Apple is making some pretty big claims when it comes to battery life and the new iPhones

At its huge “Glowtime” event on September 9, the company announced its iPhone 16 Pro lineup and specifically stated that the iPhone 16 Pro Max boasts “the best battery life in iPhone history”

Is this enough to put the iPhone 15 Plus or better on our best smartphone battery life list? It might be Read on to see what we can infer from the information Apple released about the iPhone 16 series and how it compares to what we already know about last year's iPhone 15 lineup

All four models have slightly different battery sizes, getting larger as the models go up Nevertheless, we can group the Pro variants with the non-Pro models because they will be equipped with different versions of the newly announced A18 chipset Of course, the Pro and Pro Max will be powered by the A18 Pro, while last year's versions were powered by the A17 Pro processor The iPhone 16 and 16 Plus, on the other hand, skipped the A17 and jumped straight to the A18

Again, Apple does not publish the battery size of its phones, but Tom's Guide extensively tests every device that comes across our desks And we can get the battery size from regulatory lists and teardowns

According to regulatory listings, the iPhone 15 has a 3,349 mAh battery and the iPhone 15 Plus has a 4,383 mAh battery In our tests, the Plus model performed much better than the standard iPhone 15, delivering 14 hours 14 minutes of battery life compared to 11 hours 5 minutes

We will not know how the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus will perform until we fully test the devices

For now, we can see the number of video and audio plays that Apple claims in its technical specifications

As you can see, the iPhone 16 barely lasts longer than the iPhone 15, with 22 hours of video playback compared to 20 hours for the iPhone 15 Plus is only slightly better, extending video playback by only an hour, while streaming playback extends it by several hours

Audio remains the same on both models

New processors are usually more energy efficient than the previous generation Since on-device AI tends to require more power to run, it is questionable whether bringing Apple Intelligence to cell phones will result in shorter battery life If so, battery life may not just surpass the iPhone 15 series, but come close to it

The A18 chip has a six-core CPU and is said to be 30% faster than the iPhone 15's A16 Apple claims it is more energy efficient and consumes 30% less power while offering comparable performance; the GPU is said to be 35% more efficient; and the A18 chip is said to have a more efficient CPU

In particular, with the iPhone 16 Pro model, Apple promises the best battery life in iPhone history

Pro models will feature the A18 Pro chipset, which Apple claims is 20% more power efficient than last year's A17 Pro chip

According to regulatory listings, the iPhone 15 Pro had a 3,274 mAh battery, while the Pro Max had a 4,422 mAh battery

The iPhone 15 Plus had the best battery life of the four phones in our test, offering 14 hours and 14 minutes of battery life; the 15 Pro was the weakest, with only 10 hours and 53 minutes of battery life; the 15 Pro Max at 14 hours and 2 minutes, a little closer to the Plus

So, based on the number of plays, how well could the iPhone 16 Pro model outperform its predecessor?

The iPhone 16 Pro model appears to be better, but only slightly in a few categories

Both models add 10 hours of audio playback compared to the iPhone 15 Pro model For streaming video playback, the 16 Pro is rated several hours longer than the 15 Pro, with the 16 Pro Max adding 4 hours

Standard video playback saw a slightly larger leap, with an additional 4 hours on both 16 Pro models

Most flagship smartphones these days have batteries approaching the 5,000 mAh size and good battery life However, the implementation of AI and the power it requires will truly test how long these batteries will last

For comparison, the recently launched Google Pixel 9 Pro and its larger model, the Pixel 9 Pro XL, have 4,700 mAh and 5,060 mAh batteries, respectively We tested the 9 Pro at 13 hours and 37 minutes, far exceeding the iPhone 15 Pro

The marginal gain in playback time may put the iPhone 16 Pro at a disadvantage against the Pixel 9 Pro

The larger Pixel 9 Pro XL, on the other hand, logged 14 hours and 37 minutes in our tests Again, the 16 Pro Max appears to be superior, but is it superior by 35 minutes?

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