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malibuboats91

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 30, 2011
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Hi all, I keep seeing articles on how the 12 Pro battery life is worse than the 11. Any ideas on how it compares to the XS? My XS battery health is only at 84% capacity currently. Thanks!
 
The iPhone 12 Pro has a bigger battery than the Xs as well as a much more power efficient chip, the A14.
5.9% bigger battery (2815 vs 2658 mAh). In my experience it's still terrible. I just had to charge my 12 Pro at lunch time after using it for super normal stuff (some music, a couple YT videos, Telegram Messenger, one single phone call). lmao. this thing is going back soon. I'll see if the 12 PM is decent, otherwise I'm buying a 11 PM.
 
5.9% bigger battery (2815 vs 2658 mAh). In my experience it's still terrible. I just had to charge my 12 Pro at lunch time after using it for super normal stuff (some music, a couple YT videos, Telegram Messenger, one single phone call). lmao. this thing is going back soon. I'll see if the 12 PM is decent, otherwise I'm buying a 11 PM.
Reasons I retuned mine a couple days after like 2-3 days, even after software settlement it was still not up to my old battery, but that’s of course me coming from something bigger, so I expected it, tho I love the size of the 12 pro. If the 12 pro max is way to big ill just go back to the little one and manage it better.
 
5.9% bigger battery (2815 vs 2658 mAh). In my experience it's still terrible. I just had to charge my 12 Pro at lunch time after using it for super normal stuff (some music, a couple YT videos, Telegram Messenger, one single phone call). lmao. this thing is going back soon. I'll see if the 12 PM is decent, otherwise I'm buying a 11 PM.
Did you have 5G enabled all the time?
 
Did you have 5G enabled all the time?

Negative. 5G will reach my city in a year or two if we're lucky. So 5G is the very first thing I turned off after activating my phone.
Other than that, I tried sacrificing a lot of location related services and other stuff that I can live without, but the battery still SUCKS. It does, I refuse to believe anyone who says the opposite, sorry! I don't want to sound mean or an ass, but this is not my first iPhone, I think I know what I'm talking about.
We can't be here turning off half of the features on a 2020 phone to get through the day. Period. (Spoiler: even by disabling all that stuff, the phone still doesn't last enough)


Reasons I retuned mine a couple days after like 2-3 days, even after software settlement it was still not up to my old battery, but that’s of course me coming from something bigger, so I expected it, tho I love the size of the 12 pro. If the 12 pro max is way to big ill just go back to the little one and manage it better.

I really, really do hope the Max can last at least close to the 11 Pro Max. At least close to that. Otherwise I'll be forced to downgrade back to the 11 series. Still a great phone but I love the 12's design.

and yeah I agree you cannot expect the same autonomy between 12 Pro and 11 Pro Max but it can't be less than half of that either.
 
I feel like IOS 14 is playing a significant portion in the poor battery life, my Xs Max has suffered a lot and it is at 100% battery health.
 
I am coming from an X, so basically same phone just one year older, and the battery certainly is better. I’m getting about an extra 2-3 hours of screen time on daily use over the old phone.

A normal day in my iPhones life is about 3-4 hours of conference audio calls, couple hours music, 30-45 minutes Reddit, maybe 30 minutes YouTube, and then just some other random stuff here and there throughout the day.

With my iPhone X, I’d be below 20% by 5pm and charging shortly after (roughly 4-5 hours or screen time). Battery health was at 84%.

I’ve now had my iPhone 12 Pro for almost a week, and yesterday I did the same normal activities, and was at 48% around 5pm, and still at 35% when I put my phone down for the night.

All in all it is an upgrade off the older X phones, Maybe not mind-blowing but enough to be an improvement and get through a full day. Most people complaining about the battery life are coming from an 11Pro or 11 Pro Max which had a bigger battery and better battery life as a result. Honestly most people with an iPhone 11 Pro or Pro Max won’t be upgrading to a 12 Pro unless they are on an annual upgrade path.
 
12 / 12 Pro has for sure better battery life.
But if battery is the only reason to upgrade from your XS (honestly from XS the only big upgrade is camera) you should just replace the battery with a new one. 84% battery health vs 100% health is a night and day difference
 
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Everytime I've purchased a phone in the past few years, I've noticed;
1 - It takes a few days of use for the battery to live up to its potential. Be patient.
2 - It's a good idea to google something like "battery saving tips" for such and such phone.
I don't think I would be very happy if I spent upwards of close to a grand for a 5G phone and had to turn 5G off in order to make the battery last a full day. Do some research on what else to do to help the battery.
 
I moved from a XS (89% battery health) to a 12Pro. For my use case (several hours of conf calls, web browsing, texting and a bit of social media) I am better off with the Pro. I am also running a VPN in the background (on both). I am happy with the upgrade. Typically have about 30-40% left by 9:00pm (starting up a 6:00a).
 
Everytime I've purchased a phone in the past few years, I've noticed;
1 - It takes a few days of use for the battery to live up to its potential. Be patient.
2 - It's a good idea to google something like "battery saving tips" for such and such phone.
I don't think I would be very happy if I spent upwards of close to a grand for a 5G phone and had to turn 5G off in order to make the battery last a full day. Do some research on what else to do to help the battery.
I mostly agree with this. The exception is the 5G piece. Yes that's one of Apple's big selling points but 5G is clearly not prime time ready. Prior to 5G in iPhones, other phones with 5G serve as a good bellwether of what one might expect with the early 5G experience. Most of what I have read indicates 5G enabled phones take a 20% hit in battery performance. Many iPhone 12/12Pro reports show that unless you are in a city with the UWB 5G, you get better speed with LTE. So not only could you benefit from improved battery life, but you may also see improved speeds. Personally my view is, until 5G is truly ready, a 5G phone only sets you up for future proofing--assuming you'll keep the phone that long. Likely most won't.
 
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I moved from a XS (89% battery health) to a 12Pro. For my use case (several hours of conf calls, web browsing, texting and a bit of social media) I am better off with the Pro. I am also running a VPN in the background (on both). I am happy with the upgrade. Typically have about 30-40% left by 9:00pm (starting up a 6:00a).
For curiosity sake, where would be @ 9:00 with your XS, or would you have had to charge it at some point during the day?
 
For curiosity sake, where would be @ 9:00 with your XS, or would you have had to charge it at some point during the day?
I know you aren’t asking me directly... but for what it’s worth I’d usually have already had to start charging my iPhone X by 7pm everyday after work.
 
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To me this has nothing to do with iPhone 12 pro battery being terrible, but iOS 14 being a battery hog. My almost mint 11 pro with 95% battery capacity dropped drastically after the update to iOS 14. So for me the 12 pro is on par with the 11 pro. My hopes are 14.2 we can see some good changes. Who knows, but I am loving my 12 pro. I can make it through a day on a charge no problem.
 
To me this has nothing to do with iPhone 12 pro battery being terrible, but iOS 14 being a battery hog. My almost mint 11 pro with 95% battery capacity dropped drastically after the update to iOS 14. So for me the 12 pro is on par with the 11 pro. My hopes are 14.2 we can see some good changes. Who knows, but I am loving my 12 pro. I can make it through a day on a charge no problem.

I had not tried iOS 14 before selling my Pro Max so I hope you're right!
 
Hi all, I keep seeing articles on how the 12 Pro battery life is worse than the 11. Any ideas on how it compares to the XS? My XS battery health is only at 84% capacity currently. Thanks!
According to Tom’s guide who tested the battery life of the iPhone 12 on LTE, iPhone 12 Pro lasted 11:24:
To measure the impact of 5G on the iPhone 12’s battery life, we then decided to re-run our test, but on LTE. The results were eye-opening, with both the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro lasting about two hours longer when set to avoid 5G entirely. That left the iPhone 12 at 10:23, and the iPhone 12 Pro at 11:24. That iPhone 12 Pro LTE result would place that model on our list of best phone battery life for devices tested in the last 18 months.

According to Tom’s guide the iPhone 11 battery life was 11:16.
 
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Hi all, I keep seeing articles on how the 12 Pro battery life is worse than the 11. Any ideas on how it compares to the XS? My XS battery health is only at 84% capacity currently. Thanks!

Here you go
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I wouldn’t say my iPhone 12 has phenomenal battery life (as the 11 pro) but it seems to be pretty good till now. Been using for the last 4 days with avg SOT of close to 7 hrs and still end the day with 20%-25% battery left after being off the charger for 14-15 hrs. I’d say that’s pretty decent. Not used the phone for gaming or shooting long videos. No 5G usage. For typical YT, social media, phone calls, few photos and stuff the iPhone 12 seems to be more than alright.

PS: I am on 14.2 GM / RC. Battery life is really great compared to 14.1 👍🏼
 

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