Mike Wuerthele
Consumer Reports has performed a bevy of tests on the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X in conjunction with an assortment of other smartphones, and found the iPhone 8 series very slightly lagging behind the Samsung Galaxy S8 — with the iPhone X close behind the iPhone 8.
Consumer Reports published an evaluation of the best smartphones on Tuesday. Among other determinations, the iPhone X was found to have a 19.5-hour life, beating out the iPhone 8, but falling short of the 26 hour life of the Samsung Galaxy S8, and the 21 hours of the Galaxy S8 Plus.
The iPhone X has a 2716 mAh battery. The Galaxy S8 has a 3000 mAh battery, with the Galaxy S8 Plus having a 3500 mAh unit.
The Galaxy S8 series came in first out of 10 phones on the Consumer Reports list, with the S8 Plus coming in second. Apple's iPhone 8 Plus held the third spot, with the iPhone 8 holding fourth.
The iPhone X came in ninth — with only the damage from a prolonged tumble test pushing it down below the iPhone 8 series. One out of three of the iPhone X that the group had on staff had major back-glass damage after 100 unprotected tumbles in its testing apparatus, with the other two having screen damage after 50.
Tumbling apparatus used for the drop-testingConsumer Reports "highly recommends" a protective case for the iPhone X to consumers to protect from the damage that a drop can induce.
The iPhone X has the best camera of the phones it tested. The iPhone 8 — not the iPhone 8 Plus — had the second-best camera.
Notably, Consumer Reports botched the battery testing on the then-new 2016 MacBook Pro, fiddling with developer settings in Safari. After Apple publicly disclosed the publication's settings issue, the re-test showed a much longer battery life more in line with Apple's claims.
Malcolm Owen
William Gallagher
Charles Martin
Christine McKee
Wesley Hilliard
Andrew Orr
33 Comments
These results are in line with others for the 'X'. It's a really nice phone, but yes, it's fragile.
CR is out of touch...always have been. I remember back in the day, they would rate various Windows laptops as better 'value' than Apple laptops.
That's when I cancelled my subscription.
CR is for the Costco crowd who buy Samsung TV's, Android cellphones and HP computers where if it's cheap, its has to be good value.
It's written by unimaginative former IT 'engineers' weened on Windows! Left up to them we'd still be using Motorola Razors, working on Windows Desktops. Ugh! :)
For those who want the iPhone X, they don't care about this CR report. IMO.
"The iPhone X has the best camera of the phones it tested. The iPhone 8 -- not the iPhone 8 Plus -- had the second-best camera."
That's odd. I was under the impression that the iPhone 8 Plus camera was identical to the iPhone X camera.
Seeing how slowly the robot swipes the iPhone X raises the question of how much UI animations ("motion") on the iPhone X impact battery life in CR's test. Would like to know how battery life fares if motion is disabled.