iPhone 16e's Battery Capacity Revealed in Real-World Battery Life Test

[Parowdy]

That's normal behaviour for a brand-new battery, though. As the battery starts to age a bit it will spend less time at 100% after a full charge.

To be a valid comparison, all three phones would need to have brand new batteries.

My thought, too. Either they use a brand new and unused older phone, or they take the old scores from an old test.
Or they compare a brand new phone against who knows how used old phones.
They make as much sense as still having 100% after one hour and drawing any conclusions about how battery life is.

 

[Parowdy]

How does it make any difference? It still has wireless charging.

Magnets take up a lot more space than, no magnets. A paper thin copper coil remains paper thin though.

 

[masotime]

I learned about this mAh vs. Wh thing several years ago — it's a common thing pointed out on the internet.

I'm not sure what the argument is here, though. The sentence I wrote in the article was merely a fact, that Apple doesn't share mAh figures.

I was making more of a general lament - the industry seems locked into using mAh now because it’s all consumers really understand given how prevalent it is as a unit of measure of battery capacity instead of the more precise Wh.

 

[cdsapplefan]

How so? This very article clearly indicates that it isn't the case

In Tom's guide test it's the same, or worse

In Dave's test, it's got a 14.3% better battery

But it has a 12.4% bigger battery .

Which means that the gains are , in the best case , of 2% . lol. This is whitin margin of error .

Keep in mind this new 16e will not have Apple’s new custom WiFi 7 chip on it like the 17 Air will.

 

[metsjetsfan]

So the C1 isnt really all that “efficient” just bigger battery. But yes if its smaller you can put in a bigger battery

 

[TimDeRosa]

How does it make any difference? It still has wireless charging.

Assuming no built in magnets? Will the 16e auto align its self on wireless charger?

 

[ksec]

Apple does publish battery capacity specs in their compliance docs.

Apple marketing materials make it sound like the C1 is doing the heavy lifting. According to Apple specs, the battery capacity was increased by 12% (Wh rating) compared to iPhone 16.

For every 1% increase, the video streaming battery life tends to increase by 1.3% to 1.4%. This is similar to what we saw with iPhone 15 to iPhone 16. C1 isn't magic. Apple just added more battery to the 16e because it doesn't have a second rear camera.

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Legal - Global Trade Compliance - Apple

www.apple.com

I am sorry that is no way any of what you said is true, according to Macrumors comments C1 Modem was so much better than Qualcomm it was the reason why 16e has 20% longer battery!

Unless they were all wrong ( again ).

 

[WarmWinterHat]

Assuming no built in magnets? Will the 16e auto align its self on wireless charger?

No, unless you get a magsafe case with built-in magnets.

 

[Wanted797]

It’s almost hidden in the article, but if the runtime on cellular is a bit worse with a battery that is that much bigger, that means the C1 is actually LESS efficient than what’s in the normal 16.

To be honest, I was already very sceptical due to the specific language used by Apple when they announced it.

That makes me think they’re getting their power savings when it’s on WiFi and the modem is not being fully utilised.

 

[jntdroid]

Interesting analysis here:

Seems to confirm the power efficiency claims with some relatively scientific testing. Also some interesting comparisons of signal strength, heat generation, etc...

 

[klasma]

I learned about this mAh vs. Wh thing several years ago — it's a common thing pointed out on the internet.

I'm not sure what the argument is here, though. The sentence I wrote in the article was merely a fact, that Apple doesn't share mAh figures.

For whatever reason — perhaps because iPhone battery voltage typically remains constant — many people are really interested in learning the mAh figures.

So I shared the 3,961 mAh figure, as new information.

That's it.

Nevertheless, I'm always willing to add more detail to my articles where possible, so I added "provided that the iPhone 16e's battery voltage remains the typical 3.85V." I don't feel that it's an entirely necessary statement until iPhone battery voltage is proven to have finally changed, but it doesn't hurt to add.

You were replying to JPack’s comment pointing out that we already have official information from Apple (and therefore don’t have to rely on Lee’s information) with “Yes, in Wh. The article correctly states that "Apple does not publicly advertise mAh battery capacities for iPhones."”. This reply read as if Wh were somehow not good enough and independent information in mAh was needed, and as if you didn’t know that the corresponding mAh values can be trivially calculated from the Wh values. Nobody contested the article’s statement that Apple doesn’t advertise mAh values.

 

[Mother Nature]

Apple does publish battery capacity specs in their compliance docs.

Apple marketing materials make it sound like the C1 is doing the heavy lifting. According to Apple specs, the battery capacity was increased by 12% (Wh rating) compared to iPhone 16.

For every 1% increase, the video streaming battery life tends to increase by 1.3% to 1.4%. This is similar to what we saw with iPhone 15 to iPhone 16. C1 isn't magic. Apple just added more battery to the 16e because it doesn't have a second rear camera.

View attachment 2486350

https://chemtrec.blob.core.windows.net/criterion/APIS_BPIS_Current.pdf

Legal - Global Trade Compliance - Apple

www.apple.com

There are some tests that show the C1 delivers same download speeds when connected to 5G (not mmWave), if the C1 delivers the same performance while being more efficient, then it could be considered magic and another M1 moment.

 

[joshwithachance]

It’s almost hidden in the article, but if the runtime on cellular is a bit worse with a battery that is that much bigger, that means the C1 is actually LESS efficient than what’s in the normal 16.

To be honest, I was already very sceptical due to the specific language used by Apple when they announced it.

There was also a "leak" recently that stated Apple doesn't consider the C1 or next year's C2 to be on the level of Qualcomm, so it's not all that surprising.

 

[JPack]

I learned about this mAh vs. Wh thing several years ago — it's a common thing pointed out on the internet.

I'm not sure what the argument is here, though. The sentence I wrote in the article was merely a fact, that Apple doesn't share mAh figures.

For whatever reason — perhaps because iPhone battery voltage typically remains constant — many people are really interested in learning the mAh figures.

So I shared the 3,961 mAh figure, as new information.

That's it.

Nevertheless, I'm always willing to add more detail to my articles where possible, so I added "provided that the iPhone 16e's battery voltage remains the typical 3.85V." I don't feel that it's an entirely necessary statement until iPhone battery voltage is proven to have finally changed, but it doesn't hurt to add.

You were replying to JPack’s comment pointing out that we already have official information from Apple (and therefore don’t have to rely on Lee’s information) with “Yes, in Wh. The article correctly states that "Apple does not publicly advertise mAh battery capacities for iPhones."”. This reply read as if Wh were somehow not good enough and independent information in mAh was needed, and as if you didn’t know that the corresponding mAh values can be trivially calculated from the Wh values. Nobody contested the article’s statement that Apple doesn’t advertise mAh values.

iPhone 16e is a perfect example of why sharing mAh alone is misleading.

The numbers 3,961 mAh and 15.556 Wh imputes a voltage of 3.927V. This is never before seen on an iPhone battery.

If we just looked at mAh, we would have thought battery capacity only increased by 10%. In reality, it is closer to 12%.

 

[Veinticinco]

Anyone buying this gimped device is effectively paying 600 notes for the privilege of beta testing the C1 modem for Apple.

 

[Nickerbocker]

Considering the iPhone 15 Pro is the same price on Amazon, they could have included that one. I imagine people who shop around will be trying to decide between the 16e and the 15 Pro since they are basically at the same price point.

 

[Martin Bland]

You’re doing the math for the wrong test. The Reddit runtime test is not using C1, it’s using WiFi. You should do the same calculations for the second test from Tom’s Guide.

Thanks for the catch! From Tom's Guide test it seems that the iPhone 16e's runtime is roughly equivalent to that of the iPhone 16. Without doing the math, given that the iPhone 16e has a significantly larger capacity battery, the iPhone 16e is much less efficient than the iPhone 16 in that test.

Still looking for C1 efficiency evidence...

 

[swm]

maybe it has a physically larger (thicker) battery as there's more space due to the absence of MagSafe

 

[jntdroid]

Thanks for the catch! From Tom's Guide test it seems that the iPhone 16e's runtime is roughly equivalent to that of the iPhone 16. Without doing the math, given that the iPhone 16e has a significantly larger capacity battery, the iPhone 16e is much less efficient than the iPhone 16 in that test.

Still looking for C1 efficiency evidence...

In the video I posted here they show actual power draw vs. the 16. Looks like the efficiency claims might be legit?

But still I'm with you on your conclusion on Tom's Guide's test. Doesn't make much sense.

 

[jntdroid]

Considering the iPhone 15 Pro is the same price on Amazon, they could have included that one. I imagine people who shop around will be trying to decide between the 16e and the 15 Pro since they are basically at the same price point.

I'm in this boat. I never have an issue with battery life, even on lesser phones, so I'm thinking a quality refurbed 15 Pro is the way to go given the similar price. About the only reasons I could think to go with the 16e are 1) Not a refurb, better Apple support if issues; 2) simpler/thinner form factor; 3) better battery... but #3 is already not a huge issue for me overall. 🤷‍♂️

 

[hans1972]

This doesn't mean that the C1 modem isn't more efficient but it is not a large factor for this test. For example, it is possible that the C1 modem's efficiency is more pronounced at idle. That would require a different runtime test.

I think there is much more likely that the C1 is more efficient in idle mode and while doing light background networking traffic when the user isn't using the phone, than when it's continuously trying to load web pages as fast as possible.

If the screen is on during the entire time, then the test is even worse.

 

[macjaffa]

Holy batman. The phone has a battery! amazing. Please report more on this astounding fact.

What about the super new Apple modem designed for efficiency and low energy battery life greatness ?

" continuously loads the Reddit website over Wi-Fi,"

Incredible stuff Jim, brilliant reporting.

 

[Spike1999]

Oh great it’s that time again for the ‘reviews’ from the usual YouTubers, linked by MR again 🧐

 

[Cirillo Gherardo]

This might actually be the most boring iPhone ever. Epitome of a Tim Cook product.

They could have added Touch ID to the lock button & remove Face ID for cost reduction, pin hole notch, added haptic volume buttons, faster charging speeds. Anything exciting, but no.

Pretty hilarious that a huge step back with Touch ID would be considered "exciting".
No, it would be considered even worse than removing MagSafe, which is already terrible.

 

[bn-7bc]

Aside from the battery, apparently the camera is mediocre at best.

is the camera mediocre, compared to wat, the 16 pro, the 15 or the 12 pro (semi relevant to me bacuse this is the phone I'll replace with the 16e= and why is it mediocre is it hw (sensor + lense= or is it sw which can be improved duing the devices life.