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The iPhone 6 made Apple fans’ wishes come true… except for one

Published Sep 11th, 2014 3:10PM EDT
iPhone 6 Vs. iPhone 6 Plus Battery Life

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It’s safe to say that Apple fans are very happy with what they’ve seen from the iPhone 6 so far since it features a bigger display, a 128GB option and a promising new mobile payments system. However, there is one way that the iPhone 6 didn’t deliver on a much-desired feature: Battery life.

FROM EARLIER: Apple might want to start taking gripes about the iPhone’s battery life seriously

Before the unveiling of the iPhone 6, both FinancesOnline and Toluna QuickSurveys polled smartphone users about the added feature or improvement that they’d most like to see in the iPhone 6. In FinancesOnline’s survey, 37% of respondents said they most wanted to see the iPhone 6 improve on battery life, by far the most common response when it comes to improvements. Similarly, 66% of users in the Toluna QuickSurveys poll said that they would rather have better battery life than wireless charging, while battery life was listed as the second biggest reason for switching smartphones.

These two surveys match up well with other surveys we’ve seen showing that iPhone fans wanted a stronger battery in the iPhone 6 even more than they wanted a bigger display.

Unfortunately, however, the iPhone 6’s battery life really won’t offer much of a step forward from the iPhone 5s. According to Apple’s metrics, the iPhone 6 will offer the same amount of standby time as the 5s while delivering one extra hour of Internet use over Wi-Fi and one extra hour of video playback. This isn’t meaningless, of course, but it’s nothing compared to the huge leap forward in battery power with see with the iPhone 6 Plus, which offers six extra days of standby time, two more hours of Internet use over Wi-Fi and four extra hours of video playback time.

What this boils down to is that if you’re someone who really, really wanted a better battery life with your next iPhone, it might be worth the extra money to pony up for an iPhone 6 Plus instead of the regular iPhone 6.

Brad Reed
Brad Reed Staff Writer

Brad Reed has written about technology for over eight years at BGR.com and Network World. Prior to that, he wrote freelance stories for political publications such as AlterNet and the American Prospect. He has a Master's Degree in Business and Economics Journalism from Boston University.