Consumer product testing company Which? last week announced the results of its investigation into battery performance over a range of popular handsets, contrasted against the claimed battery life from the handset manufacturer. The results were particularly damning for Apple.

Which? experimented with multiple handsets from five major brands including Nokia, Samsung, Sony, HTC and Apple. The consumer champion put all handsets through the same standardised tests to ascertain average talk time and standby time and included 9 different iPhone models.

The results were a little shocking. Not only did all 9 iPhones perform below Apple’s stated talk time by a minimum of 18%, but the iPhone XR battery only lasted for 16 hours and 32 minutes – a 51% underperformance against the expected 25 hours that Apple claims.

Whilst most of us with any basic understanding of mobiles can appreciate that there are many different factors that affect the talk time of a handset battery, such as the network being used (3G/4G), the strength of the signal and even things like weather conditions, it’s still alarming to see these figures in comparison to other manufacturers. Whilst there were a handful of handsets that didn’t deliver on their talk time promises, none were off by so significant a margin as Apple, and in fact brands like Nokia on average underestimated their talk time, a far more sensible approach given the sheer variability in this factor.

Natalie Hitchins the Head of Home Products Services at Which? said “With mobile phones now an essential part of everyday life, we should be able to count on our handsets living up to the manufacturer’s claims. There are clearly questions here around how long some mobile phone batteries will last and so it’s important to make sure you find an independent source of reliable information when buying your next phone.”