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Ehhh.... Sure! It will give me a few extra minutes to accomplish my ever so important ”Pro” tasks on my “Pro” phone, i.e, constantly Checking Macrumors and Instagram. Maybe I’ll even write a novel. It is a “Pro” after all!
Now, this is a "Pro" comment.
 
I don't really understand why the iPhone 12 Pro Max is getting a smaller battery compared to the iPhone 11 Pro Max if it's not going to be the same for the iPhone 12 Pro? Aren't they both supposed to be the same overall size as before just with a slightly larger display due to slightly slimmer bezel's? If they don't need to give the iPhone 12 Pro a smaller battery as a result of this, why do they need so for the iPhone 12 Pro Max? Seems rather awkward to me.

One would figure it might be due to something internal taking up more space in the 12 Pro Max compared to the 11 Pro Max but I suppose the 12 Pro and 12 Pro Max will feature the same internals as they use to so then the same should have happen with the both the non-Max and Max version.

Regardless it seems rather silly to make the battery smaller. It's almost a 300 mAh difference. This is the Pro Max, if you need to a tiny bit larger in order to fit the same size battery in it why don't they just do it? It's not users that opt for the Pro Max will complain about it being 6,8-inch and not 6,7-inch.
In my opinion, they made this choice to save even more money on the batteries. This won’t make any difference for the users because the difference is too small and it would be compensated by the lower power consumption of the A14
 
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I wouldn't be surprised if with 5G the battery takes a knock, I just hope that is is still a step up from my X.
The new X55 5G chipset the iPhones will be using is lower power than the previous X50 5G chipset used by other phones. Furthermore, 4G LTE is built-in. X50 required a separate LTE chipset.

BTW, X55 is built on a 7 nm process, whereas X50 is 10 nm.
 
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Meaningfully smaller battery capacity from last year's phone's, 5G antennas, lidar/cameras, no LTPO display, and especially pro motion if included in the high end phones. Usually each version will get one of these new "features" which could potentially impact battery life, but this year they're adding a few -- all with smaller size batteries, and no new display efficiencies.

so you’ve reeled off a bunch of rumour features that may potentially draw power but no mention of any rumour features that save power..

You might want to mention that the a14 is moving to 5nm technology and the power savings that will come with that.
 
People keep forgetting that this year’s iPhones will come with a 5nm SoC which will dramatically decrease the power consumption. These phones will have great battery life.
 
Moving to 5nm does not mean the power consumption is going to drop; only if the components are not modified and maintains the same level of perf from last year.

Apple isn't porting A13 to 5nm. We know nothing about what they're doing for A14, it may have more components adding to it, much faster cores, more GPUs, etc. It can still eat the same amount of power or even more power than A13. Just as A13 is more power hungry than A12 (7nm+ vs. 7nm) while giving us ~15% gain in IPC.
 
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Moving to 5nm does not mean the power consumption is going to drop; only if the components are not modified and maintains the same level of perf from last year.

Apple isn't porting A13 to 5nm. We know nothing about what they're doing for A14, it may have more components adding to it, much faster cores, more GPUs, etc. It can still eat the same amount of power or even more power than A13. Just as A13 is more power hungry than A12 (7nm+ vs. 7nm) while giving us ~15% gain in IPC.

Smaller transistors require less power for their functioning. This reduces the overall power consumption of the chip. Less power also results in the generation of less heat and thus allowing to increase clock speeds further.
 
Smaller transistors require less power for their functioning. This reduces the overall power consumption of the chip. Less power also results in the generation of less heat and thus allowing to increase clock speeds further.

> thus allowing to increase clock speeds further.

Which requires more power, negating almost all of the original benefits. That's precisely what I was trying to point out.

Power consumption will drop naturally but only if Apple doesn't change anything and the chip has the same limits set.

We do not know what Apple is planning to do for A14, there is nothing that says that Apple is not going to push clocks further, add more cores, etc.

Also, one of the bigger problems with shrinking transistors is that they leak current without any better isolation between them (smaller transistors, thinner gate controls, etc) and that actually result into more heat, resulting into worse performance if not carefully managed. That's why they can't easily shrink transistors as fast as they could back in 2000. That's why they keep inventing stuff like tri-gate, FinFET and more coming soon. It's not a big problem right now but we're very near at the limits.
 
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Wasn't too long ago before we thought these phones would be having smaller batteries.

Bigger batteries always gets my interest! <cough>. I'll shamelessly admit it. The battery life on my 11 Pro Max is beyond perfect for my usage.
 
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Smaller transistors require less power for their functioning. This reduces the overall power consumption of the chip. Less power also results in the generation of less heat and thus allowing to increase clock speeds further.
5FF(A14) reduce only about 10% power consumption compare as current 7FF+(A13).
 
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Good. They should stop being obsessed with thinness and but in larger batteries. When your phone can’t make the day it can actually be a safety issue not being able to make an emergency phone call.
 
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so you’ve reeled off a bunch of rumour features that may potentially draw power but no mention of any rumour features that save power..

You might want to mention that the a14 is moving to 5nm technology and the power savings that will come with that.

Correct, and neither do you -- which is why I left it out. Do you think they are so confident in battery savings provided by a more efficient chip, that they decided to shrink the battery accordingly, or do you think they shrunk the battery because they needed room for other components that were not included in previous phones?
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so you’ve reeled off a bunch of rumour features that may potentially draw power but no mention of any rumour features that save power..

You might want to mention that the a14 is moving to 5nm technology and the power savings that will come with that.

You're right, I didn't include that information. I put a heavier weight on unknown factors such as 5G, and potentially Pro Motion and Lidar. We know generally speaking what to expect with a processor upgrade, including its impact on battery life.

120Hz (if it happens), 5G, Larger screen size, smaller supposed physical battery. Maybe they should just have said "average" as the 11 series was well above average.

I said 'pretty bad, when compared to how stellar it was last year'
 
Apple is supposed to offer an array of energy efficiency elements to allow for smaller sized batteries. Even if true, I'll be wondering about my battery life, thinking, "What if...".
 
Even very pro-Apple websites stated that the physical increase in battery size this year had just as much, if not more, to do with the improved battery life as performance gains from the newest A-series. I know Apple makes great silicon, but still...
As a better engineer than I will say one day “You canna change the Laws of Physics”. Mind you, he will then say “but he wouldn't believe me, so I had to come up with a whole new engine start-up routine."
 


MySmartPrice has unearthed another certification for an Apple battery possibly destined for an iPhone 12 model, although its 2,815mAh capacity requires a revised prediction for the various capacities of Apple's forthcoming devices.

Apple-A2479-SafetyKorea-Battery-2.jpg

Image of the new battery capacity, purportedly for 'iPhone 12' (via MySmartPrice)

Apple is expected to release four iPhones this fall, including one 5.4-inch model, two 6.1-inch models, and one 6.7-inch model. As a refresher, based on earlier certifications, MySmartPrice previously interpreted the capacities of Apple's ‌iPhone 12‌ models in the following manner:
  • Apple ‌iPhone 12‌ (5.4-inch) – A2471 – 2,227mAh
  • Apple ‌iPhone 12‌ Max (6.1-inch) – A2431 – 2,775mAh
  • Apple ‌iPhone 12‌ Pro (6.1-inch) – A2431 – 2,775mAh
  • Apple ‌iPhone 12‌ Pro Max (6.7-inch) – A2466 – 3,687mAh
This list assumed the iPhone 12‌ Max and ‌higher-end ‌iPhone 12‌ Pro would share the same 2,775mAh battery. However, today's finding on the certification platforms C3 and Safety Korea suggests the higher-end "Pro" variant of the two 6.1-inch models could get a more capacious 2,815mAh battery (model number A2479) to power its extra features.

Without corroboration from other sources, the battery capacities for the different models remains pure speculation. But as we noted in a previous report, these capacities are lower than the batteries found in the current iPhone 11 lineup – indeed, the ‌iPhone 11 Pro Max‌ has the largest battery life of any iPhone ever, lasting up to five hours longer than the ‌iPhone XS‌ Max per charge.

Assuming these models are destined for iPhone 12, this could be either due to better energy efficiency in Apple's next-generation A14 chip, or because of internal space constraints. All four upcoming devices are expected to debut in the fall and, based on rumors, will have OLED displays, 5G support, a new ‌iPhone‌ 4-like metal frame, up to 6GB of RAM, up to triple-lens rear cameras with 3D sensing, and more.

Article Link: New Apple Battery Filing Suggests 'iPhone 12 Pro' Could Get Higher Capacity Than Previously Thought

Apple always does this. When they do a new design, they lower the battery, leave the camera the same. This way the 12s version the following year can get the bigger battery. Thus creating the illusion of a upgrade. They always do this and people are too under Apples spell to realize it. No reason to shrink the battery. Zero.
 
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Apple always does this. When they do a new design, they lower the battery, leave the camera the same. This way the 12s version the following year can get the bigger battery. Thus creating the illusion of a upgrade. They always do this and people are too under Apples spell to realize it. No reason to shrink the battery. Zero.
No reason? I can think of many myself, but I’ll regroup them all in a single one:
- new components for new hardware backed features that can be squeezed in without lowering battery life because the whole system uses less power.
 
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How is that "disappointing"? 3687 vs. 3969 is a 7% percent difference, on something that was already a dramatic improvement from its predecessor, and this is without any accounting for the performance leaps the A14 chip may demonstrate, saving enough energy to account for NO difference.

Do you think Apple is going to get up there and say these phones have "slightly less" battery life than last year? No, it will be the same, or more. Which is all that matters.

Physical size matters with battery. It is disappointing and a step backwards.
 
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Physical size matters with battery. It is disappointing and a step backwards.

Physical size is not the only measure of a battery's capacity though. For example if I have a Lithium Ion and NiCad battery of the exact same size, the Li-ion battery will have significantly higher capacity because of a higher energy density. Newer battery types have the potential to make even more significant improvement in capacity. Here's an example of developments with EV batteries where the focus is on achieving a higher energy density battery specifically to build a "significantly smaller, lighter weight, less expensive battery pack".

 
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