A filing with a regulator in Brazil says the iPhone 12 has a 2,815mAh battery and the iPhone 12 mini has a 2,227mAh battery
While the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro are now available for pre-order in the US, Apple is getting ready to bring its new smartphones to other countries as well.
9to5MacFilipe Espósito
Context & Ripple Effects
Apple has never put battery capacities on its own spec sheets, so the numbers surface through mandatory regulator filings instead — a pattern running from the iPhone 7's TENAA disclosure in 2016 through the iPhone XS generation in 2018. Today it is Brazil's turn: the filing confirms the iPhone 12 at 2,815mAh and the iPhone 12 mini at 2,227mAh.
The timing matters because the iPhone 12 pre-order window opened October 16 with the mini not shipping until November 13 — meaning the smallest, least-documented model now has an official capacity figure weeks before reviewers can test it.
First-order effects
Prospective iPhone 12 mini buyers get their first hard data point before launch: at 2,227mAh, the filing shows the smallest battery Apple has shipped since the iPhone 8 generation, when the iPhone 8's 1,821mAh cell drew scrutiny for being smaller than its predecessor's.
Reviewers and comparison sites can now benchmark real-world endurance against the stated figure rather than waiting for teardowns of retail units.
Second-order effects
The filing invites direct generational math against prior regulator disclosures — the XS Max's 3,174mAh and XR's 2,942mAh from TENAA — putting pressure on Apple to justify how smaller cells deliver comparable battery life, the same claim it made during the iPhone 8 downsizing.
Competing Android vendors, which typically publish capacities upfront, gain a talking point over Apple's opacity every time a filing like this lands.
Third-order effects
If the pattern holds, national regulators in China and Brazil function as a standing early-disclosure channel for Apple hardware, effectively setting the cadence at which the company's most-guarded specs become public ahead of launch.
Sustained scrutiny of shrinking cells alongside rising chip performance keeps battery life — not raw specs — positioned as the durable constraint on flagship phone design.
The trend: Smartphone specification disclosure is migrating from vendor announcements to mandatory national regulator filings, with Apple's battery capacities surfacing this way for four consecutive generations.
Oh boy the iPhone 12 has a 6% smaller battery than the iPhone 11 so I hope the A14 efficiency and the use of an OLED over an LCD will make up for the lost battery capacity Now that iPhone 12 mini has a 22% bigger battery than the SE 2020 which is still meh tbh https://twitter.com…
@MacRumors @julipuli iPhone 12 mini = 2277 mAh iPhone 12 = 2815 mAh iPhone 12 Pro = 2775 mAh iPhone 12 Pro Max = 3687 mAh You might be thinking.. Why does the 12 have a bigger battery than the 12 Pro? They're the same size. Answer: The added telephoto lens and LiDAR give less spa…
@daringfireball Re the gratuitous Verizon segment: if you thought it was bad, imagine how bad it was for those of us outside the US! The UK isn't exactly basking in 5G and it still felt like a pointless distraction, but if you were tuning in from East Asia, this would have seemed…
Apple is a monopoly that is engaging in price gouging its customers, but that's not enough. They also want moral worship. What exhausting bullshit. https://twitter.com/...
Have bought a lot of phones & other gadgets over the years. This is just small fraction of the number of chargers,plugs i have lying around. Apple removing the chargers from #iPhone12 series is a good move IMHO but users who need one must be able to buy it at a discounted price h…
@daringfireball Weight was the reason I went with regular iPhone 12 vs Pro/Max. (Now that the screens are at parity.) The heft of the 11 Pro Max wore me out, and the Max keeps getting heavier. I think it's also notable that the phones are back at sub-0.3 inch depth, first time in…
@nial_26 @AboveAvalon With the market saturated a few years ago there is near 100% chance that an iPhone is a replacement purchase. Probably many times over. Buyer will have several chargers already. Why buy another? I for one have access to over 30.