Apple’s flagship edged ahead only after sustained, demanding use, outlasting Samsung and Google’s rivals in a controlled PhoneBuff comparison.
A new battery comparison has put Apple’s iPhone 18 Pro Max ahead of the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra and Google’s Pixel 11 Pro XL, with the clearest separation appearing only after sustained use. In a test carried out by PhoneBuff, robots ran the same sequence of tasks across the three phones to create a controlled, repeatable benchmark. The result suggested that Apple’s latest flagship is not only competitive on paper, but able to convert that specification advantage into longer endurance in mixed use.
The iPhone entered the comparison with a sizeable battery and a new A20 Pro chip built on a 2-nanometre process. Canaltech reported that the device carries a 5,567mAh battery, while the Galaxy S26 Ultra uses Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 on a 3nm process and the Pixel 11 Pro XL runs Google’s Tensor G6, also on 3nm. Early in the test, the phones behaved much the same. Calls, messages and email consumed broadly similar amounts of power, and the first meaningful differences only emerged once the workload became heavier and more varied.
According to the test results described by Canaltech, the Galaxy briefly held an edge during web browsing, while the iPhone gave up more charge during 16 hours of standby, dropping about 8% and allowing Samsung to move ahead temporarily. The contest then tightened again through social media, gaming, GPS navigation and music playback, with the iPhone 18 Pro Max and Galaxy S26 Ultra reaching the 50% mark at roughly the same time. The Pixel 11 Pro XL, by contrast, fell behind as the benchmark progressed.
The biggest turning point came in Snapchat use, where the workload included more demanding video recording, playback and sending. In that phase, the iPhone used less power than its rivals and pulled decisively in front. Canaltech said the Galaxy S26 Ultra remained active for around 20 minutes after the Pixel had shut down, but still died while the iPhone showed 11% remaining. In the final ranking, Apple’s handset finished first, Samsung came second and Google’s phone third.
That outcome fits with broader testing elsewhere. TechRadar said its laboratory run gave the iPhone 18 Pro Max 18 hours and 27 minutes of battery life, which was only a 3% improvement on the previous model and less than Apple’s own claims of a 15% gain. Tom’s Guide reported the same runtime and said the phone still trailed the OnePlus 15, which was powered by a 7,300mAh silicon-carbon battery and lasted far longer in its own tests. Tom’s Guide also noted that the Pixel 11 Pro XL is expected to arrive with a 5,115mAh battery and 45W wired charging, while Smartprix and NanoReview have both pointed to the iPhone’s larger 5,567mAh pack, 60W wired charging and 25W wireless charging as key hardware advantages over the Galaxy S26 Ultra.
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