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Apple claims the capacity of the batteries on the iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c went up. But by how much?

posted by Chris P. / Sep 12, 2013, 7:40 AM

Apple claims the capacity of the batteries on the iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c went up. But by how much?

With all the hoopla around Apple and its newly outed iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c, the eagle-eyed among you may have noticed one particular omission from the specs list that we provided – the battery size. This is because Apple traditionally doesn't disclose the exact capacity of the Li-ion battery units that power the iDevices, for whatever reason. What Apple instead does, is it simply announces that the battery life of their new devices has been improved, compared to their respective predecessor, without getting into details.

Fortunately, there's a way around, and the folks behind AnandTech have extrapolated the battery capacity of both the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c from their respective FCC listings, using a simple formula. So we now have a pretty accurate info on the exact size of the batteries: a 1570mAh battery for the iPhone 5s and 1508mAh for the iPhone 5c. Compared with the iPhone 5's 1440mAh unit, that gives us an increase of 9% in the case of the iPhone 5s, and a more frugal 4.7%, as far as the iPhone 5c is concerned.

To put the above in perspective, the battery on the Samsung Galaxy S4 went up 24% (2100mAh → 2600mAh), compared with the S3, while Sony Z1's went up an even more impressive 29% (2330mAh → 3000mAh). Having said that, do keep in mind that battery size isn't directly proportional to longevity – while the batteries on the new iPhones appear tiny next to the above, the latter is far less power-hungry, both because of the software and hardware.

source: FCC via AnandTech

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Display 4.0" 640 x 1136 pixels

Camera 8 MP / 1.2 MP front

Processor Apple A7, Dual-core, 1300 MHz

Storage 64 GB

Battery 1570 mAh(10h 3G talk time)

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63 Comments

1. itsdeepak4u2000

Posts: 3718; Member since: Nov 03, 2012

Oh really!!! By 4.7% and 9%, is that so... PA added Posts and Member since beside username, nice work...

posted on Sep 12, 2013, 7:49 AM 0

10. Nathan_ingx

Posts: 4769; Member since: Mar 07, 2012

Apple improved the battery by 'S' much... Burn that 64-bit table and let's see how long it lasts.

posted on Sep 12, 2013, 8:20 AM 2

28. akki20892

Posts: 3902; Member since: Feb 04, 2013

Brain-wash people think this is awesome......!!!

posted on Sep 12, 2013, 9:28 AM 5

32. Droid_X_Doug

Posts: 5993; Member since: Dec 22, 2010

"PA added Posts and Member nice beside username, nice work..." Now all they need to do is remove the time limit on editing posts. Just put an edited on date & time stamp on the edited post (like just about every other blog site) and that will be a HUGE improvement.

posted on Sep 12, 2013, 9:34 AM 0

35. THE.DARK.KNIGHT

Posts: 269; Member since: Sep 09, 2013

Software optimization? We all know apple is good with that. I think battery life should be pretty good.

posted on Sep 12, 2013, 9:52 AM 1

2. HalaMadrid

Posts: 92; Member since: Sep 04, 2013

iPhone 5 battery is worst it fully drain in 1:30 hours while playing FIFA 13

posted on Sep 12, 2013, 8:08 AM 7

5. Ninetysix

Posts: 2962; Member since: Oct 08, 2012

Right and the Nexus 4 has an awesome battery life. http://blog.gsmarena.com/lg-g2-battery-tests-are-done-here-are-the-results/ (click on expand in each test).

posted on Sep 12, 2013, 8:14 AM 2

16. PhoneArenaUser

Posts: 5498; Member since: Aug 05, 2011

iPhone 5 has not bad results but at the same time not good considering that it has only 4 inch screen and lover than HD resolution. And talking about the talk time results, it is total shame!

posted on Sep 12, 2013, 9:01 AM 3

34. THE.DARK.KNIGHT

Posts: 269; Member since: Sep 09, 2013

At 330 ppi and 400nits brightness it's one of the best screens you will ever see.

posted on Sep 12, 2013, 9:51 AM 2

36. PhoneArenaUser

Posts: 5498; Member since: Aug 05, 2011

How is that related with my comment #16 ?

posted on Sep 12, 2013, 9:59 AM 0

50. blingblingthing

Posts: 943; Member since: Oct 23, 2012

One of the best screens? Being 4 inches ( not even midranged in my book). Sub HD with a pixel density on par with what an iPhone 4 did when it launched, you really are telling me this is one of today's best displays?

posted on Sep 12, 2013, 1:04 PM 2

51. HalaMadrid

Posts: 92; Member since: Sep 04, 2013

Nexus 4 web browsing and video playback time is hilarious lol

posted on Sep 12, 2013, 1:16 PM 0

52. HalaMadrid

Posts: 92; Member since: Sep 04, 2013

Iphone 5 gave me good battery life while web browsing and it charges very quickly but really sucks while playing FIFA 13

posted on Sep 12, 2013, 1:19 PM 1

8. LetsBeHonest

Posts: 1548; Member since: Jun 04, 2013

May be it has something to do with the app/game itself???? Like fb app draining battery.

posted on Sep 12, 2013, 8:19 AM 2

11. darkkjedii

Posts: 30964; Member since: Feb 05, 2011

C'mon dude, we're not buying that. Show proof, during the hour and fifteen minutes I workout, I leave the screen auto lock set to never and play music. It only drops about 5-7%. You are lying.

posted on Sep 12, 2013, 8:27 AM 5

26. RebelwithoutaClue unregistered

You're seriously comparing screen on/music to playing a game? I'm not saying he's telling the truth perse. But you can't compare playing music to playing a game, not even close.

posted on Sep 12, 2013, 9:23 AM 3

39. Sauce unregistered

He can if he's streaming music and using LTE. There's a difference between playing your iPod and playing Spotify, Pandora, iTunes Radio, Rdio, etc etc.....

posted on Sep 12, 2013, 10:47 AM 0

60. VZWuser76

Posts: 4974; Member since: Mar 04, 2010

That's very true, but it still isn't as resource intensive as playing a game. With streaming music with the screen on I'd imagine the components active would be the display (displaying a static image and changing during the next song), the radios (wifi or LTE), the file manager, and the speakers. With a game you're looking at the display, the screen touch input, the gpu (has to work much harder to display motion images vs a single image), the file manager, the speakers, and the radios (if the game is online play). Even comparing streaming music with the display on vs game play offline, there is still more resources being used for gaming. The resources to register touch inputs and the gpu make a big difference. I'm not saying a phone utilizing any other OS would be any better either. The reason most android phones have such larger batteries is due to true multitasking and a larger, higher resolution display. But in many cases even with that larger battery will bring them to parity with an ios device simply because the larger display will draw more. The only exceptions would be phones like the Maxx series and those with extended batteries (3000 mAh+). It's not a knock against the iphone, I'm simply stating that it is possible that the OP's experience could have happened.

posted on Sep 12, 2013, 7:03 PM 0

29. VZWuser76

Posts: 4974; Member since: Mar 04, 2010

It is possible for both of you to be right. While your screen may be locked on, you are not interacting with the touchscreen itself like youwould if you were playing a game. Everytime he'd do a press to make the game do something, that's a function the phone has to carry out. Whereas playing music, until it gets to the next song, you're only having it play music and keep the screen lit, but in that same amount of time (say 3-4 minutes) he might have made up to 500 functions playing that game. It would really all depend on the game being played as well. Games like FIFA 13 or Call of Duty will obviously require more button presses and display more intense graphics than say Angry Birds or solitaire. That's another thing, when your playing music you most likely have a static screen displaying the album cover. But playing a game would bring the gpu heavily into play as well, much more so than a static image. I'm not saying he couldn't be lying, but you gotta really compare apples to apples (bad pun I know).

posted on Sep 12, 2013, 9:30 AM 1

57. EclipseGSX

Posts: 1773; Member since: Oct 18, 2011

Why set to never? Oh, probably because it can't play music while locked. Or you have to actually unlock it to change a song and can't directly from the lockscreen AHAAHHAHA DROID DOES

posted on Sep 12, 2013, 6:34 PM 0

59. darkkjedii

Posts: 30964; Member since: Feb 05, 2011

I would explain why I set it to never, but why even bother...

posted on Sep 12, 2013, 6:53 PM 0

3. MalakiMills

Posts: 257; Member since: Jun 15, 2010

Wondering what that A7 will produce in for battery life once the reviews come out.

posted on Sep 12, 2013, 8:12 AM 0

4. SuperAndroidEvo

Posts: 4888; Member since: Apr 15, 2011

Yeah the iPhone hasn't had good battery life since the iPhone 4S.

posted on Sep 12, 2013, 8:13 AM 4

7. LetsBeHonest

Posts: 1548; Member since: Jun 04, 2013

IPhone have decent battery life not great though. but it's pretty decent achievement since their using such a lower capacity battery and still managed to give more than a day on average usage. I always love the way Apple's hardware works with it's software.

posted on Sep 12, 2013, 8:16 AM 3

20. Taters

Posts: 6474; Member since: Jan 28, 2013

I think you give them too much credit. If an LG G2 was running IOS on a 3000 may battery it would last twice as long as the iPhone 5. IOS is just wimpy non power hungry skin. Don't give them credit for being so linear with their software and hardware and see it as what it truly is. Apple copping out and creating a great scam. Make your software so limited and simple that it doesn't require powerful hardware or big batteries but charge people octa core and 4000 mah prices and keep all the profits without passing any of the savings on to the consumers, ever.

posted on Sep 12, 2013, 9:18 AM 3

40. Sauce unregistered

If an iPhone 5S was running iOS7 on a 3000 bat, it would surely last twice as long too. Lmfao.

posted on Sep 12, 2013, 10:49 AM 1

62. Taters

Posts: 6474; Member since: Jan 28, 2013

Yes and that was my point. Lol its not good hardware and software. Its just software.

posted on Sep 12, 2013, 7:54 PM 0

55. bigstrudel

Posts: 593; Member since: Aug 20, 2012

You have no idea what you're talking about.

posted on Sep 12, 2013, 1:46 PM 0

9. Slammer

Posts: 1515; Member since: Jun 03, 2010

My age prevents me from being a game addict, but, my nephews have acknowledged some annoyance with having to be tethered to a charger after about 4 hours of gaming with their iphones. Their Android counter parts have begun to find solitude in being able to swap out batteries when chargers are not readily available. Wsh list for Apple from some of these people: Give them battery access. John B.