A leak of the new iPhone 18 Pro Max claims it will see the smallest year-over-year increase in battery capacity in years, although end-use figures depend more on the power efficiency of the A20 processor.
Recent rumors have claimed that the expected iPhone Fold will have the largest battery capacity an iPhone has ever had. But dubious leaks stating the capacity figure claim that it will be a 5,000mAh battery, and now it is said to be beaten by the iPhone 18 Pro Max.
This is according to a leak of Digital Chat Station on the Chinese social network Weibo. It states that there will once again be two top-of-the-line iPhone models with different battery capacities:
- iPhone 18 Pro Max (China): 5,000 mAh
- iPhone 18 Pro Max (US): 5100-5200mAh
The reason for the difference is that the US model only uses eSIM, while China still prefers physical SIM cards. The mechanism for those takes up space in the iPhone that would otherwise be used for the battery.
This suggests that China will continue to require physical SIM cards. This is despite the country’s regulators finally agreeing to an eSIM-only iPhone Air.
Note that Apple doesn’t list battery capacity, other than how many hours of average use it will provide. But based on regulatory filings, the iPhone 17 Pro Max battery capacity is officially:
- iPhone 17 Pro Max (China): 4,823 mAh
- iPhone 17 Pro Max (US): 5,088 mAh
This 5,088 mAh for the iPhone 17 Pro battery in the US was 8.6% better than the previous model. Then the iPhone 16 Pro Max also got a 5.9% improvement over the battery from the iPhone 15 Pro Max.
In the real world, the improvement between the iPhone 15 Pro Max and the iPhone 16 Pro was just over four hours.
Battery life depends on usage, and the A20 processor in the iPhone 18 Pro Max is expected to improve energy efficiency. However, based on the capacity data alone, the iPhone 18 Pro Max seems to only get a 2.2% increase.
Note that Digital Chat Station has only sporadic entries. The latest leak claims the iPhone 18 Pro as well, saying there will be few external differences from its predecessor.