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Did you know: the battery in this $100 phone is twice as large as the one in the iPhone 6s

By Victor Hristov

Updated: Jan 12, 2016, 7:13 AM

34comments

Apple Xiaomi

Did you know: the battery in this $100 phone is twice as large as the one in the iPhone 6s

When speaking about the phone market in general, one has to admit that on one hand, you have the Apple iPhone 6s, a clear leader in terms sales, and then, on the other, all the rest of the competitors. The exceptionally strong sales alone make the iPhone stand out in the crowd.

The $105 Xiaomi Redmi 3 has a battery double the size of the one in the iPhone 6s

At the opposite end of the spectrum, you have dirt cheap smartphones coming from China. And since it's hard to imagine two devices so far apart from each other - a pricey, premium iPhone and a dirt cheap Chinese phone - we thought we might just draw a parallel between the two, given their diametrically opposed positions.

One particular detail has drawn our attention: the battery in the just released Xiaomi Redmi 3. Now, for starters, the Redmi 3 is a phone that sells for around $105 in China (it will be available in Asia, but Xiaomi is not selling its devices in the United States or Europe). It's a lot of phone given its price: it features a sleek metal body available in the Apple-esque silver, grey and gold colors, it sports an iOS-like MIUI custom Android skin running atop 5.1 Lollipop, and it even boasts main camera with phase detection auto-focus.

What's particularly impressive about it, though, is that it also has a 4,100mAh battery. That's massive! It's especially interesting to know that this size of a battery is in fact more than double the 1,715mAh battery on the iPhone 6s.

Of course, actual battery life depends on a multitude of factors: the power draw of the display being of paramount importance, but also the way the operating system is organized, and so on. This is to say that battery size alone does not automatically translate into actually better real-world battery life. However, there is a clear relation that cannot be denied: all other things equal, a larger battery unequivocally results in longer battery life. And in an era when all polls show that the number one wish of customers is higher battery life, it's quite interesting to see that a Chinese company is able to cram in 4,100mAh cell in a phone with a body measuring just 8.5mm thin, while the much more expensive modern day iPhone 6s sticks with a rather small cell.

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Victor, a seasoned mobile technology expert, has spent over a decade at PhoneArena, exploring the depths of mobile photography and reviewing hundreds of smartphones across Android and iOS ecosystems. His passion for technology, coupled with his extensive knowledge of smartphone cameras and battery life, has positioned him as a leading voice in the mobile tech industry.