Software Optimization Plays a Huge Role in Battery Performance

Apple has been the king of software optimization when it comes to battery performance, and their iPhone 13 Pro Max has held the top spot in our battery test rankings for over three years. But will the new Galaxy S22 Ultra be able to challenge this dominance? We put both devices through a rigorous testing process to find out.

In the phone test, each device was subjected to a one-hour call where we monitored their battery performance. After 60 minutes, the iPhone lost only a single percentage point, while the Galaxy S22 Ultra dropped by six points. This is not a good result for the Galaxy, especially considering that last year's S21 Ultra did slightly better. However, it's early on in the test, and the battery percentage indicators may not be accurate yet.

In the messaging test, we sent messages back and forth with our automated chatbots, where both phones performed relatively well. The Galaxy cleaned up by matching the iPhone's results with an equal 7% drop. However, the Galaxy needs to do more than just match the iPhone in order to make up some ground. Will it be able to capitalize on this opportunity? Only time will tell.

The email test was another area where both phones performed similarly. We scrolled through and loaded multiple emails between each scroll, simulating reading. The iPhone, however, ramped down its display to 1 Hz during the test, giving it an advantage over the Galaxy. After 1 hour of doing so, both phones dropped by five points.

The browser test was a highlight of our testing process. We cycled through and loaded up the same set of websites, simulating browsing behavior. The iPhone's 4nm chip performed efficiently, draining only seven points after an hour. However, the Galaxy S22 Ultra struggled to keep up, draining nine points in the same time frame. This is a significant improvement over last year's results, where the Galaxy drained by 12 points.

The Instagram test was another area where the iPhone excelled. We scrolled through the home feed, with the biggest factor being display efficiency and how the displays ramp down refresh rates during scrolling. The iPhone once again pulled ahead of the Galaxy, adding two more points to its lead.

Standby time is often an area where iPhones outperform Android devices, but this time the Galaxy performed relatively well after 16 hours, getting roughly the same battery life as the iPhone. This was a surprise, considering the S22 Ultra's massive 5000mAh battery.

In the YouTube test, we monitored battery performance while binge-watching content. The iPhone once again outperformed the Galaxy, adding three more points to its lead after an hour of watching.

The gaming test was perhaps the most revealing part of our testing process. We played Alto's Adventure on both phones, simulating intensive gaming behavior. The iPhone drained by only nine percent in this test, while the Galaxy S22 Ultra died after just 177% – a whopping difference that puts the iPhone 20 points ahead.

The simulated navigation test showed the iPhone's efficiency once again, with roughly the same battery life as the Galaxy. In Spotify, we listened to music on both phones, and the iPhone continued its dominance after 60 minutes of playback, leaving the Galaxy behind by ten percentage points.

Finally, in the Snapchat test, we put both phones through an intensive testing cycle that included camera, screen, speakers, storage, and Wi-Fi usage. The S22 Ultra struggled to keep up, dying just 16 minutes into the test. In contrast, the iPhone lasted for an estimated 27% after the same amount of time.

The app cycle test was another area where the iPhone's efficiency shone through, lasting for an additional two hours and six minutes before finally calling it quits. This left the Galaxy S22 Ultra far behind, unable to keep up with the iPhone's performance.

In conclusion, the iPhone 13 Pro Max remains the battery life champion in our testing process. Its software optimization prowess has paid off once again, putting it 20 points ahead of its closest competitor, the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra. Will the new S22 Ultra be able to close this gap? Only time will tell.

The Winner: iPhone 13 Pro Max

Despite the significant improvement from last year's results for the Galaxy S21 Ultra, the iPhone 13 Pro Max remains the winner in our battery life testing process. Its software optimization and display efficiency have proven to be unbeatable, setting it far ahead of its competitors.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enafter running multiple trials to make sure that we got it right the Galaxy s22 Ultra battery test is here where it's going head-to-head against the Undisputed champ in the iPhone 13 Pro Max now despite having to make room to fit in an entire Spen this year Samsung still managed to somehow squeeze in a 5,000 milliamp hour battery which is massive compared to the iPhone's 4,352 milliamp hours the s22 that we're testing here is powered by the allnew Snapdragon 8 gen one which should be more efficient than last year's with that 4 nomer process and it's also using a new ltpo 2.0 display which can help save battery by ramping the screen refresh rates from 120 HZ all the way down to just 1 Hertz now the iPhone's display technically does something similar but its display can only go down to 10 HZ which should give the Galaxy a slight advantage of course software optimization plays a huge role and Apple has been the king of that with an iPhone set at the top of our battery test rankings for over 3 years will the Galaxy s22 Ultra be the first to finally change that or will the iPhone 13 Pro Max remain The Undefeated champ all right we'll kick things off in the phone test with each device going on the same 1hour phone call where 60 minutes into it the iPhone loses only a single percentage Point while the Galaxy well it drops by six points which is not a good result at all especially considering that last year's S21 Ultra did one point better but then again it's early on in the test and the battery percentage indicators aren't really the most accurate in the beginning here in the messaging test we're texting back and forth with our automated chatbots where this time the Galaxy cleans up on its performance matching the iPhone's results with both phones dropping by an equal 7% of course the Galaxy needs to do more than just match the iPhone in order to make up some ground which it may have the opportunity at doing here in the email test where in between each scroll we have the robots kind of sit and wait to simulate reading where if that ltpo 2.0 display ramps down to 1 Herz on the Galaxy it could actually give it an advantage 1 hour later though the best the Galaxy could do here was just match the iPhone once again with both phones dropping by five points now this browser test is the one I've been looking forward to since this is the first real test that taxes that 4 nanm chip under the hood with US cycling through and loading up the same exact set of websites where 1 hour of doing so drains the Galaxy by 9 points which is actually a pretty big improvement over what we saw last year where the Galaxy S21 Ultra drained by 12 points although Improvement or not it's still no match for the iPhone's efficiency with the iPhone doing even better dropping by just 7 points which puts it seven points ahead as we move on to Instagram where all we're really doing here is scrolling through the home feed meaning the biggest Factor here is going to be the efficiency of the displays and how they ramp down the refresh rates in between and during scrolling where once again the iPhone is just more efficient pulling another two points ahead and things may it worse for the Galaxy here in standby an area where iPhones almost always outperforming Android phones but after 16 hours no this time the two phones perform roughly the same which is good news for the Galaxy although with a 5,000 mAh battery you would kind of expect it to do better than the iPhone there but we'll see how things go here in YouTube where in addition to the screens being calibrated to 200 nits these speakers have also been calibrated to the same deciel count where 60 Minutes of binge watching later the iPhone does better once again adding another three points to its lead okay so here in the gaming test the robots are playing alto's Adventure on each phone the speakers are going and the chipsets are being put to work and after an hour oh man the difference is huge the iPhone drains by only 9% in that test while the Galaxy's battery drops by a whopping 177% meaning the iPhone is now 20 points ahead as we work on this simulated navigation test I don't know how Apple does it but the efficiency of the iPhone is just Next Level I can only imagine how well it would do if it used a 5,000 Mah hour battery like the Galaxy does but clearly the iPhone doesn't need it with the phones doing roughly the same in maps here in Spotify we're just playing music on each phone again those speakers are calibrated to the same decel count where 60 minutes into it the iPhone does better once again with it at 31% while the galaxy has dropped below that 10% Mark which means it's only a matter of time before the Galaxy dies and in this intensive Snapchat test where the camera the screen the speakers the storage and the Wi-Fi are all being used at the same time the s22 ultra isn't even able to last as long as last year's S21 Ultra with it dying just 16 minutes into the test while the iPhone is at an estimated 27% so a lopsided result here just a huge gap in terms of battery life big enough for the iPhone to not only finish the hour in Snapchat but it went on to the app cycle test where it lasted for an additional 2 hours and 6 minutes before the iPhone finally called it quits making the winner by far and still the fuff style battery test champ the iPhone 13 Pro Max anyways that is it for me in this video thank you for watching and as always I'll see you in the very next episode mafter running multiple trials to make sure that we got it right the Galaxy s22 Ultra battery test is here where it's going head-to-head against the Undisputed champ in the iPhone 13 Pro Max now despite having to make room to fit in an entire Spen this year Samsung still managed to somehow squeeze in a 5,000 milliamp hour battery which is massive compared to the iPhone's 4,352 milliamp hours the s22 that we're testing here is powered by the allnew Snapdragon 8 gen one which should be more efficient than last year's with that 4 nomer process and it's also using a new ltpo 2.0 display which can help save battery by ramping the screen refresh rates from 120 HZ all the way down to just 1 Hertz now the iPhone's display technically does something similar but its display can only go down to 10 HZ which should give the Galaxy a slight advantage of course software optimization plays a huge role and Apple has been the king of that with an iPhone set at the top of our battery test rankings for over 3 years will the Galaxy s22 Ultra be the first to finally change that or will the iPhone 13 Pro Max remain The Undefeated champ all right we'll kick things off in the phone test with each device going on the same 1hour phone call where 60 minutes into it the iPhone loses only a single percentage Point while the Galaxy well it drops by six points which is not a good result at all especially considering that last year's S21 Ultra did one point better but then again it's early on in the test and the battery percentage indicators aren't really the most accurate in the beginning here in the messaging test we're texting back and forth with our automated chatbots where this time the Galaxy cleans up on its performance matching the iPhone's results with both phones dropping by an equal 7% of course the Galaxy needs to do more than just match the iPhone in order to make up some ground which it may have the opportunity at doing here in the email test where in between each scroll we have the robots kind of sit and wait to simulate reading where if that ltpo 2.0 display ramps down to 1 Herz on the Galaxy it could actually give it an advantage 1 hour later though the best the Galaxy could do here was just match the iPhone once again with both phones dropping by five points now this browser test is the one I've been looking forward to since this is the first real test that taxes that 4 nanm chip under the hood with US cycling through and loading up the same exact set of websites where 1 hour of doing so drains the Galaxy by 9 points which is actually a pretty big improvement over what we saw last year where the Galaxy S21 Ultra drained by 12 points although Improvement or not it's still no match for the iPhone's efficiency with the iPhone doing even better dropping by just 7 points which puts it seven points ahead as we move on to Instagram where all we're really doing here is scrolling through the home feed meaning the biggest Factor here is going to be the efficiency of the displays and how they ramp down the refresh rates in between and during scrolling where once again the iPhone is just more efficient pulling another two points ahead and things may it worse for the Galaxy here in standby an area where iPhones almost always outperforming Android phones but after 16 hours no this time the two phones perform roughly the same which is good news for the Galaxy although with a 5,000 mAh battery you would kind of expect it to do better than the iPhone there but we'll see how things go here in YouTube where in addition to the screens being calibrated to 200 nits these speakers have also been calibrated to the same deciel count where 60 Minutes of binge watching later the iPhone does better once again adding another three points to its lead okay so here in the gaming test the robots are playing alto's Adventure on each phone the speakers are going and the chipsets are being put to work and after an hour oh man the difference is huge the iPhone drains by only 9% in that test while the Galaxy's battery drops by a whopping 177% meaning the iPhone is now 20 points ahead as we work on this simulated navigation test I don't know how Apple does it but the efficiency of the iPhone is just Next Level I can only imagine how well it would do if it used a 5,000 Mah hour battery like the Galaxy does but clearly the iPhone doesn't need it with the phones doing roughly the same in maps here in Spotify we're just playing music on each phone again those speakers are calibrated to the same decel count where 60 minutes into it the iPhone does better once again with it at 31% while the galaxy has dropped below that 10% Mark which means it's only a matter of time before the Galaxy dies and in this intensive Snapchat test where the camera the screen the speakers the storage and the Wi-Fi are all being used at the same time the s22 ultra isn't even able to last as long as last year's S21 Ultra with it dying just 16 minutes into the test while the iPhone is at an estimated 27% so a lopsided result here just a huge gap in terms of battery life big enough for the iPhone to not only finish the hour in Snapchat but it went on to the app cycle test where it lasted for an additional 2 hours and 6 minutes before the iPhone finally called it quits making the winner by far and still the fuff style battery test champ the iPhone 13 Pro Max anyways that is it for me in this video thank you for watching and as always I'll see you in the very next episode m\n"