Apple's iPhone 16 batteries might have just leaked, and there's a surprise in store for buyers of one model

iPhone 15 Plus review
(Image credit: Future)

As we get ever closer to Apple officially unveiling the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro families of devices, the leaks are starting to ramp up more and more. We've seen iPhone 16 dummy units and Capture buttons, and now a new leak appears to have shared details about the batteries that will be used in these new handsets.

The leak shares battery capacities for the iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max with slight increases almost across the board when compared to the older generation of iPhones from 2023. But, curiously, there's an odd one out.

According to the leak, one of the new iPhones will actually see its battery capacity shrink, and interestingly, it's one of the big ones as well.

Shrinking batteries

The leak popped up on the Weibo social network and was posted by user OvO Baby Sauce OvO before being spotted by MacRumors. It claims that the following battery capacities have been locked in for the upcoming iPhone lineup.

  • iPhone 16: 3561mAh
  • iPhone 16 Plus: 4006mAh
  • iPhone 16 Pro: 3355mAh
  • iPhone 16 Pro Max: 4676mAh

As mentioned, three of those iPhone batteries are slightly larger in terms of capacity — between 2.5% and 6% — but the iPhone 16 Plus is actually 9% smaller than the iPhone 15 Plus' 4,383 mAh capacity.

It's important to note that this leaker is relatively new and doesn't yet have a body of work for us to check in terms of accuracy. It also isn't clear why the iPhone 16 Plus would feature a smaller battery than the iPhone 15 Plus, either.

One thing we do know is that we're going to have to wait a while to know for sure — the new iPhones aren't expected to be announced until September.

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Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.