.

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