The verdict seems pretty much unanimous that 5G on the 12 Pro hits the battery hard with many reporting that their typical battery percentage at the end of the day is less on their 12 Pro that it was on their 11 Pro but what is the situation for 12 Pro users who have locked their new phones to 4G (not Smart 5G but complete disabling of 5G by locking voice & data to 4G)?
One set of battery tests comparing the iPhone 11 range to the iPhone 12 range (https://www.tomsguide.com/uk/news/iphone-12-battery-life-results-are-in-and-theyre-not-great) showed a 12 Pro locked to 4G actually lasting about 10% longer in the battery test compared to an 11 Pro with the 12 Pro lasting 11h24m vs the 11 Pro lasting 10h24 which is actually a pretty decent increase.
On the one hand I can imagine that there might be some issues with the test, e.g. was the 11 Pro retested for that article or did they simply take the test result from their 11 Pro review done after launch last year? If the 11 Pro test result was a year-old we can't be sure that carrier conditions in the test lab were the same for the 11 Pro and the 12 Pro tests, maybe the carrier boosted 4G signal strength in the area since the 11 Pro test was done which would really distort the results.
On the other hand I can see reasons why those results just might be representative of real life experience even though we now know the battery capacity was actually reduced in the 12 Pro vs the 11 Pro. Many people say that the Qualcomm X55 modem is vastly superior to the Intel modem in last year's phone so maybe there are some nice efficiencies there in the 4G functionality on the X55 that the 12 Pro is benefiting from. Also, Apple didn't talk at all about any reductions in power consumption in any components on the phone. It often does talk about power efficiencies during the launch event, e.g. power reductions for cores in the latest A-series SoC. Maybe there are some decent reductions in power consumption in the A14 and possibly elsewhere vs last year's components but because Apple knew that all those power savings are cancelled out (and more) by the extra power drain from 5G it didn't want to focus any attention at all on power efficiency & battery life during the launch.
So, can any users who have locked their 12 Pro to 4G please say what they are actually experiencing in real life to try and see if those Tomsguide battery test results are at all representative of what people are actually seeing.
My poll is intended to capture results strictly for people going from the non-Max 11 Pro to the 12 Pro (also non-Max obviously because at time of posting pre-orders haven't even begun for the 12 Pro Max). People who decided to downsize from an 11 Pro Max to a 12 Pro are, I would have thought, pretty obviously not going to see any increase in battery life since the 11 Pro Max had a far bigger battery than the 12 Pro and I can't see how other factors would be enough to counteract that huge drop in battery capacity. Do speak up in the comments if I'm wrong on that though.
One set of battery tests comparing the iPhone 11 range to the iPhone 12 range (https://www.tomsguide.com/uk/news/iphone-12-battery-life-results-are-in-and-theyre-not-great) showed a 12 Pro locked to 4G actually lasting about 10% longer in the battery test compared to an 11 Pro with the 12 Pro lasting 11h24m vs the 11 Pro lasting 10h24 which is actually a pretty decent increase.
On the one hand I can imagine that there might be some issues with the test, e.g. was the 11 Pro retested for that article or did they simply take the test result from their 11 Pro review done after launch last year? If the 11 Pro test result was a year-old we can't be sure that carrier conditions in the test lab were the same for the 11 Pro and the 12 Pro tests, maybe the carrier boosted 4G signal strength in the area since the 11 Pro test was done which would really distort the results.
On the other hand I can see reasons why those results just might be representative of real life experience even though we now know the battery capacity was actually reduced in the 12 Pro vs the 11 Pro. Many people say that the Qualcomm X55 modem is vastly superior to the Intel modem in last year's phone so maybe there are some nice efficiencies there in the 4G functionality on the X55 that the 12 Pro is benefiting from. Also, Apple didn't talk at all about any reductions in power consumption in any components on the phone. It often does talk about power efficiencies during the launch event, e.g. power reductions for cores in the latest A-series SoC. Maybe there are some decent reductions in power consumption in the A14 and possibly elsewhere vs last year's components but because Apple knew that all those power savings are cancelled out (and more) by the extra power drain from 5G it didn't want to focus any attention at all on power efficiency & battery life during the launch.
So, can any users who have locked their 12 Pro to 4G please say what they are actually experiencing in real life to try and see if those Tomsguide battery test results are at all representative of what people are actually seeing.
My poll is intended to capture results strictly for people going from the non-Max 11 Pro to the 12 Pro (also non-Max obviously because at time of posting pre-orders haven't even begun for the 12 Pro Max). People who decided to downsize from an 11 Pro Max to a 12 Pro are, I would have thought, pretty obviously not going to see any increase in battery life since the 11 Pro Max had a far bigger battery than the 12 Pro and I can't see how other factors would be enough to counteract that huge drop in battery capacity. Do speak up in the comments if I'm wrong on that though.
