iPhone 7 has lowest battery life among rivals

Apple’s iPhone 7 has the lowest battery life among the latest generation of smartphones, independent testing indicates.

Tests conducted by Which? revealed that the iPhone 7 offers less than half the talk time on a single charge (712 minutes) than its closest rival the Samsung Galaxy S7 (1492 minutes). The LG G5 (1579 minutes) and the top-performing HTC 10 (1859 minutes) outperformed both models.

Likewise, the iPhone 7 managed only 615 minutes of 3G internet use, compared to 640 minutes for the G5, 677 minutes for the S7 and 790 minutes for the HTC 10.

According to Which?, the fault lies in the iPhone 7’s smaller battery, which has less than two-thirds of the capacity of the HTC 10s.

This may be an additional consequence of Apple’s efforts to further reduce the thickness of its devices — a decision that also prompted the removal of the 3.5 mm headphone jack.

Which? said its battery life testing is conducted on a mobile phone network simulator to ensure consistent signal strength. Screen brightness on each phone is set to the same level, and a full power cycle — involving fully discharging then charging the battery — is conducted before testing.

iPhone image courtesy Apple.