It seems that the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro are having something of a battery issue, at least according to some users running iOS 18.
The iPhone 16 family has had a good launch, including the release of iOS 18 for compatible devices. For the most part, everything seemed to be going smoothly, even with Apple Intelligence features not being available. However, it would be rare for there to be a new release without at least a few issues — and there have been several complaints about the new iPhone 16 series. This news comes from a report by MacRumors and focuses on an apparent issue with how long the phones can maintain a charge.
According to the report, there have been a fair few complaints about iPhones running out of power. For instance, Reddit user Ok-Interest-6561 posted that their iPhone 16 Pro used 10-15% of its battery overnight, even with background app refresh and location services turned off. Other users in the same thread mentioned having similar issues, with one reporting that their phone would drain 70% of the battery after only three hours of use.
Another Reddit user performed a test where they claimed to use the iPhone 16 Pro and the iPhone 14 Pro in the same way for 36 hours and saw the 16 Pro drop to 58% while the 14 Pro dropped to 85%. There have also been several reports on MacRumor's own iOS 18 battery life forum thread that report the same issue.
Battery issues can be hard to diagnose, mostly due to the changes in habits between users. The best way to initially check if the hardware is the issue is to check the battery health in the settings menu, in a new phone it should have a maximum capacity between 95-100%. If the battery health is anywhere around 80% then there is a problem that needs to be solved. Another method is to turn off features like background app refresh but that hasn't solved the issue for many users.
One issue is that some users have reported that updating to the iOS 18.0.1 has solved the problem, but it hasn't for others. This means that we can't simply state that it is a software or hardware fault. On the plus side, Apple has worked to make the battery much easier to replace at home, and you can buy a tool to do so from iFixit, meaning that a hardware issue won't be as much of a nightmare.
For the time being it will be worth keeping an eye on both your new and old phone to see if the issue is affecting you. You can also purchase one of the best portable chargers in the meantime to make sure you're never caught out.
