5G Drains iPhone 12 Battery 20% Faster Than 4G in Benchmark

[Infinite Vortex]

I guess that partly explains why there's no 120Hz in the iPhone 12… and most likely why Samsung drops you to 1080p when running at 120Hz. Still, others like OnePlus can do it so I still wonder at the mechanics of it all.

 

[The Game 161]

I won’t even have a 5G sim to put on my 12 pro max so mine will be off for sure at least until this time next year when my city actually has it where i live. No point having it on if it’s just the city centre

 

[one more]

So the battery drains faster on 5G and the network is barely developed worldwide. Apple’s response - let’s put smaller batteries in this year and then make 5G a major selling factor, backing it up by cellular carriers incentives. To top it up, let’s release iOS 14 with a bug preventing 5G from working on dual-SIM iPhones. Somewhat of a bumpy 5G start?

 

[farewelwilliams]

making the case for the smart battery case. can a smart battery case work with the MagSafe charger?

why not a smart magsafe battery so that you don't have to buy a new battery case each time you upgrade your iphone?

 

[Hc9019]

20% is massive. Looks like Auto mode is the best option. Still a shame.

The test was conducted using the auto switching (smart mode) - so you'd need to switch it off entirely.

 

[farewelwilliams]

Pronhub?

everyone knows to turn on low power mode while visiting that site

 

[michaelsviews]

And it begin's

 

[naturalstar]

Well, there was a reason for Smart Mode.

It will be interesting to see reports as people activate their iPhones starting this Friday, but then 5G isn’t really widespread yet, so we’ll see. I’ll have some time for reviews until the 6th.

 

[TechLord]

Does anyone have any idea why the pro would have better battery life? It's good to see its equal to the 11 when using 4g; no 5g in my area anyway.

 

[otternonsense]

Yea, and to think ProMotion was a concern for battery life by the numerous apologists out there.

 

[MiniApple]

So if not required by the user can you switch off 5G in your iPhone completely and go 4G LTE?

helps with the battery usage, but not thata lot of us pay for Hardware that is of no/little use to many for years 🙁

 

[miniyou64]

Maybe it’s because the screen hopefully runs at higher hertz to mitigate the PWM problem that causes many people agonizing headaches and nausea that Macrumors never acknowledges even though its been a problem since iPhone X and many people are not able to use Apples flagship phones

 

[The Game 161]

Yea, and to think ProMotion was a concern for battery life by the numerous apologists out there.

And this explains why there was no pro motion this year given the issues with 5G battery life. Hopefully LTPO fixes this.

 

[Sebosz]

They always intentionally ”leave” room for improvement. Last year they equipped iPhones with pretty bad ultra wide camera with very poor low light performance and no night mode. This year they knowingly equipped them with smaller batteries knowing that 5G would drain them faster than ever. It’s not hard to guess that next gen. iPhones will have bigger batteries, better 5G performance in terms of battery usage and probably ProMotion. Heck! Maybe they’ll upgrade ultra wide camera with OIS (of course only in Pro models). How predictable.

 

[Kylo83]

5g is pointless in the uk

 

[hoorayforhollywood]

As impressive as the 12 pro looks, this seems to add weight to my conviction as a 10sMax user that it's best to wait for the 13 next year. Let them iron these things out and really feel the difference with 120Hz and the A15. A simple 12 month wait and it'll be worth it.

 

[magicschoolbus]

The more i find out about this generation of iPhones the happier I am that I am waiting a generation.

 

[calstanford]

And it isn't any faster, so why even bother? And if not 5G then why bother with the 12 at all? Weird...

 

[calstanford]

I guess that partly explains why there's no 120Hz in the iPhone 12… and most likely why Samsung drops you to 1080p when running at 120Hz. Still, others like OnePlus can do it so I still wonder at the mechanics of it all.

That's because Apple's OLEDs don't refresh fast enough. Apple's LCDs do (see iPad Pro) and possibly Mini LEDs next year too.

 

[Vyse2020]

Yup, glad I’m holding off and sticking with my 11 Pro till this is worked out(and hopefully lightning is replaced with USBC sooner rather than later those are my two hold outs)

 

[jmgregory1]

Yea, and to think ProMotion was a concern for battery life by the numerous apologists out there.

The most likely reason Apple didn’t include ProMotion with the 12 was not due to battery drain, but because they can’t get enough panels to support sales.

I can’t even watch the various YouTuber’s showing slowed down clips of comparisons between an iPhone and some Android phone with 120Hz refresh as they quickly swipe up and down or back and forth between apps, which is NOT how anyone actually sees it. Nor does it even matter what the screen looks like fast swiping, because you don’t use a device to fast swipe. Tell me what the actual use case is, and the benefit to the consumer?

5G may be still in its infancy, although I do need to point out all the people who said last year that Apple not including it in the 11 was a fatal mistake, for those that do have it and will get it over the next year, the benefit will be super fast downloads and transferring large files. In some cases it will also improve connectivity in areas previously not covered well with 4G.

 

[Ninja Dom]

But do you get to view more content within that time, cos of the data loading speeds?

 

[SSD-GUY]

Based on these battery stats, and the fact that 5G is quite new/not as widespread (with the added caveat that we’re barely leaving our homes and WiFi these days), I can see a lot of iPhone X and behind users probably not upgrading. The iPhone 12 has worse battery life than the iPhone 11 when comparing 4G directly. This doesn’t exude a lot of confidence, and the fanboys on here can spin it all they want, but battery life seems to have decreased.

given what I’ve said above, I for one will still be upgrading as I’m going for the 12 mini (and coming from an ancient SE).

 

[tridley68]

don’t they have same battery capacity? Why did the pro last an hour more than the regular 12?

Because it's the pro model 😂😂

 

[PlayUltimate]

5G may be still in its infancy, although I do need to point out all the people who said last year that Apple not including it in the 11 was a fatal mistake...

I was thinking the same thing. . . .our memories are short.