This wild phone battery rumor has me wondering whether iPhone will ever catch up to Android jamie.richards@futurenet.com (Jamie Richards) | usagoldmines.com

• A new rumor suggests that Xiaomi’s next flagship phone could sport a 7,000mAh battery
• That could see Xiaomi almost double the battery capacity of the current-gen iPhone 16
• The Xiaomi 16 is extremely unlikely to come to the US

Another day, another futuristic specs rumor concerning a Chinese phone maker – this time, we’ve heard about a major step forward in mobile battery capacity from tech giant Xiaomi.

The folks over at Phonearena spotted a Weibo post by notable tipster Smart Pikachu, who claims the Xiaomi 16 could come equipped with a massive 7,000mAh battery, which would make the Xiaomi 16 the first phone with a battery of this capacity.

Before I dig into that, let me caveat the tip by noting this post was translated from Chinese using the translation option in Google Chrome, so this information isn’t crystal clear. But the hashtag Smart Pikachu is using appears to be in reference to the Xiaomi 16, and Phonearea believes the ‘7’ in the translated post (which I’ve screenshotted and posted below) references the battery size.

We’ve only recently seen phones approach and cross the 6,000mAh mark, and the current-generation Xiaomi 15 sports a 5,240mAh battery – so 7,000mAh seems like a very ambitious target.

The Xiaomi 15 launched this year, so we’d expect the Xiaomi 16 to launch at some time in 2026 – as PhoneArena highlights, that’s the same year we expect to see the iPhone 18, Samsung Galaxy S26, and Google Pixel 11 series launching.

In fact, a 7,000mAh battery would put the Xiaomi 16 at the cutting edge of what’s even possible for a flagship smartphone – there are phones on the market with larger cells, but these are typically bulky and hefty rugged phones.

Our in-depth Xiaomi 15 review found the phone’s battery life impressive, especially for a compact-frame phone – it’s easy to see that a 33% increase up to 7,000mAh could take Xiaomi’s flagship into the highest echelons of mobile battery champs.

And though I still think 7,000mAh is a lofty target, it’s true that Android phone makers – particularly Chinese companies – have been pushing ahead at pace when it comes to battery hardware. It’s got me thinking about whether a certain Cupertino-based tech giant will be looking to catch up any time soon.

Capacity opacity

Apple is famously shy with its mobile battery capacities, instead opting to list the practical battery life of an iPhone in hours of video playback.

That’s probably for the best, as the exact figures recovered from teardowns and deconstructions after release show that iPhones rarely have batteries as large as their Android counterparts.

For example, the iPhone 16 sports a 3,561mAh battery – less than the 4,000mAh cell found in the Samsung Galaxy S25. The Google Pixel 9 is well ahead, at 4,700mAh – which is closer to the enlarged iPhone 16 Plus’ 4,674mAh cell (which is itself undersized compared to the 5,000-6,000mAh cells found in larger phones from Oppo, Samsung, and Xiaomi).

That’s not to say that iPhones don’t offer good battery life – in recent years especially Apple seems to have upped its game with software optimization and power efficiency – but iPhones are rarely considered battery beasts in the way the best Android phones are.

I’m wondering if the arrival of an Android phone – the Xiaomi 16 or indeed another model – with a 7,000mAh battery could change that. For reference, that’s almost double the capacity of the iPhone 16, a feat enabled by space-saving and efficiency-boosting silicon-carbon battery technology.

Apple has always been content to do its own thing when it comes to hardware, but I’m not sure that it would be happy to have the iPhone quite so obviously lapped by Xiaomi.

Optimistically, I’d like to see Apple a little spooked by this Xiaomi rumor – as mentioned, the iPhone 16 already gets a lot from its relatively small battery thanks to Apple’s efficient chipsets and tight software integration.

A 4,000mAh battery, or even larger, could see the iPhone living up to its strong processing performance, cameras, and software experience in the battery department.

However, with Xiaomi showing no signs of entering the US market any time soon, it’s possible Apple won’t even consider this latest rumor in its planning. Still, I’m hopeful that Apple can give the best iPhones a little more juice in generations to come.

Let us know what you think of this new Xiaomi 16 rumor, and whether you’re counting on Apple to respond with its future phones, in the comments below.

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