The worst aspect of Google’s 2019 flagship line is the battery life, but it’s been well-known since day one that the larger Pixel 4 XL fares better. Now, a battery test puts the Pixel 4 XL against the iPhone 11, and the results are very surprising.
PhoneBuff, the same YouTuber who put the Pixel and iPhone in a performance test earlier this month, is back with a battery test. While it doesn’t truly reflect the use of the average person, this test does give us a good idea of just how well the Pixel can hold its own against the iPhone.
The test eliminates as many variables as possible by matching the brightness, speaker volume, and charges of the two phones right from the get-go. After that, both devices are subjected to a one-hour phone call on the same network. Then the two devices are put through messaging for an hour to simulate a real-world conversation using a chatbot. At this point, the two devices are only separated by a couple of percentage points.
Further tests include one hour of email usage and then one hour of web browsing. This brings the Pixel 4 XL’s battery down to 66%, where the iPhone 11 is at 72%. Scrolling through Instagram for an hour causes both devices to lose 10% of their batteries. Next up is a standby test where both devices are left alone for 16 hours with the Pixel dropping by 14% and the iPhone by 10%.
Rounding out the test is an hour of watching YouTube videos where the iPhone continues to pull ahead as well as an hour of gaming. Once they jump into Google Maps, the Pixel 4 XL dies after 43 minutes using the app. The iPhone finally dies an hour later in a Spotify streaming test.
The final results put the Pixel 4 XL’s battery at 7 hours and 43 minutes of screen time and 16 hours of standby. The iPhone 11, on the other hand, manages exactly one hour more at 8 hours and 43 minutes of screen time and the same 16 hours of standby.
While the Pixel did comes behind Apple’s more affordable device, it’s really not a bad total at the end of the day, considering the higher resolution, faster refresh rate, and more power-hungry internals.
Pixel 4 XL battery life isn’t as bad as everyone says, folks.
- Google Pixel 4 XL Review: Google’s best phone still isn’t ready for everyone [Video]
- Opinion: Google should lower Pixel prices instead of kicking early buyers a month later
- Google brings ‘vibrate then ring’ option to Pixel smartphones
Author: Ben Schoon
Source: 9TO5Google
