iOS 26 battery life thread.

[Séamus Boyle]

After several days?

17 pro deep blue….I updated to 26.2 beta 1 the day it came out….all week My battery life was atrocious, especially the idle screen time. It was WAY more than active screen time. My phone last night finally had the message in the battery section that my phone was still updating in the background. It finally stopped while I was in bed and I woke up to my screen idle time was zero. Finally seems better.

 

[goldmac2006]

Battery life has been significantly worse since I’ve updated to iOS 26.1
I have an iPhone 17. In iOS 26 it easily lasted throughout the day and I only charge it up to 80%. At the end of the day, I still had 30-40% left.

This isn’t the case anymore. Yesterday I’ve charged it up to ~95% and in the end I only had ~20% left, with moderate usage.

Could this have to do with Apple Intelligence? Since 26.1 AI is available in Belgium.

It may be. Do you use image playground or visual intelligence?

Could still be indexing.

After several days?

Maybe. Depends on how much data it has to sift through I guess. Mine took a couple.

Rule of thumb is 24-48 hours for a recent update of iOS to settle in.

 

[elementalwingma]

This doesn’t seem too great on my 13 Pro Max..I am at 89% BH but this still doesn’t seem right.

 

[whoknows87]

I am a bit annoyed lol, device is 16 Promax, my battery health was 100%, as soon as i update to 26.1 1 day later it drops to 99% 3 days later its not at 98%, is this normal? this phone gets hot often, keep in mind I do not game at all, browsing and social media usage, whatsapp here and there for phone calls as well

This iOS 26 is really meh, the keyboard are still laggy and stutter

 

[goldmac2006]

I am a bit annoyed lol, device is 16 Promax, my battery health was 100%, as soon as i update to 26.1 1 day later it drops to 99% 3 days later its not at 98%, is this normal? this phone gets hot often, keep in mind I do not game at all, browsing and social media usage, whatsapp here and there for phone calls as well

This iOS 26 is really meh, the keyboard are still laggy and stutter

Geez, I felt the same way when it was May to June, iOS 18.5 to iOS 26 beta 1. My iPhone 15 Pro’s battery capacity did have the hit and miss of a rapid decrease that wasn’t even noticeable in battery life on 18.5, yet I didn’t game on it too much.

Did you set a charge limit on it?

 

[iOnAsJ]

17 pro deep blue….I updated to 26.2 beta 1 the day it came out….all week My battery life was atrocious, especially the idle screen time. It was WAY more than active screen time. My phone last night finally had the message in the battery section that my phone was still updating in the background. It finally stopped while I was in bed and I woke up to my screen idle time was zero. Finally seems better.

I hope it’ll be the same here.
Let’s see, the next few days.

 

[iOnAsJ]

It may be. Do you use image playground or visual intelligence?







Rule of thumb is 24-48 hours for a recent update of iOS to settle in.

Nope, I’ve only used Image Playground the first day, that’s it.
Wait and see, I guess. Hope it gets better soon, because in iOS 26 it has been great.

 

[MacKid1983]

My battery life on iOS 26.2 is atrocious. Sending a few texts, instagram and checking radar with location battery went from 70 to 66% in 30 min.

 

[goldmac2006]

Nope, I’ve only used Image Playground the first day, that’s it.
Wait and see, I guess. Hope it gets better soon, because in iOS 26 it has been great.

Same I rarely use image playground. I only do that to get pictures for my marketing materials for work purposes and sometimes for school assignments if it’s allowed, I only use it a few times.

Of course always give at least 24-48 hours after updates especially if you see update finishing in background it’s a rule of thumb!

 

[Séamus Boyle]

My battery life is atrocious again. It’s worse than my 15 pro. Seriously regretting upgrading. Now I know why I never upgraded on launch day.

 

[elementalwingma]

My battery life seemed so poor that I ended up reinstalling the IPSW for 26.1, hoping I see some kind of improvement as 6 hrs on an iPhone 13 Pro Max with 88 BH% seems abysmal.

 

[Populus]

My battery life is atrocious again. It’s worse than my 15 pro. Seriously regretting upgrading. Now I know why I never upgraded on launch day.View attachment 2577911

Past year I dared to update to iOS 18.1 and it turned out quite well, I guess I was lucky. But this year… this year I’m not risking my iPhone with iOS 26 until I have good proof that efficiency is almost as good as in iOS 18 on older devices such as the iPhone 13 or SE 2022.

 

[Populus]

My battery life seemed so poor that I ended up reinstalling the IPSW for 26.1, hoping I see some kind of improvement as 6 hrs on an iPhone 13 Pro Max with 88 BH% seems abysmal.

Yeah, that’s not very good tbh. Usually IPSW installs are better, in my experience, so let us know how it goes on your 13!

 

[Séamus Boyle]

Past year I dared to update to iOS 18.1 and it turned out quite well, I guess I was lucky. But this year… this year I’m not risking my iPhone with iOS 26 until I have good proof that efficiency is almost as good as in iOS 18 on older devices such as the iPhone 13 or SE 2022.

It’s a brand new 17 pro. I have background app refresh off and most notifications and I keep getting way more screen idle time than active screen time. It’s frustrating.

 

[FeliApple]

This doesn’t seem too great on my 13 Pro Max..I am at 89% BH but this still doesn’t seem right.

4 hours to 25% is atrocious on a Pro Max. Sadly I think that iOS 26’s inefficiencies coupled with four major updates ends up being too much.

It’s especially sad because I’ve tried an iPhone 11 on iOS 18 (from iOS 14) and a direct comparison shows that there is no difference.

I’m sure iOS 26 would make it suffer horribly.

I think that every iPhone would’ve been better staying on iOS 18. I think there isn’t too much of a difference from iOS 15 on an iPhone 13.

 

[whoknows87]

Geez, I felt the same way when it was May to June, iOS 18.5 to iOS 26 beta 1. My iPhone 15 Pro’s battery capacity did have the hit and miss of a rapid decrease that wasn’t even noticeable in battery life on 18.5, yet I didn’t game on it too much.

Did you set a charge limit on it?

I started setting a limit a few months ago to 80%, this pissed me off so I upped it to 90% lol I have Applcare if it degrades bad enough I'll have them replace it once its below 78% .

But something is off with this iOS 26, my phone gets hot often also, I feel its draining much faster than before

 

[goldmac2006]

4 hours to 25% is atrocious on a Pro Max. Sadly I think that iOS 26’s inefficiencies coupled with four major updates ends up being too much.

It’s especially sad because I’ve tried an iPhone 11 on iOS 18 (from iOS 14) and a direct comparison shows that there is no difference.

I’m sure iOS 26 would make it suffer horribly.

I think that every iPhone would’ve been better staying on iOS 18. I think there isn’t too much of a difference from iOS 15 on an iPhone 13.

Liquid Glass should have never existed if it ate battery life like that! A total blockhead after an aesthetic upgrade!

I started setting a limit a few months ago to 80%, this pissed me off so I upped it to 90% lol I have Applcare if it degrades bad enough I'll have them replace it once its below 78% .

But something is off with this iOS 26, my phone gets hot often also, I feel its draining much faster than before

My charge limit is the same thing as yours. I still have optimised charging.

 

[FeliApple]

Liquid Glass should have never existed if it ate battery life like that! A total blockhead after an aesthetic upgrade!

This is pretty much the first time since iOS 11 that battery life is affected everywhere, including the latest devices. Hopefully it makes people more mindful of updates, realistically it won’t.

I personally dislike Liquid Glass, but I respect your opinion if you do.

I’d love a design change back to iOS 6, but it will not happen. If it’s not going to happen they might as well keep iOS 11’s design language, IMO.