iPhone 16e Has Longest Battery Life of Any 6.1-Inch iPhone

The iPhone 16e includes Apple's new custom C1 5G modem chip, which Apple says improves battery efficiency. The iPhone 16e offers up to 26 hours of video playback, which is the longest battery life in the 6.1-inch form factor.

Along with up to 26 hours of video playback, the iPhone 16e supports up to 21 hours of streaming video and up to 90 hours of audio playback.

Comparatively, the prior-generation iPhone SE 3 offered up to 15 hours of video playback, while the similarly sized iPhone 16 offers up to 22 hours of video playback, which is four hours less than the 16e.

The ‌iPhone 16‌ and 16e have the same A18 chip inside with the exception of the GPU (4-core vs. 5-core for the 16) and the same display, so the main difference with power draw is the C1 modem chip. The standard ‌iPhone 16‌ has Qualcomm's modem chip, so it seems that Apple's modem offers some notable improvements to battery.

While the iPhone 16e adopted a number of features from the ‌iPhone 16‌ models, MagSafe is one curious exclusion. Fast charging is supported with USB-C, but wireless charging is limited to 7.5W Qi speeds and there is no magnetic connection.