I WAS one of the first people in the world to touch the new iPhone 16 – but there was one big upgrade I simply wasn’t able to try.
In fact it was impossible to test out, partly because it’s so good.
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I’m talking about the frankly enormous rise in battery life.
Apple showed off four new handsets at its September 9 Glowtime event: the iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max.
And the most expensive model in that line-up – the Pro Max, which I was able to go hands-on with at Apple park in California – promises a whopping 33 hours of video playback.
I’m not sure I’d ever need to play videos for that long, but it’s nice to know that I could.
APPLE JUICE!
More importantly, if it can do 33 hours of video then it can almost certainly squeeze out plenty of other stuff too before running out of juice.
Impressively, this is a big rise over the 29 hours of video playback offered on last year’s iPhone 15 Pro Max.
The catch is that it’s only the iPhone 16 Pro Max that serves up this enormous battery life.
However, all four new iPhone models deliver more life per charge versus their 2023 counterparts.
For instance, the iPhone 15 only (and don’t read too much into that “only”) 20 hours of video playback.
But the new iPhone 16 gives you 22 hours.
It’s the same story for the iPhone 16 Plus, which is up to 27 hours from last year’s 26.
And the regular iPhone 16 Pro now delivers 27 hours of video playback compared to the 23 we saw from the iPhone 15 Pro.
A lot of these gains come from the fact that Apple is using new and improved A18 and A18 Pro chips.
These custom-built Apple processors are more energy-efficient, allowing for boosted battery life across the board.
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iPhone 16 pricing – how much does it cost?
Here’s the full list of US and UK pricing…
iPhone 16 – $799 / £799
iPhone 16 Plus – $899 / £899
iPhone 16 Pro – $999 / £999
iPhone 16 Pro Max – $1,199 / £1,199
SAVE BATTERY, SAVE MONEY
Battery life is often a key complaint among phone owners, so fans will probably be overjoyed.
But I think the most important thing is how good this is for people who want to save money.
Usually batteries on smartphones are always good on day one.
Why do batteries get worse over time?
Here’s what you need to know…
- Most gadgets run on lithium-ion batteries
- Over time, the amount of charge this type of battery can hold gets smaller
- That means you need to charge your device more often because they hold less charge
- Batteries have two electrode points – the cathode and the anode
- To charge a battery, the ions inside the battery are forced from the cathode to the anode
- When you use a battery, it moves in the reverse direction
- This process wears away at the structure of the anode, reducing its ability to function correctly
- But the process also builds up a kind of salt on the cathode when charging
- As this build-up grows, the battery will accept less charge over time
- It’s estimated that between 500 and 1,000 full charge-cycles will reduce a battery’s maximum capacity by roughly 20%
But the nature of phone batteries is that they simply get worse over time – degrading through use, and ultimately holding less charge.
So if you start from a higher point, it means your iPhone will have a workable battery for a lot longer.
This should mean you don’t have to fork out for a new battery (or even a fresh iPhone) so soon.
So even if 33 hours of video playback might seem excessive right now, you’ll be glad of having that buffer in years to come.
CHECK YOUR IPHONE’S BATTERY USAGE
Here’s what you need to do…
You can see a quick overview of your battery level and activity by going to Settings > Battery.
Tap a time period to see your Activity graph for the last 24 hours, or a set number of days.
You can also see a list of apps that contributed to your battery usage.
And it’ll display the amount of battery that was used by each individual app.
You can see how long each app was in use on the screen, as well as in the background.
Apple explains that you might see the following usage types:
- Background Activity means that most of the app’s battery usage — such as playing music or tracking location — happened while the app was in the background.
- No Cell Coverage and Low Signal means that your device was searching for a signal or being used with a low signal.
- Connected to Charger means the app was used only when your device was charging.
If you’re worried about battery life and can’t get to a charger right away, consider turning Low Power Mode on to preserve it.
You can find this feature in your battery settings.
