After performance, battery is the one department I give the most priority to when choosing a new smartphone. While Apple has yet to make 5000 mAh its standard across all iPhones, Chinese brands like Honor are offering 6000–7000 mAh cells in almost all their phones. Interestingly, Honor is going to put Apple to shame again with the raw battery numbers of its upcoming phone.
Honor's next phone could feature an 11,000 mAh cell
Unlike Apple, Google, or Samsung, Honor staggers its series releases. It is currently launching the X80 lineup, where the X80i was launched in China this April, and the standard X80 is expected to be unveiled later this month. But this story is about the X80 Pro Max that is expected to feature an 11,000 mAh battery.
The leak has come from a reliable tipster, Digital Chat Station, that further claims that the phone will support 90W fast charging. Other reported specifications of the device include a 6.8-inch flat AMOLED display that will support 2788 x 1280 px resolution.
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It will also reportedly be fully water-resistant (the exact rating isn't known), feature a drop-resistant body, and could also come with top-level biometric authentication capabilities. The device is believed to be powered by the recently introduced Snapdragon 6 Gen 5 SoC.
The entire X80 lineup is a powerhouse
Digital Chat Station post about Honor X80 Pro Max battery. | Image by Weibo
It isn't that the company is offering such a massive battery only in the Pro Max variant; the same approach has been followed in the entire series. The X80i that was introduced in April this year features a 7,000 mAh cell and supports 45W wired charging. For reference, the raw battery number of this entry-level phone is even bigger than the flagship Pixel 10 or the Galaxy S26.
The standard X80 that is rumored to land in the Chinese market sometime later this month is reportedly going to feature a 10,000 mAh battery. It appears that the company has made 10,000 mAh its new standard, as we have already seen a couple of phones from it with the same capacity. This includes names like Honor Win and Honor Power 2.
The vanilla variant is also believed to run on the Snapdragon 6 Gen 5 chipset. It would reportedly have a 6.8-inch AMOLED display.
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Even three iPhone 17s can't compete with the upcoming Honor phone
I really don't remember Apple marketing its iPhones for offering an incredible battery life, and the reason behind this is pretty simple – iPhones come with very modest battery capacity. The iPhone 17, for instance, features a 3,692 mAh battery, which appears to be totally unacceptable if you compare it with what Chinese brands are offering in their phones.
In fact, if you do the math, you will find that the Honor X80 Pro Max's reported battery capacity equals that of almost three combined iPhone 17 batteries. I highly agree that the processor and the software optimization play an important role in determining the overall battery life of a device, but Honor looks way ahead of Apple when you compare the raw numbers of both phones.
Apple urgently needs to adopt silicon‑carbon technology
The use of silicon carbon technology is what is allowing Chinese brands like Honor, Realme, and OnePlus to offer monstrous battery capacity on their smartphones. Brands like Apple, Samsung, and Google are still using lithium-ion technology; as a result, their phones are still stuck under the 5000 mAh mark.
Unfortunately, there's no clue whether Apple is working on the silicon carbon technology or not. I really think it has become more important than ever for the company to adopt the modern tech if it really wants to compete against other brands in the battery department as well.
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Aman Kumar is a news writer at PhoneArena covering Google Pixel phones, Android features, AI-powered smartphone tools, and mobile tech news. Before joining PhoneArena, he spent over five years writing about consumer technology for publications like MakeUseOf, How-To Geek, and Guiding Tech. His current daily drivers are the Pixel 10 and Samsung Galaxy S26 Plus, while his red iPhone SE (2nd gen) remains a personal favorite. Aman also appreciates bold smartphone experiments and still considers the Nokia N-Gage one of the industry’s most iconic designs.
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