Apple iPhone X Has Smaller Battery Than iPhone 7 Plus
An allegedly leaked regulatory filing appears to reveal the battery and RAM, or random access memory, specifications of the iPhone X, Apple’s new high-end smartphone that is due out in coming weeks.
According to screenshots of the filing, the handset apparently contains 3 gigabytes (GB) of RAM, a measure of data storage that relates to a device’s ability to perform multiple tasks at once, and a 2,716 milliamp-hour (mAh) battery, a measure of a battery pack’s capacity for electrical charge. For comparison, the iPhone 6 Plus and iPhone 7 Plus had bigger batteries (2,915 mAh and 2,900 mAh, respectively).
If the leaked specs are true, the iPhone X’s battery just barely edges out that of its closest sibling, the iPhone 8 Plus, which Apple debuted on the same day earlier this month. That phone, which costs approximately $200 less than the $999 iPhone X, has a 2,675 mAh battery.
Steve Hemmerstoffer, a frequent leaker of Apple secrets who goes by the Twitter alias “@OnLeaks” and edits the French tech blog Nowhereelse.fr, posted images of the supposed technical documentation to Twitter on Tuesday. The details were apparently leaked through TENAA, China’s telecommunications regulator.
Apple did not immediately return Fortune’s request for comment.
Get Data Sheet, Fortune's technology newsletter
Despite having an apparently smaller battery than past generations of Apple phones, the iPhone X’s battery is said to last two hours longer than those in the iPhone 7 series. Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, mentioned this statistic, adding at the company’s recent demo day at Apple headquarters that the new handset has 21 hours of talk time. (Fortune has yet to confirm both claims.)
The improvement can likely be chalked up to overall improvements in the phone’s internal technology, such as its general performance.
Unlike the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, the iPhone X has a presumably more power-hungry OLED--organic light emitting diode--display. How much this factors into the model’s battery life remains to be seen.
It’s worth noting that the iPhone X has half the RAM of its biggest competitor, Samsung’s Galaxy Note 8 (3 GB vs. 6 GB). Prospective shoppers shouldn’t take this to mean that the rival phone is necessarily better at multitasking, however, since other factors are at play, like the tightness of integration between the device’s software and hardware.
See original article on Fortune.com
More from Fortune.com