Heat and Battery on iOS26

[tong_si_nan_pei]

iPhone 16 Pro.

I updated to the RC on launch day. Phone felt hot for days after. I reset and restored from backup. Same. Then I reset and set it up as new. 2 weeks on, the phone gets hot within 5 mins of usage and drains battery like crazy (currently 30 mins off full charge and at 89, basic things like Reddit, this website).

I hate the feeling of heat in my hands when using the phone.

I really hope this is fixed in some release in the future, and is not permanent.

When sitting idle, it cools down and battery drain is normal. But during use, is markedly higher than iOS 18.
#endofrant

 

[imagineadam]

14 pro. Same. I restored from back up on 26.0 and Monday night backup and restored from 26.0.1. The phone gets noticeably warm doing basic tasks where before on 18 it was ice cold. My next step was to try setting up as a new phone but looks like you did that and are getting the same results so you’ve saved me a step.

Yeah I don’t know what’s going on. Could it possibly be indexing for weeks? Just doesn’t seem right. I wonder why more people aren’t noticing this or if some of us are just unlucky with the update. But yeah it’s very annoying feeling like something is continuously running and burning out our processors and battery for no good reason. I hope there is a fix soon.

 

[tong_si_nan_pei]

14 pro. Same. I restored from back up on 26.0 and Monday night backup and restored from 26.0.1. The phone gets noticeably warm doing basic tasks where before on 18 it was ice cold. My next step was to try setting up as a new phone but looks like you did that and are getting the same results so you’ve saved me a step.

Yeah I don’t know what’s going on. Could it possibly be indexing for weeks? Just doesn’t seem right. I wonder why more people aren’t noticing this or if some of us are just unlucky with the update. But yeah it’s very annoying feeling like something is continuously running and burning out our processors and battery for no good reason. I hope there is a fix soon.

I think iOS 26 UI elements result in higher CPU and GPU utilisation in general and most people don’t care enough or use their phone enough to notice.

Some people on Reddit claimed they got their original battery life back with 26.1 beta. Hope it’s true.

 

[imagineadam]

I think iOS 26 UI elements result in higher CPU and GPU utilisation in general and most people don’t care enough or use their phone enough to notice.

Some people on Reddit claimed they got their original battery life back with 26.1 beta. Hope it’s true.

That could be. I’ve always been a reduce motion user and still getting a continuously warmer device. Reduce motion reduces the translucency of the LG effects and there is no parallax or shiny glistening icons either with it switched on. So it’s weird that it would still be taxing the cpu and gpu much higher than before. And even with in most other apps like Reddit or YouTube there is no LG implementation you’d think it would be ice cold like before on 18 but there is this constant warm feeling like something is stuck running. I have an app that shows cpu usage and it idles down to 1-5% so it seems the cpu is idling normally too. I just don’t get what is causing the heat.