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iOS 26 battery life thread.
- Thread starter goldmac2006
- Start date
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bogdanw
macrumors G3
No, I don't think it does.
The percentage displayed by iOS 26 for my iPhone's battery is wrong. It was 83% in iOS 18 and it's still 83% in CoconutBattery.
Apple just wants to trick me into buying a new phone or at least a new battery 🙂
Ive never used betas. Everything else is the same when it comes to daily usage.
I feel the same way too. I don’t feel my iPhone battery health is 90% it didn’t degrade this much. It drops suddenly from 100 to 99 then 95, again to 91, stops and drops a percentage point down.
My 15 pro hit that breaking point last May too.
Populus
macrumors 604
Hi.
On iOS 26.4 I’ve experienced an overnight battery drain from 75% to 67%, that’s an 8% in 8 hours. Is that normal? I never observed this depletion during the night. By the way, low power mode was on.
Maybe 26.4.1 fixes this… or maybe I need to let the iPhone settle a few more days? I installed 26.4 a couple of days ago.
On iOS 26.4 I’ve experienced an overnight battery drain from 75% to 67%, that’s an 8% in 8 hours. Is that normal? I never observed this depletion during the night. By the way, low power mode was on.
Maybe 26.4.1 fixes this… or maybe I need to let the iPhone settle a few more days? I installed 26.4 a couple of days ago.
Populus
macrumors 604
Hello!
I’ve run a GeekBench battery test on several versions of iOS during the past weeks, and today I just ran the test on iOS 26.4.1
The results of the latest update, at least on my iPhone SE 3 (A15, 4GB of RAM) are apparently much better than on previous versions, so I’d recommend updating to 26.4.1. It goes from circa 3300-3400 points on iOS 26.3 or 26.4, to 3610 points on 26.4.1 and the difference in on-screen time during the test is noticeable, from 5h and 40m to 6h!
I am going to update all my devices to 26.4.1 and probably stay there until summer or beyond.
I’ve run a GeekBench battery test on several versions of iOS during the past weeks, and today I just ran the test on iOS 26.4.1
The results of the latest update, at least on my iPhone SE 3 (A15, 4GB of RAM) are apparently much better than on previous versions, so I’d recommend updating to 26.4.1. It goes from circa 3300-3400 points on iOS 26.3 or 26.4, to 3610 points on 26.4.1 and the difference in on-screen time during the test is noticeable, from 5h and 40m to 6h!
I am going to update all my devices to 26.4.1 and probably stay there until summer or beyond.
Last edited:
Wow that’s really good 👍 26.4.1 optimised battery
Anyone else got the update? Going to update to it given the good news about it
Populus
macrumors 604
Great, but two things to consider:
1) This test is done on an iPhone SE 3rd gen (2022), results may vary depending on your device.
2) This test only measures a continuous discharge with certain CPU activity running. It’s as standardized as possible, but still, there are other factors to keep in mind, like cellular activity or other tasks that only get triggered when the iPhone is locked.
Morac
macrumors 68030
I’m using an iPhone 15 Pro and since upgrading to 26.4 my phone drains about 10 to 15% just going to work. It goes into adaptive power mode every day, sometimes in the morning and sometimes in the afternoon. Even when I’m home for the day it still drains at least 50% with little use. The battery health is 86%. Overall the phone barely makes it through the day. I’ve started charging it at work to keep it over 20% which I’ve never had to do.
pdoherty
macrumors 68000
Do you have similar test results from 18.x? I'm still on 18 on my iPads mostly because I didn't want my battery getting trashed.
Populus
macrumors 604
I don’t clearly remember, but I do remember that when I went from iOS 18.7 to iOS 26.2, I was pleasantly surprised with a similar battery life with less bugs.
Actually iOS 26.3 was awesome regarding battery life.
Nowadays, on iOS 26.4.1, I must admit that battery life has worsened a bit after a few weeks… but still quite good.
pdoherty
macrumors 68000
Replies like this one below (right above both of your replies) gives me pause. On the one hand you say battery life is great and better than 18.x, and then other replies say this:
Populus
macrumors 604
Different replies with different devices.
I always talk from the experience of an A15 device with 4GB of RAM. The iPhone 15 Pro has an A17 Pro chip with 8GB of RAM. Not all devices are equally optimized for each iOS version.
I still have quite a high cycle count of 730
My iPhone is literally used the most every day for content consumption and streaming workout classes on fitness+.
Hmmm. Background app refresh is off, right? Turn off adaptive power mode it ain’t even all that
mikelets456
macrumors 6502a
My battery life was very good until 26.4 …since then it’s been atrocious! I have a 16 PM with 165 cycles and 100% health and by the end of the day I’m at 27%.
Before this I was around 60% or so.
Populus
macrumors 604
I’m starting to think that Apple Intelligence may be playing a role here, what do you think?
Because honestly, 26.4 has given me very good battery life with a small device such as my iPhone SE 3rd Gen, and that device doesn’t support Apple Intelligence.
On my 11” M2 iPad Pro battery life is also great (so far) but I haven’t enabled Apple Intelligence there. I plan on activating it shortly tho, so we’ll see…
I'm noticing the same on my base 16. 99% after 220 cycles and I usually average about 3 hours of SOT. Phone is usually off the charger at 6am (95% charged) and by 8pm I'm in battery saver mode. Ridiculous for what Apple charges for this garbage. My Pixel was better than that.
Morac
macrumors 68030
Very likely as both my 15 Pro Max and M4 iPad Pro get fairly poor battery life. The iPad got 5 hours screen on time yesterday before powering off. My iPhone had 90 minutes screen active time (2.5 hour idle) and was at 50% at the end of the day.
15 pro still on 90% as of today
I went down to like that before hitting that cycle count.
Just updated to 26.5 yesterday on my 13 mini, and today I am losing roughly 1% of my battery per minute, just from little things like checking messages and the weather in the morning. 14 mins of on-screen time with almost no background app usage, dropped me from 100% to 84%. Just taking the photos to attach here dropped me to 80.
Last week, my battery lasted most of the day, even with pretty heavy usage. At this rate, I'm not even sure I'll be able to get through my morning workout.
Last week, my battery lasted most of the day, even with pretty heavy usage. At this rate, I'm not even sure I'll be able to get through my morning workout.
Dang it, I feel you. I also feared bout drain on the battery when I use third party workout apps to stream my workouts and guided Nike Run Club workouts.
Last RC before the re release was pretty bad for my 15 pro. Take a look at this one from a week ago
Wow… and only a few months?! That’s how my 15 pro did too. Then plateau at 91% for 6-9 months then go to 90% which is plateauing at that point right now