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iPhone 7 Finishes Last In New Test of Battery Life (betanews.com)
"Pitted against the Samsung Galaxy S7, HTC 10 and LG G5, Apple's latest handset came in last place... and by some distance," reports BetaNews. Here's the results of a new test from the U.K. consumer advocacy group, Which?:
We compared the iPhone 7's battery life, when making calls and browsing the web, to those of three top Android competitors: the Samsung Galaxy S7, HTC 10 and LG G5, and the results were staggering. While the iPhone 7's 712 minutes of call time (nearly 12 hours) may sound acceptable, the rival Samsung Galaxy S7 lasted twice as long -- and it doesn't even have the longest lasting battery. The HTC 10 lasted an incredible 1,859 minutes (that's almost 31 hours).
When it comes to internet browsing time, arguably the more important measurement, the results were a lot closer...but the iPhone 7 still came bottom. The 615 minutes of battery life offered by the iPhone 7 is 25 minutes less than its nearest rival, the LG G5, and 175 minutes less than the top performing HTC 10.
The researchers point out that the iPhone 7 has a smaller battery -- but that's leaving critics unimpressed. The Guardian newspaper is asking, "How good can a phone be if the battery doesn't last even a day?"
When it comes to internet browsing time, arguably the more important measurement, the results were a lot closer...but the iPhone 7 still came bottom. The 615 minutes of battery life offered by the iPhone 7 is 25 minutes less than its nearest rival, the LG G5, and 175 minutes less than the top performing HTC 10.
The researchers point out that the iPhone 7 has a smaller battery -- but that's leaving critics unimpressed. The Guardian newspaper is asking, "How good can a phone be if the battery doesn't last even a day?"
Battery size is the old MHz (GHz) game that CPU manufacturers (mostly) used to play. It's more about system optimization and total component draw vs that battery installed. Especially now that most flagship phones don't come with easily removable batteries, and NO flagship phone allows for hotswapping of a backup battery, the unit as an assembly is what really matters most.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
It could've had 71.2 minutes call time, 61.5 minutes of browsing time, and cost twice as much, and people would still buy it because it's an iPhone.
Impossible, the test must be rigged. Because Apple says the battery is way better with the headphone jack gone.
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
Over 4 million people have died (1) since it was revealed that the Note 7 had batteries which could end the world as we know it (2). How many more have to die before this problem is fixed (3).
(1) Based on world human mortality rates. Deaths are unrelated to the Note 7.
(2) Not really.
(3) 151,000 people per day. As noted in (1), these deaths are in no way related to the Note 7, more than 2/3 of which had already been replaced as of the end of last week.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
They had all that open space from removing the headphone port and still ended up with the smallest battery? Wow.
warning anecdote incoming. My wife and I were out yesterday, both my galaxy S7 and her IPhone 7 were in constant use for photos and videos (admittedly hers probably slightly more so). both started 100% charged, hers was dead flat in 5 hours, mine still had around 50% capacity. Now that isn't the surprising part, we have seen that fairly often and she carries an external battery to compensate, BUT her comment floored me "when is the next iPhone coming out, I need to upgrade for better battery" and she was dead serious. She had the same problem with the 6, she hates the new IOS upgrade and the quality of photos in low light and yet there is not even the slightest consideration that she could want anything but another iPhone.
Why restrict the tests to 3G when this is a 4G world (at least in the US) now?
Is getting stupid, the phones are already too thin for most normal people, the screens are so large its nearly impossible to use one handed, and what do you get for all this "innovation"
shit battery life
my co-workers give me crap about having a smaller, fairly heavy phone (dorid turbo), but I always laugh back whenever one of them complains about their shiny new firestarters being dead 3/4 of the way though the day, and mine still has 17 hours left on it
This is a *huge* variance from Ars Technica's wifi battery testing:
http://arstechnica.com/apple/2...
They found that the iPhone 7 lasted much longer in both of their web browsing tests than the HTC 10 and lasted only a bit less than the S7 and G5.
Even on Which's 3G (why only 3G ?) web browsing testing, phones with 1.5 times the battery don't get anywhere near that much extra life.
It's pretty hard to judge without more samples and more info on the testing methods but, taking these tests at face value:
a) iOS 10 seems *horribly* optimized for 3G phone calling
b) Android (along with whatever extra stuff is on the three Android phones) seems terribly optimized at the other stuff. They have *much* larger batteries but don't manage anywhere near commensurate battery life with Wifi or 3G web browsing tests.
While this doesn't really excuse Apple, I greatly suspect the culprit is iOS 10, not the iPhone 7. I've been running the beta for months, and usually the battery life starts to even out and get better at some point, and I never saw that shift. So on my iPhone 6, which used to get 10-12 hours of *usage* time (not standby), I can watch the battery tick down in real time. I've even watched the battery drain while it was PLUGGED IN on the final release.
My evidence is anecdotal, but I'm starting to get friends asking me if battery life is worse with iOS 10, and I've had to say that it is. There's something weird going on. It's still on Apple to fix it, but it's a lot easier to fix a busted background process than ship a new battery out.
Since it has no headphone jack, I'll never have to make that evaluation; Apple trashed the design, so it's not even in the running here.
I guess that's what happens when your flagship computer... is a trashcan.
What planet do you live on? I for one, DEMAND a large battery, because I don't like being a "wall wart" trying to find some place to charge my phone, just to make it through the day. My last 4 smartphones had big screens, because I like the larger screen. The Dell Streak 5, was the first in 2010, and boy the looks, laughs I got were amazing (I still have it, and it still works). Second one was the Galaxy Note, 3rd was the Mate2, and now I use the Mate8. All had batteries larger than 3,000mAH. The last 2, have 4,000mAH batteries. Both the last 2 phones, the batteries would EASILY make it through almost 2 days of use, without having to worry about needing a recharge. I'm a heavy PHONE user, 1500-2000 minutes per month, 200-500 texts per month, LOADS of spotify/pandora (before that it was playing mp3's), a ton of work related web use, and anywhere from 20-50 photos work related. On the Galaxy note, I had to charge the phone so much because the battery would just barely make it through the day after 12 months of use, I had to replace the charge/usb port 3 times in 3 years. (I got pretty good at replacing them). That's why I went with a 4,000mAH battery. Battery size DOES make a difference. If people want tiny, slim/thin phones, hey, that's their right, but I'd prefer the bigger bulky phones, which I don't stuff into skinny jeans, or pockets. I carry it in a belt case.
You can pretend Apple is all about loyal Fanbois, but that's not true. Under Jobs it was about Unique Selling Points. Phone after phone came out with something new that only the iPhone had. Job would bounce on stage and beam about the new camera, or Siri or whatever. Their iPod touch was revolutionary, their iPad created the market.
Now Apple seems to be constantly playing catchup. Worse its full of hubris. Removing the floppy disk drive when it was no longer used was Jobs work. Removing the audio port for profit when its the most popular way of connecting speakers is Tim's work.
Apple's reflect this, e.g. Q2 2016 they sold 51.2 million iPhones, a 16 percent decline from the 61 million in the same quarter the year before.
Hubris
What planet do you live on? I for one, DEMAND a large battery, because I don't like being a "wall wart" trying to find some place to charge my phone, just to make it through the day.
Something tells me a road rage incident is in your future. The color of someone's car will push you over the edge.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Battery size also needs to take into account phone serviceability at one year, two years and even five years. Here's the really bad news the smaller your battery, the much faster you will go through recharges and the faster you will shorten the life of the battery, half the size, twice as many recharges and half the life. Fixed batteries are a major rip off and the purposeful inclusion of a phone failure device to force repurchase of that phone. I am quite simply refusing to purchase any phone without a user replaceable battery, no better lesson in this than Samsung's billion dollar fuck up. Battery powered and I can replace the battery, than they can quite simply fuck off, I am not going to buy, I am not that stupid.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
Finishing last would mean that it lasted the longest, wouldn't it?
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
What planet do you live on? I for one, DEMAND a large battery, because I don't like being a "wall wart" trying to find some place to charge my phone, just to make it through the day.
Something tells me a road rage incident is in your future. The color of someone's car will push you over the edge.
I think there are two possible factors that may not have been taken into account:
1. Was the testing accidently (or deliberately) designed to NOT allow the iPhone 7 to take advantage of the A10's two low-power cores?
2. Was the iPhone brand new, or had the battery been properly conditioned (around 5 FULL charge-discharge cycles) before testing. It is common knowledge that Secondary batteries, even Li-ion/Li-Po batteries, don't reach their full capacity until they are run down and recharged fully several times. Since the iPhone was the newest of the group, it is a relevant question.
Talking for 12 hours solidly and browsing the web solidly for 6 hours are typical phone workloads? I'm probably an outlier in phone use, but I rarely use mine for more than 10 minutes at a time. I want it to go in and out of standby quickly and give good performance when I'm using it. I have other devices (with much bigger screens) for when I intend to use them solidly for a few hours.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Shh yes its a giant conspiracy. Its ok. Hush now.
No, not a giant conspiracy; just a teeny one.
You pooh-pooh the idea that there was possibly reviewer bias in this case; yet when Ars Technica came to a much different conclusion regarding battery life, they were quickly denounced as being "well-known Apple fanbois" (the standard comeback from the Apple Haters).
Can't have it both ways.