Battery life again - Low power mode vs. normal

[Barbareren]

Hi,

Especially with iOS 26 (.1) has anyone else experienced that the so called low power mode no longer makes any significant difference versus not using it? I have, on both an iPhone 15 Plus and on a 16 Pro Max… Anyone else? The battery drain is atrocious on this OS release in comparison to the previous ones from my experience. Just powering on and off the device I lose several battery percentages. Surely it shouldn’t be like this… And being on low power mode no longer seems to makes any difference whatsoever. I often lose up to 10% overnight while the phone is idle regardless of that setting.

Cheers

 

[TwoBytes]

Yes, sadly, it's iOS 26 - it's inherently a power monger 🙁
Never experienced this with iOS 18, where low power mode really added so much life!

I'm not sure if a fresh install vs an iCloud restore would work. I'd be interested to read about anyone who has.

 

[HouseLannister]

Your 16PM in low power lowers your refresh to 60hz, but that won't help idle drain with the screen off. It also uses less 5G in low power mode, but I assume you have Wi-Fi at home. So most of the savings overnight are moot.

Your 15 Plus is already at 60hz, so no change there.

 

[I7guy]

15PM and low power mode essentially works the same as iOS 18.

 

[Barbareren]

Yes, sadly, it's iOS 26 - it's inherently a power monger 🙁
Never experienced this with iOS 18, where low power mode really added so much life!

I'm not sure if a fresh install vs an iCloud restore would work. I'd be interested to read about anyone who has.

Thanks for your reply. But isn’t it weird, at least in my case, that low power mode actually seems to drain more battery power while idle than not using it??? 🤷‍♂️ It doesn’t really make sense, right?

Oh, I’d do the fresh install if it wasn’t such a hassle. I have too many apps which require a password (especially my banking apps require a tedious authentication process), so that would take me a whole day, hehe… It was much easier just pairing the two phones side by side, although that also takes time with some specific passwords and authentications, as well as reconfiguring certain settings.

 

[cynics]

Seems to be working fine for me. This is running a benchmark while watching discharge wattage, (47%)

Normal Mode


Low Power Mode


Results with low power mode will vary wildly though. If the background processes the iPhone is reducing/stopping weren't a big impact for you, you keep your screen on the dim side, aren't using CPU heavy task, etc etc then its overall effects at conversing battery will be minimal.

When the iPhone is locked and not sync'ing the discharge watts are similar compared to normal and low power mode.