My Android epiphany: iPhone battery life is killing Apple

My Android epiphany: iPhone battery life is killing Apple
iPhones are only as good as their batteries

The last week or so, I've been using a different device – a Sony Xperia Z2. Just for fun. As you do.

And I've had this major epiphany: I have been battering the device and yet, the battery just won't die. I'm yelling at it: "LET GO, DAMMIT!" but it just won't.

I managed 18 hours of standby yesterday with almost four hours of screen on time and it still sat at 36%. That was without power saving mode enabled. I've come to work without a charging cable today and for the first time in a long time, I'm not panicking.

Why the epiphany? Well quite simply because the phone I was using previously was an iPhone 5S - and... oh, dear. The battery is just terrible in comparison.

What the hell is Apple doing here? The world's richest company - probably the world's coolest - and yet it can't sort out a smartphone staple.

"It just works," does it Tim Cook? Not when you've spent a little too long away from a charger, it doesn't.

We've put a man on the moon!

I'm no scientist, but what's the deal with these awful batteries? We can put a man on the moon, we have Sat Nav... Can you imagine trying to explain Sat Nav to someone 20 years ago? You'd have been drowned for sorcery. And yet, one of the world's leading phone manufacturers can't make a battery seemingly last more than a day.

Here's where I get accused of bias again, but I'm firmly on Android's side of this argument. Because as the OS grows up, so do the handset capabilities. I remember the first Android phone - the T-Mobile G1, which had one of the worst batteries I've ever encountered.

But now, five or six years later, the current crop of 'Droid offerings like the Galaxy S5, HTC One M8 and Xperia Z2 just seem to be kicking Apple's backsides.

I've seen lots of friends switch from the iZone recently who I'd never expect to. And the reason they give is that they're fed up of awful battery life.

Apple may be able to fix it all come the iPhone 6 announcement. For Tim Cook's sake, I really hope so. Until then though, I'm going to continue walking towards that Android coloured light.