Apple iPhone 11 vs XR vs 8 Plus battery life test, should you upgrade?
The new iPhone 11, just like its predecessor the XR, have a ho-hum display resolution of 828×1792 pixels, returning 326 pixels per inch density, or just enough to be called “Retina.” The 5.5″ iPhone 8 Plus, in comparison, has an “average” for today’s standards 1080p display which still sports higher 401ppi pixel density than the 6″ iPhone 11.
Apple iPhone 11 battery life vs iPhone XR vs 8 Plus
Browsing typically means a lot of text on white background, and displaying white is the worst case scenario for OLED displays in terms of power draw, so the difference between the Pro Max and its predecessor would have probably been much smaller than the 5 hours advertised.
That is why we decided to run our own browsing test, where we loop popular websites snapshots offline and mimic scrolling behavior, to gauge the real battery life advantage of the iPhone 11 before the XR and 8 Plus. Let’s not forget that all of these are with LCD displays, which don’t have the same challenges as OLEDs when showing white, so going in we expected the difference between the 11 and XR to be more significant in browsing than what Apple lists for the video playback test.
Apple iPhone 11 | Apple iPhone XR | Apple iPhone 8 Plus | |
---|---|---|---|
Battery/Pixel density/Chipset | 3110mAh / 326ppi / A13 (2nd gen 7nm) | 2942mAh / 326ppi / A12 (1st gen 7nm) | 2691mAh / 401ppi / A11 (10nm) |
Video playback (Apple test) | 17 hours | 16 hours | 14 hours |
Internet usage (Apple test) | n/a | 15 hours | 13 hours |
YouTube playback (PA test at 200 nits) | 7h 13m | 5h 50m | 5h 23m |
Browsing (PA test at 200 nits) | 11h 25m | 11h 08m | 9h 58m |
In mixed usage, as in our legacy battery test, the iPhone 11 also outlasted the XR by more than an hour, hinting that there might be more to its endurance than the measly 2942mAh vs 3110mAh battery pack increase.
What’s behind the better battery life of the iPhone 11 compared to the XR? Given that we have the same LCD display, and a negligible battery capacity growth, it most likely boils down to the new A13 chipset built with the second-gen 7nm process.
Should you upgrade to the iPhone 11?
Oh well, the whole point of this battery life comparison is to show you what you gain if you are coming out of your two-year iPhone 8 Plus payment shackles, and jumping to the new iPhone 11 would be a significant upgrade in endurance on a charge indeed.