Apple iPhone 7 battery review: Apple flagship can't keep up with its rivals

The iPhone 7 is one of the best mobile phones in the world. The Apple smartphone launched in September and received praises for being an improvement over its predecessor. But there is one thing about the iPhone 7 that is plagued by scrutiny: its battery.

Apple’s latest smartphone equips a non-removable Li-Ion 1960 mAh battery. Although it’s an upgrade compared to that of the iPhone 6s, it’s actually one of the least powerful phone batteries in the industry, especially considering the iPhone 7’s status and its competitors. It’s supposed to provide 14 hours of talk time or 40 hours of music playback.

The iPhone 7 lasted about seven and a half hours on Phone Arena’s custom test before it was completely drained. The battery level reached 100 percent after 2 hours and 20 minutes of charging. In comparison, Google Pixel took 20 minutes faster to be fully charged.

The iPhone 7 lacks wireless charging support, a feature which fans expected from Apple. Combined with the A10 Fusion chip, the iPhone 7 battery provides longer performance compared to the iPhone 6s, according to GSMArena. Also, the Low-Power mode, which can be enabled manually, can apparently save the battery from draining quickly once the level drops below 20 percent.

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TechRadar pitted the iPhone 7, Samsung Galaxy S7, HTC 10, LG G5, Google Pixel and Sony Xperia XZ against each other in a battery challenge. All flagship phones went through the same performance tests that included web browsing, gaming, YouTube playback and native video playback. Among the six handsets, the iPhone 7 had the lowest battery specs powering the smallest screen.

After an hour and a half of web browsing, the iPhone 7 had the least amount of battery life left at 57 percent. Following another hour and a half of YouTube viewing, all that was left was 20 percent. The iPhone 7 didn’t even finish the third test, which was gaming. It only lasted 44 minutes of gameplay before the battery died.

The iPhone 7 was completely drained after only 3 hours and 44 minutes of performance. The Samsung Galaxy S7, meanwhile, lasted 5 hours and 21 minutes doing all four tests.

Apple has big plans for the upcoming iPhone 8. The tech giant needs to step up its battery game on its next release in order to compete with its rivals performance-wise.