In just a little over 24 hours, Tim Cook and Co. will take the stage of Flint Center for the Performing Arts in Cupertino, California and unveil at least one 4.7-inch iPhone 6. From previous leaks, we know that this iPhone 6 will have a 1,810mAh capacity battery, a 14% beefier battery than the 1,560mAh battery used in the iPhone 5s. It makes sense it would need one: it will have a sizably bigger display to light up.
But what about the 5.5-inch iPhone 6? Won’t it need a bigger battery even than that? It will, and a new leak out of Apple’s supply chain suggests that it will be a massive 2,915mAh battery, a battery 86% larger than the current iPhone 5s battery.
The battery was leaked to our friend Steve Hemmerstoffer at Nowherelse.fr, who obtained it from a reliable source. Steve claims it’s likely genuine given the serial number format on the side of the cable that connects the battery to the circuit board. It is the same format used for the iPhone 5.
Steve also tried plugging it into some iPhone 6 circuit boards he has lying around, and says the connector fits perfectly into the mobos of both the 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch iPhone 6. Looks legit.
So if the battery is almost twice as big as the current iPhone 5s, does that mean we can expect double battery life? Not likely. Keep in mind that a 5.5-inch iPhone 6 would have a display that is roughly 89% larger in area than the iPhone 5s. Notice anything? That’s almost identical to how much larger the battery is. All those extra pixels take more power to light up. Expect battery life between the iPhone 5s and iPhone 6 to be almost identical.
Source: Nowherelse.fr
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
17 responses to “The 5.5-inch iPhone 6 will have a 2,915mAh battery, but don’t expect better battery life”
Not true.. You could say the same for the iPad.. but it’s not.. screen size alone doesn’t determine battery.. if you have the same usage the larger the phone /battery the curve eventually sways in favor of the battery over the screen..
It’s not like the battery drain of the cell/wifi/cpu/etc increase.. which are easily 40-50% of the power usage.. only the screen is increasing..
Quite hyperbolizing this.. dumb, dumb…
Yup, this article is so shit uninformed. My iPad 3 has 15 hour battery compared to 6 on my iPhone 5 when iPad has much bigger screen, “go figure”. It’s also why most android phones are necessarily big, they can’t make optimized software that’s worth a damn for all the different hardware if they are as small as the iPhone. And that’s all good, iPhones doesn’t have to be as much of “wall huggers” anymore :p
How the F would you know? It isn’t even out yet. There is nothing to base this on. Crappy journalism.
Screen size alone is just a piece of the facts regarding battery usage. Do not forget about a probably even further optimized OS version (especially after the .01 update), better optimized apps with time, better network circumstances for many, better, more power efficient chipsets…..gee guys, come on!
A Lumia 1320 has a 6″ screen, a wonderful one too, around 3500 mAh battery and can go on days…not 2!
This theory doesn’t hold. The author argues the size of the display is proportional to energy draw. If we look back at the battery size vs display size difference between the iPhone 4s (3.5 in; 1432 mAh) and the iPhone 5 (4 in; 1440 mAh) we see 12.5% increase in screen size and a .4% percent increase in battery size which resulted in the same battery life by Apple’s testing. Today we are potentially looking at at 27% increase in display and a 43% increase in battery size from the iPhone 5s. Kind of different don’t you think. Ultimately we’ll just have to wait and see.
Unless the A8 SoC focuses on power efficiency, rather than performance increases.
I don’t think there is a 5.5 inch iPhone in my personal opinion. We have only heard rumors of a 5.5 inch but we have yet to see part leaks or the actual phone itself(like the 4.7 inch). I don’t think that they would only leak the 4.7 and keep the 5.5 super top secret. Anyone else think the same?
There will be, Because lot of trusted source websites claimed that Apple will be releasing two different type of iPhone which are 4.7 and the 5.5 inches.
Sources mean squat! Apple gives out bad information on purpose to weed out the leakers. A 5.5″ iPhone is not going to be released.
I guess you must feel real dumb now.
Not really. I still think Apple is dumb for doing this.
There’s been plenty of 5.5″ leaks. Including ribbon, MoBo and batteries.
Just because parts have leaked doesn’t mean it will be released. Apple tests things all the time that don’t ever see the light of day.
I agree with you, but not so much because of the lack of evidence. Two new sizes wouldn’t make developers too happy. Plus, 5.5″ is just too much of a departure from a phone that should be usable with one hand (4.7″ is a bit of a compromise as is). This isn’t Samsung we’re talking about lol
Others have mentioned it, but I will mention it again. This is wrong.
Your entire premise is based on the false idea that the screen takes up 100% of the battery. If screen energy consumption increases by 89%, battery capacity must increase the same amount to compensate. That is wrong.
I am on a Nexus 5 right now. Android shows you more details about battery consumption. The screen takes up around 30-35% of my battery each charge. Now if the screen on the iPhone 6+ is 89% larger, we now multiply that by .3 to get its theoretical increase in energy consumption. We are talking about a 26.7% increase in energy consumption (assuming everything is linear, which it isn’t, and will likely even be less).
So now we are talking about a 26.7% increase in energy consumption (again, likely less since the new A8 will use less energy than the A7), and we have an 86% increase in battery capacity. The iPhone 6+ will have significantly better battery life.
Screen only takes up about 1/3rd of the energy consumption in a smartphone. It isn’t linear, if it was, it would mean the phones energy is 100% used by the screen and all other components need no battery to operate. Expect awesome battery life on the iPhone 6+.
Well this article just seems completely silly–after the announcement, now doesn’t it?