iOS 12 on iPhone SE: is performance/battery life worse?

[myrtlebee]

I'm having the exact same battery issues as the others. Had my SE just over a year and had my first unexpected shutdown with 13% remaining. Battery still has 91% original capacity. Overall the phone runs silky smooth, but I'm definitely not getting 3 days of battery life anymore. Debating on paying $29 for the new battery...

I don’t think it’s the battery, it’s iOS 12. At least for me. Phone is brand new and was made in August 2018 with of course 100% battery capacity. It ran fine with long battery life on iOS 11 for the week I had it on that.

I guess it’s worth a try for you with your battery being less capable, but every time I’ve had Apple work on my device it’s been damaged or not reassembled right. I had them replace the screen on my 5S and it was returned with the screen adhered wrong and bad light bleed from pressure on certain parts of the screen.

Not worth the risk to me, but this battery life is tough to get by with. And of course it’s putting unnecessary charge cycles on the battery thus wearing it out faster.

 

[Rhino1]

I was just wondering, when people do these clean installs to make sure everything is "neat and tidy" with no possible dragged settings how do people get their contacts back? I've got over 200 contacts? Do you back that up to icloud and then simply do a restore? What about WhatsApp chats? Messages? etc..? Sorry I've never done clean installs before and I seem to be experiencing this battery issue on my SE and wanted to rule the clean install option out.. (battery usage is 99% so hardly any wear)..

 

[Rhino1]

nobody knows how to do clean installs then?

 

[aakshey]

Here’s how iPhone SE’s battery has transpired.

Assuming 100% health, assuming real world usage and not just time away from charger.

iOS 9 - Up to 13 hrs

iOS 10 - Up to 10 hrs

iOS 11 - Up to 7 hrs

iOS 12 - Approx 4 hrs

iOS 13 is going to be approx 3 hrs.

In case SE supports iOS 14 it will be approx 2 hrs.

If somebody doesn’t realise this is exactly how planned obscolence is done then they are delusional.

Apple is NOT going to fix this.

They might fix the standby drain issue and that might make the SOT 5ish hrs instead of 4 hrs.

But battery life of SE will not go back to the > 10 hrs it was on iOS 9/10.

Not happening. Period.

 

[drlunanerd]

Yesterday running iOS 12.0.1 I got 7 hours of screen on time, with 25% battery remaining. Which is much better than 12.0.

I had previously calibrated the battery - after installing iOS 12.0.1 I ran it down to 1% and allowed the phone to shutdown. Then charged to 100%.

 

[C DM]

nobody knows how to do clean installs then?

You can try recovery mode: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201263

 

[617660]

The new apple strategy... we’ll happily replace your battery for $29 but that doesn’t mean you will have great battery life again.

Oh btw, did you notice we just introduced 3 new iPhones last month?

 

[JaxTeller]

Yesterday running iOS 12.0.1 I got 7 hours of screen on time, with 25% battery remaining. Which is much better than 12.0.

I had previously calibrated the battery - after installing iOS 12.0.1 I ran it down to 1% and allowed the phone to shutdown. Then charged to 100%.

That is actually very good performance, just like my SE on iOS 10.3.3 with 99% battery life. What is your battery health?

 

[drlunanerd]

That is actually very good performance, just like my SE on iOS 10.3.3 with 99% battery life. What is your battery health?

93%

 

[CrazyForCashews]

I just recently bought a brand new iPhone SE and did a DFU restore to 12.0.1 and I'm getting stellar battery life, which is not surprising as the SE has always had great battery life.

Not only that but the phone is really snappy on iOS 12.

 

[C DM]

I just recently bought a brand new iPhone SE and did a DFU restore to 12.0.1 and I'm getting stellar battery life, which is not surprising as the SE has always had great battery life.

Not only that but the phone is really snappy on iOS 12.

Out of curiosity, what is "stellar" in terms of actual battery usage numbers?

 

[Hughmac]

Regarding recalibration of the battery, my SE was on 67% last night when I went to bed.
This morning at 7am when I woke up it had dropped to 1% on the gauge, so I decided to run it down until it turned off before recharging and see if that helped.
It's now just after 11 o'clock here, 4 hours after waking up, and the battery is still showing 1% and not showing any signs or warnings of low power.
I've been playing games, checking emails etc. but it still hasn't run down.

Definitely needs recalibrating

Cheers

Hugh

 

[44267547]

Out of curiosity, what is "stellar" in terms of actual battery usage numbers?

That Member alluded to they completed a restore, which One can safely assume they battery life is above what they were expecting in terms of performance across overall with with the phone. Does one really need “Numbers” to actually specify their perception based on the battery results, but results are always variable for every user with settings and usage, however, iOS 12 seems to be rather favorable with the SE from recent readings/reports, regardless of numbers.

 

[Rhino1]

That Member alluded to they completed a restore, which One can safely assume they battery life is above what they were expecting in terms of performance across overall with with the phone. Does one really need “Numbers” to actually specify their perception based on the battery results, but results are always variable for every user with settings and usage, however, iOS 12 seems to be rather favorable with the SE from recent readings/reports, regardless of numbers.

In all honesty it's numbers that can make all the difference. Battery numbers are what Apple uses to either close a sale or not. It also gives people who may believe they are suffering bad battery life a breath of fresh air to see that maybe they are actually operating within the capacity of iOS12 by seeing what brand new phones with fresh installs are pushing.

 

[44267547]

In all honesty it's numbers that can make all the difference. Battery numbers are what Apple uses to either close a sale or not. It also gives people who may believe they are suffering bad battery life a breath of fresh air to see that maybe they are actually operating within the capacity of iOS12 by seeing what brand new phones with fresh installs are pushing.

I don’t disagree to an extent. Sometimes I think numbers are more relevant to actually identify if there is persistent problems with fluctuating battery life if there is unexpected drain, and/or what may be contributing to the underlying problem, but if the battery life is exceeding expectations, I personally don’t bother with worrying about numbers (Others might), as Long as the iPhone is performing optimally and efficiently, then I think it’s unnecessary in that respect. Its all variable, but is dependent on the circumstance.

 

[CrazyForCashews]

Out of curiosity, what is "stellar" in terms of actual battery usage numbers?

Stellar as in the battery lasts me for days from just normal usage. Note, I don't use my SE for watching videos or playing games, I use it just as a basic phone.

At the same time, I'm not OCD about battery life and do not watch it like a hawk. I've always kept the battery percentage indicator off on all of my devices.

 

[C DM]

That Member alluded to they completed a restore, which One can safely assume they battery life is above what they were expecting in terms of performance across overall with with the phone. Does one really need “Numbers” to actually specify their perception based on the battery results, but results are always variable for every user with settings and usage, however, iOS 12 seems to be rather favorable with the SE from recent readings/reports, regardless of numbers.

One can ask what someone else meant by their description of something. As far as comparing information--which is basically part of what threads like this are about--"numbers" certainly play a role. (As far as favorability goes for iOS 12 on SE in laricupsr, that is a bit hard to guard given the more prevalent battery issues mentioned in threads like this one, compared to mentions of other devices, for example).

 

[Kup]

Just had my second abrupt shutdown. This time at 9% vs 13%. I am noticing exponential battery drain once I hit 20%, with and without power save on. I have a sneaking suspicion that Screen Time is causing these shutdowns on phones with over 90% battery health. I'm going to turn off Screen Time and see what happens. Will report back if anything changes. Really sucks that one of the SE's strong points is being affected by iOS 12.

 

[ghanwani]

For me, iOS 12 has caused lag when opening apps and frequent freezing of the phone app. Battery life is a little worse than iOS 11. I just updated to 12.0.1, maybe that will be a little better.

 

[honglong1976]

I have an iPhone SE. I used it on iOS10, 11, 12. Seems the same on all three to be honest.

 

[FeliApple]

Here’s how iPhone SE’s battery has transpired.

Assuming 100% health, assuming real world usage and not just time away from charger.

iOS 9 - Up to 13 hrs

iOS 10 - Up to 10 hrs

iOS 11 - Up to 7 hrs

iOS 12 - Approx 4 hrs

iOS 13 is going to be approx 3 hrs.

In case SE supports iOS 14 it will be approx 2 hrs.

If somebody doesn’t realise this is exactly how planned obscolence is done then they are delusional.

Apple is NOT going to fix this.

They might fix the standby drain issue and that might make the SOT 5ish hrs instead of 4 hrs.

But battery life of SE will not go back to the > 10 hrs it was on iOS 9/10.

Not happening. Period.

Same with every single device. iPhone 7 on iOS 10 was 8-10 hours depending on usage, just like iOS 9 on my 6s.
That iPhone was updated to iOS 11. Now, battery life was 5-7 depending on usage. On iOS 12, that iPhone 7 is getting 4 hours.
Guess how much battery life is my iPhone 6s getting? 8-10 hours. Why? It's still on iOS 9.

 

[torakaru]

I had great expectations with iOS12; and that is why after waiting more than a year I upgraded a pretty new iPhone 6s Plus (bought in Apple Store as new less than 9 months old) from iOS10.3.3 to iOS12.0 (I fully skipped iOS11)

It is true the phone performance is good, I have no complains about it (same speed and UI as fast as iOS10); but iOS12 is literally killing the phone's battery health.

Before the update from iOS10 to iOS12 I had around 6 hours of screen and WiFi usage and 97% battery health (3% battery age degrading in 9 months is not too bad).

But now, 3-4 weeks later of the iOS12 (and iOS12.0.1) update; the usage of screen and WiFi has drop to around 4-5 hours, and the battery health has drop to 94%. That is a huge degradation in just few weeks!

I went from Battery Health 100%=>97% in 9 months of normal usage (with iOS10).
And now Battery Health 97%=>94% in 4 weeks of normal usage (with iOS12).

At this battery health degradation pace, I will be forced to have to change the (original) battery in few months, which seems a real shame and is very disappointing.

This is not normal at all; an original battery, at normal usage, should give around 80% battery health after 2 years in worse cases.

Apple should warn users about it (but they didn't do); I would rather prefer to still have my iPhone 6s Plus iOS10 (and much less features that I dont use and mostly never will use (like iMessages, Siri, Shortcuts,..)), than an iOS12 that is slowly quick destroying the iPhone.

Not every user can afford to buy the last iPhone every year to have decent battery lifetime performance (aka $1000/year); this is ridiculous. Neither having to exchange for a new battery every year due extremely hard battery aging.

And if Apple finds normal to exchange batteries every year, better put back a bottom cover to allow it easily done by users themselves, right?

 

[Populus]

Thank you SO much @torakaru I will remain on iOS 10.2, the last iOS version who didn't eat up a lot of battery life and wasn't involved on the battery-gate. Remember, it was with iOS 10.2.1 that Apple introduced the slow down for old iPhone batteries, and from there battery-life began to go down. With iOS 11 taking a big hit and iOS 12 taking a bigger one on the battery. I'm glad I didn't update on almost a couple of years my SE (which is almost identical to your 6S).

Apple introduced APFS on iOS 10.3, and it was a definitive version on iOS 11. Maybe this had something to do with lower battery life? Something has gone terribly bad regarding iOS power consumption. Maybe iOS is now designed for systems with Neural Engines like the Apple A11 and A12 devices? Honestly I don't know.

I just know that I will hold with an outdated iPhone with iOS 10, and I hope not to lose any compatibility with my mac/iPad ecosystem when I start using Mojave and iOS 12 on them, respectively.

 

[torakaru]

You're welcome @Populus at least you can still remain on iOS10.

Looking at this, I would not recommend to move to iOS12 any older device than iPhone X, as it looks like is impacting all older generations; which looks like lack of power to keep a nice user interface experience and battery life (and health) at reasonable and expected levels.

Pretty disappointing.

 

[Kup]

After turning off Screen Time for a week my SE is now back to performing like normal. I can run the battery down to 1 or 2% and the phone still functions perfectly fine both with and without power saver mode. No more unexpected shutdowns since I turned off the screen time feature. I will keep it off until the issue is addressed, and probably buy a new battery as well and call it a day.