Apple’s A13 Bionic SoC powering the iPhone 11 series has widened the performance gap between the new iPhone models and the latest Snapdragon 855-powered Android flagships. After proving its mettle in benchmark tests, the Apple A13 Bionic SoC inside the iPhone 11 Pro Max has emerged as the winner in a synthetic app speed test against the Snapdragon 855-powered Google Pixel 4 XL by a healthy margin. Additionally, the iPhone 11 managed to outlast the Google flagship by an hour in a simulated battery drain test, despite packing a smaller battery than the Pixel 4 XL.
The app speed and battery endurance tests, which were conducted by PhoneBuff, show the iPhone 11 Pro Max reign supreme over the purest Android flagship out there – the Pixel 4 XL – while the iPhone 11 managed to outlast it in the battery test. Talking about the tests themselves, the app speed test involves launching 16 basic to demanding apps, minimising them, and relaunching them to see if they were live in the background. The battery test, on the other hand, involved a simulation of day-to-day activities like calling, texting, YouTube video streaming, and playing games among others.
As for the test results, the iPhone 11 Pro Max managed to finish the synthetic app launch speed and RAM management test in 2 minutes and 39 seconds. The Pixel 4 XL took 3 minutes and 16 seconds to cycle through the 16 apps. The iPhone 11 Pro Max proved to be significantly faster at launching demanding apps and retaining apps in the background, despite packing just 4GB of RAM (as per a TENAA listing) compared to the 6GB module inside the Pixel 4 XL.
Coming to the battery test, the iPhone 11 proved to be more efficient at preserving battery juice compared the Google Pixel 4 XL in almost all activities. Be it video watching, gaming, or Web browsing, the Pixel 4 XL consumed more battery than the iPhone 11. The Apple phone delivered a screen-on time of 8 hours and 43 minutes with net battery longevity of 24 hours and 43 minutes, while the Pixel 4 XL provided a lower screen-on time of 7 hours and 43 minutes and lasted a total of 23 hours and 43 minutes.
The iPhone 11 reportedly packs a 3,110mAh battery but still managed to outlast the Pixel 4 XL that comes equipped with a 3,700mAh battery. However, it must be noted that the Pixel 4 XL packs a higher resolution QHD+ (1440 x 3040 pixels) display that runs at more power-hungry 90Hz refresh rate, while the iPhone 11 has a smaller 6.1-inch Liquid Retina HD (828 x 1792 pixels) display operating at lower 60Hz refresh rate. It must be noted that this is a simulated test, and real-world battery mileage will differ from user to user, so this should not be taken as a definitive answer as to which phone is superior.