Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max battery life: everything is good except for this one thing

So how long does it last? The 12 Pro Max scored 8 hours and 37 minutes on our YouTube video streaming battery test, slightly less than last year’s iPhone 11 Pro Max, which scored 8 hours and 58 minutes on the same test. And it’s really no surprise, after all, the new 12 Pro Max has a smaller battery cell than its predecessor.

IPhones generally do not perform well on this test, but recently some Android phones have lost ground. For example, the Note 20 Ultra did this test surprisingly poorly, scoring only 7 hours, less than the iPhone 12 Pro Max. The previous S20 Ultra model, however, had beaten the iPhone with a score of 10 hours and 29 minutes. Remember, you can also add your favorite phone to this table and see how it performed on this test, chances are we have tested it!

iPhone 12 Pro Max: Web Browsing Battery Test

Despite the smaller battery size compared to last year’s iPhone 11 Pro Max, the new 12 Pro Max managed to outlive it with a small, but not inconsiderable, margin. The new 12 Pro Max lasted 14 hours and 6 minutes in our web browsing test. This is the lightest test we run and it’s a good representation of how your phone will withstand basic everyday tasks like browsing the web and scrolling.

Interestingly, although many Android phones have much larger batteries (the S20 Ultra has a 5000mAh cell), the iPhone 12 Pro Max is well optimized for this type of use and actually lasts longer. than all of these. So if you read a lot on the web and mostly do lighter workloads, the 12 Pro Max will easily impress you with its longevity.

iPhone 12 Pro Max: 3D gaming battery test

If you have read our IPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro battery test, as well as our IPhone 12 Mini Battery Test, you already know that the latest iPhones fail our 3D gaming battery test dramatically, so it won’t be a surprise to you to know that the iPhone 12 Pro Max has hurts as much as other phones. The phone started to heat up unlike every other phone we tested and the battery melted as fast as pistachio ice cream in the summer heat. Yes, the Pro Max lasts a lot longer than the other three new iPhones just because it has a bigger battery, but its score is abnormally low.

Of course, we had to investigate! We reached out for our superhero cape and play gear, it was play time! We started playing various games and noticed that the same issue was happening in some games. For example, Minecraft was melting the battery, while other games didn’t seem to be affected by this. The popular Call of Duty Mobile performed very well without the phone heating up and with a drained battery of around 15% per hour. It’s much more reasonable, and would give the iPhone 12 Pro Max 3D gaming battery life of over 6 hours.

So, investigation completed: It seems some games are not optimized for the all-powerful new Apple A14 chip inside and run wild and free, not putting any caps on the chip and it drains the battery incredibly quickly. Fortunately, this does not affect all games.