James6s
macrumors 68030
Indexing finished on my Air last night after 24hrs, just 2% idle drain since midnight.
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iOS 27 battery life thread.
- Thread starter goldmac2006
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James6s
macrumors 68030
One thing I’ve noticed is that the camera doesn’t seem to drain the battery as much. Charged to 80% then I’ve been out on 4/5G and taken 40 photos and it’s only dropped to 76%.
FeliApple
macrumors 603
This is very interesting to me. The camera used to be a ridiculous battery killer. 4-inch iPhones, regular and plus models (4.7/5.5), even on my iPhone Xʀ the camera made battery life pretty much collapse (all on original iOS versions).
With my 16 Plus (on iOS 18), the camera is a heavy use case, with a significant difference relative to light use, but it’s nowhere near as catastrophic as it was with pretty much all earlier iPhones.
I didn’t use iOS 13 through 17 nor do I know whether the iPhones 11 through 15 have the same fate as earlier iPhones on earlier iOS versions.
But something, somewhere, just changed.
How was your Air on 26? Poor relative to earlier devices and 27 is better? Or was it better and 27 builds upon that?
Is it hardware efficiency? Or is it purely software?
James6s
macrumors 68030
Using the camera on iOS 26 the drain was significantly more, I was surprised to see how little battery had been used from 40 photos and using phone on 4/5G networks, social media uploads etc.
Im a surprised how good battery life is on iOS 27 PB4, certainly no worse and perhaps slightly better than iOS 26.6.1!
BrightCanon
macrumors 6502a
I may jump in today. I feel like my phone is getting worse battery life since the last 26.6.1 update. Also having some issues with getting very warm on my 17PM
Did you continue using the same strategies to reduce drain, such as turning off adaptive power on your iPhone Air, as you did in iOS 26?
Also, I noticed my iPhone 15 Pro was constantly draining to 20% quite often. I’ve already sent feedback to Apple through Feedback Assistant.
James6s
macrumors 68030
Same as iOS 26, adaptive power is turned off and so is background mail fetch. Battery health is still 100% with 98 cycles.
I was expecting worse battery performance on the beta’s, but that hasn’t been the case!
Maybe they’ve finally optimised the iPhone Air to how it should've been with the release of iOS 26.
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James6s
macrumors 68030
I’m surprised too but it’s very welcome! iOS 26 never felt finished or optimised, it’s only in the last releases it’s improved.
Séamus Boyle
macrumors regular
Getting just over 5 hours on db 7. iPhone 17 pro at 94% capacity. Does this seem crazy? Every article I searched on this says the average active screen time is 5 and 20 for the 17 pro. But I swear on one of the early betas I got 9 hours and 51 minutes without low power mode on. I pretty much have everything turned off and no widgets. What’s everyone’s thoughts? Or advice. Thanks.
Reverend Benny
macrumors 68000
I'm looking forward to the release of iOS 27, 26 works fine on my 16 pro and has been since I installed it (26.2) but I want to experience the extra boost in battery time that many of you report in iOS 27. I hope it applies to the 16 pro as well, it seems very device specific.
Battery life has been decent with my 15 Pro Max for the entirety of the 3 years since I had it and the iOS 27 Beta has not changed that. The battery health suggests a replacement soon and this older model definitely has worse battery life than all the current gen iPhones but that's got nothing to do with iOS.
I can't say iOS 27 made any noticeable difference for me but that's a good thing in my books. Battery life was one of my main reasons to buy this particular iPhone back in 2023. Now I also had a new Pixel Pro for a short time and battery life was worse than that of a 3 years old device leaving me no choice but to initiate a return.
In any case, I'll be set for the next 12 months with iOS 27 and with a new battery it's probably going to last many more years. My wife now has a new 17 Pro with iOS 26 and she has the occasional choppy animation that my "old" iPhone doesn't have. Of course her battery life is much better with the improved battery life on the entire 17 series.
I can't say iOS 27 made any noticeable difference for me but that's a good thing in my books. Battery life was one of my main reasons to buy this particular iPhone back in 2023. Now I also had a new Pixel Pro for a short time and battery life was worse than that of a 3 years old device leaving me no choice but to initiate a return.
In any case, I'll be set for the next 12 months with iOS 27 and with a new battery it's probably going to last many more years. My wife now has a new 17 Pro with iOS 26 and she has the occasional choppy animation that my "old" iPhone doesn't have. Of course her battery life is much better with the improved battery life on the entire 17 series.
FeliApple
macrumors 603
This is awful, but you’re giving no relevant information. When I see these numbers I think of four possibilities:
-Your usage is too heavy
-Your brightness is too high
-iOS updates have killed your device
-Your settings are unoptimised and they’re killing your device (on standby or when using).
Remove number four, and from the other three, you have to see how you’re using it. What apps are you using? How high is brightness? Cellular or Wi-Fi?
Also, you’re running an inefficient version on a beta…
Séamus Boyle
macrumors regular
I know it’s a beta but it hasn’t been as bad a battery as it is now. Half WiFi half 5g for the day, no widgets, auto brightness on, background app refresh off. All location services are mostly off too.
aakshey
macrumors 68040
Honestly, even if none of the above is applicable, iOS 27 is notorious for poor battery life. 5-7 hours is what everybody is saying for an iPhone 17 pro as the best case situation no matter what. I don’t expect gm to be any better.
That’s impressive. I’m having a hard time getting past 4 hours of use on my 16P…
especially the idle drain.
heavy usage even seems minimal in this case of battery change.
James6s
macrumors 68030
I did push it yesterday to see battery performance.
This is where my Air got to before a quick fast charge top up last night.
This is how it looked when I went to sleep
This is where my Air got to before a quick fast charge top up last night.
This is how it looked when I went to sleep
d245770q
macrumors 6502
I’d be interested as to what your settings are like and if that’s WiFi and/or 5g, because I’m getting nowhere near that on my Air!
James6s
macrumors 68030
Obviously battery use tests will vary hugely depending on a persons setup, apps used and WiFi or 4/5G
Yesterday I was mostly on WiFi, only 4 hours from the day were on 4/5G out & about.
Background app refresh limited to most used apps, screen brightness automatic, adaptive power mode is off.
The most processor intensive things I do are photography and photo editing (not much yesterday hence battery life)… no gaming, hotspot etc.
FeliApple
macrumors 603
17 PM, US version.
I jumped on the beta train with the latest one, coming from iOS 26.6.1
Tuesday I had really bad cellular coverage, the indexing still was ongoing and no wifi available so all day on 5G.
Don't mind the second line not having coverage, I am aboard and I selected on purpose a restricted network so Wifi Calling can go through even on cellular with the other eSIM (no impact on battery).
I stop the charging at 80% as I'm often on the car with wired CarPlay.
I jumped on the beta train with the latest one, coming from iOS 26.6.1
Tuesday I had really bad cellular coverage, the indexing still was ongoing and no wifi available so all day on 5G.
Don't mind the second line not having coverage, I am aboard and I selected on purpose a restricted network so Wifi Calling can go through even on cellular with the other eSIM (no impact on battery).
I stop the charging at 80% as I'm often on the car with wired CarPlay.
