One of the most important specs that phone buyers look at is the battery capacity of the models they are looking to buy. This makes sense and you can say that arguably Apple started to become more battery-conscious with the iPhone 11 series. The latest rumor involving the battery sizes of the upcoming iPhone 16 series shows improvements in the capacity of the cell used on each model except for one, the iPhone 16 Plus.
The Apple 14 Plus was equipped with the largest battery ever used on an iPhone at the time
Apple first added the “Plus” model to the iPhone line with the 2022 iPhone 14 series as it replaced the disappointing (for Apple) iPhone 13 mini. That was the second and last year for the smaller-screened iPhone model and when Apple replaced it with the iPhone 14 Plus, it did some smart things. First, it brought back the “Plus” moniker which had been used by Apple to denote the larger 5.5-inch LCD panels used on the iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 7 Plus, and iPhone 8 Plus. The non-Plus units all were equipped with a 4.7-inch LCD display.
Secondly, Apple gave the iPhone 14 Plus the same-sized 6.7-inch screen that was available on the iPhone 14 Pro Max. This allowed those with smaller budgets the opportunity to buy a large-screened iPhone. The most important thing Apple did was to equip the iPhone 14 Plus with a 4325mAh battery, the largest ever found in an iPhone at the time, and slightly topping the 4323 mAh capacity of the battery in the iPhone 14 Pro Max. Apple even rad an ad promoting “Our longest battery life” on the iPhone 14 Plus.
Larger screens for the iPhone 16 Pro series will need larger batteries
When Majin Bu released his battery capacity numbers for the 2024 iPhone 16 line, he did not have the numbers for the iPhone 16 Pro included. Now, a leaker on China’s Weibo social media platform posted what he says are the battery capacity figures for each iPhone 16 series model. While the numbers posted by OvO Baby Sauce OvO match those released by Majin Bu, the former also includes what he says is the battery capacity for the iPhone 16 Pro.
Weibo poster confirms earlier iPhone 16 series battery capacity leak
So according to OvO Baby Sauce OvO, the 2024 iPhone 16 line will feature these battery capacities (the figure for the comparable iPhone 15 model and the percentage hike or reduction in capacity is in parenthesis):
iPhone 16: 3561mAh (3367mAh, +5.8%)
iPhone 16 Plus: 4006mAh (4383mAh, -8.6%)l
iPhone 16 Pro: 3355mAh (3290mAh, +2%)
iPhone 16 Pro Max: 4676mAh (4422mAh, +5.7%)
We should point out that this year the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max should sport larger 6.3-inch and 6.9-inch screens respectively which is one reason to expect those models to be powered by larger batteries. On the other hand, the A18 Pro application processor (AP) will be manufactured by TSMC using its second-generation 3nm process node (N3E). This should make the chipset more energy efficient than last year’s A17 Pro AP used on the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max.
We still have about five months to go before the iPhone 16 series is introduced and last year we had some early rumors about the batteries for the iPhone 15 line which never came close to panning out. So take the figures in this article with a grain of salt and keep in mind that we are sure to see some more rumors about the iPhone 16 series battery capacities before the new phones greet the light of day.