After receiving the most recent iPhone models, tech publisher Tom’s Guide conducted tests on both the iPhone 12 Pro and the iPhone 12 battery life, and the results are not impressive.
Under continuous 5G usage, both the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro lose around two hours of battery life compared to 4G and that’s significantly more than 5G Android phones lose:
“We’ve run the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro through our battery test, and the results don’t bring the best news. Compared to the Android competition, Apple’s new phones are a step behind those devices on our best phone battery life list, especially over 5G networks.”
iPhone 12 Battery Life Results
According to the test results, the iPhone 12 battery life lasted for 10 hours and 23 minutes under 4G usage, but only 8 hours and 25 minutes with 5G. Similarly, the iPhone 12 Pro tested using solely 4G managed 11 hours and 24 minutes, but with 5G was 9 hours and 6 minutes:
“Here’s how the Tom’s Guide battery test works. It surfs the web continuously at 150 nits of screen brightness, launching a new site every 30 seconds until the battery drains. For the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro, we ran this test over 5G and 4G, and the difference was pretty dramatic.”
It is important to note that outside of testing conditions, the iPhone 12 lineup works to save battery power by stepping back from 5G to 4G LTE at times. However, losing around two hours of battery life by using 5G is significant.
The results of the iPhone 12 battery life also seem inadequate when compared to 5G enabled Android phones. The Samsung Galaxy S20 lasted 9:31 on 5G but that dipped down to 8:04 at 120Hz, and Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus lasted 10:31 over 5G, which is nearly 1.5 hours longer than the iPhone 12 Pro. The OnePlus 8T also outlasted the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro, the smartphone turned in a runtime of 10:49 at 60Hz and 9:58 on 120Hz, both over 5G. Lastly, Google’s Pixel 5 was nearly an hour better than the iPhone 12 battery life at 9:56.
Apple is clearly aware of the issue, as it added a feature in iOS which intelligently switches between slower and faster data speeds. However, users may need to switch it on manually:
“Apple said it optimized iOS to take advantage of 5G speeds whilst maintaining power efficiency. The iPhone 12 includes a Smart Data mode that switches between 4G and 5G data speeds intelligently. In ideal conditions, Apple says customers will see 3.5Gbps download speeds.”
The site does acknowledge that the battery test may not be accurate, but it still helps to provide prospective customers with a good comparison between 4G and 5G, and against competitor models.
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