iPhone 13 battery capacity leak is both encouraging and disappointing

iPhone 12 Pro Max with MagSafe charger attached
(Image credit: Laptop Mag)

iPhone 13 rumors have pointed to a number of exciting new features on Apple's forthcoming phones. But perhaps the most exciting are the reports of larger batteries.

With the exception of the iPhone 12 Pro Max, every iPhone 12 model offered below-average battery life in its category. So the latest leak from @L0vetodream offering some concrete numbers regarding the battery capacity increases to the iPhone 13 models certainly caught our attention (via MacRumors).

While @L0vetodream has a reasonable track record, it's important to note that they are simply capturing content from the Chinese social media site Weibo and there are rarely named sources for the information, including in this case. So while the leak sounds plausible based on what we know of the iPhone 13 design thus far, it needs to be taken with a grain of salt. 

According to the leak, the iPhone 13 mini battery will be 2,406mAh (8% increase from iPhone 12 mini), iPhone 13 and 13 Pro get 3095mAh (10% increase from iPhone 12 and 12 Pro) and the iPhone 13 Pro Max will go to 4,352 (18% increase over iPhone 12 Pro Max). 

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There's a couple of notable things about these increases. The first is that as previously mentioned, the iPhone 12 Pro Max was the only model that didn't have battery life issues, making it a bit odd to see it get about double the capacity boost of its smaller siblings. The second is that the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro having the same battery feels like a potential problem for the iPhone 13 Pro which is rumored to have a 120Hz refresh rate display.

With that said, these are solid increases across the board and Apple has certainly shown many times in the past that it can deliver excellent battery life with less capacity than the competition. Turning off the 5G radio fixed the battery life on the iPhone 12 and it's plausible that Apple has solved that problem with the iPhone 13 and with these alleged capacity boosts Apple's flagships could be battery champs again in 2021.

Sean Riley

Sean Riley has been covering tech professionally for over a decade now. Most of that time was as a freelancer covering varied topics including phones, wearables, tablets, smart home devices, laptops, AR, VR, mobile payments, fintech, and more.  Sean is the resident mobile expert at Laptop Mag, specializing in phones and wearables, you'll find plenty of news, reviews, how-to, and opinion pieces on these subjects from him here. But Laptop Mag has also proven a perfect fit for that broad range of interests with reviews and news on the latest laptops, VR games, and computer accessories along with coverage on everything from NFTs to cybersecurity and more.