Auto Brightness

[bmclaurin]

The consensus view seems to be that using Auto Brightness shortens battery life. And that seems to be consistent with my own experience as well. What is it about that feature that most significantly contributes to compromised battery life? Is it the fact that it will allow the device to go to max brightness in relatively bright surroundings? Or does it have more to do with the fact that the ambient light sensor is constantly working? If the former, it would be nice if iOS allowed you to specify a maximum (and a minimum) brightness setting that the Auto Brightness feature would stay between.

 

[Dranix]

It has - just correct the value with the normal slider and auto will learn.

 

[bmclaurin]

Thanks for that, seriously. Somehow after years of iOS usage over multiple devices, I honestly didn't realize the auto brightness slider could be "trained." I'll give that a shot.

That said, I guess that means that it is the constant sensor usage that most significant contributes to the diminished battery life when using Auto Brightness. So even if you do somehow "teach" the device to stay below a certain specified maximum setting, using Auto Brightness will still drain your battery faster.

 

[Cnasty]

I leave mine on about 75% and only lower it when in bed

 

[joeblow7777]

I actually think that use of auto brightness is one of the things that contributes to my own, generally very good, battery life on my iOS devices. I think I have it "trained" pretty well. My brightness is almost never above 50% and I find that quite comfortable for most indoor situations.

 

[pacmania1982]

I detest auto brightness. I've turned it off on ALL of my devices. I set the brightness to what I want, when I want, not when my iOS device thinks it should be lower.

But I charge my iPhone up each night and my iPad usually when the battery is low so any power savings it gives is wasted on me.

 

[fricotin]

I like auto-brightness, I wish I could use it on my iPod touch.

 

[joeblow7777]

I detest auto brightness. I've turned it off on ALL of my devices. I set the brightness to what I want, when I want, not when my iOS device thinks it should be lower.

But I charge my iPhone up each night and my iPad usually when the battery is low so any power savings it gives is wasted on me.

It's not just the power savings that I find useful. I would find it annoying to have to adjust the brightness manually every time I'm in different lighting. Either I've gotten used to auto-brightness or it's gotten used to me, but it always seems to adjust to a level that I'm comfortable with.