Battery life is one of the key factors buyers consider when purchasing a smartphone and with several new flagships vying for consumers' attention, OEMs try to pack in as much juice into the batteries as possible.
We've compared how the batteries of the Apple and Samsung flagships - the iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge - perform in the real world.
Find out which of the four smartphones has the best battery life.
iPhone 6s
The 4.7-inch iPhone 6s houses a non-removable lithium-ion 1715 mAh battery (per iFixit's teardown), which Apple claims can support (on a single charge) a maximum of 14 hours of 3G talk time, 10 hours of Internet use or a maximum of 10 days on standby.
In October 2015 we reported that tests revealed how the iPhone 6s could support 9 hours and 41 minutes on 3G. The web browsing saw iPhone 6s last 12 hours and 27 minutes, whereas watching videos led to the battery depleting after 10 hours and 46 minutes of use - the battery was at 10 percent at this juncture. The iPhone 6s lasted 8 days when left idle, 2 days short of Apple's claims.
Galaxy S6
The Galaxy S6 has a 5.1-inch screen and fueling the device is a 2550 mAh non-removable battery, unlike its predecessors which had a removable battery. Samsung claims that the battery supports Internet usage of maximum 10 hours on 3G and talk time of up to 17 hours.
iPhone 6s Plus
The iPhone 6s Plus boasts a 5.5-inch screen - the biggest of the four. It is fueled by a 2750mAH non-removable battery. While Apple does not reveal the size of its smartphone's battery the details were revealed thanks to a teardown by iFixit.
Apple claims that iPhone 6s Plus users get a maximum of 24 hours of 3G talk time, 12 hours of Internet use and a maximum of 16 days on standby.
Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge
Galaxy S6 Edge
The Galaxy S6 Edge has a 5.1-inch screen and fueling the device is a non-removable 2600mAh battery, a change from older models which sported a removable battery. Samsung claims that the battery supports Internet usage of maximum 10 hours on 3G and talk time of up to 18 hours.
How The Four Smartphones' Batteries Stack Up Against Each Other
In November, Anandtech conducted a battery life test on several smartphones where the iPhone 6s emerged sixth lasting 12.16 hours in the Wi-Fi web browsing stakes, beating both the Galaxy S6 (10.44 hours) and the Galaxy S6 Edge (10.69 hours). Of the four compared smartphones, the iPhone 6s Plus emerged the best with 13.1 hours, coming in at the fourth rank. The top spot was taken by the predecessor iPhone 6 Plus - which has a bigger battery - with 13.72 hours.
The LTE web browsing test saw the iPhone 6s Plus emerge once again as the favorite of the four with 11.91 hours, followed by the Galaxy S6 Edge (10.59 hours), the iPhone 6s (10.43 hours) and lastly the Galaxy S6 (9.69 hours). Even the older-gen iPhone 6 beat the Galaxy S6 in this parameter.
The BaseMark OS II battery life test saw the iPhone 6s Plus emerge the best out of the four handsets with a score of 3.2 hours. The Galaxy S6 Edge and the iPhone 6s were neck to neck with 2.82 hours and 2.78 hours, respectively. The Galaxy S6 did not even make the cut to the top 21 smartphones on the list.
The GFXBench 3.0 Battery Life test saw the iPhone 6s Plus and Galaxy S6 Edge tie at 2.86, the iPhone 6s was at 2.45, while the Galaxy S6 did not make the list.
Another test conducted by PhoneArena shows that the iPhone 6s' battery lasted longer than that of the Samsung offerings - Galaxy S6 Edge (8 hours 11 minutes) and the Galaxy S6 (7 hours 14 minutes). The iPhone 6s lasted 8 hours 15 minutes on a single charge. It was, however, beaten by bigger sibling iPhone 6s Plus which lasted 9 hours and 11 minutes.
Despite having a smaller battery than the iPhone 6 Plus, the iPhone 6s has longer battery life.
Verdict
The battery performance tests conducted reveal that the iPhone 6s Plus has the best battery life out of the four smartphones. The Galaxy S6 Edge and the iPhone 6s are on even keel, even though the latter's battery size is smaller on paper. The Galaxy S6 fared the worst amongst the four.
(Photo: Kārlis Dambrāns | Flickr)
