One of the iPhone 16 Pro upgrades that’s gone under the radar is its battery life improvements. Though Apple hasn’t put much marketing focus on the new model’s battery upgrades, this year is the first that the iPhone’s battery has finally hit a tipping point for me.
iPhone battery’s fine for a normal day, but historically struggled when needed most
iPhone battery life is a very subjective affair. We all use our devices in radically different ways.
This explains why Apple no longer gives one definitive battery life expectation for the iPhone, instead relying on specific uses like video playback time or audio playback.
The main question we all want answered is: can my iPhone’s battery get me through a full day?
For my uses, the answer has generally been ‘yes’—but it depends on the day.
On an average day, yes the iPhone’s battery has been more than enough for me for years. There were two big exceptions though:
- Travel days
- Heavy photography days
Which is unfortunate, because understandably the times you rely on your iPhone the most are the times its battery may not be enough.
But with the iPhone 16 Pro, I think we’ve officially crossed a key threshold.
#1: Battery on a travel day
I’ve been doing a fair amount of traveling lately, including this week for Thanksgiving.
The iPhone 16 Pro is the first model I can remember that’s conquered travel days without a problem.
This morning, for example, my iPhone was used in these ways:
- I got up shortly after 3am to make an early flight
- called an Uber and tracked its progress
- used my mobile boarding pass at several points in the airport
- made a Starbucks mobile order
- caught up on email
- did some writing on the flight
- then I headed to the hotel (via another Uber), where I used mobile checkin to enter my room
All of the above, with prior iPhones, would have led to some serious battery drain and triggered my battery anxiety. I probably would have charged up on the flight just to be safe.
But this time around, I haven’t been worried about battery at all.
And for good reason: I’m still over 70% charged, with plenty of juice to get me through the rest of my extra long travel day.
#2. Photography with no sacrifices or planning ahead
Besides travel days, the other regular battery struggle I face is on vacation-like days.
Traveling is one challenge, but if you’re going somewhere for vacation, you’ll probably want to take a lot of photos and videos once you get there.
The other day my family and I had a full day of adventures. One of the high points was an impromptu visit to Universal Studios Florida that we made in the late afternoon.
We checked out the new holiday decorations at the theme park, my toddler enjoyed exploring Seuss Landing, then we spent the bulk of our time in Hogsmeade, ending with a projection and fireworks show on Hogwarts Castle.
All along the way, I was taking lots of photos and videos.
This all happened late in the afternoon and evening, after I’d already used my iPhone plenty throughout the day. Yet I never had a single issue with battery.
In the past, if I was going to a theme park, for example, and knew I’d be using the Camera app a lot, I would make intentional moves to ration my battery life.
This time around, I used my iPhone normally throughout the day, then had plenty of juice for a last-minute adventure throughout Universal Studios and all the photos and videos that came with it.
I may be excited about next year’s rumored iPhone 17 Air, but it’s going to be hard to take a battery life hit after finally hitting a new milestone with the iPhone 16 Pro.
How has your iPhone 16 Pro battery life been? Let us know in the comments.
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