Apple’s iPhone 13 Pro Max boasts terrific battery life. On the other hand, Samsung claims to have made several optimizations to eke out the most battery life on its latest flagship, the Galaxy S22 Ultra. Here’s a battery drain test that puts Samsung’s S22 Ultra and the iPhone 13 Pro Max head to head.
The iPhone 13 Pro Max has a 4,352mAh battery that’s dwarfed by the S22 Ultra’s 5,000mAh cell, at least on paper. Other indications that the S22 Ultra could perform better include a new-gen LTPO panel that could drop the refresh rate to as low as 1Hz. reducing the LTPO screen’s refresh rate to 1Hz. YouTuber Arun Maini tested Samsung’s claims.
He set out with showroom-fresh examples of the iPhone 13 Pro Max, Galaxy S22 Ultra (Exynos 2200 variant), Galaxy S21 Ultra, Google Pixel 6 Pro, and the Xiaomi 12 Pro. Using new phones eliminated the chance of battery health skewing the results. All the phones had dark mode switched off, the SIM card removed, and a lighter wallpaper set. The YouTuber’s tests put the phones through their paces with web browsing, Instagram scrolling, video playback, and intensive tasks like 4K video recording, video editing and encoding, and gaming — until they ran out of charge.
Apple’s iPhone 13 Pro Max picked up the lead early on in the test and maintained it consistently. Interestingly, the last-generation Galaxy S21 Ultra drained out slower than the S22 Ultra, although they have the same battery capacity, and Samsung claims to have made improvements under the hood. That said, the S22 Ultra with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip could perform better in such a test. The iPhone 13 Pro Max led the pack despite having the smallest cell.
After just over five hours of screen-on time, Apple approached the 55 percent battery level and stayed in the lead with Pixel 6 Pro having the lowest battery level (27 percent) at the time. The Google device and Xiaomi 12 Pro died in quick succession shortly afterward while the iPhone still had 30 percent juice left. Maini’s test revealed the following battery life ranking (longest life first):
- Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max [10 hours 27 minutes]
- Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra [8 hours 15 minutes]
- Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra [8 hours 8 minutes]
- Xiaomi 12 Pro [7 hours 34 minutes]
- Google Pixel 6 Pro [7 hours 6 minutes]
Evidently, Apple’s iPhone 13 Pro Max was crowned the champion as it lasted the longest on a single full charge. Maini notes that all the phones would hold up well for most use cases other than the most demanding ones. He mentioned that five-hour battery life was the least acceptable value when the test began. So, even the lowest-ranked Google Pixel 6 Pro has sufficient battery life for the average user.
However, Apple proved once again that its battery life and performance remain unrivaled by Android counterparts, irrespective of what their specifications might suggest on paper. The Galaxy S22 Ultra did not live up to Samsung’s launch-day claims since it was outdone in the test by its predecessor, albeit by a small margin. Maini attributes the failure to several potential reasons. He says the S Pen housed inside the S22 Ultra could be sipping battery passively. It could also be that the phone’s Exynos 2200 chip isn’t efficient for sustained high performance. He adds that the chip could also suffer from thermal issues causing the battery to drain faster. The problem could also be blamed to some extent on poor software optimization.
We suggest you watch the entire video to see how the tests were performed:
Do you think Samsung’s attempts to improve the Galaxy S22 Ultra’s battery life have been led astray by focusing on S Pen integration, software experience, and camera feature improvements? Tell us in the comments below. You could also read our post comparing the camera performance of the Galaxy S22 Ultra and the iPhone 13 Pro Max.
