According to U.K. consumer group Which?, in tests of nine iPhone models, all of them fell short of Apple's battery life claims by between 18 and 51 percent.
The group carried out tests to determine average talk time for a range of models, including the iPhone XR, which had the biggest overestimation for talk time on a full charge. In Which? tests, it lasted for 16 hours and 32 minutes — whereas Apple said it would last 25 hours.
"With mobile phones now an essential part of everyday life, we should be able to count on our handsets living up to the manufacturer's claims," said Natalie Hitchins, Which? head of home products and services, in a statement.
"There are clearly questions here around how long some mobile phone batteries will last and so it's important to make sure you find an independent source of reliable information when buying your next phone," Hitchins added.
[...] Apple disputed the results in a statement to Business Insider.
"We rigorously test our products and stand behind our battery life claims. With tight integration between hardware and software, iPhone is engineered to intelligently manage power usage to maximize battery life. Our testing methodology reflects that intelligence. Which? haven't shared their methodology with us so we can't compare their results to ours. We share our methodology for testing which we publish in detail here."
(Score: 4, Insightful) by bob_super on Tuesday May 07 2019, @05:19PM (3 children)
Company touts performance of product, probably by using highly optimized internal testing under perfect conditions. Sticks an "up to" in claims to avoid liability.
News at 11.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday May 07 2019, @05:24PM (1 child)
Zero apps installed, vibrator mode off, nothing running, it's in standby mode and nobody calls to disturb the thing. You can probably get to, or very near, the high end estimate. You could even be the 1 in a 1000 who exceeds the estimate because $variable. The average person can just assume that he's not going to get the advertised performance.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Tuesday May 07 2019, @05:39PM
So leaving a phone with no apps installed and doing nothing is not meeting what the advertising is saying. In the UK, making false claims can lead to a company finding itself in court.
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Tuesday May 07 2019, @08:29PM
It's possible it's a reception issue. Apple might have optimized the antenna only to certain frequency ranges and only tested in a lab right next to a base station.
compiling...
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Tuesday May 07 2019, @06:20PM
There's one EXTREMELY important point that's missing from the summary IMO; it probably got forgotten in the rush to bash Apple (not that I mind some properly justified Apple bashing...):
Without that statement, the only conclusion that we can draw is that Apple and Which? use different testing methodologies. That's it. Can't say that Apple exaggerates, can't say if Which? is using particularly unrealistic tests, can't say much of anything. But WITH that statement, we can at least conclude that Apple exaggerates more than other manufacturers. Maybe everyone exaggerates and Which? just sucks at testing; maybe it's the other way around; but you can at least conclude that if you're comparing a Samsung against an iPhone you can multiply the battery life figures from the Samsung by ~1.3 to get an accurate comparison.
Now I wonder how hard it would be to build a browser plugin which automatically applies the relevant conversion factor to phone battery life specifications so that you can get a fair comparison of the specs between different devices...
(Score: 4, Funny) by SomeGuy on Tuesday May 07 2019, @06:23PM (1 child)
A vendor exaggerating or outright lying about the abilities of their product? I'm shocked! I'm shocked, I tell you!
Ok, not very shocked. Not enough battery power left for a large shock.
(Score: 3, Touché) by ShadowSystems on Tuesday May 07 2019, @06:56PM
*Laughing merrily & giving a ThumbsUp sign*
I'll just stick with my "dumb" FlipPhone & the week long (yes, a *week*) battery life.
I get & send texts all the time, I make & take voice calls at least once a day, and my non-"Smart" phone can still outlast those big bad bastards that cost 10x as much.
I'll get my coat, it's the one with the pockets full of smugness. =-D
(Score: 3, Funny) by cmdrklarg on Tuesday May 07 2019, @09:14PM
Saavik: You lied.
Spock: I exaggerated.
Answer now is don't give in; aim for a new tomorrow.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 07 2019, @10:31PM (1 child)
Which? magazine is geared towards moron consumers and their content is questionable to say the least.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Wednesday May 08 2019, @04:28AM
Consumers - you mean the people that buy the phones in question.
Citation required. Which? fully documents how they conduct their tests,