Other Apple finally stepped it up on battery life. Why now?

[jimmy_uk]

Incremental updates. Drip feeding features so people upgrade regularly, Apple's business model since the first iphone. People would believe they only bring advancements and change when there ready. These changes are road mapped years in advance.

 

[Abazigal]

The iPhones 11 were already pretty far along in the development process before the XR even went on sale. Apple had already committed to removing 3D Touch on this generation. Based on the info that has trickled our since the 11 launch, 3D Touch was removed because Apple realized they were not ever going to be able to bring the technology to iPad and the feature wasn’t that widely used anyway. Removing the 3D Touch hardware was a way for Apple to save money and thin the display assembly.

Good point. I sometimes forget how early in advance Apple reportedly locks in the design of their products.

 

[tonybarnaby]

Back in the day before I got my first iPhone (8+) I remember people talking about how great the plus size battery life was. A friend got a brand new 7+ and was talking about how long it lasted. Being on android at the time, I knew that the only thing iPhones excelled at was standby time. Actually using an iPhone would drain it fast, due to the small size. People who had never used an android and weren’t heavy users were amazed that they would go to bed with their phone at 60%. Heavy users knew it was android or nothing. I have been clamoring for a 4000mah plus sized iPhone for years. It’s finally here, and I can’t use it due to pwm haha. I think the 11 pro max is a phone I could use for 4 years happily, and it’s hard to read all the glowing reviews and know it would give me a headache.

 

[Wackery]

As greatful as we all should be for Jony Ive and his obsession with thinness and pronouncing ‘bezels’ & ‘aluminium’ as often and weirdly as possible, I’m glad we’re moving back towards function deciding form.

 

[jimmy_uk]

Back in the day before I got my first iPhone (8+) I remember people talking about how great the plus size battery life was. A friend got a brand new 7+ and was talking about how long it lasted. Being on android at the time, I knew that the only thing iPhones excelled at was standby time. Actually using an iPhone would drain it fast, due to the small size. People who had never used an android and weren’t heavy users were amazed that they would go to bed with their phone at 60%. Heavy users knew it was android or nothing. I have been clamoring for a 4000mah plus sized iPhone for years. It’s finally here, and I can’t use it due to pwm haha. I think the 11 pro max is a phone I could use for 4 years happily, and it’s hard to read all the glowing reviews and know it would give me a headache.

It's a damn shame and I'm in the same boat. I've considered the Note 10+ but equally concerned about PWM on that.

 

[tonybarnaby]

It's a damn shame and I'm in the same boat. I've considered the Note 10+ but equally concerned about PWM on that.

For what it’s worth, only Apple oled bugs me. I’ve had no issues with any other Samsung oled. The note would probably be ok for you if you can find a decent deal.

 

[Wide opeN]

It's simple...

This was their ace in the hole to move the 2019 iPhone. That's it.

 

[44267547]

As greatful as we all should be for Jony Ive and his obsession with thinness and pronouncing ‘bezels’ & ‘aluminium’ as often and weirdly as possible, I’m glad we’re moving back towards function deciding form.

I’m not sure about that. Because it’s easy to pick on Johnny Ive about the ‘thinness’, but aren’t all smart phones generally thin today? I mean, it’s not like these phones are drastically different in terms of thickness just because of the battery, it’s about the efficiency of the processor that really makes a difference and how the phone performs, but regulates the power consumption through the A-series processor.

 

[Knowlege Bomb]

Of course it could be much simpler, battery life was a long running complaint and they decided to listen to their customers. Apple isn’t deaf but sometimes they are hard of hearing.

I think selective hearing is more likely. Seems like they'd rather follow their own roadmap at their own pace. Lucky for us we've got a significant portion of our base that adhere to the "squeaky wheel gets the grease" philosophy.

 

[FeliApple]

Back in the day before I got my first iPhone (8+) I remember people talking about how great the plus size battery life was. A friend got a brand new 7+ and was talking about how long it lasted. Being on android at the time, I knew that the only thing iPhones excelled at was standby time. Actually using an iPhone would drain it fast, due to the small size. People who had never used an android and weren’t heavy users were amazed that they would go to bed with their phone at 60%. Heavy users knew it was android or nothing. I have been clamoring for a 4000mah plus sized iPhone for years. It’s finally here, and I can’t use it due to pwm haha. I think the 11 pro max is a phone I could use for 4 years happily, and it’s hard to read all the glowing reviews and know it would give me a headache.

Note: I don’t know anything about Android, never used an Android phone. I’m curious, hence why I’m asking.
Are Androids that much better on usage time? Also, are Androids that terrible on standby Time?

A few more thoughts: My first iPhone was the 5s. Even if slightly pushed, the battery life would drop horribly, from 7 hours to barely scraping 4 hours of usage.
Then I got the 6s, massive improvement on “heavier” use (LTE vs Wi-Fi and higher brightness), from 6.5 to 8.5 hours depending on usage. That isn’t plus-like battery life, but it was great for me.
Then, the 7+. That was amazing, 10-12 hours of usage, that was far more than I needed.
Were all Androids that much better than that? How many hours would they get?
PS: All of those numbers were screen-on time, but keep in mind that I’m a light user.

 

[tonybarnaby]

Note: I don’t know anything about Android, never used an Android phone. I’m curious, hence why I’m asking.
Are Androids that much better on usage time? Also, are Androids that terrible on standby Time?

A few more thoughts: My first iPhone was the 5s. Even if slightly pushed, the battery life would drop horribly, from 7 hours to barely scraping 4 hours of usage.
Then I got the 6s, massive improvement on “heavier” use (LTE vs Wi-Fi and higher brightness), from 6.5 to 8.5 hours depending on usage. That isn’t plus-like battery life, but it was great for me.
Then, the 7+. That was amazing, 10-12 hours of usage, that was far more than I needed.
Were all Androids that much better than that? How many hours would they get?
PS: All of those numbers were screen-on time, but keep in mind that I’m a light user.

Android phones have always had larger batteries than comparable sized iPhones. The biggest thing is that Android has a ton of budget phones with massive batteries. Android is notorious for having horrible standby drain. You can easily lose 10-20% on some phones just putting it on your dresser when you sleep. They are improving, but Android would last longer due to bigger batteries. Apple has always been way more efficient, but when the non-plus phones had under 2000mah, it's basic science that you won't get good battery life with that. My Galaxy S7 edge had 3600mah, and it's about the size of an iPhone 8 plus (2700mah). The iPhone was more efficient, but down 900mah to the Galaxy.

 

[SpitUK]

My theory is that a couple of years ago when they were starting the iPhone 11 Pro development process 5G was on the cards for 2019. They went all out to increase battery life to accommodate the extra power requirements of 5G but as the radios were delayed for 5G we have benefited this year from larger than average battery life gains.

 

[alpi123]

Competition.

 

[supergt]

Lots of good comments above. I think they really needed another selling point on this device lineup besides the cameras. Making the battery bigger was a relatively easy solution to help drive sales. It will be interesting to see how battery life progresses with future iPhones. As with most things in life, once you give people what they asked for, it's hard to take it back.

 

[malikkamran1]

Note: I don’t know anything about Android, never used an Android phone. I’m curious, hence why I’m asking.
Are Androids that much better on usage time? Also, are Androids that terrible on standby Time?

A few more thoughts: My first iPhone was the 5s. Even if slightly pushed, the battery life would drop horribly, from 7 hours to barely scraping 4 hours of usage.
Then I got the 6s, massive improvement on “heavier” use (LTE vs Wi-Fi and higher brightness), from 6.5 to 8.5 hours depending on usage. That isn’t plus-like battery life, but it was great for me.
Then, the 7+. That was amazing, 10-12 hours of usage, that was far more than I needed.
Were all Androids that much better than that? How many hours would they get?
PS: All of those numbers were screen-on time, but keep in mind that I’m a light user.

Who you lying iPhone 7 plus never did 10 hours it gave up steam after 3 hours of youtube

 

[tonybarnaby]

Who you lying iPhone 7 plus never did 10 hours it gave up steam after 3 hours of youtube

That's a lie

 

[danny842003]

I suspect the departure of Jony Ive had a good bit to do with it. He appeared to be the champion of the “keep iPhone thin and sleek” doctrine.

With him gone, the voices inside of Apple (and I’m sure there were many) who wanted the iPhone to be thicker to put more inside were probably easier to hear.

I’m fairly confident this had nothing to do with it. Ive left fairly recently and these phones will have been well past this stage of design work. Plus essentially they’re the same size as last year phones anyway.

 

[1050792]

Because the battery life was laughable a while ago?
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The iPhones 11 were already pretty far along in the development process before the XR even went on sale. Apple had already committed to removing 3D Touch on this generation. Based on the info that has trickled our since the 11 launch, 3D Touch was removed because Apple realized they were not ever going to be able to bring the technology to iPad and the feature wasn’t that widely used anyway. Removing the 3D Touch hardware was a way for Apple to save money and thin the display assembly.

And also to kill a feature they used to sell 6S's since a long press would be able to achieve the same result. As of now.

 

[FeliApple]

Who you lying iPhone 7 plus never did 10 hours it gave up steam after 3 hours of youtube

With all due respect, I already told you why.

 

[1050792]

Note: I don’t know anything about Android, never used an Android phone. I’m curious, hence why I’m asking.
Are Androids that much better on usage time? Also, are Androids that terrible on standby Time?

A few more thoughts: My first iPhone was the 5s. Even if slightly pushed, the battery life would drop horribly, from 7 hours to barely scraping 4 hours of usage.
Then I got the 6s, massive improvement on “heavier” use (LTE vs Wi-Fi and higher brightness), from 6.5 to 8.5 hours depending on usage. That isn’t plus-like battery life, but it was great for me.
Then, the 7+. That was amazing, 10-12 hours of usage, that was far more than I needed.
Were all Androids that much better than that? How many hours would they get?
PS: All of those numbers were screen-on time, but keep in mind that I’m a light user.

Most users who speak on how Android stand by time being worse than iOS must be stuck on 2012 ERA in which iOS 6 had a much better stand by time compared to Android.
Nowadays that ain't true anymore. Android standby time actually beats iOS, well atleast for me. All Android phones I had would lose 3% of maximum in a period of 8 hours. Unlike my iPhones which would lose 8-12%.
Especially the XS Max, that one had a ridiculous stand by battery life.

 

[tonybarnaby]

Most users who speak on how Android stand by time being worse than iOS must be stuck on 2012 ERA in which iOS 6 had a much better stand by time compared to Android.
Nowadays that ain't true anymore. Android standby time actually beats iOS, well atleast for me. All Android phones I had would lose 3% of maximum in a period of 8 hours. Unlike my iPhones which would lose 8-12%.
Especially the XS Max, that one had a ridiculous stand by battery life.

If true, you're definitely the exception and not the rule. Android users do everything they can do to try to stop the dreaded Google play battery drain. This has been a problem forever, due to Android being way more open than iOS and the fact it isn't made specifically for one phone and one chip. People are still using package disabler and greenify on Android to try and limit the standby drain and apps running wild in the background.

 

[FeliApple]

Most users who speak on how Android stand by time being worse than iOS must be stuck on 2012 ERA in which iOS 6 had a much better stand by time compared to Android.
Nowadays that ain't true anymore. Android standby time actually beats iOS, well atleast for me. All Android phones I had would lose 3% of maximum in a period of 8 hours. Unlike my iPhones which would lose 8-12%.
Especially the XS Max, that one had a ridiculous stand by battery life.

My standby time hasn’t been that awful (my 6s would lose 2-3% in 9 hours, my Xʀ is around there too, and the “weird winner” was my iPhone 5c on iOS 9, 1% in 9 hours), but if you receive a lot of notifications yeah, it might be worse than that.
Anyway, thanks for the info!

 

[1050792]

My standby time hasn’t been that awful (my 6s would lose 2-3% in 9 hours, my Xʀ is around there too, and the “weird winner” was my iPhone 5c on iOS 9, 1% in 9 hours), but if you receive a lot of notifications yeah, it might be worse than that.
Anyway, thanks for the info!

It might be related to cellular signal, although I keep my point, since the XS the cellular signal has become worse and the drops in stand by have been awful. In my experience.
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If true, you're definitely the exception and not the rule. Android users do everything they can do to try to stop the dreaded Google play battery drain. This has been a problem forever, due to Android being way more open than iOS and the fact it isn't made specifically for one phone and one chip. People are still using package disabler and greenify on Android to try and limit the standby drain and apps running wild in the background.

I never disabled everything, only set a Dark Mode. Never got more than 3% of battery drain.

 

[tonybarnaby]

It might be related to cellular signal, although I keep my point, since the XS the cellular signal has become worse and the drops in stand by have been awful. In my experience.

That's probably due to the Intel modem

 

[jagolden]

Some developers on MR, running 13.2 have noted Deep Fusion eats into battery life, hence one of the needs for larger batteries.
Also, all the other reasons noted above.