5G is a battery sucker

[George K]

https://www.tomsguide.com/news/iphone-12-battery-life-results-are-in-and-theyre-not-great

We've run the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro through our battery test, and the results don't bring the best news. Compared to the Android competition, Apple's new phones are a step behind those devices on our best phone battery life list, especially over 5G networks.

Here's how the Tom's Guide battery test works. It surfs the web continuously at 150 nits of screen brightness, launching a new site every 30 seconds until the battery drains. For the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro, we ran this test over 5G and 4G, and the difference was pretty dramatic.

The regular iPhone 12 lasted just 8 hours and 25 minutes over AT&T's 5G network. Last year's iPhone 11 lasted a whopping 11 hours and 16 minutes over 4G. To compare, we switched the iPhone 12 to 4G-only, and it endured for 10 hours and 23 minutes.

The iPhone 12 Pro fared a bit better, lasting 9 hours and 6 minutes minutes over T-Mobile's 5G network. That runtime jumped to 11:24 over 4G. The iPhone 11 Pro lasted 10:24 over 4G.

Samsung's Galaxy phones generally last longer on a charge over 5G, though they lose a lot of juice when their screens are set to the faster 120Hz refresh rate. For example, the Samsung Galaxy S20 lasted 9:31 on 5G but that dipped down to 8:04 at 120Hz.

The Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus lasted 10:31 over 5G, which is nearly 1.5 hours longer than the iPhone 12 Pro. The runtime of Samsung's phone dropped to 8:55 at 120Hz, which is slightly worse than the iPhone 12 Pro over 5G.

The OnePlus 8T is another Android phone that outlasts the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro. It turned in a runtime of 10:49 at 60Hz and 9:58 on 120Hz, both over 5G.

Google's Pixel 5 was nearly an hour better than the iPhone 12 at 9:56; it dropped to 9:29 with the screen set to a faster 90Hz refresh rate. Both of those times are well ahead of the iPhone 12's 8:25 result over 5G.

Of course, our web surfing test is just one way to measure battery life. And we know that no one is going to surf the web for 10 or 11 hours straight. But this test does give us a way to compare endurance across multiple phones, even if it is a taxing test.

When you're not surfing the web, the iPhone 12's Smart Data mode can automatically switch to 4G to help save battery life. But this only kicks in during certain scenarios, such as when you're streaming music with the screen turned off.

Overall, the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro battery life is a bummer over 5G, at least when surfing the web. So you may want to manually switch to 4G in some cases to save extra juice.

[Klaus]

I have no idea whether 5G requires more battery, but I'm worried that they didn't specify the distance and kind of connection to the next base station. Maybe the 5G base station was just at a bigger distance. Then this would be a rather meaningless comparison.

[Doctor Phibes]

I don't really understand the need for 5G on a phone. You can't surf properly on a tiny little screen, so why bother? If you need to look up stuff on Google, or text people, or whatnot, 4G should be fine.

I know, I'm old.

[Klaus]

@Doctor-Phibes said in 5G is a battery sucker:

I don't really understand the need for 5G on a phone.

4K VR Pr0n.

More seriously, as I said before, I believe the point of 5G isn't its theoretical max speed. It's the average speed when 200 cell phones are using the same base station.

[George K]

@Doctor-Phibes said in 5G is a battery sucker:

I don't really understand the need for 5G on a phone. You can't surf properly on a tiny little screen, so why bother? If you need to look up stuff on Google, or text people, or whatnot, 4G should be fine.

I know, I'm old.

My thoughts exactly. It's unusual, these days, to not be near a WiFi hotspot. Areas that don't have WiFi are probably not going to be 5G enabled either.

4G is more than adequate unless you're downloading German pr()n Klaus.

[jon-nyc]

@Klaus said in 5G is a battery sucker:

4K VR Pr0n.
More seriously,...

You say that as if something could be more serious than 4K VR Pron.

[89th]

@George-K said in 5G is a battery sucker:

The iPhone 12 Pro fared a bit better, lasting 9 hours and 6 minutes minutes over T-Mobile's 5G network. That runtime jumped to 11:24 over 4G. The iPhone 11 Pro lasted 10:24 over 4G.
The Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus lasted 10:31 over 5G, which is nearly 1.5 hours longer than the iPhone 12 Pro.

Ugh only 9 hours instead of 10? And the Android did 10.5? Jeez what kind of caveman world are we living in?

[Mik]

@Doctor-Phibes said in 5G is a battery sucker:

I don't really understand the need for 5G on a phone. You can't surf properly on a tiny little screen, so why bother? If you need to look up stuff on Google, or text people, or whatnot, 4G should be fine.

I know, I'm old.

Im with you though. I really haven't looked at it but I'm not sure I understand why I need 5G. My suspicion is I don't.

[Axtremus]

@89th said in 5G is a battery sucker:

Ugh only 9 hours instead of 10? And the Android did 10.5? Jeez what kind of caveman world are we living in?

So we have come to this.

OK, I am disappointed that the test report does not say whether they test against mmWave 5G or just the lower frequency 5G. I assume they did not test against mmWave as I expect that to drain the battery even faster.

[Mik]

OK, here's why. I dont need it so much but a lot of things that are in the pipeline do.

https://www.5gworldpro.com/5g-knowledge/172-what-is-5g-and-why-do-we-need.html

[xenon]

@Mik said in 5G is a battery sucker:

OK, here's why. I dont need it so much but a lot of things that are in the pipeline do.

https://www.5gworldpro.com/5g-knowledge/172-what-is-5g-and-why-do-we-need.html

Latency is always the go-to metric for why 5G will be important - but remember, wired Fiber will always have less latency. I think the world of "mission-critical latency-driven devices" + "must be wireless" is not that big.