Regarding my experience with iOS 26, it sounds legit. There is some indexing at first, but overall, iOS 26 at this point is more demanding with all the new effects and animations.I have noticed that my 15 Pro Max is draining much faster on iOS26 than it was on iOS18. At the end of the day, with typical use I previously had around 30% - 40% battery remaining and only on very heavy usage days had to plug in to make it through the day. The past two days I’ve been closer to 10% - 20% charge remaining. Hoping it’s just re-indexing / background activities that will finish and stabilise over the coming days.
Hopefully, they can optimise this further with the upcoming updates.