The first iPhone 16 reviews showed that all four models deliver great battery life. They’ll last a full day with relative ease, with the larger models potentially lasting well into a second day, depending on your usage. The iPhone 16 Pro Max has the best battery life out of all four, both in terms of Apple’s estimates and in real-life battery tests.
But the question remains: is the iPhone 16 Pro Max better than its biggest rival, the Galaxy S24 Ultra? It depends on who you ask. So far, each phone has won a battery life test performed by different people. Now, a brand-new battery life comparison that aims to mimic real-life smartphone use is out, featuring the same two flagships. This time, the iPhone 16 Pro Max took the prize, outperforming the Galaxy S24 Ultra by a pretty good margin.
YouTube channel PhoneBuff got brand-new handsets to perform the battery life comparison. That means both the iPhone 16 Pro Max and Galaxy S24 Ultra had 100% battery health at the start of the test. The screens were set to 200 nits with auto-brightness turned off. The speakers were calibrated to similar decibel levels.
On top of that, the phones were placed within equal distance of a mini cell tower in a temperature-controlled environment. None of these battery life tests are scientific, but this one is as close as it gets.
A robot handled the actual testing process. The comparison involved talking on the phone, texting via chat apps, scrolling social media, playing games, browsing the web, and even navigating to a destination. For the navigation test, the robot scrolled the map to a destination in an attempt to replicate the navigation experience. Scrolling was also used when browsing the internet.
The test also had a standby segment, with each phone having been left on standby for 16 hours.
As you’ll see in the clip at the end of this article, the iPhone 16 Pro Max took an early lead, but the Galaxy S24 Ultra was quick to catch up in terms of efficiency. Samsung’s flagship even outperformed the iPhone at many points during the test.
Ultimately, the iPhone 16 Pro Max beat the Galaxy S24 Ultra by almost an hour. The iPhone lasted for 28 hours and 14 minutes, compared to 27 hours and 18 minutes for the Galaxy phone. Those times seem close, but an hour can make a huge difference in the real world.
This new test makes the iPhone 16 Pro Max the longest-lasting smartphone ever in PhoneBuff’s battery life tests.
Interestingly, an earlier battery life test that attempted to replicate real-life usage had the performance reversed. The Galaxy S24 Ultra lasted 12 hours and 31 minutes, while the iPhone 16 Pro Max died after 11 hours and 22 minutes. Of note, that test was less controlled and less scientific.
PhoneBuff’s video is embedded below.
