A new investor note spotted by MacRumors from the ever-reliable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has identified yet another update coming to all four of the iPhone 13 models: larger batteries.
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While there were certain aspects of the iPhone 12 to quibble about, like the lack of a high refresh rate display or a periscope telephoto camera, the one flaw that was universally agreed upon was the overall weak battery life. Now users can largely solve this problem by turning off 5G on the iPhone 12, but it doesn’t feel like that should be necessary. This was made more frustrating by the fact that Apple put smaller batteries in the iPhone 12 than its predecessors despite the inclusion of the more battery-hungry 5G radios. All of this to say that it was basically a foregone conclusion that Apple would have to increase the battery size for the iPhone 13 models, but Kuo offers a number of new details regarding just how Apple will make this happen. The iPhone 13 will integrate the SIM card slot into the mainboard and reduce the thickness of the front-facing TrueDepth camera array. That also aligns with the rumors that the display notch is going to be smaller this year. Despite these efforts, the battery is one of the heavier components on the phone so the iPhone 13 models will be “slightly heavier” than the iPhone 12 according to Kuo. I think it’s a trade-off that most users would be willing to make, so let’s hope they don’t skimp; the A15 Bionic and the new ProMotion displays may increase efficiency as well, but there’s simply no reason for Apple to try to flex its efficiency muscles when a little more battery would solve the problem.
