Why does the iPhone SE have better battery life than the 6S?

[T Coma]

I was skeptical of any battery life claims myself, especially based on the poor performance I got from an iphone 6 (which I returned for an LG G2) but decided to give the SE a go, for my non-techie wife.

She received the phone Thursday night, and just put it on the charger *for the first time* before going to bed Saturday night, when it still reported a 32% charge.

If this continues, it may force me to rethink my opinion.

 

[C DM]

Lol. Years ago maybe but not now.

Years ago or not, but still takes a few charge cycles to make meaningful observations.
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False.

Apple has excellent documentation and tips at Apple.com that debunk the myth above.
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No such thing.

Apple's stellar battery design and battery charging tips are the best in the industry.

The myth of what, that the very first cycle when you are restoring and loading a bunch of things and using the phone quite a by more is somehow a good representative of typical battery usage? Seriously?

 

[asleep]

I have a pretty regular schedule,

typically by now my 6S battery would be in the mid-30% range...

SE is at 63% as I type this.

Will see what things look like in a few weeks, but a very promising beginning.

 

[MrGuder]

Well, I'm down as far as I can go on my 2nd charge...need to put it on charge tonight so I have juice for work tomorrow.

Here are my battery stats, all LTE since I have unlimited. 68% safari, lots of video from u tube and tv go app from my cable co, along with 9% music, incoming and outgoing calls, no face time though. Not plugged in since I took it off charge 36 hrs ago.

If I drained it to 1% I think I could easily hit the 10 hr or more mark usage, I'm more impressed with the standby time as well. I'm really impressed with the SE battery and this is only 2nd day charge. I'm also on 9.3 that came with my SE have not upgraded to 9.3.1 and this is also not using low power mode feature.

14% battery left
Usage: 8 hr, 21 min
Standby: 36 hr, 20 min

 

[aohus]

Well, I'm down as far as I can go on my 2nd charge...need to put it on charge tonight so I have juice for work tomorrow.

Here are my battery stats, all LTE since I have unlimited. 68% safari, lots of video from u tube and tv go app from my cable co, along with 9% music, incoming and outgoing calls, no face time though. Not plugged in since I took it off charge 36 hrs ago.

If I drained it to 1% I think I could easily hit the 10 hr or more mark usage, I'm more impressed with the standby time as well. I'm really impressed with the SE battery and this is only 2nd day charge. I'm also on 9.3 that came with my SE have not upgraded to 9.3.1 and this is also not using low power mode feature.

14% battery left
Usage: 8 hr, 21 min
Standby: 36 hr, 20 min

wow im not getting anywhere near your stats. definitely going to get my se exchanged. im at 34% with 6 hr usage. standby at 8hrs

 

[Reno Raines]

I have been using mine all day and still at 68%. Not too bad.

 

[daijholt]

Years ago or not, but still takes a few charge cycles to make meaningful observations.
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The myth of what, that the very first cycle when you are restoring and loading a bunch of things and using the phone quite a by more is somehow a good representative of typical battery usage? Seriously?

What a lot of people don't quite understand is that its not the battery that needs to adjust after first boot, its the software. It makes a number of calibrations including some based on your habits, to optimise power usage. Apple mentioned this briefly in the WWDC keynotes.

 

[mattopotamus]

wow im not getting anywhere near your stats. definitely going to get my se exchanged. im at 34% with 6 hr usage. standby at 8hrs

Definitely not normal. I leave everything on (wifi, Bluetooth, location services) and I easily am getting 50 hours standby with around 7-8 hours usage.

 

[Phone Junky]

 

[TallManNY]

If you see my post above - that phone goes for a long time and cost $179 new.

So does my BBRY Z30. It has a 2,880 mah battery and lasts 2 days under solid usage. I don't think it is much competition for the iPhone SE. Anyone can put a large battery in a phone, surround it by cheap internals, make the phone bulky and heavy, and then have great battery life. Making it that cheap is difficult, but it isn't hard to make the phone.

I don't know what version of Android that cheap Chinese phone with the huge battery has, but whatever it has it probably won't ever have an upgrade released. And it certainly won't be able to run Google's latest Android OS in 2018. But the iPhone SE is going to receive and be able to run the latest Apple OS in 2018 and I suspect also in 2019. Is your Chinese manufacturer going to be able to sell phones for $179 in 2018 when there is a huge market of used iPhone SEs that are available at that price and are still very good phones?

 

[mattopotamus]

5h36m standby, 1h41m usage, and still have 90%. I think 2 days is always going to be no problem.

 

[MrGuder]

5h36m standby, 1h41m usage, and still have 90%. I think 2 days is always going to be no problem.

Ha you have just about what I have. I'm currently at:
88%
Usage 1hr 28min
Standby: 5hr 37min

 

[julescilib]

81%
Usage 1hr 55min
Standby 7hrs 26min

 

[PaladinGuy]

Wow! Y'all are blowing my mind with these figures! Guess this sort of validates an article that I saw recently, which said that the reason phones will never have substantially better battery life is because manufacturers always end up adding new features that use all of the increased capacity of the new batteries. The hardware of smartphones is just developing at a pace that is faster than battery technology.

I don't think it'd be possible for the SE to get this amazing battery life if it had all the features of the 6S.

 

[aohus]

ok so heres the thing. usage is extremely relative depending on what you do with your phone.

for instance im at 2hr usage with 90% remaining but i had the screen on for maybe 30 min max.

i dont think i have a dud after all..

 

[mattopotamus]

ok so heres the thing. usage is extremely relative depending on what you do with your phone.

for instance im at 2hr usage with 90% remaining but i had the screen on for maybe 30 min max.

i dont think i have a dud after all..

Usage on IOS is a lot different than Screen on Time (what android reports). The standby time is what is so good about this phone. I seriously would have around 50% left on my 6S right now with the same amount of usage/standby, yet I have 89%.
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Wow! Y'all are blowing my mind with these figures! Guess this sort of validates an article that I saw recently, which said that the reason phones will never have substantially better battery life is because manufacturers always end up adding new features that use all of the increased capacity of the new batteries. The hardware of smartphones is just developing at a pace that is faster than battery technology.

I don't think it'd be possible for the SE to get this amazing battery life if it had all the features of the 6S.

So true. If this phone had a higher resolution screen and 3D touch, it would probably get 1 day at most. I am glad they went the route they did. I probably will never have to charge my phone at night. I have carplay, so just plug in when I drive, and that alone will probably be enough to constantly maintain over 50%.

 

[aohus]

Usage on IOS is a lot different than Screen on Time (what android reports). The standby time is what is so good about this phone. I seriously would have around 50% left on my 6S right now with the same amount of usage/standby, yet I have 89%.

standby time shouldn't matter between the 6s and se. the internals are essentially the same (same SoC).

The difference in battery life should be when the display is actually on since the resolution of the SE is lower than the 6S, and it's using a smaller display.

could also potentially be the LTE radio being the difference maker as the SE does not support Band 30.

 

[radiohead14]

here's mine. not that impressed tbh, only because i'm coming from the Sony Xperia Z3 Compact, and that phone was able to get 2.5 days easily with my usual routine. the SE is about a day and a half at most with my usage. i also purposely tried to not load any apps on the SE (only Gmail, Youtube, and Swiftkey), so this is as close to factory apps running in the background. battery life will be less once i load up all the apps i use.

 

[ascender]

In a not-very-scientific-at-all test, I've been using the SE for the same things as I used my 6 for and every day there's way more battery left than with the 6, to the point where on a heavy day of use I'm not having to recharge it until overnight. It's a big improvement.

 

[aohus]

In a not-very-scientific-at-all test, I've been using the SE for the same things as I used my 6 for and every day there's way more battery left than with the 6, to the point where on a heavy day of use I'm not having to recharge it until overnight. It's a big improvement.

thats cool. I'm coming from a 6+ so the battery life 'improvement' doesn't exist. Those saying that the plus has worst battery life than the SE is kinda kidding themselves on that one. I was able to do more heavy media driven content and have ample battery life for two days on a +

 

[mattopotamus]

standby time shouldn't matter between the 6s and se. the internals are essentially the same (same SoC).

The difference in battery life should be when the display is actually on since the resolution of the SE is lower than the 6S, and it's using a smaller display.

could also potentially be the LTE radio being the difference maker as the SE does not support Band 30.

That could be it. I just know I hated the 6S battery. I would barely use it and it would be around 45% after work. That is with me actually using the phone 30-45 minutes.

 

[MrGuder]

here's mine. not that impressed tbh, only because i'm coming from the Sony Xperia Z3 Compact, and that phone was able to get 2.5 days easily with my usual routine. the SE is about a day and a half at most with my usage. i also purposely tried to not load any apps on the SE (only Gmail, Youtube, and Swiftkey), so this is as close to factory apps running in the background. battery life will be less once i load up all the apps i use.

That's actually not bad results as you still had 14% left plus look at your standby time and your battery is not 100% calibrated yet.

 

[Phone Junky]

here's mine. not that impressed tbh, only because i'm coming from the Sony Xperia Z3 Compact, and that phone was able to get 2.5 days easily with my usual routine. the SE is about a day and a half at most with my usage. i also purposely tried to not load any apps on the SE (only Gmail, Youtube, and Swiftkey), so this is as close to factory apps running in the background. battery life will be less once i load up all the apps i use.

Makes sense considering the z3 has 60% more battery.

 

[aohus]

this is with heavy usage throughout the day. this is a full day phone not 2 day usage phone like the plus

 

[oMc]

I agree with you that the 6+/6s+ probably have a better battery life overall, but your cellular signal seems to be really poor in your screenshot, and it doesn't help the battery life at all.