Is this how Samsung could have brought bigger batteries to its flagship phones much earlier?

While Chinese smartphone brands have been offering bigger than 5,000mAh batteries for the past few years, Apple, Google, and Samsung stuck to around 5,000mAh due to regulatory hurdles, especially in the EU and the US. However, there appears to be a trick Samsung missed out on that could have allowed it to bring bigger batteries to its flagship phones much earlier.

International regulations currently cap single-cell batteries at 20Wh (around 5,300mAh) for phones. To offer bigger batteries while remaining compliant with international rules, smartphone brands have to use more complex dual-cell batteries. However, Apple seems to have used a single-cell battery larger than the 5,300mAh limit (5,391mAh) inside the iPhone 18 Pro Max. So how did it do that?

Reports reveal that Apple applied a software feature that artificially limits the iPhone 18 Pro Max’s battery capacity to 5,300mAh or below during manufacturing and shipping. This limit is removed the moment a user activates their phone, unlocking its full battery capacity.

Apparently, iPhone 18 Pro Max users can even re-enable the software limit on the battery by activating the “Prepare to Ship” mode for safe transport when sending the phone in for a repair or trade-in.

Samsung could have used a similar trick years ago to offer batteries with capacities higher than 5,000mAh in its flagship Galaxy phones. Perhaps the company plans to do just that with the upcoming Galaxy S27 Ultra, as the phone is rumored to feature a 5,700mAh battery (5,534mAh rated capacity).

While camera and performance improvements have been mostly incremental over the past few years, and yearly upgrades don’t matter much anymore, longer battery life is what most people want, as it can bring a truly significant improvement in day-to-day smartphone usage by reducing battery anxiety. So, we hope Samsung starts bringing larger batteries to all its phones.