iPhone XS Max vs Galaxy Note 9 Battery Test: Who Wins? [VIDEO]

YouTube channel PhoneBuff has released a new video testing the battery life of Apple’s iPhone XS Max versus Samsung’s Galaxy Note 9.

Iphone xs max vs galaxy note 9

According to the channel via email to iPhone in Canada, PhoneBuff founder David Rahimi writes, “Our tests are conducted by a robotic arm in a temperature controlled environment, and we calibrate the display brightness and speaker volume on each phone for more accurate results.”

So with that in mind, the battery test consisted of the following:

  • 1 hour phone call
  • 1 hour of text messaging
  • 1 hour of emailing
  • 1 hour browser test
  • 1 hour of Instagram
  • 1 hour of YouTube
  • 1 hour of gaming
  • 1 hour of Google Maps navigation
  • 1 hour in Spotify
  • 1 hour of Snapchat

The iPhone XS Max has a 3174 mAh battery, while the Note 9 has a 4000 mAh battery. The iPhone XS Max is powering its 6.5-inch OLED display with 2688 x 1242 resolution, while the Note 9 has a 6.4-inch Super AMOLED display with max 2960 x 1440 resolution (updated). The A12 Bionic chip in the iPhone is the industry’s first 7-nanometer chip, while the Note 9 has the 10-nanometer Snapdragon 845.

Will the iPhone XS Max running iOS 12 and its A12 Bionic outlast the Galaxy Note 9’s bigger battery?

YouTube video

After the first test of a one hour phone call, the iPhone XS held the lead as its battery was at 97%, while the Galaxy Note 9 was at 95%. But after the text message chat, the Galaxy Note 9 took the lead, showing 86% remaining, compared to 84% for the iPhone XS Max.

After the email test, the Galaxy Note 9 increased its lead slightly over the iPhone XS Max again. Then after the browser test, the Note 9 took the biggest lead with 68% remaining versus 55% for the iPhone.

Surfing Instagram for an hour seemed to really kill the iPhone XS Max battery, as it went down to 37%, while the Galaxy Note 9 remained at 59%.

After the YouTube test, the iPhone was down to 19% versus 49% for the Note 9. After gaming for an hour, the iPhone XS Max went down to 1% and the Note 9 was at 38%. Four minutes into Google Maps and the iPhone battery was done, while the Note 9 ended the test at 28% remaining.

The Galaxy Note 9 was able to continue on the test and ran Spotify for an hour, then only died when it was 40 minutes into the Snapchat test.

PhoneBuff says they ran this battery test twice and got the same result. He also clarified the iPhone wasn’t app indexing as well. The channel ends up declaring the “winner by a huge margin” in the test was the Samsung Galaxy Note 9.

While this PhoneBuff video shows the Galaxy Note 9 as the winner, another battery test on YouTube by Mrwhostheboss showed the iPhone XS Max as the winner in its own tests, seen below:

YouTube video

How’s your iPhone XS Max battery life been?

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