Hey,
Welcome to this week’s Experiments in Progress (by Pete Matheson) issue!
Every phone promises “all-day battery,” but few actually deliver.
In this issue, I’m breaking down:
Why the smallest battery somehow lasted the longest 🔋
How Samsung and Google stack up against Apple ⚔️
What battery life in 2025 really says about efficiency ⚙️
Let’s dive in👇
*Some of the links in this newsletter are affiliate links. This means that if you click on a link and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend products or services I believe will add value to you.
Who Lasted Longest: iPhone, Pixel, or Samsung? Here’s the Test
Battery life has quietly become the real battleground for 2025 smartphones.
Every brand claims all-day power, but when you strip away the Wi-Fi, crank up brightness, and push every chip to its limit — who actually survives?
⚙️ The Line-Up
Phone | Battery | Chipset |
|---|---|---|
4,832 mAh (physical SIM) | A850 chip on 3 nm process | |
iPhone Air | 3,149 mAh (eSIM only) | A19 Pro bin |
5,200 mAh | Tensor G5 | |
3,900 mAh | Snapdragon 8 Elite 4 (Galaxy) | |
5,000 mAh | Snapdragon 8 Elite 4 (Galaxy) | |
4,685 mAh | A18 Pro |
All six phones were put through the same punishment: mobile data only (no Wi-Fi), brightness locked at around 200 nits, and every adaptive feature switched off — a proper real-world battery showdown.
🧪 Here are the details of the experiment
Nine one-hour challenges that mimic an actual heavy-use day:
4K camera recording, endless TikTok scrolls, X Spaces chats, Instagram Reels, YouTube streaming, YouTube Music, and even a few gaming sessions (Subway Surfers + Asphalt 9).
Everything ran continuously — no cuts, no resets, just time-lapse speed-ups.
Rank | Phone | Endurance Time |
|---|---|---|
🥇 iPhone Air | 7 h 49 m | Unbelievable efficiency for a 3,100 mAh cell — Apple’s software-hardware synergy at its best. |
🥈 iPhone 17 Pro Max | 7 h 48 m | Nearly identical runtime; proves Apple’s A850 chip and iOS optimization still dominate. |
🥉 Pixel 10 Pro XL | 7 h 27 m | Largest battery, solid finish — but Tensor G5 still trails Apple’s thermal control. |
4️⃣ iPhone 16 Pro Max | 7 h 11 m | Respectable for an older flagship (142 charge cycles). Efficiency holds up. |
5️⃣ Galaxy S25 Edge | 6 h 09 m | Surprisingly outlasted the Ultra; smaller cell, newer silicon. |
6️⃣ Galaxy S25 Ultra | 5 h 57 m | Big battery, poor endurance — aging unit with 197 cycles shows clear degradation. |
💡 The Surprises
iPhone Air outlasted every phone — even those with 50% larger batteries.
S25 Edge beating the Ultra hints that Samsung’s newer tuning matters more than capacity.
Pixel 10 Pro XL’s thermals stayed high but consistent — good news for Tensor’s maturity.
Battery life in 2025 isn’t about size — it’s about smarts.
Apple’s still the king of efficiency, squeezing more out of less.
But Android’s catching up fast.
📱 Enjoying this newsletter? Share it with a friend who’s as obsessed with tech as you are:
🎙️ Podcast: What Creators Need to Know About Sponsored Videos 💰
This week’s episode of Aspiring Creator takes you behind the scenes of what really happens when creators work with brands — from press trips and disclosures to navigating family life and staying authentic in sponsored content.
Inside this episode:
What really happens on tech creator press trips 📸
Do creators actually have to disclose everything? 🤔
Why I’m probably not going back to VidSummit 🚫
Creators with kids: why you’re playing a different game 🎯
How we use Shorts to test new video ideas 💡
The story of how I accidentally upset a brand 😬
If you’ve ever wondered how to balance creativity, income, and integrity when working with sponsors — this one’s packed with real talk and lessons learned the hard way.
📦 Next Issue: The OPPO Flagship Round-Up — What’s Really Worth the Hype
We’re diving into OPPO’s latest drops — from the game-changing 200 MP camera beast to the value power-houses that are shaking up the mid-range.
In the next issue you’ll get:
The flagship spec that just rewrote the rule-book for mobile photography
The one mid-tier model that delivers flagship features for less
My verdict on what’s worth upgrading — and what’s just clever marketing
🗓️ See you Saturday.