iPhone 16/Plus iPhone 16 Plus - how have you liked the battery?

[thecautioners]

Hey! We have a new 16 Plus in the family moved my daughter from Verizon to T-Mobile and took advantage of their “get one on us” with a port in to a new line promo. The store was out of the base 16 which would have been free ($0 per month) so we grabbed a 16 Plus instead (about $4 per month).

Of course, new phones are coming out in 3 weeks and I myself will preorder the 17PM, but my daughter is 13 and doesn’t need the latest—also, this phone was (nearly) free, without a trade in, so we went for it.

She’s coming from a base 15 and I’ve told her the battery will rival mine, in my 16PM. I’m a heavy user so I go through my battery somewhat quickly and she’s also a heavy user so we were often butting heads over the car charger 😂 I’m hoping the 16 Plus battery will last her a lot longer than the 15, also because I worry about her being out with friends and her phone dying.

What’s your use like? Does it still get you through the day, even a year on?

She was iffy at first because she’s always been horrified by how big my Pro Max phones are but it took her about 3.2 seconds to adjust to the bigger size, now I don’t think she understands how she ever survived with a “small” phone haha. And of course, the cameras are her favorite part!

 

[FeliApple]

I mean, I’ll reply, but I’m not sure how useful my answer will be. I have the 16 Plus. According to tests, it does rival the 16 Pro Max.

My experience has been absolutely outstanding. I upgraded from my Xʀ running iOS 12 which was already incredible. But I’m a very light and efficient user. Not in terms of time, in terms of usage intensity. I have efficient settings, low brightness, and I’m not a heavy social media user.

I get about 27 hours of screen-on time with light use, which means that I end the day with about 80% after about 6 hours of SOT. It’s ridiculous really.

Perhaps this can be a little more useful, I have some experience with full 5G usage and significant camera use. Those cycles have ended with about 5.5 to 6 hours of SOT with 60% remaining. But then again, apart from the outdoor brightness (not full, I typically keep it a little lower than that) and the camera, I’m pure efficiency: low power mode, most heavy settings disabled, and no social media concurrent with that camera use.

If she is a heavy social media user with high brightness and inefficient settings, she won’t be anywhere close to that.

If you have similar usage patterns and “fight” for car chargers like you said, perhaps you can be a better judge of this: the 16 Plus is quite similar to the Pro Max. What’s your screen-on time? Can you share a screenshot of your “last 24 hours” battery page? How much battery do you consume in a given day? How high is your brightness? What do you use it for?

The numbers I gave are texting and web browsing, maybe an app like Reddit, but not much else. Video-heavy social media apps like Instagram and TikTok are battery killers. The speakers are battery killers. High brightness destroys battery life. If some or all of this is in play, my numbers are impossible to reach.

Battery life is amazing, far beyond anything I’d ever need and far better than any other iOS device I’ve ever used, including ridiculously efficient iPads… but I’m a singularly efficient user. Most people are heavier users, and ultimately it just comes to that.

It will be significantly better than the 15… but if she’s terribly inefficient and gets something like 5 hours of SOT 100-0% on the 15… then the 16 Plus will not be a revolution. Maybe she’ll get two more hours, but it won’t be twice as good.