iPhone 16 battery almost matches 15 Pro Max in real-life tests

Come Friday, millions of iPhone fans around the world will get their hands on the iPhone 16 model they’ve preordered. Over the weekend, they’ll have time to set up their new handsets and hopefully marvel at the amazing battery life all four models can deliver.

It’s not just the iPhone 16 Pro Max and 16 Plus that will feature amazing battery life. The smaller iPhone 16 and 16 Pro will also get a big boost in battery life. That’s what Apple’s estimates have already suggested.

The first real-life battery tests are now out, and the results are even better than we expected. The entry-level iPhone 16 battery is so good that it almost matches last year’s iPhone 15 Pro Max.

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In typical fashion, Apple used vague marketing terms to describe iPhone 16 battery life during the launch event. Apple said it made the batteries bigger in every model. The company also said that the iPhone 16 Pro Max features the best battery life ever.

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The main iPhone 16 Pro features, including battery life claims. Image source: Apple Inc.

That’s why I dug through Apple’s iPhone pages for battery life estimates that let me compare the iPhone 16 series with all the previous models. Those estimates say battery life is better on all iPhone 16 variants than earlier versions.

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But because Apple has a very specific way of testing battery life, the stats aren’t always in line with real-life use. That’s where Tom’s Guide test comes in:

We put the iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and the iPhone 16 Pro Max through the Tom’s Guide battery test, which involves continuously surfing the web over a mobile connection at 150 nits of screen brightness.

We finally know Apple’s iPhone 16 battery capacity for each different model

The blog uses the same test for each new iPhone, which means it can compare the results to the iPhone 15 series and Android rivals. Here are the battery life test results in hours and minutes for all iPhone 16 and iPhone 15 models:

• iPhone 16 – 12:43
• iPhone 16 Plus – 16:29
• iPhone 16 Pro – 14:07
• iPhone 16 Pro Max – 18:06
• iPhone 15 – 11:05
• iPhone 15 Plus – 14:14
• iPhone 15 Pro – 10:53
• iPhone 15 Pro Max – 14:02

There’s no doubt about it: The iPhone 16 features massive battery gains across the board. The cheapest iPhone 16 model can last almost 13 hours, while last year’s iPhone 15 Pro Max lasted for only one hour more. That’s just amazing.

The iPhone 16 Pro battery outperforms last year’s 15 Pro Max by 5 minutes and lasts almost two hours longer than its predecessor. The iPhone 16 Pro Max beats its predecessor by over four hours.

iPhone 16 Plus and 16 Pro Max are easy choices if you want to forget your battery life worries. Disabling the Always-On display on the iPhone 16 Pros will improve battery life even further.

Put differently, each iPhone 16 model should last a full day of use. The larger models might get you almost two days of battery life.

How did Apple manage to do it? It combined the more efficient A18 chips with larger batteries and rumored battery innovations . The blog doesn’t have battery sizes for the iPhone 16 series. We’ll have to wait for teardowns for that detail. But leaks already said most iPhone 16 models will feature larger battery packs than their predecessors.

When it comes to competitors, the Galaxy S24 Ultra lasted 16 hours and 46 minutes in the same test, while the base Google Pixel 9 stayed awake for 13 hours and 18 minutes. You can see the full results at this link .

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