Apple promised us that the iPhone 16 series would come with larger batteries this year, which would explain the considerable improvement in battery life this year. But the company never told us how much bigger the batteries actually were. In fact, Apple never lists this key spec.
Thankfully, new regulatory information from Brazilian regulator Anatel (via Blog de iPhone) has just revealed all the details.
As you can see, most iPhone 16s have had around 6% more battery capacity compared to last year. The only exception being the iPhone 16 Pro, which has an additional 9.4% power reserves. Considering our testing found the iPhone 15 Pro had the worst battery life of the 2023 iPhones, that extra capacity is definitely welcomed.
Of course the battery size isn’t the only thing affecting the iPhone 16 Pro’s battery life. The A18 and A18 Pro chips have been designed to be more efficient than their predecessors, meaning the energy in those batteries will go a lot further.
It’s also been claimed that iOS 18 improved the battery life on iPhone 15 Pro Max, and if true, it suggests Apple’s newest software is playing an important part as well. We haven’t done our own testing to confirm that, but all these factors combined are why the iPhone 16 Pro Max managed to hit an insane 18 hours of battery life on a single charge.
iPhone 16s are now on sale across the world, meaning you can enjoy this improved battery life for yourselves. And no doubt these battery capacities will be confirmed once the first teardowns of the phone start appearing online, and we can get a good look at the actual batteries inside the phones.
More from Tom's Guide
- iOS 18.1 public beta is live — here's the Apple Intelligence features you can try now
- iPhone 16 Pro benchmarks — here’s how it stacks up to Android flagships
- Forget iPhone 16 — iPhone 18 tipped for this chip breakthrough
