iPhone 16 Battery Capacities Revealed

[Ctrlos]

There are numerous reason why bigger batteries aren't always necessary or a good idea:

1. They are more susceptible to potential issues, we all saw how that turned out when Samsung adopted a much bigger battery for the Note 7 and it literally blew up in their faces so they went back to smaller batteries.
2. They take longer to charge unless the maximum wattage iPhones support is increased, and if the maximum wattage were to be increased, heat output would be increased and the overall lifespan of the battery would be reduced, even if slightly, which goes against people's need / want of longevity.
3. They cost more to manufacture and produce, increasing overall manufacturing costs of each iPhone model.
4. Apple does heavy software optimization within iOS' entire codebase, it's why Apple got away with so little RAM for ages up until the iPhone XS when they adopted 4 GB RAM, 6 GB RAM, and later 8 GB, and why their SoCs still haven't adopted more than six cores, despite Qualcomm having used eight cores in their SoCs for quite a long time, and why Apple can get away with not putting insanely large batteries in their phones. Android is significantly less optimized than iOS due to the additional overhead of Java / Kotlin and the Android Runtime so smartphones that run Android need SoCs with more cores, more RAM, and bigger batteries.

Apple doesn't need to play copycat by adopting huge batteries for these reasons, and there are likely other reasons too. Apple knows what they're doing when it comes to knowing what hardware to put in their phones; they are the ones designing them after all.

Apple needs to stop short changing customers. If they can get brilliant battery life out of a 3500mah cell with code optimisation just imaging what they’d get out of 5000+. You’d never have people complaining that their battery health at 90% doesn’t last very long.

Who wouldn’t want an iPhone that lasted two full days?

 

[Ctrlos]

Is that the same Honor Magic V3 that only goes for 10 hours? With that size battery, they should be getting 20 hours or more! Looks to me like they should have squeezed in a larger battery.

It’s a foldable and hoovers up energy. The point is that they can fit such a large battery in such a thin profile.

I want an iPhone Max that can last two full days and still a full day 2 years later. If Apple put in bigger batteries I’d get this.

 

[Ctrlos]

It's not how big it is; it's how you use it. ;-) Apple still manages to get a solid battery life out of that capacity.

The 15 Max had a great battery yet every other thread on here is how despite being careful it’s at 85% after a year. For the record my iPhone 13, despite being topped up twice a day has been at 85% for nearly a year.

All Apple’s ‘Max charge’ options are merely there to let them put in as small a battery as possible, maximise margins and blame the customer when it doesn’t last all day anymore.

If we had a bigger battery and all the optimisations you’d get two full days out of it. Who wouldn’t want that?!

 

[Poochi]

Why is that iPhone 16 gets much worse battery life compared to iPhone 16 Pro even with similar battery capacity?

 

[ksec]

Less efficient display panel, possibly. Or it’s just marketing, as both numbers are within a 10% tolerance of 30 hours.

That would imply either the display panel in Pro Max improved substantially or they lowered the Plus display panel. Not to mention the 60Hz Panel usage on Plus.

 

[klasma]

That would imply either the display panel in Pro Max improved substantially or they lowered the Plus display panel. Not to mention the 60Hz Panel usage on Plus.

It's probably a combination of multiple factors. If the video is 60 Hz (or possibly even less), the VRR Pro panel might be more efficient for that than the 60-Hz-only non-Pro panel. And maybe the A18 Pro binning allows for more efficient video decoding.

 

[tobybrut]

wtf, I have been using it for about 10 months now and I am still at 100% battery health. It also gets me through the day very easily. I charge to 80% btw.

I've used my 15 Pro Max for a year now and I'm at 99% battery health. Granted, I'm a very low user since I much prefer using my iPad, so I only have 77 charging cycles on mine. I also only charge to 80%. I did not upgrade this year for the first time in a long time.

 

[tgenius]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1836655132160709117

So this does lead me to believe yes you can do higher wattage on 16PM!

 

[aleni]

iPhone 16 Pro max 4,685 mAh probably will live more than some androids with 6000mah

you're living in the Apple bubble. lol. My other phone (vivo with 5500mah) can last 2.5 days and can charge it from 0-100% in 21 minutes. It's almost a year of usage and the battery health is still at 100%.

 

[yyzguy]

Why can’t they just make them thicker in order to have larger batteries AND do away with the stupid camera bump? I use an iPad mini as my daily driver and iPhone SE as a portable hotspot.

 

[Tru3B1u3]

Hope it performs better than my 15 Pro Max which, for me, has been the worst battery ever. I'm a light user, don't game, don't watch films / TV but the battery drains very fast every day. The phone is 11 months old, 291 cycles and down to 91% Capacity (likely to dip to 90% any day soon). Not sure what's going on this phone but knew Apple would just say it was fine. One of the main reasons I'm not sticking with it is due to the poor the battery performance.

Have you optimized Settings?

 

[Downhilltenago]

Been watching a lot of videos today and the pro max is going to be a beast in real world use. Looking forward to not having to charge my phone during the day.

 

[dampfnudel]

Pro is yet again worse than (smaller) base model, in terms of battery life.
16 Pro Max now beats the crap out of S24 Ultra and 9XL in battery life.

Only by five minutes according to that test.

 

[svish]

Good to see increased battery capacity on all the models.

 

[spcdust]

Have you optimized Settings?

Yes, optimised

 

[sleeptodream]

Use 15-watt Magsafe, the same one I have used on all my other Magsafe-compatible iPhones. The 13 Pro Max, after 12 months of usage still had around 99% capacity, the 14 Pro Max something like 96% after12 months and 15 Pro Max, at 11 months is at 91%

wow that's crazy. i wonder if they changed the way they measure battery health or something? cuz yeah i used to always have like 99% battery life after a year but my 14 PM had i think 96% which felt like a huge decline considering i mostly used the 5W slow charger and tried to stay between 15-85%

 

[itsmeorthedog]

Same here, except I have around 350 cycles.

A tad off topic but my iPhone 14 Plus is at 91% battery capacity with 254 cycles.

 

[Virinprew]

I honestly dont get why people are so stuck on battery life! How often are people not near a charger?! I think its so blown out of control... chargers are in your car, your work, airports, planes, you name it!

Because when you charge, you get stuck at the wall.

 

[neuropsychguy]

Apple only tested it in "video playback" so if you do anything else besides watching video, it's not realistic. 15 Pro had worse battery life than base model as well, this year it's even more disappointing since 16 Pro is bigger.

Where is that test coming from? What are each of those phones? What were the testing methods for battery life? Was a single test done on the phones or did the tester run multiple tests? Why do these figures not match other posted test results (e.g., Tom's Guide showed a 14 hour 7 minute battery life for the 16 Pro: https://www.tomsguide.com/phones/iphones/apple-iphone-16-pro-max-review). Are the figures you posted better? If so, why?

Here's Tom's Guide battery life comparisons. It has the 16 Pro battery lasting almost 1.5 hours longer than the 16: https://www.tomsguide.com/phones/ip...lts-are-in-and-we-can-hardly-believe-our-eyes

Again, why are the numbers you posted the best ones? Why do you prefer them over the other reported battery life test results?

Also, is a 5 minute battery life difference meaningful, or is it within expected variation in any given test? It's only a 1% difference in battery life. In statistics we call that a negligible (maybe small, but very small would be more accurate) effect.

 

[dusk007]

Has anyone found some tests actually testing hotspot usage. I am also a light user and normal usage easily gets me over multiple days in my Samsung.
But hot spot and geo location / tracking usage often drains too much to make it even through a day comfortable without either bringing an extra battery or having to restort to extra meseaures to save power aggressively. It would be nice to survive one hiking day without any special acrobatics and this is never tested. Most of my battery drain happens with display off not on. Never had an iphone but given the smaller battery sizes and all the same tests everywhere you just cannot work out how it performs (gps, bad reception, wifi/BT hotspot).

Anybody got some data?

 

[neuropsychguy]

Because when you charge, you get stuck at the wall.

Or to a battery pack.

 

[taliz]

I don't get how Apple can quote longer battery life for the Pros, when they have more or less the same battery size and CPU etc as the regular 16.

Something to do with the screen? Does the refresh rate etc really make them display video etc using LESS battery? I would have thought more..

 

[teohyc]

Apple needs to stop short changing customers. If they can get brilliant battery life out of a 3500mah cell with code optimisation just imaging what they’d get out of 5000+. You’d never have people complaining that their battery health at 90% doesn’t last very long.

Who wouldn’t want an iPhone that lasted two full days?

LOL
Apple is the king of holding back. This is a company that had to be forced to add USB-C

 

[kp98077]

I honestly dont get why people are so stuck on battery life! How often are people not near a charger?! I think its so blown out of control... chargers are in your car, your work, airports, planes, you name it!

Or to a battery pack.

So therefore you get the largest phone possible despite lack of portability?

 

[neuropsychguy]

So therefore you get the largest phone possible despite lack of portability?

There's not a good answer. There are trade-offs with every option. I go for the Pro size and bring a battery pack if needed. There are small ones that don't cost a lot that can fully recharge a phone.