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iPhone 16 Battery Comparison: At Least 1+ Hour More for All Models
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So, does this, on the top 16 Pro Max model, basically mean ALL day battery life for general usage?
Mileage may vary. I typically only use about 40% of my 13 pro battery any day. Biggest drain is streaming lots of music. Meanwhile my wife has to have her 13PM plugged in a lot just to get through the day. So what is "general usage"?
So, it seems the only benefits of the 16 Pro Max over the 16 Pro are the extra battery life and bigger screen, correct? I wouldn't mind having a slightly smaller phone, but worry I will regret not going for the one with the extra battery life. I don't watch that much video on my phone, maybe an hour total in a day scrolling through Instagram on a typical day at most. It would be nice to know how long I can expect for general use, e.g. checking Gmail, looking stuff up on the web, navigating with maps, etc. I would also be using the phone on trips, potentially taking a lot of photos and a bit of video each day. (I'd probably get a spare MagSafe battery for charging on the go, but it would be nice if I could travel lighter and not have to carry one.)
Note that I am coming from a Samsung Galaxy Note 9, which has always felt a bit big and I see the Max is slightly bigger. So, that has me leaning toward the regular 16 Pro. I'm hoping either way the battery life will be better than the Note.
Note that I am coming from a Samsung Galaxy Note 9, which has always felt a bit big and I see the Max is slightly bigger. So, that has me leaning toward the regular 16 Pro. I'm hoping either way the battery life will be better than the Note.
I wouldn't factor battery life into a Max or not decision. The good or bad of the size will make the bigger difference in your daily life. And if you find yourself low on battery now and then you could always keep a power bank handy to let you manage until you reach A/C. After all, ANY size battery might be too little on certain heavy usage days.
- Making the battery last 1 hour longer at the expense of increasing its size and the weight of the phone is a compromise
With the iPhone 16 lineup, Apple has increased battery life for all models compared to the prior-generation iPhone 15 models. Battery life is up at least an hour for each device for video playback, with bigger increases for the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro Max.
Streaming video can be played for two to four hours longer depending on device, and the iPhone 16 Pro models also support longer audio playback. Note that in the comparison below, Apple lists the battery life as "up to" because the time the battery lasts will vary based on different usage habits.
Apple is emphasizing battery life gains this year, and product pages for the new devices have a menu for seeing how much more battery life the iPhone 16 models have compared to older devices. Upgrading from an iPhone 12 mini, for example, will get you a seven hour increase in battery life.
- iPhone 16 - 22 hours video playback, 18 hours streaming video, 80 hours audio.
- iPhone 16 Plus - 27 hours video playback, 24 hours streaming video, 100 hours audio.
- iPhone 16 Pro - 27 hours video playback, 22 hours streaming video, 85 hours audio.
- iPhone 16 Pro Max - 33 hours video playback, 29 hours streaming video, 105 hours audio.
- iPhone 15 - 20 hours video playback, 16 hours streaming video, 80 hours audio.
- iPhone 15 Plus - 26 hours video playback, 20 hours streaming video, 100 hours audio.
- iPhone 15 Pro - 26 hours video playback, 20 hours streaming video, 75 hours audio.
- iPhone 15 Pro Max - 29 hours video playback, 25 hours streaming video, 95 hours audio.
The iPhone 16 models support faster 25W MagSafe charging with one of Apple's new MagSafe chargers and a 30W power adapter or higher. It is the first time that fast charging has been available when charging wirelessly, and iPhone 16 users can expect to see a 50 percent charge in 30 minutes.
Qi2 charging is also supported, but that is limited to 15W, the same as the prior-generation MagSafe charging.
Article Link: iPhone 16 Battery Comparison: At Least 1+ Hour More for All Models
- Making it last longer but not bigger is improvement
- Making it last longer and reduce size & weight is innovation
There’s a typo in the quoted figures. The iPhone 15 Pro‘s video playback figure should be 23 hours, not 26.
iPhone 15 Pro - Technical Specifications – Apple Support (UK)
support.apple.com
Fixed this, thanks for the heads up!
Hey, Apple. Please put all of the silicon efficiency gains toward increased battery life rather than performance, for at least one generation of iPhone. I really don't need my phone to be as fast as my laptop. It's far more useful when it actually has the power to function. And an iPhone with a long battery life will sell like hotcakes! Thanks.
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This reminds me of something: Am I the only one whose bluetooth car audio absolutely chews battery, or is there something wrong with either my car or my phone?
The "audio playback" numbers on here are huge, which makes sense--audio playback should take nearly-background levels of processing on a modern CPU, and the screen isn't necessary. That's certainly what I always expect if I'm just listening to music.
Yet time and again, if I'm cruising along in my car, with my phone in my pocket, doing nothing but playing AAC files off of local storage to my Honda's speakers via bluetooth, I'm shocked at how rapid battery drain is. I keep thinking I was doing something else around the same time and that's why, but the battery Settings only show a bunch of background use of music.
Bluetooth audio shouldn't be energy-intensive either, should it?
The "audio playback" numbers on here are huge, which makes sense--audio playback should take nearly-background levels of processing on a modern CPU, and the screen isn't necessary. That's certainly what I always expect if I'm just listening to music.
Yet time and again, if I'm cruising along in my car, with my phone in my pocket, doing nothing but playing AAC files off of local storage to my Honda's speakers via bluetooth, I'm shocked at how rapid battery drain is. I keep thinking I was doing something else around the same time and that's why, but the battery Settings only show a bunch of background use of music.
Bluetooth audio shouldn't be energy-intensive either, should it?
This is why I miss Anandtech. Not sure even they were doing it toward the end, but for a long time they kept charts of the iPhone battery life tests, and they of course were thorough and consistent and clearly documented their testing methods.
They had better tests like streaming via cellular, streaming via wifi, and playing locally. They had web browsing scripts running the same comparisons.
Does anyone still do this?
The only thing I’ll say is that the new Pros are both rumoured to come with bigger batteries, and the biggest winner was the 16 Pro. Pro Max also got a bigger battery, but not by as much, percentage-wise.
Praying the warehouses and storage facilities are climate controlled. 😂
I get 180 minutes with iPhone 15 pro. At 180 minutes, I’m at 15% remain8ng battery life. The rapid battery drain occurs every time I take a photo.
the only way to stop the rapid battery drain is to turn the phone off and not use the camera for any purpose
no iOS update has fixed this.
so I have a hit brick phone. Total crap. Apple won’t replace it.
the only way to stop the rapid battery drain is to turn the phone off and not use the camera for any purpose
no iOS update has fixed this.
so I have a hit brick phone. Total crap. Apple won’t replace it.
While I agree in principle what are you actually going to use as a metric? What percentage of what apps or use cases will you favor for that metric? It’ll just make it much harder to compare across platforms and product lines. Would you prefer, for example, that a phone maker hyper optimizes for TikTok just so they can claim all day battery life on social media?
I was going to type the same thing. I’m trying to hold out for the 17 PM and I’m worried Apple will do what they usually do and follow a great battery life release with a step backwards because they feel they MUST always demonstrate performance improvements even when more efficient cpu nodes aren’t available leading to inevitably worse battery life than the prior generation.
CPUs were fast enough on phones ages ago. Make the changes needed to continue supporting AI and photography and otherwise focus on efficiency please!
As always somebody complaining about battery health but they don’t provide details about the top battery consumption app.
Ah their current system is fine. Usage is way too varied to run those tests. Let the enthusiast websites run in-depth testing. This current method allows for better YoY comparisons.
My test of the 16. Just over 12 hours streaming video. It is obviously much better than the 2 hours on my iPhone 7 Plus but not the 18 claimed