The Evolution of iPhone Batteries: A Closer Look at the iPhone 15

When Apple unveiled its latest lineup of smartphones, users immediately paid close attention to the iPhone 15 battery life.

The autonomy of a smartphone plays a crucial role in choosing a device, influencing its convenience in various scenarios. Extended operation without recharging ensures mobility during trips, fieldwork, and is an important factor in emergency situations. Additionally, it allows users to more freely use resource-intensive applications, maintaining the device's efficiency throughout the day. Moreover, it aligns with principles of ecological responsibility, reducing the need for frequent device replacements and, consequently, decreasing the volume of electronic waste.

Battery Performance 

Apple's mobile devices have never been known for having large battery capacities, giving rise to a series of memes about iPhone owners having to dash to cafes every three hours to find available charging spots.

Partly it is a true: the high-performance processors of iPhones do indeed consume electricity aggressively, but in the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro battery life, improved optimization of this process is claimed, allowing the phones to last 29-30 hours with moderate usage. The batteries are fully utilized only under load, such as during the launch of demanding games, while the rest of the time energy is expended in a highly economical manner.

So, the battery capacities in the fifteenth series of iPhones are as follows:

• 3349 mAh and 4383 mAh for iPhone 15 battery and the Plus version;
• 3274 mAh and 4422 mAh for iPhone 15 Pro battery and Pro Max.

From this, it follows that the iiPhone 15 Pro Max battery capacity is the largest, and surprisingly, it has the best battery life. Why is this surprising? Usually, these are not directly proportional concepts because, in general, the larger the screen, the more power consumption, and it increases almost in a geometric progression with each inch. But here, things are not quite like that, and in the next section of our review, we will discuss this in more detail.

However, regardless of the model, you will be able to quickly charge the iPhone 15 battery capacity since all devices in the lineup support fast charging with a power of 23W. The performance of wireless charging, which is also present in each of the devices, has not changed—it remains at the same 7.5W.

A significant innovation in the series is the new charging port. What many have been waiting for so long is happening: the Lightning is becoming a thing of the past. After prolonged legal disputes with European regulators, Apple's leadership made concessions, and now any of the four new iPhones will be compatible not only with the "native" charger but also with any other Type-C charger.

But even here, it did not go without unpleasant surprises. The transition to USB-C promised a significant increase in data transfer speed, but the company has, for now, limited this capability through software.

User Experience

In practical battery life tests, the gadgets showed the following results:

As we can see, in almost all aspects, the Pro models have the weakest performance. Moreover, these results sometimes significantly differ from Apple's laboratory research, which, for example, claimed 26 hours of video playback for the Plus model and up to 29 hours for iPhone 15 Pro Max battery life in the same experiment.

Listening to music on iPhone 15 is possible for up to 80 hours, on the Plus model – up to 100 hours, for the Pro and Max – 75 and 95 hours, respectively.

Comparative Analysis

In addition to the difference in battery life, the models in the lineup have other equally important distinctions that may influence the choice of a smartphone. Primarily, they differ in screen size and dimensions – 6.1 inches for the 15 and 15 Pro, and 6.7 inches for the 15 Plus and 15 Pro Max. Premium versions also feature an adaptive refresh rate, which is absent in the basic iPhones of this year.

Another equally important feature of the premium smartphones in the series is the new A17 Pro processor, which has enhanced the performance of the phones, particularly in the gaming category. The base models in the 15 and Plus lineup use a chip from the previous series – the A16.

The configurations of internal memory remain the same, but for the top devices with the Pro designation, they added 1TB of storage. They also increased the RAM capacity to 8GB.

Significant changes are noticeable when comparing the cameras. The base phones have two cameras, while the top-tier ones have three. They added a telephoto sensor to the setup with triple optical zoom and the ability to capture macro shots and create beautiful bokeh effects in portrait photos.

By and large, the choice is not between the four variations but between two basic configurations, and that's what you should consider. The regular iPhone 15 will handle all tasks well: it's stylish, progressive, and efficient, but some may find the screen size insufficient— in such cases, the Plus version is worth considering. If you want to make a statement or showcase your status, definitely go for the Pro version. We especially recommend the Pro Max for gamers: thanks to its large screen and the latest-generation processor, even AAA games that lag on personal computers will run smoothly on this iPhone version. Moreover, the iPhone 15 Pro Max battery life  also favors this smartphone.

Conclusions

Considering battery life based solely on battery capacity is a significant mistake. The size of the screen, the energy efficiency of the processor, and iOS 15 battery life also have a significant impact in the comparison.