William Gallagher
Under continuous 5G usage, both the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro lose around two hours of battery life compared to 4G — and that's significantly more than with 5G Android phones.
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.
Christine McKee
AppleInsider Staff
Chip Loder
Malcolm Owen
34 Comments
That’s likely why the 5G controls are so granular.
Learn about 5G options
The default settings for 5G on iPhone are optimized for battery life and data usage based on your data plan. You can customize these options for when to use 5G and how much data to use in some apps.
Find these options by going to Settings > Cellular > Cellular Data Options. If you're using Dual SIM, go to Settings > Cellular and choose the number whose options you want to change....”
There are also different types of 5G and we also have seen tests that shows iPhone 12 5G speeds are significantly faster than any Android phone. So in summary this is a big todo about nothing. 5G in 2021 will be spotty at best and recall how long it took for 3G and 4G to become the dominant service - years.
Tom's Guide is so Apple-centric so of course, it was a sensible and fair test, I am sure Apple didn't design these phones to auto-switch back and forth when required to conserve battery life. Apple wants its premier phones to go flat as fast as possible./s
Not surprising. It's not even a real comparison to Android, either.