Apple’s iPhone 16 delivers great battery life, as we’ve seen in various tests and reviews performed after Apple unveiled the phone in September. The iPhone 16 Pro Max, which rocks the largest battery capacity of the four models, also delivers the best battery life.
Now that the Galaxy S25 phones are out, the obvious battery life comparisons have started to drop, comparing Samsung’s latest phones against the latest iPhones. The most obvious contest is between the Galaxy S25 Ultra and the iPhone 16 Pro Max the phones with the largest battery packs of their respective series.
A few months ago, we saw battery life comparisons between the Galaxy S24 Ultra and the iPhone 16 Pro Max, with each phone coming out on top.
One of the more objective comparisons, offering a test meant to mimic the real-life use of a smartphone, came from the YouTube channel PhoneBuff. The iPhone 16 Pro Max won that battle by nearly an hour of extra life, though the Galaxy S24 Ultra put up a great fight.
Fast-forward to mid-February, and we have a similar battery life test featuring the Galaxy S25 Ultra and the iPhone 16 Pro Max. Apple’s handset won the contest, but by only a few minutes.
Ahead of the Galaxy S25 launch event, we knew the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip did tremendously well in battery life tests. This prompted me to speculate the ultra-thin Galaxy S25 Edge will feature great battery life despite rocking a smaller battery. While we’re yet to see the Edge in the wild, we know the Galaxy S25 Ultra can offer great battery life.
We noted in our Galaxy S25 Ultra review that battery life seems to have improved for the Galaxy S25 Ultra. The phone can easily last up to two days with light use. The Snapdragon 8 Elite, a custom version for the Galaxy S25 Ultra, delivers better performance than its predecessor and improved efficiency gains. The Galaxy S25 phones also feature vapor chambers to help cool the processor off.
We already saw that processor in action in a speed test from the same YouTuber, where the Galaxy S25 Ultra crushed the iPhone 16 Pro Max in a way I didn’t think possible.
The processor’s efficiencies must be the reason the Galaxy S25 Ultra does so well in the battery life test PhoneBuff posted on YouTube.
Like the speed test, the battery life battle features a robot programmed to navigate apps in a specific order to mimic real-life use. The robot went through phone calls, texting, internet browsing, social apps, games, music, video streaming, and even navigation apps to replicate what we normally do on phones.
The battery life test also included a standby period to account for battery depletion when the handset is not used.
The iPhone 16 Pro Max won the battery life duel with 28 hours and 1 minute, while the Galaxy S25 Ultra died after 27 hours and 50 minutes. The advantage of the iPhone dropped significantly compared to the Galaxy S24 Ultra. The iPhone’s performance is impressive, considering it actually has a smaller battery than the Galaxy S25 Ultra.
However, it’s clear the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip is responsible for the phone’s battery life gains. After all, Samsung used the same 5,000 mAh battery for both the Galaxy S24 Ultra and the S25 Ultra.
The only other thing that’s different is the operating system. The Galaxy S25 Ultra runs Android 15 (One UI 7) out of the box, while the S24 Ultra rocked Android 14. One UI 7 is still too new. Additional optimizations might improve battery life down the road. But even so, the Galaxy S25 phones should deliver better batery life than its predecessors, especially the Ultra.
The battery life test follows in full below:
