How Apple iPhone 12 battery compares to other flagship phones

In terms of the smartphone segment, Apple is quite a unique brand. It always has an unorthodox approach when developing a device. This has led to some advantages and some drawbacks. The business model is very successful, but sometimes it feels a bit narrow. It allows immensely few external developers to contribute. After all this, we have had many great devices from Apple. The specification sheet of Apple devices on papers seem to lag behind a generation or two in general. The greatest of these aspects which really seem to be not enough is RAM and battery capacity. Through this article, we shall be specifically discussing the battery capacity and the hype created around it.

Overview

In October of 2020, Apple announced its latest lineup of iPhones. The iPhone 12 launched in various variants. Ranging from all the way the bottom specked iPhone 12 mini all the way to top of the line iPhone 12 pro max, the only aspect under consideration was the battery capacity. We shall be considering the mid-ranger, iPhone 12, to explain this case study. Apple iPhone 12 is launched with a 2815 mAH battery pack. The battery pack is non-removable and pumps out a decent 10.78 watt-hour. On paper, and according to 2020 standards, this is nowhere near to the flagships launched by various other brands. For example, consider a flagship smartphone by Google with a similar footprint. The Google Pixel 5 packs a 4080 mAH battery pack. This is huge, according to Apple standards.

Moreover, to date, no Apple smartphone can compete up to this number even in 2020. Considering Apple’s own iPhone 11 pro, which was launched last year, had a 3046 mAH battery pack. It pumped out an average power of about 11.67 watt-hour. To keep the comparison fair, we would like to add Samsung’s Galaxy S20 Plus. It has an impressive 4500 mAH battery pack. Now keeping in view all the mentioned products, we clearly see that Samsung’s S20 Plus is quite a winner here. But here comes the technical aspect. Few factors that affect the battery life of a smartphone are as follow:

Battery management system

The BMS plays a vital role in the battery life of any device. Better the BMS, the greater will be the battery life. A smart battery management system can enable a smaller battery pack to last longer. Speaking of iPhone 12, the BMS by Apple is brilliant. Here we like to mention that BMS is a different thing than software battery optimization. To clear, BMS primarily monitors the physical aspect of your battery pack. Thermals, voltage input and output, charging voltages, dissipation ratio, cycle count, and various other parameters.

iPhone 12 manages the thermals quite efficiently, but the Samsung S20 Plus uses a vapor chamber to cool its internals, including the battery pack. But still, Samsung S20 plus gets pretty hot during intense usage or gaming. While charging, the thermals of the iPhone are pretty nominal. This shows its excellent battery management system, which keeps the setting voltages at a certain level to keep the thermals lower. Whereas Samsung allows its chargers to charge rapidly; hence the BMS is nearly effective in regularly maintaining the thermals. The upside is better battery life, whereas slower charging time. Comparing iPhone 12 with its elder brother from last year, the iPhone 11 Pro is quite similar. The iPhone 11 pro battery management system is identical to the iPhone 12. The only thing the differs this year is the up-gradation of the system entirely. Instead of developing an entirely new battery pack, Apple smartly upgraded the battery management system to an iPhone 12.

With vigorous testing, iPhone 12 lasted significantly longer than iPhone 11 pro on a single charge despite having a smaller battery pack. Part of it was due to software optimization techniques. The rest was the efficiency of the battery management system. An elegant feature introduced in iPhone 11 pro and onwards was the charging limitation of your smartphone past a specific battery percentage. After updating on the latest iOS, it was noticed that the iPhone doesn’t charge or, in some cases, charges very slowly after 80% of battery capacity. As an official statement from Apple, this was a precautionary measure by the battery management system, which monitors the average use of your smartphone for an entire day and then limits the upper range of your iPhone battery percentage. As a result, this prolonged the battery life of iPhone 12 and improved performance in a smaller battery pack.

Software Optimization

The next big thing that affects a smartphone’s battery life is software optimization. A better software optimization a result sent some decent gains in terms of battery life. Apple’s iOS has been very famous in software management systems. It closes all the applications in the background which are sipping up your battery. Hence, the idle battery drops are close to 0. Once the application utilizing much of your battery is not being used, is terminated or sent into a hibernation mode, it helps the battery management system save a large battery chunk.

To compare it next to an Android device, we would like to mention the OnePlus 8 or the OnePlus 8T. Both of these flagships are second or none in terms of performance. With the latest Snapdragon chip insight and the largest amount of ram available for a smartphone, and a massive battery pack, they still can’t compete for the battery life of an iPhone or, to be specific, an iPhone 12 Pro Max. the primary reason behind this is the software optimization used by Android is not is as efficient as that of iOS. To deliver a smoother experience and faster loading of applications, the oxygen OS keeps the applications running in the background, not even being utilized for an extended period.

The upside is the shorter loading time when reopening the app, but the downside is the battery life gets a big bump. The battery management system is not as efficient as iOS in communicating its needs to the software management system to spare those applications that are shipping more battery life and are not being used. Here we see a large battery pack that cannot deliver the performance as that of a smaller battery pack, which is much smarter. To narrow it down a larger capacitor does not explicitly mean a longer battery life; instead, it’s dependent on how intelligent the software and the battery management system are.

Closing thoughts

Apple has a long tradition of offering fewer specifications in its devices. Usually, we find that the latest iPhone has a smaller RAM size than many other flagships. But the software is so efficient that it catalyzes less of everything. Hence, the overall footprint of the device is very green and clean. Electronic devices’ future is very much dependent on how smart they are rather than how powerful they are. With the latest processor and high-capacity RAM, a compelling device does not ensure your performance. The same is the case with the battery.

An efficient system is a smart integration of hardware and software, communication amongst components, and timely actions by the battery management system can pull out an excellent performance from a smaller, better pack. Apple follows the basic principle of optimization. With the least components at its disposal, it tries to accomplish the most. Therefore, in 2020 when other manufacturers are manufacturing smartphones with well over 4500 mAH battery capacity, Apple is still delivering the same performance from a 2800 mAH battery pack. This is all due to the smart battery management system and excellent software optimization techniques.