Apple iPhone XR Upgrade Could Feature Bigger Battery

The upcoming successor to the iPhone XR will have a bigger battery compared to the one powering the existing model, according to a new report.

Last year’s iPhone XR offered many consumers several things that its prcier siblings didn’t. It came in a variety of colors, was sold for a lower (and thus more appealing) price, and it came with a 2,942 mAh battery that allowed it to last longer than the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max on a single charge. Now, a new report coming from Korea claims that its successor will have a bigger 3,110 mAh battery.

Korean electronics media site The Elec claimed that the upcoming iPhone XR2 (or iPhone 11R) will have a 3,110 mAh battery, which is at least 5 percent bigger than the battery used in the iPhone XR. This means the iPhone XR successor will be given the distinction of having the largest battery capacity of any iPhone powered by a single-cell battery.

According to unnamed sources knowledgeable about the matter, the batteries will be supplied by China’s ATL (Amperex), the same company Samsung tapped to produce safe and non-exploding batteries for the Galaxy Note 7 after it had nightmares from the notorious SDI batteries. Furthermore, Amperex is said to have kicked off the battery’s mass production.

Will it matter?

Although the jump in battery capacity might not seem all important to some, it actually is. GSM Arena noted that the iPhone XR is capable of playing videos for 15 hours straight before it needed plugging in. A larger battery, combined with the expected second-gen 7nm A13 chip from Apple, might give the iPhone XR successor a significant boost in battery life.

What about the iPhone XS and XS Max successors?

The Elec’s report noted that both the iPhone XS and XS Max made use of dual-cell batteries, where two separate cells are conjoined together to work as one single power source. The iPhone XS Max’s 3,171 mAh battery, then, despite having a large capacity, is overtaken by the single-cell battery powering the iPhone XR.

An industry source told the site that while an “L-shaped” dual-cell battery is capable of providing surges in power, an “I” shaped dual-cell battery is still safer and easier to produce in larger quantities. Despite this, however, the report said the batteries for the iPhone XS and XS Max successors aren’t being mass produced yet.