It’s becoming harder to recommend the iPhone 18 or Galaxy S27 for precisely one reason

The more complex a battery gets, the higher the chance for it to have a catastrophic failure. Samsung is very aware of this, as I’m sure that the Note 7 fiasco still haunts the company’s dreams.

What was a design flaw back then has kept the company paralyzed with fear. Samsung has refused to innovate in the battery department for its flagship phones for so long that Apple has caught up and even surpassed it. Apple, the company that was once mocked for lagging behind Samsung in hardware.

The Galaxy S26 Ultra continued a tradition that has been ongoing for seven years at this point by using the same 5,000 mAh battery that we have been begging Samsung to abandon. A battery that might have sounded “Ultra” that many years ago is not even worthy of a second glance at the specs sheet anymore, but Samsung persists.

Apple is progressing, but incredibly slowly

On the other hand, at least the iPhone 17 Pro Max crossed the 5,000 mAh mark last year. The iPhone has been slowly getting larger and larger batteries. If Samsung had not been so ludicrously stagnant, Apple would have never caught up, let alone surpassed the Galaxy flagships.

This tradition will reportedly continue this year, with the iPhone 18 Pro Max getting a battery with a capacity of around 5,500 mAh, a massive leap over the Galaxy S26 Ultra. Conflicting reports have started to emerge for the Galaxy S27 Ultra, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.

If Samsung finally ditches the 5,000 mAh battery, it will have only done so because of Apple.

It’s so difficult to recommend a Galaxy or an iPhone

Which brings me to the core of this entire tirade. There was a time when I used to see the Galaxy and iPhone flagships as the obvious go-to recommendations for anyone looking for reliable software and top-of-the-line hardware.

Sure, they were never the best in all of the specs, but they were always excellent where it mattered. That’s just not the case anymore, in my honest opinion.



Battery capacities, screen-on times, performance, RAM, storage options, display gimmicks, charging speeds, you name it, and a Chinese phone is better at it. The only rational reason for recommending Samsung and Apple phones now is for the software, and even that’s begun to show massive cracks as of late.

Chinese phones are pushing past 10,000 mAh, and 8,000 mAh has become an expected normal for many brands. Silicon-carbon batteries, which Apple and Samsung are refusing to adopt for some reason, are game changers.

But both companies, which enjoy massive market share across the entire world, are determined to keep using outdated tech. Their phones don’t last as long and they take many times over to charge up fully compared to their Chinese counterparts.

Even cameras, which is a big consideration for most people who are looking for a new phone, are done better on Chinese models.

And, as someone who uses their phone quite a lot, I’m not exaggerating when I say that Apple and Samsung’s clinginess for outdated batteries — and their determination to keep messing with the software for longer screen-on times — is beyond infuriating.