Consumer Reports published its testing results of the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max and it came away mostly impressed with Apple’s new smartphones.
Most of the improvements were made under the hood for the “S” model, meaning it wasn’t anything revolutionary, but the changes were certainly welcome. Consumer Reports notes that the “most notable improvement” made was in regards to battery life. This contradicts an earlier report from Tom’s Guide that stated battery life wasn’t all that great.
In its testing, Consumer Reports conducted a test that used a robot finger that interacted with the phone as a normal human would. It confirmed that the iPhone XS and XS Max lived up to Apple’s claim that battery life was improved over the iPhone X by 30 minutes and 90 minutes, respectively.
The iPhone XS lasted 24.5 hours while the XS Max made it to 26 hours, a big step up from the iPhone X’s 19.5-hour battery life per its testing. Sadly, Apple’s impressive smartphones weren’t good enough to dethrone Samsung’s Galaxy Note 9 everlasting battery.
Consumer Reports went on to lament the included 5W USB-A charger Apple includes in the box. During its tests, the iPhone XS took 195 minutes to charge from zero to 100 percent with the included charger while the iPhone XS Max took 210 minutes. That’s a stark difference from the 105 minutes it takes the Galaxy Note 9 (and its much bigger battery) to charge with its included fast charger.
Other areas Consumer Reports tested out were camera performance and durability. It found the camera to be a “bit better” than the iPhone X and durability to be as great as you’d expect a glass phone to be. It ended up giving the iPhone XS and XS Max a cumulative score of 82, slightly behind the Galaxy Note 9’s 83 score.
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