iPhone 12 Pro Max battery smaller than iPhone 11 Pro Max

Apple iPhone 12 Pacific Blue Press Shot (Image credit: Apple)

What you need to know

The iPhone 12 Pro Max will be released next month.
New filings have confirmed it has a smaller capacity battery compared to the iPhone 11 Pro Max.
Despite this, both offer the same performance.

Apple's new iPhone 12 Pro Max will be released to the public next month, but new filings have revealed that the biggest iPhone 12 in the lineup will offer the same battery performance as the previous model despite the battery being slightly smaller.

As reported by MacRumors:

Apple's new iPhone 12 Pro Max is equipped with a 3,687 mAh battery, which is around 7% less capacity than the 3,969 mAh battery in the iPhone 11 Pro Max, according to a regulatory filing published by TENAA, the Chinese equivalent of the FCC.The regulatory filing, spotted by MacRumors, also lists the iPhone 12 Pro Max with 6GB of RAM as seen in benchmark results last week.

As the report notes, the new filing confirms a rumor prior to release which stated the iPhone 12 Pro Max would ship with a battery of exactly this size.

More importantly, it confirms that like the iPhone 12, Apple's iPhone 12 Pro Max boasts the same battery performance as last year's model, despite being smaller in capacity.

According to Apple's website, both the iPhone 11 Pro Max and the new iPhone 12 Pro Max are good for up to 20 hours of video playback, up to 12 hours of streamed video playback, and up to 80 hours of audio.

As reported yesterday, the iPhone 12's battery is also smaller than iPhone 11 but offers the same (if not better) in terms of usage time. The measure likely reflects efficiency improvements achieved by Apple's A14 chip.

iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro | From $699 at Apple

Pre-orders are now open for the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro at Apple. Devices will begin shipping on October 23.

Stephen Warwick has written about Apple for five years at iMore and previously elsewhere. He covers all of iMore's latest breaking news regarding all of Apple's products and services, both hardware and software. Stephen has interviewed industry experts in a range of fields including finance, litigation, security, and more. He also specializes in curating and reviewing audio hardware and has experience beyond journalism in sound engineering, production, and design.

Before becoming a writer Stephen studied Ancient History at University and also worked at Apple for more than two years. Stephen is also a host on the iMore show, a weekly podcast recorded live that discusses the latest in breaking Apple news, as well as featuring fun trivia about all things Apple.