Tests show iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro batteries last two hours less under 5G

Apple's new iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini

New testing of the only available iPhone 12 models — the iPhone 12 and the iPhone 12 Pro — show that 5G usage significantly reduces the length of time their batteries can run without recharging.

According to Tom's Guide, new testing shows that the iPhone 12 lasts 10 hours and 23 minutes under 4G usage, but only 8 hours and 25 minutes with 5G. Similarly, the iPhone 12 Pro tested using solely 4G managed 11 hours and 24 minutes, but with 5G was 9 hours and 6 minutes.

That's a difference of 118 minutes for the iPhone 12, and 139 for the iPhone 12 Pro. Tom's Guide testing was of continuous usage under either 4G or 5G, and real-world use will be significantly less non-stop. Outside of testing, the iPhone 12 range works to save battery power by stepping back from 5G to 4G LTE at times.

Nonetheless, losing around two hours battery life by using 5G is considerable. It also compares poorly to 5G Android phones.

Tom's Guide did not replicate the same conditions with Android phones, it didn't run their batteries down on 4G and separately on 5G. Instead it more tested the impact of choosing faster screen refresh rates.

However, as a broad example, the testing's figures still show Apple lagging behind. The Google Pixel 5 (at 60Hz) lasted 9 hours and 56 minutes on 5G. That's 91 minutes more than the iPhone 12, and 50 minutes more than the iPhone 12 Pro.