With the launch of the new iPhone 12, there are many tests that are practically to see the real autonomy they have. One of the main characteristics of these new iPhone 12 is 5G and it is known by all that it is a connectivity that can consume a lot of battery in its use. That is why we have tried to determine the real impact of 5G on the battery with different tests that we show you below.
The 5G: worst enemy for the battery
In the tests that Tom’s Guide has carried out on both the iPhone 12 and the iPhone 12 Pro, the results have not been very promising. The test is carried out on both devices with a screen brightness of 150 nits and with constant web browsing entering a new web page after 30 seconds with the aim of draining the battery. This is a normal situation for many users who are going to use 5G when browsing the internet. Obviously the comparison is made between tests with 4G and 5G connectivity.
The results were as follows for the iPhone 12 :
- 4G connectivity : 10 hours and 23 minutes.
- 5G connectivity : 8 hours and 25 minutes.
This marks a difference of one hour and 58 minutes which is undoubtedly quite pronounced when using this connectivity. On a typical day these two hours can be crucial and can cause you to not use 5G connectivity in most situations.
In the case of the iPhone 12 Pro , the results were as follows:
- 4G connectivity: 11 hours and 24 minutes.
- 5G connectivity: 9 hours and 6 minutes.
It is clearly seen how in the Pro model the reduction in autonomy is much greater, reaching up to 2 hours and 18 minutes. From Apple they know that this is a quite important problem obviously from their internal tests. That is why the iPhone operating system includes the possibility of optimizing 5G connectivity automatically. This means that the iPhone will determine when to switch from 4G to 5G and vice versa depending on the coverage as well as the use that is given to the device.
If it is true that the test that has been carried out in this case is quite demanding and cannot be adjusted to reality. A normal user obviously is not going to spend several hours in front of the browser and that is why users of this iPhone may not notice such a marked decrease in autonomy.
Confronting Android devices
The iPhone 12 is not the first device that has connectivity and obviously when seeing these tests you can think that the same happens in the rest of the devices. But unfortunately this is not the case since devices like the OnePlus 8T can have a range of almost 10 hours with a screen frequency of 120 Hz that exceeds both iPhones by a lot. This is quite an important point since the iPhone 12 has a refresh rate limited to 60 Hz without presenting the long-awaited 120 Hz. In the case of the Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus, the autonomy reaches up to 10 and a half hours with 5G connectivity, although it drops down to 9 o’clock with a 120 Hz refresh rate on the screen.