Tests Find Our Smartphone Batteries Are Getting Worse

You would think that as our phones got smarter and more powerful, simple and basic things like battery would be improved upon as well. While we are seeing changes such as the introduction of fast charging technology, our overall battery life seems to be going down, at least that’s according to a test conducted by The Washington Post’s Geoffrey A. Fowler.

In his test, Fowler took 13 devices that were a mix of devices launched in 2017 and 2018, and tested their battery life. Based on his findings, it seems that there are some 2018 flagship handsets that actually had a shorter battery life compared to their 2017 counterpart, which suggests that our smartphone batteries can’t seem to keep up with performance.

For example the iPhone Xs Max had a battery life of 10 hours and 6 minutes, but 2017’s iPhone 8 Plus had a battery life of 10 hours and 10 minutes. Granted the four minute difference could be within the margin of error, but as for the 2018 Pixel 3, its battery life was tested to be 8 hours and 28 minutes, which was trumped by the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL which lasted 9 hours 57 minutes and 9 hours and 26 minutes respectively.

That being said it should be noted that in Fowler’s tests, his tests measured web browsing time. Given that we do more than browse the web on our phones, we wouldn’t say that this is completely accurate, but it is concerning all the same. Also not all phones performed terribly either. The iPhone XR topped the test’s list at 12 hours and 25 minutes, while the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 lasted a whopping 12 hours, a good 3 hours longer than the Galaxy S9+.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Cellphones
Tags: study