As good as the iPhone SE 2020 is, its weakest point is battery life. If that's a big concern for you then don't worry, the upcoming Samsung Galaxy M41 budget smartphone will have almost 7,000 mAh of capacity, and will likely cost around $100 less.
Twitter user the_tech_guy posted evidence of the 6,800 mAh cell, taken from regulatory listings kept by the Korea Institute for Chemical Convergence Testing (via Max Weinbach). The Galaxy M41 will be the successor to the $300 Samsung Galaxy M31, which launched earlier this year and has a 6,000 mAh battery.
- Samsung Galaxy Note 20: Release date, price, specs, screen sizes and leaks
- Forget Galaxy Note 20 - Samsung S20 is $700 off
- Just in: Galaxy Note 20 and iPhone 12 release dates just leaked
Although the capacity is impressive, the maximum charging speed of 15W is not. Sure, it's better than the default charging speed of the 5W charging block the iPhone SE comes with. But we'd prefer something like the 25W block that comes with the Galaxy S20 series that would be able to fill the M41's tank nice and fast.
Samsung galaxy M41 comes with a large 6800mAh battery (Rated capacity). pic.twitter.com/xLmocXop1OJuly 4, 2020
The $400 iPhone SE's tiny battery, a miniscule 1,821 mAh according to unofficial teardowns, does punch above its weight in battery life thanks to Apple's highly optimized iOS software. However, given that smartphones are averaging around 4,000 mAh of capacity, it's impossible for Apple's latest budget iPhone to keep up with an equivalently priced Android smartphone.
The Galaxy M41's cell still won't be the largest battery we've seen on a phone though. That honor goes to the 18,000 mAh monster that was the Energizer Phone Power Max P18K Pop. This phone's no longer available to purchase, and it didn't review very well when it was. So 6,800 mAh will have to do for now.
Since the Galaxy M41 is a Samsung phone, it proffers the question of why Samsung wouldn't put this battery on one of its flagships. The upcoming Galaxy Note 20 series would certainly benefit from having a battery this large, as would next year's Galaxy S30. Even the biggest rumored battery for the Galaxy Note 20 series, in the Note 20 Ultra, doesn't exceed 5,000 mAh.
However, smartphones don't have space for literally every desirable feature. Samsung has probably decided that it's worth going for smaller battery capacity to then have space for the best features it can bring to bear on its upcoming flagship phone; the Galaxy Note series handset are always an expression of the very best phone tech Samsung has.
But the M41 is a budget handset and will probably be aimed more at people looking for power and cost efficiency rather than the latest and greatest smartphone tech. So a bigger battery makes sense in such a handset.
The Galaxy Note 20 is expected to appear next month, likely at a 5th of August event. The Galaxy M41 most likely won't appear in the flesh until next year, but there are plenty of other excellent cheap phones to buy if you want a sub-$400 handset right now.
