Claims that the battery life of the new iPhones can vary by up to two hours depending on which third-party supplier manufactured the central chip don’t reflect real-world usage, according to Apple.
The chip at the heart of the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, named the “A9” chip by Apple, comes in two forms, one manufactured by Samsung and the other by Taiwanese company TSMC. Since the phones started hitting shelves last week, users have reported that the phones containing Samsung chips significantly underperform those with TSMC chips in intensive battery-life tests.
According to battery life benchmarks, the difference can be almost two hours. But in a statement, Apple said that the discrepancy was not reflected in real-world usage.
It said: “Certain manufactured lab tests which run the processors with a continuous heavy workload until the battery depletes are not representative of real-world usage, since they spend an unrealistic amount of time at the highest CPU performance state.
“It’s a misleading way to measure real-world battery life. Our testing and customer data show the actual battery life of the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, even taking into account variable component differences, vary within just 2-3% of each other.”
The battery metrics cited by Apple for the iPhone 6S include a number of different usage profiles, including talk time, internet use, HD video playback, and standby time. While video playback is relatively processor-intensive, none of those tasks are likely to max out the new A9 chip in the way a battery benchmark test does, suggesting that the discrepancy between the two chips only has an impact at the very highest end of performance.
In terms of real-world battery life, the Guardian’s own review of the new iPhones found that they underperformed compared to similar devices. Samuel Gibbs, reviewing the iPhone 6s, found: “Battery life is the iPhone 6S’s biggest problem. During the week the phone failed to make it past 11pm after leaving the charger at 7.30am in the morning.”
