iOS 26.1 Beta Liquid Glass Battery Drain Test: Tinted vs Clear Mode

[JaydenA]

Just lazy.

With those words you really should supply numbers of your own. No?

 

[jclo]

I doubt such a test would have accurate results, though, as it needs time to index things after updating. When running one test before another right after updating, it might make the first test seem slower if it still needs indexing.

I don't think I'd need to run it back to back. I'd update and then wait a few days. It'd just use the same parameters I used here.

I don’t know.
Maybe the test should be longer, so that possible trends aren’t just a single percentage point off of each other.
Also, like others mentioned, most apps that were tested don’t have any Liquid Glass effects anywhere anyway, so maybe you could test with first party apps and updated third party apps with more animations over a longer timeframe.

Yeah, TikTok and Instagram specifically don't have much. That's why I added in Safari and Maps, plus did all the Control Center/Notification tests. I can repeat, but I'd need some specific app recommendations. I mostly wanted to mimic how I/lots of other people are actually using their phones.

It's not a really well designed experiment. You only used 2/5 apps which use Liquid Glass in iOS 26 natively and a few other apps which run on React Native. It doesn't actually accomplish anything. Just lazy.

I wanted to do a test that would be closer to real usage conditions vs. just testing apps with Liquid Glass, but I added in all the Control Center + Notification Center access to try to get more Liquid Glass in there. I also had to have a sequence I could repeat exactly every time.

I'm open to more testing if you have a series of apps you think would be more representative.

 

[eoblaed]

This squares with my own anecdotal experience: Liquid Glass isn't a hinderance on battery

 

[Siliconguy]

It's possible that a full 16 hours of swiping in and out of apps and features

If you spend every minute of the day swiping on your phone battery life is not the life you should be worrying about.

 

[FeliApple]

I don't think I'd need to run it back to back. I'd update and then wait a few days. It'd just use the same parameters I used here.



Yeah, TikTok and Instagram specifically don't have much. That's why I added in Safari and Maps, plus did all the Control Center/Notification tests. I can repeat, but I'd need some specific app recommendations. I mostly wanted to mimic how I/lots of other people are actually using their phones.



I wanted to do a test that would be closer to real usage conditions vs. just testing apps with Liquid Glass, but I added in all the Control Center + Notification Center access to try to get more Liquid Glass in there. I also had to have a sequence I could repeat exactly every time.

I'm open to more testing if you have a series of apps you think would be more representative.

I think something like this would be perfect to gauge its true impact:

Make it Liquid Glass only!

 

[haemolysis]

Don’t know why anyone would think this improves battery life. All the rendering power is the same. They didn’t turn OFF the transparency, they just changed the opacity a bit.

 

[Isamilis]

Beware for that 1% consistent difference. It might increase with the usage.

 

[yudilks]

Watch this video, he is showing the actual power draw

 

[JohnC1959]

Watch this video, he is showing the actual power draw

My recommendation based on this video is to not constantly scroll the lock screen up and down as well as similar actions. Instead, just do them as needed.

 

[boswald]

I still like the look of Liquid Glass so I'm keeping it enabled. 🤷‍♂️

 

[TwoBytes]

The mystery of iOS 26 and it being a battery killer continues

 

[Saturn1217]

Some people on Reddit the other day were guessing that even in tinted/disabled mode, Liquid Glass effects were still being rendered and then just masked after-the-fact. Meaning the visibility, for those who needed it disabled, is helped, but there was no compute savings from it.

This is a shame.

There was a good video done recently of macOS Tahoe vs Sequoia for battery life that suggested in almost all cases Tahoe reduced battery life pretty significantly:

I was hoping that tinted mode might provide some relief for this scenario, but apparently not (I'm assuming that whatever rendering strategies they are using on iOS are shared with macOS)

I really hope Apple addresses this eventually. The battery life of my M4 13" Macbook Air is one of my favorite parts about this computer. I will be extremely disappointed if an OS update messes that up.

Apple is clearly aware of the concerns about their new OS (or they wouldn't have introduced the tinted option). So hopefully these performance/efficiency concerns are reaching their ears too.

 

[maika1305]

In other words, the way you did the “comparison tests” is flawed with almost zero involvement of Liquid Glass. Good way to waste some time I guess

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Last I checked oled is more efficient than mini led

Many smartphone screens were LCD before OLED came along (I don’t think miniled factors in yet, are there any smartphones with miniled?). Like all tech, the first OLED’s had some tradeoffs that had to be accepted. These days, the tradeoffs are fewer and some companies have taken steps to ensure their devices avoid burn-in and other downsides. But, with increasing SoC efficiency, the OLED will always highest potential for draining the battery in a smartphone.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Watch this video, he is showing the actual power draw

The Power Draw of the ENTIRE system. Which includes the OLED. Which is the biggest power draw in a phone. There is literally no way that a power strip with numbers on it can say anything about what, inside the phone, is leading to those numbers. It was excellent at taking advantage of people wanting to believe what they want to believe, but that’s it. And, with people copying the link to the video hither and yon, I hope they’re getting some dollars in their pocket for the effort!

 

[razza1987]

If you spend every minute of the day swiping on your phone battery life is not the life you should be worrying about.

Spoken like a true ableist. Must be nice to have the option to have a life outside

 

[roomer11]

Watch this video, he is showing the actual power draw

Are there same tests but using iOS 18 for comparison?

 

[Taq'aix]

Dark Mode is the way! Always!

 

[FlyingDutch]

The whole idea that Liquid Glass is affecting battery life is a joke. There are background process in the new iOS maybe, but not really the UI.

 

[FlyingDutch]

Some people on Reddit the other day were guessing that even in tinted/disabled mode, Liquid Glass effects were still being rendered and then just masked after-the-fact. Meaning the visibility, for those who needed it disabled, is helped, but there was no compute savings from it.

That makes no sense at all. That’s not how the rendering pipeline works .

 

[Mity]

Still waiting for an option to turn off liquid glass completely.

 

[titanium69]

This is Apple’s planned obsolescence for all the old iphones.
Apple releases great quality hardware which also ages well… but then destroy the phone battery via software updates.

This isnt apple’s incompetence…. This is apple’s accounting department at work

 

[Reeneman]

Thanks for testing this!

 

[CATiNTHESTORE]

Cool cool, show me tests for iPhone 11,
Let's be professionals. From lower tier supported device to the top tier supported device. Let’s be honest macrumors, without manipulation

 

[svish]

Good to see that there is no difference. Did not think that Liquid Glass will cause an increased battery drain. Like the Liquid Glass, will set it to clear.