iPhone 12 iPhone 12/12 pro have worse battery life than the 11/11pro

[pcorrado]

Regarding the Phone Arena test, there has to be something wrong with either the hardware or the software, given Apple's promotion of gaming and other battery taxing features, you would think that they would have at least kept battery the same size.

I wonder if there are A14 optimizations that are not yet included in the third party software? Given the goofy release schedule, devs only had a short period of time with development tools for the new hardware - is that the issue?

I understand the 5G data suck, but the 3D gaming suggest a different / possibility related issue. I am coming from a 11 Pro Max so I cannot accurately gauge my 12 Pro battery - its less but that was expected due to different model sizes / battery capacity.

 

[Baldilocks]

Regarding the Phone Arena test, there has to be something wrong with either the hardware or the software, given Apple's promotion of gaming and other battery taxing features, you would think that they would have at least kept battery the same size.

I wonder if there are A14 optimizations that are not yet included in the third party software? Given the goofy release schedule, devs only had a short period of time with development tools for the new hardware - is that the issue?

I understand the 5G data suck, but the 3D gaming suggest a different / possibility related issue. I am coming from a 11 Pro Max so I cannot accurately gauge my 12 Pro battery - its less but that was expected due to different model sizes / battery capacity.

In my comments on PhoneArena, I suggested they test again after the other phones are released so that 14.2 can be the focus.

Of course I got bombarded by hate from all of the Android faithful.

 

[JulianL]

I do think it's odd that Apple chose to reduce battery capacities on the annual update cycle where it was introducing and heavily promoting a new feature (5G) that it knew was going to hit battery life hard. I wouldn't have thought that thickness was a huge issue, people were already used to 8.1mm for the 11 Pro/Pro-Max and the original iPhone 4 was 9.3mm thick (I mention iPhone 4 since the 12s are a return to flat-edged design first seen in the 4).

I'm not suggesting that Apple should have gone up to 9.3mm, or even necessarily stuck at the 11 Pro's 8.1mm although I would have been happy if it had done that, but I am a bit surprised that it took the thickness so far down (to 7.4mm) for the 12 Pro which obviously reduces space available for the battery.

The only at least somewhat justifiable reason that I can think of is that Apple thought that the 11 Pro and Pro Max had hit the absolute top weight that users would put up with and, since the 12 Pro & Pro Max weights are pretty much identical to those of the 11 Pro and Pro Max presumably going any thicker and putting in a fatter battery would have breached those self-imposed weight limits. For me personally it was the wrong call but obviously Apple is the world expert on its own customer base and I have seen people complaining, especially about the 11 Pro Max, that it was too heavy so maybe Apple really did feel that it risked too many of those people jumping ship if the 12 Pro/Pro-Max had added another 20g. As an 11 Pro Max user I personally would have had no issues at all if another 10% had been added to the weight in return for even better battery life than the 11 Pro Max but maybe I'm in a minority there.

Apple is surely going to have to get an attitude adjustment at some point isn't it? With the rumours of 120Hz coming in next year that's another potential hit on battery and to me the big gorilla in the room would seem to be the rumours of dropping the wired connector completely. If that happens then running out of power unexpectedly means having to find someone with a wireless charger as opposed to just needing to find any old USB port (if you carry a cable with you) so getting really good battery life is going to get even more important. Apple really can't afford to stop making year on year improvements in battery life let alone take steps backwards some years.