Samsung S21 Ultra vs iPhone 12 Pro Max: Battery Life Test [VIDEO]

Image: Mrwhosetheboss on YouTube

Tech enthusiast Mrwhosetheboss recently published a video on YouTube that pits the soon-to-launch Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra against Apple’s flagship phone for 2021 — the iPhone 12 Pro Max, as well as Samsung’s prime offerings from last year, in a comprehensive battery life test.

YouTube video

The video, intended to put device manufacturers’ claims of up to a 25-30% increase in battery efficiency year-on-year to the test, sees the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra square off against the Galaxy S20 Ultra, Samsung’s Note 20 Ultra, the iPhone 12 Pro Max, and the iPhone 11 Pro Max in a battle of attrition.

While the devices sport batteries with different capacities, all five are supposed to be top-of-the-line, flagship performers in every aspect.

Arun Maini, the man behind Mrwhosetheboss, recorded the entirety of the test, which was conducted with all five devices at 100% battery health, fully charged, running the same (or similar) apps and performing the same (or similar) functions at identical levels of brightness and with their speaker volumes turned down to 0%.

Here are the results:

  1. Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra — 8 hours, 41 minutes
  2. iPhone 11 Pro Max — 8 hours, 6 minutes
  3. iPhone 12 Pro Max — 7 hours, 56 minutes
  4. Samsung Note 20 Ultra — 7 hours, 45 minutes
  5. Samsung S20 Ultra — 7 hours, 17 minutes

The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra cemented itself as the best of the bunch, posting an impressive 8 hours and 41 minutes of continuous screen-on time.

Surprisingly, last year’s iPhone 11 Pro Max actually lasts slightly longer than this year’s iPhone 12 Pro Max. The iPhone 12 Pro Max houses a smaller battery, which could possibly explain the irregularity. The flagship iPhone’s battery is also much smaller than the S21 Ultra–3687 mAh versus 5,000 mAh.

The Exynos 2100-equipped Galaxy S21 Ultra blew last year’s S20 Ultra right out of the water, boasting a 19.2% increase in battery life over its Exynos 990-equipped predecessor despite having a battery of the same size (5,000mAh).

After last year’s disastrous showing, it looks like things are finally starting to look up for Samsung’s proprietary Exynos chipsets.

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