iPhone 16 Pro Max battery test results are in: it's a big upgrade

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Battery life might be the most underrated upgrade for the iPhone 16 series, and particularly for the iPhone 16 Pro Max.

Apple claims this is the iPhone with longest battery life ever, but we had to put these claims to the test, and now, after days of extensive testing, we have the results from our battery testing.

At PhoneArena, every phone we review goes through three separate battery tests, where for each one we look at the time it takes to fully drain the phone with a particular use case:
1. Web browsing test – we cycle through a set of webpages with scrolling behavior baked in
2. YouTube video streaming test – we run the same YouTube playlist on all phones
3. 3D Gaming test – we run a 3D game at identical settings on all phones until they are drained

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To understand how good the iPhone 16 Pro Max performs, we pit it against the iPhone 16 Plus, the iPhone 15 Pro Max, and of course the biggest Android rivals including the Galaxy S24 Ultra, S24 Plus, Pixel 9 Pro XL and the OnePlus 12.

Interestingly, despite the notable ugprade in battery size, the iPhone 16 Pro Max battery capacity is still not as big as that of Android phones. Here are the battery sizes for all the phones in this comparison:

  • iPhone 16 Pro Max – 4685 mAh
  • iPhone 16 Plus – 4674 mAh
  • iPhone 15 Pro Max – 4441 mAh
  • Galaxy S24 Ultra – 5000 mAh
  • Galaxy S24 Plus – 4900 mAh
  • Google Pixel 9 Pro XL – 5060 mAh
  • OnePlus 12 – 5400 mAh

And here are our test results:

PhoneArena Battery Test #1: Web Browsing


Web Browsing(hours)Higher is better
Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max22h 39 min
Samsung Galaxy S24+20h 41 min
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra20h 6 min
Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max19h 20 min
Google Pixel 9 Pro XL18h 52 min
OnePlus 1218h 14 min
Apple iPhone 16 Plus18h 5 min


This is the lightest of our three tests, shows how the iPhone 16 Pro Max has improved a great deal compared to its predecessor, but it also crushes the Android competition.

Compared to the 15 Pro Max from last year, the new iPhone scores nearly three hours more, which is a very good improvement.

PhoneArena Battery Test #2: YouTube Video Streaming


Video Streaming(hours)Higher is better
OnePlus 1213h 37 min
Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max10h 24 min
Apple iPhone 16 Plus10h 24 min
Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max9h 45 min
Google Pixel 9 Pro XL9h 24 min
Samsung Galaxy S24+8h 20 min
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra8h 18 min


For YouTube video streaming, the OnePlus 12 dominates the test, but the iPhone 16 Pro Max and iPhone 16 Plus are the closest followers with pretty solid results as well.

Galaxy phones typically underperform and drain faster than others with YouTube videos, and we still don't know the reason for that, but it's a consistent trend that we have observed throughout the years. Optimizing this one aspect of their performance would be a really welcome improvement.

PhoneArena Battery Test #3: 3D Gaming


3D Gaming 60Hz(hours)Higher is better
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra13h 53 min
Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max12h 4 min
Samsung Galaxy S24+11h 52 min
Apple iPhone 16 Plus10h 32 min
Google Pixel 9 Pro XL10h 4 min
OnePlus 129h 43 min
Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max9h 36 min

The Galaxy S24 Ultra manages to win the gaming test as it seems most efficient when it comes to GPU usage.

The iPhone 16 Pro Max, however, ranks second ones again.

Summary and Total Battery Use estimate


Overall, the iPhone 16 Pro Max is one of the biggest battery upgrades in years, and while we are still waiting for Apple Intelligence, the longer battery life might actually be the biggest reason to convince some users to buy the new model.

And here is our final battery use estimate for all the phones in this comparison:

Battery Life
Charging
Phone Battery Life
estimate
Browsing Video Gaming
Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max
4685 mAh
8h 30min 22h 39min 10h 24min 12h 4min
OnePlus 12
5400 mAh
8h 9min 18h 14min 13h 37min 9h 43min
Apple iPhone 16 Plus
4674 mAh
7h 30min 18h 5min 10h 24min 10h 32min
Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max
4422 mAh
7h 25min 19h 20min 9h 45min 9h 36min
Google Pixel 9 Pro XL
5060 mAh
7h 18min 18h 52min 9h 24min 10h 4min
Samsung Galaxy S24+
4900 mAh
6h 54min 20h 41min 8h 20min 11h 52min
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra
5000 mAh
6h 46min 20h 6min 8h 18min 13h 53min
Phone Full Charging 30 min Charge
Wired Wireless Wired Wireless
OnePlus 12
5400 mAh
0h 37min Untested 89% Untested
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra
5000 mAh
1h 9min 1h 58min 68% 33%
Samsung Galaxy S24+
4900 mAh
1h 9min 1h 57min 61% 31%
Google Pixel 9 Pro XL
5060 mAh
1h 23min Untested 63% Untested
Apple iPhone 16 Plus
4674 mAh
1h 34min 1h 58min 59% 42%
Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max
4685 mAh
1h 42min 1h 58min 57% 42%
Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max
4422 mAh
2h 1min 2h 36min 53% 29%
Find out more details about battery and charging for all phones we have tested on our PhoneArena Battery Score page


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