iPhone 16e The iPhone 16e’s battery difference in reality

[kristoffer4]

I really do wonder how much better the battery of iPhone 16e will be compared to the iphone 16.
The 16 Pro is supposed to have 5 hours more of video playback compared to the regular 16.
But in this battery test with normal use, they ran out of battery at the exact same time.

If the battery ends up being the same as the regular 16, the advantages of the 16e shrinks even further.
I think I will upgrade my 13 mini to the 16, but holding out for reviews of the 16e.

 

[Cobalt Blizzard]

Increased battery life comes from a more efficient cellular modem. This type of test in this video won’t show any increased results.

 

[FeliApple]

To add another data point:

iOS devices are very easy to kill quickly with heavy usage patterns. When you run these tests, with extremely heavy usage, iPhones blur together, with all of them being killed very quickly.

I recall a video I saw when the 11 Pro Max was launched. I get 16 hours of SOT on my iPhone Xʀ on iOS 12. The 11 Pro Max was supposed to get like 5 more hours. The YouTube video showed the user, who was an extremely heavy one, drain the 11 Pro Max’s battery in 5-6 hours. He tried a regular 11, and killed it in about 4, 4.5. There is a difference, but I’d get a much higher delta if I were running the test, because I’m infinitely more efficient.

For someone like me, maybe the 11 Pro Max on iOS 13 would give me 22 hours. That’s a massive, 6-hour improvement. The guy barely got one hour of improvement. The heavier you go, the narrower the difference.

You won’t see the 5 hours you mention with a heavy usage pattern. Apple’s rated hours, in the real world, typically correlate with very light and efficient usage patterns, which practically nobody can achieve. Low brightness, Wi-Fi, and efficient apps. It’s the only way.

 

[ThatsMeRight]

There's a reason why Apple advertises with a battery life that's measured by playing a video on relatively low brightness. It's not intensive. The device is not in use for other tasks. Black bars are often shown, which basically means part of the display are literally turned off. The chip goes in a low power mode. On the Pro models, there's the benefit of an adaptive refresh rate. Instead of pushing 120 frames per second, all that is required is 24-30 frames per second (which is the frame rate of films and tv shows).

You may also have noted that they sometimes communicate battery life based on audio playback. Some impressive numbers... except the display is off, radios are not in use, the chip is basically idle, etc.

That doesn't mean battery life hasn't improved over past generations. It's just that Apple really just communicates the 'best case scenario' - which is playing video (most commonly advertised battery life) or playing audio (also mentioned in marketing material albeit a bit less).

 

[FeliApple]

There's a reason why Apple advertises with a battery life that's measured by playing a video on relatively low brightness. It's not intensive. The device is not in use for other tasks. Black bars are often shown, which basically means part of the display are literally turned off. The chip goes in a low power mode. On the Pro models, there's the benefit of an adaptive refresh rate. Instead of pushing 120 frames per second, all that is required is 24-30 frames per second (which is the frame rate of films and tv shows).

You may also have noted that they sometimes communicate battery life based on audio playback. Some impressive numbers... except the display is off, radios are not in use, the chip is basically idle, etc.

That doesn't mean battery life hasn't improved over past generations. It's just that Apple really just communicates the 'best case scenario' - which is playing video (most commonly advertised battery life) or playing audio (also mentioned in marketing material albeit a bit less).

Yes, but do you know what’s a massive doubt I have? Why do people keep eating into that battery life improvement?

I’m seeing the same mediocre SOT I used to see on the 6s on iOS 9. I understand that you have to be efficient to get Apple spec runtime (trust me, I know, I get Apple spec), but many keep posting the same garbage SOT I saw 10 years ago. How inefficient can you be that you get a device rated for three times the SOT yet still keep getting 6-7 hours?

I’m getting 16 hours on my iPhone Xʀ on iOS 12, and I will be upgrading to a 16 Plus soon. I’m hoping to get at least something north of 20 hours.

 

[cigz]

Increased battery life comes from a more efficient cellular modem. This type of test in this video won’t show any increased results.

Yes, this type of test will show difference in battery life because the increased battery life doesn't come only from this "efficient" cellular modem.
They literally put bigger battery in 16e AND they're using binned SOC.
People have to stop saying that 16e has the longest battery life thanks to that cellular modem. We don't even know how
much efficient it is compared to Qualcomm. And it'll probably be hard to compare because Apple's modem will have slower speeds and worse coverage only to be slightly more efficient.

 

[cjrrsr]

The physical size of the of the 16e battery is larger than the 16,16pro,15,15Pro,14,14Pro etc. Even larger than the 12 Pro Max, I expect impressive battery life.

 

[TgeekB]

Real life experience, I would expect, to be very good. We will see.

 

[ThatsMeRight]

Yes, but do you know what’s a massive doubt I have? Why do people keep eating into that battery life improvement?

I’m seeing the same mediocre SOT I used to see on the 6s on iOS 9. I understand that you have to be efficient to get Apple spec runtime (trust me, I know, I get Apple spec), but many keep posting the same garbage SOT I saw 10 years ago. How inefficient can you be that you get a device rated for three times the SOT yet still keep getting 6-7 hours?

I’m getting 16 hours on my iPhone Xʀ on iOS 12, and I will be upgrading to a 16 Plus soon. I’m hoping to get at least something north of 20 hours.

Because people always tend to post extremes.

I bet that, in normal day-to-day use, the majority of people have seen a massive increase in battery life. People also quickly tend to forget how bad the earlier iPhone models were. The iPhone 4 had an advertised 6 hours of battery life when on cellular, for example. In reality, that was even a lot less, as you'd might also be listening to music, have stuff running in the background, are using it outdoors (= higher screen brightness), etc.

Nowadays there are certainly ways to quickly drain the battery, but in normal use battery life is very good compared to where we came from. Also something a lot of people forget: battery charging speed has increased a lot. If I'm planning to go out in half an hour, but my battery is nearly empty... well, I put it on the charger and by the time I'm leaving it will have charged at least 50%, which will now easily last me until I get back home.

10 years ago with a 5 Watt charger? Maybe something like 20% charged in 30 minutes if I was lucky? Back then, that was maybe enough for 1 hour of usage.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

Because people always tend to post extremes.

I bet that, in normal day-to-day use, the majority of people have seen a massive increase in battery life. People also quickly tend to forget how bad the earlier iPhone models were. The iPhone 4 had an advertised 6 hours of battery life when on cellular, for example. In reality, that was even a lot less, as you'd might also be listening to music, have stuff running in the background, are using it outdoors (= higher screen brightness), etc.

Nowadays there are certainly ways to quickly drain the battery, but in normal use battery life is very good compared to where we came from. Also something a lot of people forget: battery charging speed has increased a lot. If I'm planning to go out in half an hour, but my battery is nearly empty... well, I put it on the charger and by the time I'm leaving it will have charged at least 50%, which will now easily last me until I get back home.

10 years ago with a 5 Watt charger? Maybe something like 20% charged in 30 minutes if I was lucky? Back then, that was maybe enough for 1 hour of usage.

Completely agree with all of this.
I started with an iPod Touch 2G as my first iOS device.
you were lucky to get 2, maybe 2.5 hours of youtube watching.
The iPhone 5 I had needed at least 1 and a half cycles to get through the day, and the 6+, while being the first iPhone with okay battery life, it was still a miracle if you finished the day with any more than 10% battery left.
The first iPhone with great battery life was the XR from 2018.
It has gotten to the point where my 15 Pro Max usually ends the day around 40%, and that's at 87% health.
The batteries have improved leaps and bounds over that iPod Touch 2G.

 

[FeliApple]

Because people always tend to post extremes.

I bet that, in normal day-to-day use, the majority of people have seen a massive increase in battery life. People also quickly tend to forget how bad the earlier iPhone models were. The iPhone 4 had an advertised 6 hours of battery life when on cellular, for example. In reality, that was even a lot less, as you'd might also be listening to music, have stuff running in the background, are using it outdoors (= higher screen brightness), etc.

Nowadays there are certainly ways to quickly drain the battery, but in normal use battery life is very good compared to where we came from. Also something a lot of people forget: battery charging speed has increased a lot. If I'm planning to go out in half an hour, but my battery is nearly empty... well, I put it on the charger and by the time I'm leaving it will have charged at least 50%, which will now easily last me until I get back home.

10 years ago with a 5 Watt charger? Maybe something like 20% charged in 30 minutes if I was lucky? Back then, that was maybe enough for 1 hour of usage.

Yeah, battery life has definitely improved. Maybe people’s usage patterns are far heavier now, so they eat into that improvement, but still.

The typical internet screenshot should be far higher than what it is, imo.

I do remember the iPhone 5s on iOS 8 being utterly abhorrent for LTE and outdoor brightness use, hovering at around 3 hours of SOT even with my efficient usage. My iPhone Xʀ on iOS 12 is at about 11 hours with similar usage.

There has definitely been an improvement, but many people are showing very mediocre usage times.

I’ll be upgrading to the 16 Plus soon, we’ll see, but I’m an efficient user, so I will probably see an improvement.

 

[winxmac]

The battery life using number of hours playback is only valid for the pre-release or initial release of iOS on the new iPhone but after a new iOS release and as the battery gets degraded [and even when the battery gets replaced], the number of hours playback or battery life will not remain the same.

Are you going to buy the iPhone 16e which has the bare essentials or are you going for the earlier releases or the ones to be released in Q3/Q4 2025?

 

[unex]

Battery in 16e is slightly over 4000 mAh + energysaving C1 modem = impressive battery life.
It was a genius idea to put bigger battery inside instead of magsafe magnets, which can be put on with a case if needed.