iPhone 16 Pro Max All-New Design Upgrade Promised, Insider Claims

If better battery life is top of your wish list for your next iPhone, industry insider Ming-Chi Kuo’s latest report that this could be on the cards for this year’s iPhone 16 Pro Max will be of interest.

The iPhone 16 Pro Max could feature a big upgrade to the battery.

Updated on May 20. This post was first published on May 18, 2024.

Battery design is key to how a new device lands, but it looks like Apple has another important design change coming with the iPhone 16 series. According to the same industry insider mentioned below, Ming-Chi Kuo, new colors are also coming.

In itself, that’s not surprising. Every year reveals changes—even the PRODUCT(RED) colors would change from generation to generation, when such a color was in the range—but Kuo has guidance for what’s coming this fall.

In a post on X, headlined “2H24 iPhone 16 series case color prediction,” Kuo began by saying, “iPhone 16 Pro & Pro Max: black, white (or silver), grey (I think it's natural titanium), rose.” The big change here is the introduction of a rose titanium finish. It’s the closest the iPhone Pro will get to gold since the Pro models switched to a titanium edge band in fall 2023.

If this prediction is right, it means that the blue titanium that’s in the current range will disappear, and the white model (arguably the most attractive, I’d say) could be renamed as silver.

Kuo had a prediction for the shades that that the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus will include. Kuo says, “iPhone 16 & 16 Plus: black, green, pink, blue, white Apple may rename colors (e.g., previously called white as starlight). Also, even if the color name is the same as the existing model, it may look different.”

That last comment bears out what I said about colors changing on an annual basis. And as for the iPhone 16 series, it means the hues will be the same as now except that the subtly pale yellow will be replaced by white, which might be the most eye-catching of the lot.

Now, back to the battery redesign.

There’s more to a new battery design than how long it will last between charges. The redesigned case, for instance, as well as offering greater robustness as mentioned below, is said to have another effect, according to Ming-Chi Kuo.

Kuo explains, “The use of a stainless steel battery case also reduces the difficulty of removing the battery, which will help Apple comply with the European Union’s requirements for mobile phone batteries’ replaceability in the future.”

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This new claim of the move to new battery design also chimes with an earlier report, last November, which said that the iPhone 16 battery would use a different metal shell, though at this stage, just after the overheating issues which plagued some iPhones after iOS 17 was launched, was geared more towards thermal benefits than extended battery life.

Kuo also suggests that one particular company, Sunway, a major supplier of stainless-steel battery cases, will benefit from the switch to the new design—especially if the iPhone 17 range of models all adopt this design. It’s said that Apple’s high requirements in production lift the gross margin for the manufacturer, too.

In his latest post on Medium, reliable industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo from TFI Securities says, “My latest supply chain survey indicates the energy density (Wh/kg) of the battery cells of iPhone 16 Pro Max will increase.”

Note that it’s only one of the four iPhones expected this year, the Pro Max model, which Kuo believes will be upgraded in this way. And as the report points out, greater energy density in the battery “has the benefit of longer battery life with the same battery size or lower battery size with the same battery life.”

In other words, Apple could shrink the battery and give the valuable space freed up to other components or even make the phone smaller. Or it could do that thing we’d all like, add extra battery life.

There’s a third option, of course: increase battery capability but also add extra features and capabilities which are more power-hungry, leaving battery life the same overall. With a focus on generative AI expected on the next iPhones, this option is the one I think is most likely. That is, a more powerful iPhone but with battery life undiminished.

There’s more from Kuo: since greater energy density in battery cells will increase the battery temperature when running, Apple will switch to a new stainless-steel battery case, “for the first time as a thermal solution.”

Apple will certainly be keen to avoid a repeat of the iPhone overheating issues seen last fall, and this would be a neat solution. There are other benefits, Kuo says: “Stainless steel is not as effective as aluminum in dissipating heat, but it is more robust and less susceptible to corrosion, so in addition to dissipating heat, the stainless steel battery case provides better protection for the battery and the iPhone system.”

If you’re not a Pro Max kind of person, there’s news that the new battery system could be used more widely in the future, with Kuo predicting that if the feedback is favorable, “this new battery design will be adopted in all 2H25 new iPhone models.” Which means all iPhone 17 models could feature this upgrade.

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