There was a time when Apple’s iPhone was known for its poor or fair battery life. IPhone users were depicted as wall huggers in a hilarious Samsung television commercial that showed them at an airport looking for a plug to plug into. But last year Apple added up to an additional hour of battery life to the iPhone 11 compared to the iPhone XR; The latter had the best battery life on any iPhone model at the time. The company also added an additional four and five hours of battery life to the iPhone 11 Pro (vs. the iPhone XS) and iPhone 11 Pro Max (vs. the iPhone XS Max), respectively. As anyone with an iPhone 11 Pro Max can attest, the device’s battery life is excellent.
Apple has the 5nm Bionic A14 chipset to help improve battery life in the iPhone 12 series
So what does Apple have in mind for the battery capabilities in the iPhone 12 series? First, the battery will have to lift something heavy. Turning on 5G connectivity is a chore in itself, and if the “Pro” models have a 120Hz refresh rate as rumored, trying to make scrolling and animations smooth takes a lot of power consumption. After all, at 120 Hz, the screen updates 120 times per second.
| Phone model | Rumored battery capacity | Change from the comparable 2019 model |
|---|---|---|
| Apple iPhone 12 (A2471) | 2227mAh | -883mAh |
| Apple iPhone 12 Max | 2775mAh | N / A |
| Apple iPhone 12 Pro (A2431) | 2775mAh | -271mAh |
| Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max (A2466) | 3687mAh | -282mAh |
| Phone model | Rumored battery capacity | Change from the comparable 2019 model |
|---|---|---|
| Apple iPhone 12 (A2471) | 2227mAh | -883mAh |
| Apple iPhone 12 Max (A2431) | 2775mAh | N / A |
| Apple iPhone 12 Pro (A2479) | 2815mAh | -231mAh |
| Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max (A2466) | 3687mAh | -282mAh |
Now, actually, there is a reason for Apple to backtrack and scale back its capabilities and we’ll explore them. First, while the 28% decrease in iPhone 12 battery capacity seems excessive, remember that the screen size of the display will be 5.4 inches compared to the 5.8-inch iPhone 11. Additionally, the iPhone 12 series will be the first smartphones to run on a 5nm chipset. With 15 billion transistors inside the chip compared to the 8.5 billion that are fitted inside the A13 Bionic, the new component will be more energy efficient and could more than offset the decrease of more than 7% on the battery capacity that can be found in the iPhone 12 Pro series.
This is supposedly the 20W charger that Apple will sell for the iPhone 12 series this year.
While Apple is not supposed to include a charging brick in the box for the new iPhone 12 models, a 20W brick leaked in the photos and will be available as an accessory. Last year, the fast-charging 18W brick came out of the box with the iPhone 11 series. Giving iPhone 11 Pro buyers a $ 29 charger too much for Apple to design? With no charger expected to be included in the box this year, you can expect to pay as much if you want to buy a new charger for your new phone.
We should note that some of you have suggested that instead of comparing the 2019 iPhone battery capacities by model, we use the closest screen size. On that basis, the graph looks like this
| Phone model | Rumored battery capacity | Change to the closest 2019 model based on screen size |
|---|---|---|
| 5.4-inch Apple iPhone 12 | 2227mAh | -819mAh compared to 5.8-inch iPhone 11 Pro |
| Apple iPhone 12 Max 6.1 inch | 2775mAh | -335mAh compared to 6.1-inch iPhone 11 |
| 6.1-inch Apple iPhone 12 Pro | 2815mAh | -295mAh compared to 6.1-inch iPhone 11 |
| 6.5-inch Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max | 3687 | -282 mAh compared to 6.5-inch iPhone 11 Pro Max |
Overall, there isn’t that much of a difference and that leads us to believe that Apple has the most advanced 5nm process to increase battery life on 2020 models.
