Sunday, 8 November 2026

iPhone 18 and 18e reportedly share one body and a 4,430mAh battery

Leaked factory X-ray images reportedly show the iPhone 18 and 18e sharing a layout and a 4,430mAh battery, but the scans are unverified.

Key points

  • Unverified X-ray images reportedly show the iPhone 18 and 18e on one shared internal layout.
  • Both phones are claimed to carry a 4,430mAh battery after the SIM tray is removed.
  • The images carry an OpenAI watermark and may not be genuine.

A bigger battery is the headline in a new iPhone 18 leak. Annotated X-ray scans reportedly put the standard iPhone 18 at 4,430mAh, up from 3,671mAh, and give the cheaper iPhone 18e the very same 4,430mAh cell. The pictures are unverified and could be fake.

Littertree66, a known Apple leaker, posted the scans on 5 November in the Qualcomm section of Baidu Tieba, a Chinese forum. Their labels use the internal names Taycan for the iPhone 18 and Nevera for the iPhone 18e. According to the notes on the image, dropping the SIM tray gives the battery its extra room, which would make the bigger figure an eSIM-only one. A wider speaker and vibration motor also change the inside of the phone.

X-ray scan labelled Taycan showing the iPhone 18 battery, with notes on the extra space
The leaked X-ray scan of the iPhone 18 (Taycan) with the battery marked 3,671mAh to 4,430mAh Image: Littertree66 (Baidu Tieba), unverified

For the iPhone 18e, 4,430mAh would be a jump of about 10% from the 4,005mAh quoted for the iPhone 17e. The scan of that phone shows the same boards, battery and MagSafe coils as the standard model, so the two phones would differ mostly in their cameras. The 18e has one wide camera, and a plastic filler sits where the iPhone 18 has its second lens.

X-ray scan labelled Nevera showing the iPhone 18e battery
The scan labelled Nevera, the iPhone 18e, with its 4,005mAh to 4,430mAh note Image: Littertree66 (Baidu Tieba), unverified

The poster adds a few claims of his own. He says both phones keep the Dynamic Island and have a steel-cased battery, and that a shared chassis could let the 18e get the Camera Control button. His last guess is that the U2 ultra-wideband chip could be the cut that keeps the 18e cheaper; that is speculation, not something the scans show.

Treat all of it carefully. Nobody has confirmed the scans, a watermark on them points to an OpenAI tool having been used to translate the labels into Chinese, and the forum post itself admits they may not be real. Apple has not said anything. Earlier tips had already described a bigger iPhone 18 battery and a single-camera iPhone 18e, so this leak matches what was already circulating. Both phones are said to be due in spring 2027.

Maroof Saeed

Author/Writer at Tech Prolonged You will mostly see him posting about Android stuff. Reach him on social networks below. @Twitter Facebook