Will the iPhone 16 Plus Get a Smaller Battery This Year?

A new report claiming to have the battery capacities for this year’s iPhone 16 lineup reveals that iPhone 16 Plus fans may end up shortchanged on run time.

While it’s still too early to assume that any of these numbers are even close to accurate, a leaker going by the handle OvO Baby Sauce OvO shared a post on Weibo (via Mashable) listing the expected sizes of the battery cells that will be used in the iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max.

If accurate, these numbers would spell some good news for the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro Max, both of which are expected to see an increase in capacity of around 6%. However, Apple’s largest standard iPhone won’t be faring so well, with the battery expected to shrink by 8.6%.

Meanwhile, the iPhone 16 Pro would see a modest increase of around 2.5% compared to this year’s iPhone 15 Pro model.

It can’t be emphasized enough that this report should be taken with a healthy dose of your favorite sodium seasoning. Last year, a July report predicted that batteries in the iPhone 15 models would all grow by 12-18%, but the reality turned out to be much less exciting, with actual increases ranging from 1.34% for the iPhone 15 Plus to 2.31% for the iPhone 15 Pro.

This latest report from a relatively anonymous leaker comes even earlier in the production cycle for Apple’s new iPhones. It seems exceedingly odd that the company would reduce the size of the battery specifically in the iPhone 16 Plus, where longer battery life is one of the key reasons to opt for that bulkier model.

Apple’s iPhone Plus models are a relatively new phenomenon, having only begun with the iPhone 14 Plus less than two years ago, so the iPhone 16 Plus will only be the third time we’ve seen a model in this lineup. That does give Apple some wiggle room regarding customer expectations, but this feels like a bridge too far.

After all, the iPhone 14 Plus and iPhone 15 Plus boasted battery capacities a little over 30% greater than their standard-sized siblings. If this rumor is true, the iPhone 16 Plus battery would narrow that gap significantly, leaving it a mere 12.5% more than the iPhone 16.

The iPhone 15 Plus promises 20–30% more runtime than the iPhone 15, depending on the type of activity you’re engaged in. However, some of that extra battery capacity is also needed to power the larger screen. Dropping the iPhone 16 Plus to a smaller 4,006 mAh cell (from 3,349 on the iPhone 15 Plus) while moving the iPhone 16 up to a 3,561 mAh cell (from 3,349 on the iPhone 15) would likely put the battery life of both models on par.

If you don’t think this sounds like something Apple would do, you’re not alone. At that point, the only compelling reason to opt for the iPhone 16 Plus would be to get a larger screen.

Nevertheless, it’s worth noting that battery cell sizes don’t always tell the whole story. There are a lot of other things Apple does to increase power efficiency each year, from the design of its A-series chips to variable refresh rate screens and new power management systems. However, any changes Apple would make to the iPhone 16 Plus would undoubtedly also come to the iPhone 16, meaning any changes in battery sizes should be proportional across both models.

The iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max will probably continue to boast better efficiency due to newer A-series silicon and their ability to slow their screen refresh rates down below the standard 60Hz — a feature that significantly increases battery life when streaming videos. On the flip side, this year’s iPhone Pro models are also expected to get larger screens that will consume a bit more power.

Either way, we can confidently say that whatever Apple does with the batteries for this year’s iPhone lineup, it’s not about to take a step backward in run time. While Apple rarely makes giant year-over-year leaps in battery life, it does everything it can to at least maintain the status quo.

[The information provided in this article has NOT been confirmed by Apple and may be speculation. Provided details may not be factual. Take all rumors, tech or otherwise, with a grain of salt.]