With the exception of the brief launch of 5G with the iPhone 12, Apple’s phones have always provided proper, if not exceptional, battery life. Indeed, the iPhone 15 Pro Max and iPhone 15 Plus appear on our list of handsets with the best phone battery life (although in 13th and 14th place, respectively).
Could the forthcoming iPhone 16 series go much further and provide more stamina? There are a couple battery and charging rumors that make us hopeful. Here are five of them.
iPhone 16: Over 30 Hours of Battery Life?
Battery capacity is expressed in milliamp hours (mAh). While this can provide an estimate of expected consumption in hours, it does not reveal the entire story. Screen technology, software optimization, and chip efficiency (not to mention how you use your phone) all have an impact on how long a smartphone lasts. Nonetheless, Naver leaker Yeaux1122 claims that Apple’s iPhone 16 Pro models could last more than 30 hours.
At the moment, Apple boasts that its iPhone 15 Pro devices provide “up to 29 hours of video playback,” so they wouldn’t need to go too far to back up this claim. The non-Pro ones are labeled as “up to 26 hours,” so they would require a greater leap to match.
Larger Battery Cells Incoming for iPhone 16
So far, leakers appear to agree that the majority of iPhone 16 phones will have larger batteries, resulting in longer run periods. Two leakers have attempted to put mAh figures on several of the devices, with varying results. According to Weibo leaker Baby Bay Sauce, the normal iPhone 16 will have a 3,561mAh battery (6% increase), the Pro 3,555mAh (2% increase), and the Pro Max 4,676mAh (5% increase). X user @lipilipsi believes the Pro variants will be much larger, with capacities of 3,577 mAh and 4,747 mAh, respectively.
Regardless of how great the increase is, the increased capacity, paired with efficiency savings from the A18 chipset, should result in better stamina overall. There is one conceivable exception.
Larger Battery Cells Incoming for iPhone 16 (Except Plus Model)
Interestingly, Baby Bay Sauce states that one iPhone will appear to be going backward. According to the leaker, the iPhone 16 Plus will have a 4,006mAh battery, down 9% from the 4,383mAh cell featured in the iPhone 15 Plus. That would be disheartening, if accurate, given that the iPhone 15 Plus offers the longest battery life we’ve ever seen on an Apple device. However, with chip efficiency improvements, it is possible that it will be undetectable in regular use.
Denser Battery Coming to iPhone 16 Pro Max
If these battery estimates are right, the iPhone 16 Pro Max will have a significantly larger capacity than the large-screen iPhone 16 Plus, and more than 1,000 mAh than the smaller variants. Does that imply that it will be chunkier? Not necessarily. According to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the Pro Max’s future battery would have a greater energy density, implying more milliamp-hours of battery capacity in the same space. In other words, you might fit more batteries into the same small body.
Boosted Charging Speeds Expected for iPhone 16
Actual capacity is simply one piece of the puzzle. The other factor is how quickly your phone charges, and Apple has yet to join the charging arms race, which has seen some Android phones charge from zero to 100% in under 15 minutes using triple-figure chargers.
While it does not appear that Apple will be approaching those speeds, one tipper feels the business will make some progress. On X, Paras Guglani stated that he believes the iPhone 16 series will support 40W wired charging and 20W wireless charging.
Even if he’s correct—which is a significant improvement over the existing 25W limit—Apple is not expected to start including chargers with its phones again, so in order to take advantage of these faster speeds, you’ll have to buy a plug.
iPhone 16 Battery: What to Expect
The iPhone’s battery life has always been a trade-off between light weight, thin design, and a respectable runtime, much like with other smartphone manufacturers. It appears that the iPhone 16 family’s handset battery life is gradually increasing, but it doesn’t seem like it will make much of a difference—possibly with the exception of the Pro Max variant.
On the other hand, faster charging would be extremely beneficial and much more doable for relatively short running times. Despite being the more dubious of the aforementioned reports, that would be the most thrilling in the end and most likely required given the density of the Pro Max battery, which will take longer to charge.
When the four new iPhone models are shown in September, we’ll see where Apple ultimately ends up.