a comparison with an iPhone 8+ might be fairer as they have more similar battery / screen size?
Not really. If you want the Apple Flagship device that means iPhone X. If you want the Samsung Flagship device that means S9+.
If you are comparing flagships, then battery life is an important factor.
AI has a series of articles comparing both handsets. This one just happens to focus on the battery (but the battery of the handset, not the battery for the sake of the battery).
This comparison isn't about choosing two similar sized batteries from both manufacturers and seeing which performs best. It's about their current flagships and how they perform across the board, broken down into a series of articles focussing on different aspects.
Flagship phones have flagship components. Apple chose a smaller battery capacity and Samsung chose a bigger one. Logically Apple is not performing as well as Samsung in this comparison as a result. This article serves to make users aware of that so they can better decide which options from either phone better suit their needs.
The battery life in the S9 Plus no doubt looks better. The gaming test though? After an hour the iPhone was 87% and the galaxy was at 82%, but the galaxy would win if you kept playing for longer? How do we know this?
This report is misleading. It bases conclusions on the main assumption that the percentage left indicator is accurate. All tests should be run until battery is completely drained and device unusable. It also compares two different capacity batteries and different screen sizes. Although it is impossible to limit all the variables between the two platforms (obviously the OS can’t be the same), if the test hardware is so different - as is the case here - it doesn’t even make sense to conduct the test at all.
LOL...if you start out the comparison by claiming that the iPhone doesn't accurately measure the battery life in the standby test, why would it then make sense to continue to make comparisons based on the battery indicators? And where's the proof that the iPhone is less accurate than the S9 when it comes to that? Bizarre.
The conclusions here are mildly interesting, but the vastly larger size of the battery in the Samsung (nearly a third more capacity) is not counterweighted against the iPhone X, making most of these tests inherently unfair.
It would have made much more sense to compare the iPhone X to the Galaxy S9, and the iPhone 8+ to the Galaxy S9+, with a simple side note saying something along the lines of “comparing the iPhone X to the Galaxy S9+ directly would give the S9+ an advantage due to its much larger battery, which is not really canceled out by it’s larger display.”
I don’t think we needed a set of exhaustive tests to tell us that a much larger phone with a much larger battery is likely to do better than a smaller phone with a smaller battery. Duh.
The X has a bigger screen than the 8+ doesn't it? Why would you compare the smaller Samsung to the bigger iPhone and vice versa? It's flagship vs flagship
Actually, in terms of screen AREA, the 8+ is larger than the X. This is due to the fact that its taller but not as wide. You get more area per diagonal length as the shape gets closer to a square. In terms of device volume, 8+ is very similar to the SG9+ because it is taller and wider but ~10% thinner. The iPhoneX is smaller in every dimension than the GS9+ and much more similar to the GS9.
The Geekbench test is specifically designed to bias positive results towards big screen phones with slower processors. Why? because the test greatly dims the screen, mooting the one negative battery aspect of a big screen phone, and then throttles the processor to full speed, no matter it's actual power. This is why Android phablets will come out looking good in those tests but in real world use, many/most don't last as long as iPhones.
A test of this theory would be really interesting (and not that hard to do). Just run various phones down to 0%, all the while recording battery % indicator at regular time intervals. Then you can generate a curve to show how far the % deviates from reality for each device.
I have to confess, I question the methodology of the Geekbench battery tests. It would be more appropriate if both phones performed the same amount of work i.e. performed the same fixed tasks within a three hour time span regardless of how quickly they completed those tasks.
Yes, and at typical screen brightness. The test as it stands bears no relation to any real world usage scenarios.
The conclusions here are mildly interesting, but the vastly larger size of the battery in the Samsung (nearly a third more capacity) is not counterweighted against the iPhone X, making most of these tests inherently unfair.
It would have made much more sense to compare the iPhone X to the Galaxy S9, and the iPhone 8+ to the Galaxy S9+, with a simple side note saying something along the lines of “comparing the iPhone X to the Galaxy S9+ directly would give the S9+ an advantage due to its much larger battery, which is not really canceled out by it’s larger display.”
I don’t think we needed a set of exhaustive tests to tell us that a much larger phone with a much larger battery is likely to do better than a smaller phone with a smaller battery. Duh.
The X has a bigger screen than the 8+ doesn't it? Why would you compare the smaller Samsung to the bigger iPhone and vice versa? It's flagship vs flagship
First; in terms of total usable screen area, the iPhone 8+ is about = to the iPhone X.
Second; Flagship isn’t the most important label. High end is. The iPhone X, 8 & 8+ are all high end phones. They all cost more than $500.
* It is definitely appropriate to compare the 8+ with the S9.
So you think this series on S9+ vs X should in fact be S9+ vs 8 because why? Personally, I'd rather see a comparison between the two best phones on the market not two random phones >$500 that have comparable battery capacities.
Im a samsung person and I can say this is genuinely accurate. They both have their strengths, so you cant compare them and get a fair result. Probably because Samsung utterly destroys iPhone in the battery compartment.
The conclusions here are mildly interesting, but the vastly larger size of the battery in the Samsung (nearly a third more capacity) is not counterweighted against the iPhone X, making most of these tests inherently unfair.
It would have made much more sense to compare the iPhone X to the Galaxy S9, and the iPhone 8+ to the Galaxy S9+, with a simple side note saying something along the lines of “comparing the iPhone X to the Galaxy S9+ directly would give the S9+ an advantage due to its much larger battery, which is not really canceled out by it’s larger display.”
I don’t think we needed a set of exhaustive tests to tell us that a much larger phone with a much larger battery is likely to do better than a smaller phone with a smaller battery. Duh.
Why compare one of the 8th installments of the iPhone series to one of the 9th installments of the Samsung Series. Thats genuinely unfair. It would make sense to compare the X to the S9 though.
Comments
If you are comparing flagships, then battery life is an important factor.
AI has a series of articles comparing both handsets. This one just happens to focus on the battery (but the battery of the handset, not the battery for the sake of the battery).
This comparison isn't about choosing two similar sized batteries from both manufacturers and seeing which performs best. It's about their current flagships and how they perform across the board, broken down into a series of articles focussing on different aspects.
Flagship phones have flagship components. Apple chose a smaller battery capacity and Samsung chose a bigger one. Logically Apple is not performing as well as Samsung in this comparison as a result. This article serves to make users aware of that so they can better decide which options from either phone better suit their needs.