In today's video, I will do a battery comparison between the all new 17 Pro Max, the 10 Pro XL, and the S25 Ultra. What's special about this comparison is it's done on cellular data. That gives you an estimate about the battery performance of each phone when you are out and about, which is far more important than using your phone indoors on Wi-Fi. To find out which one is the real king, let's do an in-depth battery comparison. First things first, let's start with the rules. The 17 Pro Max and the S25 Ultra are running the latest stable software version available at the time of filming this video, while the 10 Pro XL is running QPR2 beta 2.
The reason I chose this software for the Pixel is the better battery usage I started to get with this build. Now I'm able to reach 8 hours of screen on time, up from the 6 plus hours I used to get on the previous versions. All phones are using cellular data with 5G set to auto. The 120 Hz refresh rate is activated and the screen resolutions are maxed out. The S25 Ultra has the highest resolution followed by the Pixel and the 17 Pro Max is the lowest. The speaker's volume is calibrated to the nearest decel point I was able to reach and the screen brightness is calibrated. All phones are at 100% battery and the initial temperatures from left to right are 27.4 4, 28.6, and 27° C with no apps running in the background. So, let's take off the chargers and start the stopwatch.
I will start with 1 hour of YouTube video playback and set the resolution to 2160p. So, let's see how each one will perform. After 1 hour of 2160p video playback on YouTube, the temperatures from right to left are 32.1, 36.1, and 32.7. When it comes to the battery, it's crazy that the 17 Pro Max lost only 1%. The S25 Ultra is the second best with 5% and the 10 Pro XL lost 6%. So far, the 17 Pro Max is in the lead when it comes to battery usage and thermals with the second spot going to the S25 Ultra and the 10 Pro XL comes third. The second hour is a Microsoft Teams meeting using the front camera. It's also worth noting that the 17 Pro Max has the best video quality, followed by the S25 Ultra and the 10 Pro XL is noticeably worse. When it comes to the field of view, the 17 Pro Max is the widest, followed by the Pixel, and the S25 Ultra comes third. I also like how the new center stage camera of the iPhone keeps me centered in the frame, which looks really cool.
So, let's wait for one more hour and check the numbers. After 1 hour of video calling, the temperatures from right to left are 37.4, 43.7, and 39.9. The 17 Pro Max remains in the lead in everything. It lost to only 12% in this test alone with 87% battery left. Plus, it delivered the best video quality. The second best, as usual, is the S25 Ultra. It lost 13% in this test with 82% battery remaining. and the Pixel lost 17% with 77% still remaining. It's a small difference between the S25 Ultra and the 17 Pro Max while the 10 Pro XL is so far behind and the temperature it reached is crazy high. The third hour will be Facebook scrolling. Here I will use a third party app on the Android phones to do the scrolling for me and the switch control on the 17 Pro Max.
So let's see what's going to happen after 1 hour. After 1 hour of Facebook scrolling, the temperatures from right to left are 37.1, 38.4, and 38.8. The 17 Pro Max lost 10% with 77% battery left. The S25 Ultra lost 11% with 71, and the Pixel lost 12% with the lowest battery of 65%. Now, it's time to start the Instagram scrolling for 1 hour. So, let's find out what's going to happen. After 1 hour of Instagram scrolling, the temperatures from right to left are 34.4, 39, and 39.4. The 17 Pro Max lost 8% with 69% battery left. The S25 Ultra lost 12% with 59% left, and the Pixel lost 12% with the lost battery of 53%. The 17 Pro Max was very efficient in an Instagram while the Pixel and the Galaxy were about the same. So, let's move on to the next hour, which includes Tik Tok scrolling. On a side note, let me tell you about my latest wallpaper pack.
I recently added 40 new wallpapers to the wallpapers by In-depth Tick Reviews app, which is only available on Android, but for iOS users, you can download all of them from my Patreons page, and all the links you might need are in the description, regardless your OS. And now let's get back to the battery comparison. After 1 hour of Tik Tok scrolling, the temperatures from right to left are 32.1, 38.1, and 39.6. The 17 Pro Max lost 7% and the remaining battery is 62. The 10 Pro XL comes second this time with 13% usage and 40% battery left, while the S25 Ultra lost 14% with 45% remaining. The iPhone remains the most efficient in all rounds and the Pixel started to close the gap with the S25 Ultra.
The next round is texting and here I will use Telegram which allows me to use the same account on multiple devices. Please WhatsApp take a note. Then I will use an auto clicker app on the Android devices and the switch control on the 17 Pro Max to automate the texting. And in the background I'm using another device for the replies. But I noticed here that the 17 Pro Max's display is dimmer than the Android phones in Telegram. The background animation is dimmer, which could help it save it some battery.
But anyways, let's see what's going to happen. After 1 hour of Telegram testing, the temperature of the 17 Pro Max was at 34.3° for the Pixel. The thermometer didn't give me a stable reading, but it was between 40 to 42°. The same happened with the S25 Ultra, and the most stable reading I got was 39°. When it comes to the battery, the 17 Pro Max lost 10% with 52% battery left. The S25 Ultra lost 14% with 31% left, and the Pixel lost 16% with the lowest battery of 24%. The next round is to play Temper Run 2 for 1 hour, and I will keep the game looping on the tutorial, so let's keep going.
After 1 hour of gaming, the temperature readings are 31.2, 34.1, and 32.9. And when it comes to the battery, the 17 Pro Max consumed 6% with 46% left. The S25 Ultra lost 9% with 22% remaining. And the Pixel also lost 9% with 15% battery remaining. Now, it's time to record a 4K 30 video for 1 hour using the front camera. And here, I did a mistake. I started the recording on the Pixel with the speech enhancement enabled, but I thought that it will be unfair for the Pixel to add one extra feature that the other two phones don't have it. So, I stopped the recording after 13 seconds and started a new one after turning off the speech enhancement. So, the error is not massive. It's just a 13 seconds difference. Also, keep in mind that this is the last app I have on the list. So, if any of the phones still have some battery left, I will loop on the same apps one more time until it dies.
So, let's keep going. Another issue I came across is I received a call from the delivery guy on the 17 Pro Max, which is currently my daily driver. The call was just 30 seconds, but I had to answer it. So, the video recording stopped and I started the recording again after 40 seconds exactly. And that's why you see the duration of the 17 Pro Max is not matching the other two phones. I will show you the footage I recorded when the hour ends in case you have any doubts. But just before it ends, at the 7 hours and 52 minutes mark, the Pixel was the first to switch off and the temperature was at 41.5°. At this stage, the 17 Pro Max still has a whooping 34% battery remaining and the S25 Ultra was at 6%. Few minutes later, the S25 Ultra dimmed the display after reaching the 5% battery.
I didn't touch it at this point, so I waited till the 1 hour ends and quickly started the second YouTube round to get the most out of the last 4%. On the other hand, the 17 Pro Max finished the whole hour of video recording with 31% left. And here are all the videos I recorded using the 17 Pro Max to confirm that I finished the whole hour of video recording. Then I started the second YouTube round on the 17 Pro Max as well. And the 5 minutes later, I adjusted the S25 Ultra brightness a bit to be able to see what's on the screen until it dies. 7 seconds before the 8 hours and 18 minutes mark, the S25 Ultra switched off with a final temperature of 38.3°.
That's about 25 minutes longer than the 10 Pro XL, which is not massive. While the 17 Pro Max is still going with a lot of battery remaining to consume. 1 hour later, the 17 Pro Max was able to finish the second YouTube round and the 9inth hour of the whole comparison with 24% battery. This is beyond my expectations. So, let's see if it can finish another hour of Microsoft Teams. Surprisingly, it did. And now, the iPhone finished the 10th hour on cellular data, which is insane. Plus, it still has 11% battery left before starting Facebook, which is the third app in the second round. So, let's see how far it can go.
After 10 hours and 55 minutes, the 17 Pro Max died. This is just insane. How on earth it was able to achieve this on cellular data. This is just a whole new level of efficiency. It's a 3 hours better than the Pixel and 2.6 hours better than the S25 Ultra. The A19 Pro chip is just killing the competition. Apple just did an impressive job this year, and Android manufacturers should be worried.
So, by this I'm done with my battery comparison between the 17 Pro Max, the S25 Ultra, and the 10 Pro XL on cellular data. Please let me know in the comments what do you think. But for now, thanks so much for watching and see you in the next.
