iPhone XS, XS Max, XR Battery sizes, RAM revealed by Chinese regulator

Regulatory filings in China have revealed a number of interesting details about Apple's newest iPhones, including that the iPhone XS and XS Max both use 4GB of memory, and while the iPhone XS Max and XR have larger batteries than the iPhone X, the iPhone XS uses a smaller capacity power source.

Filings with China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (TENAA) found by MyDrivers reveal the iPhone XS has a 2,658 mAh battery, smaller than the 2716mAh battery used by its predecessor, the iPhone X. The slight reduction in capacity is unusual, considering the iPhone XS and iPhone X are the same size.

Despite the reduction, the iPhone XS is claimed to offer a longer battery life, with Apple claiming the device capable of 30 more minutes of usage time than the iPhone X.

The larger iPhone XS Max has a bigger battery to match its size, with a capacity of 3,174mAh. While it has to contend with powering a larger display, it also provides even more usage time when put alongside the iPhone X, with an extra hour and a half according to Apple.

The iPhone XR, believed to have the best claimed battery life at 1.5 hours longer than the iPhone 8 Plus, manages to do so with a smaller battery than the iPhone XS Max. According to the filing, the iPhone XR has a battery capacity of 2,942mAh, between the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max.

The most likely explanation for the long battery life claims is the iPhone XR's use of an LCD display, instead of the OLED version used in the XS models. The smaller screen size of 6.1 inches compared to the 6.5-inch XS Max also helps reduce power usage.

A second item identified in the filings is that both the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max use 4 gigabytes of memory each. The iPhone XR is noted as being equipped with 3GB of RAM.

The iPhone XS and XS Max RAM was previously rumored in alleged benchmarks of the 2018 iPhone range, including one Geekbench score shortly after Apple's September event, as well as a supposed benchmark in July.

The RAM values for the XS models are up compared to previous iPhone releases. Last year's iPhone X and iPhone 8 Plus each housed 3 gigabytes of memory, while the iPhone 8 had 2 gigabytes.

Latest Exclusives

Latest comparisons

14 Comments

wonkothesane 12 Years · 1738 comments

About 6 years ago

I don’t understand how the LCD should account for the longer battery life in the XR as opposed to the OLED. I thought the whole point of OLES (or at least one of the major ones) is the absence of the backlight Illini sting only the “non black pixels” and thus saving significant power?

tshapi 13 Years · 372 comments

wonkothesane said:

I don’t understand how the LCD should account for the longer battery life in the XR as opposed to the OLED. I thought the whole point of OLES (or at least one of the major ones) is the absence of the backlight Illini sting only the “non black pixels” and thus saving significant power?

Oled itself is power hungry, the reason it can be a battery saver is if the user consistently opts to keep as mug of the screen as black as possible.

DeadDuck123 6 Years · 1 comment

wonkothesane said:

I don’t understand how the LCD should account for the longer battery life in the XR as opposed to the OLED. I thought the whole point of OLES (or at least one of the major ones) is the absence of the backlight Illini sting only the “non black pixels” and thus saving significant power?

@wonkothesane that's actually a misconception, and no thanks to some of the early pitching points for OLED. It's true that OLED doesn't need backlight and parts of the screen can be turned off. But to make maximum of that capability, manufacturers will have to use dark UI with lot of black background. Any pixel that is not black is essentially turning on the LED. When you're using normal bright UI, you are not saving any power as most of the screen is lit up. Compared to that few LEDs in backlight grid would use lesser power than fully lit OLED.

So considering all that, smaller size LCD (6.1") will use less power compared to larger OLED (6.5") screen using the same UI. Ofcourse there are other factors contributing to the power usage between the two phones, but screen is definitely one area where decent amount of power saving occurs.

mazda 3s 16 Years · 1598 comments

tshapi said:

wonkothesane said:

I don’t understand how the LCD should account for the longer battery life in the XR as opposed to the OLED. I thought the whole point of OLES (or at least one of the major ones) is the absence of the backlight Illini sting only the “non black pixels” and thus saving significant power?

Oled itself is power hungry, the reason it can be a battery saver is if the user consistently opts to keep as mug of the screen as black as possible.

Given this point, why doesn't Apple provide a "true" Dark Mode for iOS like it does in the upcoming release of macOS?

ericthehalfbee 13 Years · 4489 comments

4GB RAM.

This should help with those "App Races" that are all the rage now with YouTubers trying to compare performance of phones. They are still useless tests, but it's going to be interesting to see the spin when the iPhones beat others out there. I can't wait to hear the excuses.