iPhone 16 Pro Max iPhone 16 Pro Max battery life [MERGED]

[phillavelle]

Just weighing in here with my experience too.

Upgraded from a 15PM to a 16PM. The 15PM battery was at 76% capcacity after a year and I'm a heavy user of my phone for work. So I've really noticed over the last few months how it wasn't lasting as long as it used to.

Setup my new phone on Saturday. Was surprised how quickly the battery went down on Sunday. Presume it was indexing.

Here's a funny thing - I couldn't get iPhone Mirroring to work so I went into the settings to check for an update and it said there was an update to iOS18 waiting. But the 16PM shipped with iOS18 on it out of the box - it had the dark icons, the ability to move the grid etc, so it was definitely iOS18.
I updated it anyway (and it said it was iOS18 that it was installing. Not a .0.1 version or anything like that..) And that fixed iPhone mirroring.

But I assume it also set the indexing back a bit.

I took my phone off charge this morning and it dropped from 100% to 99 in a few mins of use. Normally on the 15PM, I'd get about 10 mins before that happened of reading with the screen on.

And then within about another 10 mins, it was down to 96% which seems a massive drop from a) a new phone and in b) such a short space of time.

I am trying to avoid doing a clean install because it is a PITA for various reasons (not least to do with my esims as I run two and one of them is from a foreign provider which takes a lot of effort to get working - and no, that has never affected battery life going back to my 13PM and 14PM.)

Will see how it pans out. But the battery settings doesn't say in any way that there are any background processes taking place. Not sure if indexing shows up as one though.

 

[romanson]

I think that under battery , it sould tell you that your battery life will imrpove and so on and bla bla if indexing is still present

 

[sp44]

Just weighing in here with my experience too.

Upgraded from a 15PM to a 16PM. The 15PM battery was at 76% capcacity after a year and I'm a heavy user of my phone for work. So I've really noticed over the last few months how it wasn't lasting as long as it used to.

Setup my new phone on Saturday. Was surprised how quickly the battery went down on Sunday. Presume it was indexing.

Here's a funny thing - I couldn't get iPhone Mirroring to work so I went into the settings to check for an update and it said there was an update to iOS18 waiting. But the 16PM shipped with iOS18 on it out of the box - it had the dark icons, the ability to move the grid etc, so it was definitely iOS18.
I updated it anyway (and it said it was iOS18 that it was installing. Not a .0.1 version or anything like that..) And that fixed iPhone mirroring.

But I assume it also set the indexing back a bit.

I took my phone off charge this morning and it dropped from 100% to 99 in a few mins of use. Normally on the 15PM, I'd get about 10 mins before that happened of reading with the screen on.

And then within about another 10 mins, it was down to 96% which seems a massive drop from a) a new phone and in b) such a short space of time.

I am trying to avoid doing a clean install because it is a PITA for various reasons (not least to do with my esims as I run two and one of them is from a foreign provider which takes a lot of effort to get working - and no, that has never affected battery life going back to my 13PM and 14PM.)

Will see how it pans out. But the battery settings doesn't say in any way that there are any background processes taking place. Not sure if indexing shows up as one though.

First morning I had it the battery didn't budge in 10 minutes with the screen on the whole time. Still at 100%. I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[romanson]

First morning I had it the battery didn't budge in 10 minutes with the screen on the whole time. Still at 100%. I wouldn't worry about it.

What is SOT that you get on 16 pro max , is it better battery than 15 Pro max

 

[ArchEtech]

Unless you do a side by side to your old phone or another 16 pro max, it would be really hard to know if something is wrong.

My 16 pro max runs down WAY slower than my 14 Pro, although I was expecting more earth shatteringly better battery life. What I have noticed, is since you are paying attention to the battery life, you will notice it going from 100% to 80 faster because you're watching it. Once I stopped focusing on it, the 16 pro max seemed to hover in the 40-60% for a really long time. If you set it on a charger for very short period of time throughout the day, it seems to stay at 70-80% all day.

Under heavy use, multiple browsers, facebook, reddit all open, watching youtube and checking my email, wifi on, cellular on, bluetooth on, I'm getting all day life basically using it 90% of the day in my hand while traveling. Sunday I used it from about 6am to 8pm and it got down to 12%. My 14 wouldn't last half that long. I started at 90% as well.

 

[romanson]

Good and detailed answer …..
What I want to know is screen on time , you have it under buattery

 

[romanson]

What I need is this that is all.
I have that and 25% left that day . Is 16 pro max better than that

 

[ArchEtech]

9/23/24 - only 2 battery cycles in 100% this morning at 6am. Its almost 1pm and I'm only down to 88% with moderate use of email, youtube, facebook. Its for sure way better than my 14....

Heavy use yesterday 4:30-6am then 7:30 am - 7pm 90% limit charge to 12% battery left by 7. Heavy use all day.

 

[romanson]

9/23/24 - only 2 battery cycles in 100% this morning at 6am. Its almost 1pm and I'm only down to 88% with moderate use of email, youtube, facebook. Its for sure way better than my 14....

Heavy use yesterday 4:30-6am then 7:30 am - 7pm 90% limit charge to 12% battery left by 7. Heavy use all day.

That is great for testurday . What is your screen on time for testurday

 

[phillavelle]

I noticed mine went down very quickly this morning streaming TuneIn to my AirPods during a workout. Normally it doesn't make a dent. I lost maybe 10% over about 50 mins.

It's basically on a par with my 15PM at the moment when my 15PM was a year old and losing battery capacity. Not the awesome life that the reviewers all had. But maybe (hopefully) that will all iron itself out after a few cycles

 

[The Doctor11]

Pretty disappointed so far in my 16 PM battery life as well. Today I woke up and took it of the charger at 5:30 AM. I certainly didn’t use it heavily and it spent 4 hours in airplane mode. By 1:00 it was at 43% so I plugged it in.

 

[ArchEtech]

That is great for testurday . What is your screen on time for testurday

Heavy use yesterday / testerday 4:30-6am then 7:30 am - 7pm 90% limit charge to 12% battery left by 7. Heavy use all day.

18 hours 20 minutes Screen Active. 1Hr o 8 min screen idle. Last charged to 94%.

 

[romanson]

Uuuuuuu that is impresive.
But still , dont know.
I was samsung user , hard one too
I had every note from 3 to Note 20 ultra.
Note 20 ultra was worse , like , 4hrs screen on time.
Than i went on Pro max 11 , Pro max 12 , Pro max 13 , Pro max 14 , and now Pro Max 15.
11 and 12 were so and so …… at least to me.
13 WAS A HIT IN BULLSEYE
14 was bad , first ones battery health went to 94% in just 25 cycles.
Second pro max 14 was great , but than again I was thinking that those mistakes can never happen to apple.
15 pro max , is not bas , but not that good.
Battery life is good , but heating and dont know it has issues.
I was hoping that 16 will be miracle , but some say that battery is not that grwat . There is a touch screen issue.
It is like , apple is used to us , accepting those faults , bugs , whatever for a cost of 2000€.
I dont know , for me and wife its 4000€
You can buy car for that

 

[romanson]

So.
My mind is everywhere now.
I am thinking about every single phone there is , i had a high hopes for 16 pro max , i just dont know anymore

 

[ArchEtech]

18.5 hours of on screen heavy use from 95% - 12% isn’t good?

 

[romanson]

No no , its perfect?
What about screen issues , do you jave them?

 

[dadiy]

16 pro max battery is no different to my 15 pro max battery at 94% capacity. I was really hoping the new 16 pm would only need one charge a day.

 

[sp44]

I don't understand. Since when do we judge battery life after only a couple of days?

 

[romanson]

Yeah its ture , but again , a good battery should not do that

 

[ArchEtech]

No no , its perfect?
What about screen issues , do you jave them?

I don’t think so. I do think typing / keyboard seems slow and laggy and less accurate but it anecdotal. I didn’t use my 14 and the 16 back to back. Otherwise no, screen is snappy fast.

 

[mfrank29]

I don't understand. Since when do we judge battery life after only a couple of days?

You can't. I upgrade every year. Every time, it takes a week for the battery to settle in and all the indexing to complete to get a real indication. Already, this the 16pro Max is better than my 15 pro max was....it was never a good battery for me.

 

[romanson]

Tnx man , you were more than helpful.
What is the best thing on new iphone?

 

[romanson]

Great forum , great people

 

[phillavelle]

I don't understand. Since when do we judge battery life after only a couple of days?

I think since the reviewers on YouTube (who had it for a few days in between getting their devices and filming their reviews which they posted once the embargo lifted) all talked about how utterly amazing it was

 

[ArchEtech]

16 Pro max - 12 hours since 100% charge. 8 hours screen time, 1.5 hours idle @ 60% battery.

Sunday: Basically 6am to 7pm, some sleepless 3am use standby since 12 am the night before. So basically 95% at Midnight Sat night, not on the charger. 18h20m screen time, 1h8m idle. to Sunday evening. Very heavy use, from youtube short films, to email, and chat forums.

Monday: Typical work day. Moderate use since I'm at work. 100% charge in the morning, got to about 50% by bed time. Heavy use while home. 11h7m screen time, 1hr 35mn idle.

Standby/Sleep screen off, it holds charge WAY better than my 14 Pro. It will only lose about 2% overnight. I've been keeping it off the charger most days since receiving the phone.

If there is some other metric for me to check watch - let me know.