iPhone XS Battery Life Compared to Android, and the Results Are Surprising
It's all about web browser running times.
A smartphone review website published its iPhone XS battery life test on Monday, and the results are…okay. Despite the 6.5-inch version of Apple’s latest smartphone shipping with the largest capacity battery ever found on an iPhone, the XS Max was beaten in terms of battery life by a number of other flagships, with the Huawei P20 Pro lasting nearly four more hours.
The tests were conducted by Toms Guide using its standardized testing system. The results were surprising: the iPhone XS racked up nine hours and 41 minutes of battery life, beating the HTC U12+ and LG G7 ThinQ, the latter of which managed eight hours 35 minutes. It was below the category average of nine hours and 48 minutes, however. The iPhone XS Max scored 10 hours and 38 minutes, nearly a full hour more than its smaller brother. The OnePlus 6 beat the XS Max with a score of 11 hours 22 minutes, with the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 and Google Pixel 2 XL scoring even higher. Top of the list was the Huawei P20 Pro with an incredible 14 hours 13 minutes of battery life.
Are the iPhone XS and XS Max worth the upgrade?
See more: iPhone XS Max Filing Shows Apple’s Largest-Ever Smartphone Battery
The test involves continuously surfing the web via 4G LTE connectivity until the battery runs out. Each phone has its display brightness set to 150 nits, and the team ensures each phone has full service by running on T-Mobile and using the 4G LTE CellSpot booster. In the case of the iPhones, the team turned off “True Tone” color adjustments and the auto-brightness feature.
The iPhone XS Max features the biggest battery ever found on an iPhone thanks to a combination of factors. The company has switched to using a stacked logic board for these high-end devices, using a more expensive design to allow for more battery space. The cells are arranged in an L-shape to fill the gap, meaning the device comes with a 3,174 mAh capacity, far outranking the 8 Plus with a 2,691 mAh battery despite coming in around the same size.
Apple doesn’t advertise its battery capacities, instead focusing on running times like “lasts up to 1.5 hours longer than iPhone X.” The company designs both software and hardware in-house, meaning that it’s able to make big changes through software updates that could make the phone run longer.
Perhaps iOS 12.1 and future releases will improve these figures.
