Apple has made much of its iPhone 13 battery life improvements, noting for example that the 13 Pro Max offers the longest battery life ever in an iPhone. However, when you look at Apple's own battery comparisons versus the iPhone 12 lineup, it's the streaming video performance that the company has eked out of its new smartphones that really stands out.
- iPhone 12 mini: 10 hours
- iPhone 12: 11 hours
- iPhone 12 Pro: 11 hours
- iPhone 12 Pro Max: 12 hours
- iPhone 13 Mini: 13 hours
- iPhone 13: 19 hours
- iPhone 13 Pro: 20 hours
- iPhone 13 Pro Max: 25 hours
The iPhone 13 lineup features new low-power displays, a more efficient A15 chip, larger batteries, and more power-efficient components, all of which make for dramatic improvements when streaming, as the numbers above show.
For example, Apple claims that when streaming video, the iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max last nine hours and 13 hours longer than last year's equivalent models, respectively. Taking the same metric, the battery in the iPhone 13 mini manages 13 hours, which is longer than even the iPhone 12 Pro Max.
With video streaming services so ubiquitous these days, not to mention Apple TV+ (and obliquely, Fitness+), Apple has clearly factored the computations involved into the power optimizations that it has achieved through the tight integration of its hardware and software.
Of course, battery life varies by use case and many other factors, so actual results will vary, but if they're anything near what Apple is claiming, binge-watching your favorite show should be a cinch on these latest devices.
(H/T to Jack for pointing this out!)