Here's why iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max could have significantly more battery life

Not everyone has received their iPhone 15 series pre-order yet but we've given ourselves the green light to discuss the iPhone 16 series because we're approximately just 11 months away from the introduction of the 2024 iPhones. Before you know it, you'll be waiting to pre-order your iPhone 16 model. Now, TF International's Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who owns a crystal ball that he uses to make accurate predictions about Apple devices, has something to say about the 2025 iPhone 17 line.

Kuo's post on Medium explains that Resin Coated Copper (RCC) mainboards are coming to iPhone. RCC can reduce the thickness of the mainboard perhaps opening up some internal space. It can also make it easier to drill on the mainboard since these boards are free of fiber. There does seem to be a huge caveat with RCC mainboards and it is the reason why you won't see this technology in next year's iPhone 16 line.

It turns out that RCC is very fragile and at this stage, it is unable to pass drop tests. Kuo states that Ajinomoto is the largest supplier of RCC material in the world. If Ajinomoto can improve the durability of RCC before the third quarter of 2025, Kuo says that the technology could be employed by Apple for the mainboards used on the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max/Ultra.  

Should this stop you from upgrading your older iPhone to an iPhone 15? No. You'd be betting on Ajinomoto to increase the durability of RCC and there is no guarantee that this will happen. Thinking ahead though, If it does take place, Apple could use the extra internal space to increase the capacity of the batteries to be used with the iPhone 17 Pro series. First things first; RCC needs to survive drop tests before Apple uses RCC mainboards.

The mainboard, aka the motherboard, is the main printed circuit board (PCB) inside the phone with all of the most important components soldered or connected to it including those related to the processor, storage, memory, network connectivity, the camera, and more. Since it is so obviously important to the operation of an iPhone, Apple is not going to make any changes to the mainboard until it is 100% convinced about the durability of the new technology.