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Following iOS 16's public release, Apple has confirmed that users of older generation iPhone models will miss out on the ability to show their iPhone's battery percentage directly in the status bar.

ios-16-beta-battery-percentage-icon.jpeg

In an updated support document, Apple says that the new battery percentage display is not available on the iPhone XR, iPhone 11, the iPhone 12 mini, and the iPhone 13 mini. Apple provides no additional information about why these devices will miss out on the new feature.

Apple added the battery percentage display icon in an iOS 16 beta over the summer. The new toggle, which can be found within Settings and Battery, lets users always see their battery percentage directly in the status bar without having to swipe down into Control Center.


Ever since the iPhone X with the notch, users have asked Apple to make it easier to see their iPhone's battery level directly in the status bar. Still, Apple's recent implementation has proven to be controversial.

The new icon includes the battery percentage within the icon rather than to the left of it. The white battery icon remains completely filled in until the battery reaches 20% or lower, at which point a fifth of the icon turns red and the rest of the icon becomes translucent.

Article Link: Apple Confirms iOS 16 Battery Percentage Display Not Available on Certain iPhone Models
 
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Suspect it's text legibility. The Xr / 11 screens don't have the pixel resolution to effectively display the numbers, and the mini's are probably either too tight on space, or the text would be too small.

The resolution hasn't changed. It was possible before.

They probably migrated something and weren't able to implement the battery percentage indicator in time. Such stuff happens a lot in the software industry.
 
This is an issue that should never have happened to begin with. If a multi-trillion dollar tech firm couldn’t dream up a workaround for this right from the beginning then they may as well have just shut up shop and turned the lights off on their way out.
 
Those models specifically have low DPI displays, so rendering something as small as that might make it look weird or illegible.

My iPhone 4 could display that. And I could read it without thinking: Hum, this looks weird?!

It’s a shame those small UI updates are now exclusively for newer models too.
Feels like Apple is running out of ideas on how to motivate people to upgrade their phones. So they come up with the most ridiculous ways to cripple the OS/UI.
 
I don’t get this obsession with knowing the percentage. You can see how much is left in the icon.

Why do you need to know the exact percentage?
It's important to know how much is left in the battery. Numbers are easier to handle than icons.

E.g. if you're doing something and you went from 15 to 10% in 15minutes, you know you have around half an hour of runtime left. Would you get the same estimate easily by counting pixels in the icon?
 
It's important to know how much is left in the battery. Numbers are easier to handle than icons.

E.g. if you're doing something and you went from 15 to 10% in 15minutes, you know you have around half an hour of runtime left. Would you get the same estimate easily by counting pixels in the icon?
Or, you know, you could swipe down and see the exact percentage. Not exactly a huge amount of effort, and we've been doing it on notched iPhones for years.

So then it's deemed unfit and goes back to the design stage.
Can't really see how else they'd do it. They could have a vertical battery with the text next to it maybe, but it would then break the visual consistency in that area.
 
Easy. Because they want you to buy a new phone if you have an XR or 11.
iPhone XS gets it too.

Also, I'm sure the number of people who upgrade their phones due to a missing battery percentage readout that they can get anyway with a single interaction will be well into the astonishing double-digit range. :rolleyes:

Talk about people making a mountain out of a molehill. Sheesh.
 
Or, you know, you could swipe down and see the exact percentage. Not exactly a huge amount of effort, and we've been doing it on notched iPhones for years.

That's a bad idea in terms of usability.

Can't really see how else they'd do it. They could have a vertical battery with the text next to it maybe, but it would then break the visual consistency in that area.

It was fine in the version before. Just rollback. Not that difficult.

Many design ideas fail in initial testing.
 
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