The iPhone 14 Plus battery life won't beat the 14 Pro Max, Apple, and official capacity proves it
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The Chemtrec hazardous materials shipping certification database is the gift that keeps on giving when it comes to the exact battery sizes of Apple's iPhones that are otherwise never listed officially in the phones' specifications.
Apple only gives the relative battery life endurance compared to its previous iPhones in limited situations like watching local or streaming video, or listening to music. Later on we add our own benchmark tests during reviews which include testing the battery life while browsing and gaming under identical conditions, too, for a more complete picture of the new iPhones' endurance.
Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max vs iPhone 14 Plus battery life mystery
Apple brags that it has been able to squeeze the "longest battery life ever" in a handset of its making from the 6.7" iPhone 14 Plus that launches on October 7. If the claim were true, it could be due to a combination of factors like a big battery pack, the slightly lower pixel density, and a slow display that runs on just 60Hz refresh rate whereas the Pro models can be fired up to a 120Hz refresh.
Interestingly enough, though, according to Apple's own specifications, the iPhone 14 Pro Max only offers a 5% shorter audio playback endurance than the iPhone 14 Plus, yet has it significantly beat in the arguably more important numbers of streaming video playback (25% longer), or local video playback (12% longer).
Thus, we don't know what prompts Apple to list the iPhone 14 Plus as having "our longest battery life ever" given that its own numbers contradict this claim, but we'd wager to guess that it has something to do with marketing and upselling is new form factor of a big and "affordable" Plus phone.
Apple's claim doesn't make any sense from a physics perspective, too, as the iPhone 14 Pro Max's battery is a fraction of a percentage smaller than the Plus's one, and a puny 457 PPI vs 460 PPI display pixel density difference wouldn't bring such drastic differences in battery life.
What the 14 Pro Max does enjoy, however, after its debut on the Z Fold 4 and Z Flip 4, is Samsung's latest 12th generation of OLED display technology. Its low-temperature polysilicon build and light-emitting diode material efficiency improvements, coupled with display refresh that can go down to 1Hz, brings about significant power savings compared to the 11th-gen panel on the iPhone 14 Plus.
The fact that Apple announced the highest ever peak brightness on a phone of 2000 nits for the iPhone 14 Pro models also infers that the phones boast a the latest OLED tech from Samsung, as the generational differences usually manifest precisely in higher brightness and lower power consumption, in addition to more granular refresh rate management.
Moreover, the iPhone 14 Pro Max has an Apple A16 processor inside that is built on the latest 4nm production method by TSMC, whereas the Plus runs on the older 5nm process A15 with five GPU cores. Here the power draw gains are a maximum of 11% from the 5nm generation to 4nm one, though, so the bulk of the 14 Pro Max battery life superiority over the 14 Plus comes from the better display technology.
As if to confirm that speculation, Apple only gives longer battery life numbers for the iPhone 14 Plus against the 14 Pro Max ones when the display isn't in the picture, like during audio playback. We'll run our battery benchmarks on the two phones, but for now don't let Apple's advertising fool you - the iPhone 14 Pro Max would very likely have better battery life in everyday usage scenarios than the iPhone 14 Plus.
In any case, if you have been curious just how big the iPhone 14 series battery sizes are, we now have an answer that doesn't differ at all from the rumored capacities that have been bandied about for the last few months already.
Moreover, those numbers which are given in Wh over at Chemtrec, were later unearthed from the 3C certification database by MySmartPrice and there the regulatory agency lists the exact mAh breakdown of the iPhone 14 line battery packs.
iPhone 14 series battery capacities
| Phone | Battery size | Video playback | Video playback (streamed) | Audio playback |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| iPhone 14 | 3279mAh vs 3227mAh (iPhone 13) | Up to 20hrs | Up to 16hrs | Up to 80hrs |
| iPhone 14 Plus | 4325mAh | Up to 26hrs | Up to 20hrs | Up to 100hrs |
| iPhone 14 Pro | 3200mAh vs 3095mAh (iPhone 13 Pro) | Up to 23hrs | Up to 20hrs | Up to 75hrs |
| iPhone 14 Pro Max | 4323mAh vs 4352mAh (iPhone 13 Pro Max) | Up to 29hrs | Up to 25hrs | Up to 95hrs |
The rumors were thus right and Apple indeed increased the iPhone 14, 14 Plus, 14 Pro, and 14 Pro Max battery sizes, though where did the corresponding space increase inside came from remains to be seen when the phones get taken apart during the obligatory iPhone 14 teardown treatments.
In any case, you'd be happy to learn that the 2022 iPhone 14 series battery life would be longer than that of your current iPhone if you are mulling over an upgrade.
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