iOS 18 Extends iPhone 15 Pro Max Battery Life, Yet iPhone 16 Wins!

iOS 18 introduces an additional hour of battery life for the iPhone 15 Pro Max, making last year's top model align more closely with the iPhone 16 Pro Max in terms of energy efficiency.

A series of tests by Chinese tech reviewer Geekerwan revealed that the iPhone 15 Pro Max achieved 7 hours and 56 minutes of battery life on iOS 17 under mixed usage conditions. Remarkably, this number increased to 9 hours and 2 minutes when the device operated on iOS 18.

Geekerwan's experiment covered various activities such as using Douyin (the Chinese counterpart of TikTok), engaging in video and audio calls, messaging on WeChat, and gaming with Genshin Impact, a resource-intensive mobile game.

The findings place the iPhone 15 Pro Max ahead of the iPhone 16, which clocked 8 hours and 14 minutes, and also the iPhone 16 Pro, which lasted 8 hours and 28 minutes. However, both the iPhone 16 Plus and iPhone 16 Pro Max went past these metrics, delivering 10 hours and 1 minute, and 10 hours and 23 minutes of battery life, respectively.

The improved efficiency witnessed on iOS 18 can be attributed to the software's enhanced job scheduler, which optimizes the utilization of the A18 Pro's performance and efficiency cores. This reduces unnecessary power consumption, as suggested by 9to5Mac.

Potential iPhone 16 Battery Capacities

The iPhone 16 Pro Max lineup 

Detailed investigative reports by BlogdoiPhone have provided insights into the iPhone 16 series' reported battery sizes. Official documents sent to Brazilian agency Anatel reveal precise battery capacities:

iPhone model

Battery capacity

Increase versus previous generation

iPhone 16

3,561mAh

6.34%

iPhone 16 Plus

4,674mAh

6.64%

iPhone 16 Pro

3,582mAh

9.40%

iPhone 16 Pro Max

4,685mAh

5.95%

The increase in battery size within the iPhone 16 Pro Max is likely due to its slightly larger chassis, necessary to house the most expansive iPhone screen yet. This enhancement, however, presents a conundrum for current iPhone 15 Pro Max users considering an upgrade, as observed in our comprehensive iPhone 16 Pro Max review.