The iPhone 13 series is chock full of improvements, from the new faster A15 Bionic processor and brighter display to new camera features like cinematic mode for video. But what we really wanted was longer battery life, and the iPhone 13 delivers.
In fact, two of the four new iPhones are good enough to make our best smartphone battery life list. Apple does not disclose the capacity of its iPhone batteries, but all four of the new iPhones have larger batteries this time around, and other efficiencies have been improved through chips, displays, and software.
All of this combined is very good news.
We put every phone we review through the Tom's Guide battery test, setting the screen brightness to 150 nits and surfing the web continuously on a 5G phone. And here are the results compared to the iPhone 12 series.
Normal iPhone 13 battery life was 10 hours and 33 minutes, a much larger increase than the iPhone 12's mere 8 minutes and 25 seconds. The Samsung Galaxy S21 fell just short at 9:53.
The iPhone 13 mini was better, but not by much. Last year's iPhone 12 mini lasted 7:28, while the new mini lasted 8 hours and 41 minutes. Still, we would accept this increase, as battery life was one of the mini's biggest drawbacks.
With the iPhone 13 Pro, which has the same 6.1" display as the iPhone 13, the situation looks even better: the Pro endured for a very impressive 11:41, which is an increase of over 2.5 hours over the iPhone 12 Pro. This is one of the longest lasting 5G phones we tested last year; the Galaxy S21 Plus lasted only 9:50.
The new battery life champion among the new iPhones, however, is the 6.7-inch iPhone 13 Pro Max. This flagship model lasted an astounding 12 hours and 13 minutes. Last year, the iPhone 12 Pro Max lasted 10 minutes and 53 seconds. In other words, if you want an iPhone with the best battery life, this is it.
By comparison, the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra had a great 11 minutes and 25 seconds, and the OnePlus 9 Pro took even longer to drain its battery at 12 minutes and 48 seconds. Of course, battery capacity plays a role in all of this, and we will update the results as soon as this information is revealed in the iPhone 13 teardown.
Overall, the iPhone 13 series represents a big step up in battery life, even if charging is stuck at a relatively modest 20W.
Impressed? All four iPhone 13 models are now available for purchase and we've rounded up the best iPhone 13 deals to help you get the best savings on your new phone.
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