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Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra battery tests show performance comparable to the iPhone 14 Pro Max and iPhone 13 Pro Max

The Galaxy S23 Ultra sports a 5000 mAh battery. (Source: Samsung)
The Galaxy S23 Ultra sports a 5000 mAh battery. (Source: Samsung)
The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra debuted last week with new cameras and performance hardware. It appears all of that hardware, as well as solid optimization, has resulted in a flagship that delivers excellent battery life—significantly better than the S22 Ultra, and within touching distance of Apple's best.

While the Galaxy S23 Ultra's new 200 MP camera may be its biggest selling point, the flagship, along with its siblings, also offers much better efficiency and battery life, thanks to the far more efficient Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and Samsung's optimization. The S23 Ultra has been put through battery tests by various outlets, with results consistently impressing.

As tested by Tech Droider, the Galaxy S23 Ultra does fail to outperform the iPhone 14 Pro Max in a battery drain test where the phones are put through a mix of gaming, video playback, Instagram use, and video recording. The S23 Ultra comes in second, in fact, with a total use time of 11 hours, 15 minutes. The iPhone 14 Pro Max narrowly takes top spot, with a time of 11 hours, 25 minutes. 

Those numbers make the Galaxy S23 Ultra the best Android device tested. Closest to it was the Xiaomi 13 Pro at 10 hours, 26 minutes. More interestingly, last year's Galaxy S22 Ultra only managed a time of 9 hours, 43 minutes. It's unspecified if that's an Exynos or Snapdragon model, however.

Yet another test, this time conducted by Korean outlet B-Note put the Galaxy S23 Ultra, iPhone 13 Pro Max, iPhone 14 Pro, Galaxy S23 and Galaxy S22 Ultra through a YouTube playback test. The S23 Ultra earns first place in this test, with a time of 20 hours, 7 minutes. The iPhone 13 Pro Max comes in second at 20 hours, 5 minutes, and the vanilla Galaxy S23 at 17 hours, 29 minutes. The S22 Ultra comes in last, at a disappointing 12 hours, 3 minutes.

While battery tests like these cannot be considered definitive, it's easy to say at this point that the Galaxy S23 Ultra is a big upgrade on last year's S22 Ultra in terms of battery performance. It's unlikely that Samsung's latest and greatest outperforms the iPhone 14 Pro Max in this regard, but current evidence leans towards a minuscule advantage for the Apple flagship, with 2021's iPhone 13 Pro Max likely being a touch worse.

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> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > News > News Archive > Newsarchive 2023 02 > Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra battery tests show performance comparable to the iPhone 14 Pro Max and iPhone 13 Pro Max
Ricci Rox, 2023-02- 6 (Update: 2024-08-15)