Are you that mathematics challenged? Space inside increases by the cube of the dimensions. A small increase in the diagonal dimension results in a fairly large increase in space available for battery space. In this instance, it is 11% more volume, which can be dedicated to battery, which means that the battery can be DOUBLED IN SIZE. Pay attention to the engineering, Dan.
Apple chose to put some of their additional miniaturization savings and the space they saved by removing the audio jack into adding a haptic engine. They could have opted to use that space for more battery, but they did not. That was an engineering choice.
Apple is getting no special dispensation. The "form factor" has nothing to do with it, but the volume does. Why does Apple make a 4.7" screen size? because it sells in enormous numbers, far better than any of the three they compared it against. Customers LIKE that size better than they like the larger size.
You ask idiotic questions from little knowledge. . . because the iPhone 7 Plus with the same form factor blows the three other testees away in battery life with the same size screen the largest one of them has, yet has a smaller battery than any of them.
The volume of the iPhone is about 66cc; the volume of the Samsung S7 is about 78cc. That's a difference of 12cc.
LiPo batteries are about 230 Whr/L. There are 1000cc per liter, so that 12cc difference is about (12/1000 * 230) 2.76 Whr.
LiPo batteries are also 3.7V nominal devices, so the current capacity of that extra volume is (2.76 / 3.7) 745 mAhr. Less than the ~1100 mAhr difference in the batteries.
In other words the volumetric difference - if it was 100% dedicated to more battery - would only account for about 67% of the gain in battery size. The other 33% (or more?) must be from more efficient packaging.
The battery CANNOT be doubled in size from the volumetric change - doesn't work with physics. Sorry!
Oh, and that's a package that's within a few mm in all dimensions of the iPhone, with a larger screen (what, you want a smaller screen?) that has nearly four TIMES the pixel count and a much higher PPI (which obviously is good - why else would the iPhone 7 Plus have a higher PPI?).
The test results show the S7 beats the iPhone 7 in terms of battery life. That's for a phone within a few mm in the length/width, and less than 1mm in depth difference in size. And with a bigger screen (is that a bad thing?) with nearlt 4X the number of pixels.
Now, you want to bring in the BIG iPhone 7 Plus? The 90cc phone? The change from the iPhone 7 to the S7 is about the same as the volumetric change from the S7 up to the much bigger iPhone 7 Plus. Really - you want to use the EXACT SAME THING you try to lay on me as an unfair move?
Is that what it comes down to, Swordmaker? And independent test shows results you don't like, you go on the warpath, and you obfuscate and whilst decrying a volumetric difference in size - you try to do the same thing?
Face it - Apple's iPhone 7 came up short this time.
PS: the other phones all have 3.5mm jacks - I guess you can't put much battery in that space, can you?
Looking at the iPhone 7, the same things we find with the bigger boys holds true. More battery per unit volume - by a large margin.
Seems the other guys know how to put more stuff in the phone...