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Our iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus battery life tests are done, both trail the competition

By Chris P.

Updated: Sep 23, 2014, 1:42 AM

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Our iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus battery life tests are done, both trail the competition

For most Apple fans, the iPhone, irrespective of the generation, is above reproach. And in our experience, this is justified for a very big part. But the latest iPhones, including the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, have a very specific and undeniable weakness when compared with what competitors offer, and that weakness is battery life.

As usual, we put the two aforementioned iPhones though our custom battery life test, which attempts to estimate how long the average person will be able to use a given device if he doesn't put it down at all. With that in mind, the iPhone 6 battery life score of 5 hours and 22 minutes is underwhelming, especially if you consider competitors from the Android camp -- the Samsung Galaxy S5, for example, clocks in at 7 hours and 38 minutes, while the new Sony Xperia Z3 managed the whopping 9 hours 29 minutes. Both of these have larger-capacity batteries, but aren't as thin as the iPhone 6 -- though that's one trade-off that not all would agree with.

Looking at the iPhone 6 Plus battery life results, things are better -- it scored 6 hours and 32 minutes, which is actually better than competing 5.5-inchers like the LG G3 (6 hours 14 minutes) and Oppo Find 7a (6 hours 6 minutes), but still trails a number of flagship Android devices from the last year or so. Still, the significantly larger physical footprint of the iPhone 6 Plus has obviously allowed for a more generous battery, and this shows. Check out the results below.

We measure battery life by running a custom web-script,designed to replicate the power consumption of typical real-life usage.All devices that go through the test have their displays set at 200-nit brightness.

name	hoursHigher is better

Apple iPhone 5s	5h 2 min(Poor)
Google Nexus 5	4h 50 min(Poor)
Motorola Moto X(2014)	5h 45 min(Poor)
HTC One(M8)	7h 12 min(Average)
Sony Xperia Z3	9h 29 min(Good)
LG G3	6h 14 min(Poor)
Samsung Galaxy S5	7h 38 min(Average)
Apple iPhone 6 Plus	6h 32 min(Average)
Apple iPhone 6	5h 22 min(Poor)
Huawei Ascend Mate7	9h 3 min(Good)
Samsung Galaxy Note3	6h 8 min(Poor)

View all

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Chris Panayotov is a former mobile tech reviewer of phones, tablets and wearables at PhoneArena. However, his contribution to PhoneArena content includes not just reviews, but all kinds of regular and experimental features, such as news stories, buying guides, and an exclusive column on the most notable phones out of Asia.

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Our iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus battery life tests are done, both trail the competition

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