Apple angrily shoots back at claims different iPhones are seeing very different battery life
Apple has used not one but two different chip suppliers to provide the guts for its new smartphones.
But some iPhone users are claiming that this has resulted in markedly different levels of battery life.
The Cupertino company is now shooting back at the tests used, claiming they are "not representative of real-world usage," and that "the actual battery life of the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, even taking into account variable component differences, vary within just 2-3% of each other."
What's the issue?
The iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, Apple's latest smartphones, are powered by an A9 processor. Apple doesn't build its own hardware; while it designed the A9, it is being manufactured by two outside suppliers - TSMC, and Samsung.
Yes, that Samsung. It's one of the ironies of the modern smartphone industry that Apple's bitter hardware rival is also helping to build the guts for its own devices. And that while Samsung's smartphone business is floundering, it is seeing unexpectedly high profits - precisely because of the strength of its chips business.
So what's the difference between the chips? They're a different size, for one. The Samsung chip is 96 square millimeters, and TSMC's is 104.5 square millimeters. According to some performance-testing apps, the TSMC sees noticeably longer battery life in certain circumstances.
For example, Reddit user raydizzle says they tested two 6s Pluses with the different chips, and that they saw a difference of nearly two hours.
Another test from YouTuber Austin Evans apparently found some differences in performance, and with the TSMC chip running cooler. "For normal use there's a fairly minor difference but the TSMC iPhone can give you significantly better battery life for heavy use," he says.
What does Apple have to say about all this?
Apple has attacked the tests, asserting they are unreflective of how iPhones are used in the real world. In a statement sent to TechCrunch and a number of other outlets, the tech giant says: