Nothing Phone 3 versus iPhone 16 Plus battery test reveals surprising results

So on paper, the Nothing Phone 3 has some issues when it comes to battery life. For one, only the Indian version gets the full 5,500 mAh of battery capacity, while the global units are limited to 5150 mAh. Two, it's powered by the less efficient 4nm Snapdragon 8S Gen 4 instead of the 3nm 8 Elite. And then three, rather than using an LTPO display like most Android flagships, nothing went with LTPS, which can only drop down to 60 Hz instead of one herz, meaning you get less power savings overall. But then when you compare it to the specs on the iPhone 16 Plus, which is a battery beast, it's also not as bad as it seems. The Phone 3 actually has a bigger battery. It matches the 60 Hz

low-end refresh rate and the 8S Gen 4 isn't exactly a power hog. So, does the Phone 3 have enough to compete at the flagship level? Or did nothing focus too much on design and not enough on performance? Let's find out. All right, we'll kick things off in the phone app where after going on the same 1hour phone call in our lab, the iPhone is still showing 100% while the phone 3's battery drops down to 97. But I think the more interesting test will be here in messaging where we'll get to see how that LTPS display on the phone 3 can hold up where after an hour it's not bad. Maybe not as good as it would have done with an LTPO display, but still pretty close to the result that we got

on the iPhone. Now, in this email test, I think it's worth noting that we've calibrated the displays on each phone to the same brightness level at 200 nits. Both phones are within equal distance of our mini cell tower and within equal distance of a Wi-Fi access point. And obviously because our tests are conducted with robots and not by hand, they are going through the same exact usage scenario where this time the phone 3 is able to match the iPhone completely with both phones dropping by only six percentage points. But it's this browser test that I'm always interested in seeing since we're actually taxing the

chipsets a little bit more than the other tests so far with us randomly cycling through the same set of websites every 30 seconds and scrolling through them which should give us some idea as to how efficient that 4nm Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 is at least compared to Apple's 3nm A18 where after an hour the iPhone does better but it's actually only by a single percentage point obviously Those single percentage points do add up with the iPhone now having a fivepoint lead as we start working on Instagram. Now, for this test, we do mute the speakers since we can't control the exact media that plays as we scroll through the feed. And you know, we don't want to have anyone variable throw off our results where after an hour of doom

scrolling, the iPhone does better once again, increasing it lead to seven points as we move on to standby. So things aren't really looking good for the phone 3, but you know, its bigger battery should help it out a bit here in standby since the screens are off the entire time where it looks like it did. Nothing did three points better here, meaning this test isn't quite over yet. And with us now moving on to the more intensive tests, the phone 3 has a real shot at making a comeback. Here in YouTube, we have the speakers turned on this time with us calibrating them to the nearest decel count where after binge watching some phone buff, there is no separation between the two with them

performing basically the same. Here in gaming, we have our robots continuously tapping on the screens as they play Alto's Adventure, which admittedly is not the most intensive game out there. It's pretty lightweight actually, but it is still taxing the GPU, which should give us some idea as to the phone 3's efficiency where after an hour, the phone 3 ends up doing two points better than the iPhone, pulling back within just two points as we move on to maps. So, a pretty interesting turn of events. We usually don't see this big of a swing once a phone starts falling behind, but things are looking up for the phone 3 if it can continue on this trend. But at

least through simulated navigation, the best he could do was match the iPhone with both phones dropping by an equal 7 percentage points. Here in Spotify, we have our robots listening to music again. Those speakers have been calibrated to the nearest decel count where 60 minutes later. Wow, the phone 3 does three points better this time. Not just making the comeback, but taking the lead for the first time in this battery test. Of course, this might just be a temporary lead as this Snapchat test is where we often see phones fall apart since it is easily the most intensive test that we've got where we're taxing the camera, the microphone, the speaker, the Wi-Fi, and storage all in a single

test where after an hour, no, the phone 3 is able to hang on to its lead with both phones draining by an equal 14 percentage points. Meaning heading into app cycle it is 18 to 17 which in my book any phone that makes it this far has pretty good battery life. Now in this app cycle test we're just opening and closing the apps in a loop which should put some stress on those chipsets where 1 hour into it. There it is. The iPhone makes a comeback of its own and takes its lead right back. So, it looks like the iPhone 3 is draining at a faster rate here, which, you know, might just be due to the chipset or that it was overestimating on its battery life early on. But either way, it's able to

go on for another 24 minutes before finally calling it quits, which is not bad at all, but also not quite at the iPhone's level where that 6% is able to last it another 48 minutes before it fully depletes. Now, obviously, if we had the full 5500 mAh variant of the Phone 3, things might have been different here. But even for the unit that we did test, I'd say the Phone 3 did really well. It just sits a few slots below the S25 Ultra, which clearly puts it in flagship territory, especially when you consider its charging speed, which is 65 watts compared to the iPhone's 27 watts, where after just 10 minutes, it gets a six-point lead at 25% compared to the iPhone's 19 with it being able to pull ahead by a full 15 points after 30

minutes. So, definitely an advantage for the Nothing Phone 3 in that department. But anyways, that is it for me in this video. Thank you for watching and as always, I'll see you in the very next episode.