New anti consumer design? - Battery Usage

[Parowdy]

So. Stone me for calling it what I did.
But only if you can tell me
1. why we needed a completely new design for the battery usage pane in Settings and
2. how it is actually meaningfully better than before.

I admit the previous pane wasn’t too helpful either, especially when it was buggy and displayed impossible or wrong usage info. But apart from that it was simple and made sense for the most part.
Also, you were able to not only see a single graph per hour, you could also select any hour and see what processes used how much energy during that specific hour.

People are different, people use their phones differently. And many use their phones differently from day to day.
So why is it so important to compare your battery usage from today to yesterday, or the last 7 days?
You’re telling me I use my phone differently on Monday compared to Sunday? Or during vacation compared to a work week? Whawhaaat? Such insight. However, it did that before, just with graphs.

Ok, but what’s really anti consumer here?
I wish nothing, but it seems fishy to me that it’s not possible to see hourly usage info with slightly more granular information, so you can pinpoint the processes and apps that had the battery dip.
You know, trouble shooting to figure out what caused your phone to unexpectedly lose more charge than anticipated. Something VERY useful when using your phone for different and multiple professional tasks like, I don’t know, recording video, watching the recording, AirDroping it to another device, receiving files with instructions, editing those files and sharing that edit. All while moving around, having varying signal strength, maybe taking a call or two.
Being able to troubleshoot what exactly caused your battery to tank helps.

For the average Joe it seems like you’re no longer supposed to tell the dip in battery life can be attributed to Siri, Image Playground, a weak signal or other things Apple doesn’t necessarily want you to think about too much.
Just, you know, use your phone today like you did all the other days. Don’t worry about specifics.
It says it best itself in settings:
„Get an idea of how much your battery is used by app and system activity throughout the day“

Maybe I’m the only one that actually used the battery settings before to pinpoint a process that I’ll have to work around or mitigate entirely when using my phone and not having a charger nearby.
Maybe it isn’t anti consumer, maybe it’s anti pro-sumer.

I’m really interested in what others thing about the new pane. Also, it’s the same thing on the Mac and iPad, so you might as well comment on those.

 

[FeliApple]

I created a thread here: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...-section-of-settings-utterly-useless.2459556/

I think the title tells you everything you need to know about my opinion.

An utterly pathetic, useless, ridiculous redesign, which is nothing but a regression.

Determining screen-on time since last full charge, perhaps widely considered the most useful metric, is now practically impossible, as it includes SOT since 00:00.

So, if I use it until 02:00, and then charge it back up, and use it until 19:00, and charge it back up while using, and then I plug it back in at 23:30, determining SOT since last full charge is now impossible as the section that used to show SOT per hour in those blue bars on iOS 12-18 now shows battery percentage remaining: utterly useless.

I cannot understand what the goal was. They aren’t achieving anything with these redesign; in fact, this is pure regression.

Since iOS 5, it has been possible, perhaps always imperfectly, to determine SOT since last full charge, the most relevant metric in most people’s eyes (if you look at online discussions, it is the metric that people use).

Now it isn’t. This removes all useful information. The battery page is now useless.

I love determining battery life. I guess my current devices are the end of that road unless Apple reverts this.

I have neither updated nor will I update anything to iOS 26, but we both know that at some point I will have to upgrade my devices. If Apple doesn’t change this, sadly, a long-time hobby of mine of determining my devices’ battery life will be rendered impossible. A pathetic, useless, ridiculous change.

 

[Parowdy]

I created a thread here: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...-section-of-settings-utterly-useless.2459556/

I think the title tells you everything you need to know about my opinion.

An utterly pathetic, useless, ridiculous redesign, which is nothing but a regression.

Determining screen-on time since last full charge, perhaps widely considered the most useful metric, is now practically impossible, as it includes SOT since 00:00.

So, if I use it until 02:00, and then charge it back up, and use it until 19:00, and charge it back up while using, and then I plug it back in at 23:30, determining SOT since last full charge is now impossible as the section that used to show SOT per hour in those blue bars on iOS 12-18 now shows battery percentage remaining: utterly useless.

I cannot understand what the goal was. They aren’t achieving anything with these redesign; in fact, this is pure regression.

Since iOS 5, it has been possible, perhaps always imperfectly, to determine SOT since last full charge, the most relevant metric in most people’s eyes (if you look at online discussions, it is the metric that people use).

Now it isn’t. This removes all useful information. The battery page is now useless.

I love determining battery life. I guess my current devices are the end of that road unless Apple reverts this.

I have neither updated nor will I update anything to iOS 26, but we both know that at some point I will have to upgrade my devices. If Apple doesn’t change this, sadly, a long-time hobby of mine of determining my devices’ battery life will be rendered impossible. A pathetic, useless, ridiculous change.

Oh my god I agree so much, also with what you wrote in your thread. I also can’t believe how we went from ~10 hours of screen on time to 5 and everyone is fine with it. I still have screenshots from my 11 Pro on an earlier iOS and 6 hours was the absolute worst it would be, now we praise 6 hours.

 

[FeliApple]

Oh my god I agree so much, also with what you wrote in your thread. I also can’t believe how we went from ~10 hours of screen on time to 5 and everyone is fine with it. I still have screenshots from my 11 Pro on an earlier iOS and 6 hours was the absolute worst it would be, now we praise 6 hours.

When it comes to battery life instead, I have always said the same thing.

In my opinion, the issue is not, and has never been, iOS 26 vs iOS 18. The issue and the relevant comparison is iOS 26 vs the device’s original iOS version, in this case, iOS 13. The iPhone 11 is an exception because iOS 18 is actually as good as iOS 14 (and presumably 13), I tested this myself, but for other iPhones, it is a progressive worsening of battery life until it eventually falls off a cliff. iOS 26 seems that release for the 11.

At this point, I am utterly surprised by how many people are surprised by this. Major iOS updates have always severely affected battery life. This is not new.

Update for whatever reason you like, but expect battery life to be worse, always.

Going back to the thread, I am confounded by Apple’s goal here. I don’t know what they’re trying to achieve. As I said, this kills battery reporting for no reason. The new method of display is all drawback and no benefits. This change should have been scrapped at first glance and it shouldn’t have been included on the beta, let alone be the final release.

 

[erihp]

it cant possibly have -anything- to do with the thrashed 6 year old li-ion cell in that iPhone 11....

/s

 

[FeliApple]

it cant possibly have -anything- to do with the thrashed 6 year old li-ion cell in that iPhone 11....

/s

It doesn’t have anything to do with that. Battery life remains stable even with degraded battery health if the iOS version is the original.

Before you ask me how I know, I’ve been running original iOS versions uninterruptedly since 2013.

I’ve tested so many devices. The battery life degradations is exclusively due to enough major updates.

iOS 26 is killing the iPhone 16 series’ battery life. Imagine what it does to the 11. So no, it is NOT due to the “6-year-old battery”

Nonsensical argument.

 

[ghostface147]

You know, I never go in there. I just live my life and let the battery do what it does. I guess maybe I don’t know what the changes are in between 18 and 26.

 

[aperfectcircle]

You know, I never go in there. I just live my life and let the battery do what it does. I guess maybe I don’t know what the changes are in between 18 and 26.

Ditto. I’ve gone in there a couple of times since getting my Air out of curiosity to see what screen time I’ve been using and it seems to clearly show usage with breakdowns and daily comparisons if I want more detail. I’m not sure what is missing or what else I’d want to know. Seems consumer friendly to my needs at least.

 

[FeliApple]

I’m not sure what is missing

The ability to determine SOT since last full charge - THE cornerstone of battery life reporting.

 

[erihp]

It doesn’t have anything to do with that. Battery life remains stable even with degraded battery health if the iOS version is the original.

Before you ask me how I know, I’ve been running original iOS versions uninterruptedly since 2013.

I’ve tested so many devices. The battery life degradations is exclusively due to enough major updates.

iOS 26 is killing the iPhone 16 series’ battery life. Imagine what it does to the 11. So no, it is NOT due to the “6-year-old battery”

Nonsensical argument.

right, lithium ion batteies do not degrade in performance, ever.

 

[Isamilis]

It doesn’t have anything to do with that. Battery life remains stable even with degraded battery health if the iOS version is the original.

Before you ask me how I know, I’ve been running original iOS versions uninterruptedly since 2013.

I’ve tested so many devices. The battery life degradations is exclusively due to enough major updates.

iOS 26 is killing the iPhone 16 series’ battery life. Imagine what it does to the 11. So no, it is NOT due to the “6-year-old battery”

Nonsensical argument.

Second this. I have also few experiences where new iOS kill my old iPhone / iPad. I think, the issue is Apple prevent us to downgrade to old version.
In my opinion, Apple should allow us to downgrade up to the original OS version.

 

[Parowdy]

You know, I never go in there. I just live my life and let the battery do what it does. I guess maybe I don’t know what the changes are in between 18 and 26.

That’s valid, too. Not everyone cares about this.
But it is such a downgrade for the people that do.

 

[Parowdy]

Ditto. I’ve gone in there a couple of times since getting my Air out of curiosity to see what screen time I’ve been using and it seems to clearly show usage with breakdowns and daily comparisons if I want more detail. I’m not sure what is missing or what else I’d want to know. Seems consumer friendly to my needs at least.

Good to hear. Unfortunately, some of us have grown more accustomed to the hourly and, with the old way of displaying the graphs, quarter hourly usage info. With the way it is right now, it’s impossible to tell which process caused a dip at almost any given time. Apple you got left is knowing how much energy a process has used throughout the day, and a single graph showing how much battery you got must once an hour has concluded.

 

[Parowdy]

When it comes to battery life instead, I have always said the same thing.

In my opinion, the issue is not, and has never been, iOS 26 vs iOS 18. The issue and the relevant comparison is iOS 26 vs the device’s original iOS version, in this case, iOS 13. The iPhone 11 is an exception because iOS 18 is actually as good as iOS 14 (and presumably 13), I tested this myself, but for other iPhones, it is a progressive worsening of battery life until it eventually falls off a cliff. iOS 26 seems that release for the 11.

At this point, I am utterly surprised by how many people are surprised by this. Major iOS updates have always severely affected battery life. This is not new.

Update for whatever reason you like, but expect battery life to be worse, always.

Going back to the thread, I am confounded by Apple’s goal here. I don’t know what they’re trying to achieve. As I said, this kills battery reporting for no reason. The new method of display is all drawback and no benefits. This change should have been scrapped at first glance and it shouldn’t have been included on the beta, let alone be the final release.

Not much to add here.
I’m actually just positively surprised that I’m not being flamed and that other people dislike this change just as much.

 

[aperfectcircle]

Good to hear. Unfortunately, some of us have grown more accustomed to the hourly and, with the old way of displaying the graphs, quarter hourly usage info. With the way it is right now, it’s impossible to tell which process caused a dip at almost any given time. Apple you got left is knowing how much energy a process has used throughout the day, and a single graph showing how much battery you got must once an hour has concluded.

Fair enough. I’m not sure I’d ever bothered to take much notice of the battery info under 18 apart from checking my battery health a few times, but now you mention it I do recall seeing that top line chart showing usage across the day and can see how that would be useful if you need it. Pity they couldn’t have kept it in a drill down somewhere, but maybe they’ll add it back with a future point release of 26.

 

[FeliApple]

Fair enough. I’m not sure I’d ever bothered to take much notice of the battery info under 18 apart from checking my battery health a few times, but now you mention it I do recall seeing that top line chart showing usage across the day and can see how that would be useful if you need it. Pity they couldn’t have kept it in a drill down somewhere, but maybe they’ll add it back with a future point release of 26.

It is very funny. Because with this they can never get it entirely right.

Do you recall the screen from iOS 5 to iOS 11? It was “usage time since last full charge”, which combined screen-on time, screen-off time like music playback with the screen off, AND system background usage. (iOS 4 and earlier had no battery indicator, only app usage).

The part that was “since last full charge” was useful, but determining SOT was tough because that screen would not make the distinction.

In practice? When you looked at a screenshot you pretty much assumed standby music listening based on the plausibility of the number.

I have been using a 6s on iOS 10 for many years now. With full music, maybe I had 5 hours of “usage time” with 80% remaining. If I share that screenshot and said nothing, you would assume I used it for music a lot, since 5 hours of SOT, even on iOS 10, would use far more battery life than that. But then… how much of that was SOT? Impossible to know. Sometime the system did something in the background and it would add that, too. Pretty useless.

Apple added SOT on iOS 12. Problem solved, right? No! The idiots who were in charge had the great idea to include SOT of the last 24 hours instead of “since last full charge” like it used to be.

The result?

-cycles longer than 24 hours were impossible to determine unless you tracked it earlier, added it up, stored that number, and added it as time went by.

-It added EVERYTHING together, both SOT used while charging and while not charging.

-people could NOT read the freaking graph, and incorrectly assumed that it showed time since last full charge. Sometimes they would share a screenshot and they’d say “I get 10 hours of SOT to 50%”, and you’d see and eight of those hours were while charging. The actual SOT was pathetic, around 2 hours to 50%. People just could not read a graph. FAR too many couldn’t. Adding SOT since last full charge would’ve solved it.

And then Apple did this completely useless thing which practically prevents you from knowing SOT since last full charge, achieves nothing, and removes the partially useful information adding nothing in return.

Either those in charge of this page are complete idiots, or it is deliberate.

 

[cigz]

I kinda start believing they knew right from the beginning that iOS26 will be trash when it comes to battery life.
The whole redesign of the battery graph that's not allowing us to determine the battery life for a full charge, then this "article" how iOS26 might make battery life worse "for few days" (yeah sure, it's been weeks now and it's suspicious that they said something like that right before the release of iOS26, why they haven't said that in previous years?) and the videos of people testing power draw of iOS26 showing that a single screenshot can draw 19W of power...
I've never seen so many complaints how one update destroyed battery life for so many people and they're everywhere - Reddit, twitter, threads, TikTok, instagram.
Let's hope they fix it, if they're even able to.

 

[FeliApple]

I kinda start believing they knew right from the beginning that iOS26 will be trash when it comes to battery life.
The whole redesign of the battery graph that's not allowing us to determine the battery life for a full charge, then this "article" how iOS26 might make battery life worse "for few days" (yeah sure, it's been weeks now and it's suspicious that they said something like that right before the release of iOS26, why they haven't said that in previous years?) and the videos of people testing power draw of iOS26 showing that a single screenshot can draw 19W of power...
I've never seen so many complaints how one update destroyed battery life for so many people and they're everywhere - Reddit, twitter, threads, TikTok, instagram.
Let's hope they fix it, if they're even able to.

I think that Apple has always known that iOS updates kill battery life if enough versions have elapsed. I’m sure they test them on all compatible devices.

I think they don’t really care much.

This case is different as it is precluding the newest iPhones (the 17 series) from beating the 16 Series’ two battery powerhouses (the 16 Plus and the 16 Pro Max) for the first time ever.

Repeated battery tests have shown that these two on iOS 18 are better than ALL 17 models including the Pro Max on iOS 26. That has never happened before.

I think that is what prompted the article: if iOS 26 does that to the iPhones designed for it, imagine what it does to non-current iPhones.

This change is, however, inexcusable, unless their reason is that they want to prevent people from knowing SOT since last full charge. Which would make no sense at all.

Apple has ALWAYS killed battery life with iOS updates. Apple has never really cared. Making the battery page useless to obscure the numbers is something Apple has no reason to do, because that reason would’ve been present ages ago, as they have always killed battery life.

Which is why I really don’t understand this change. Unless iOS 26 made them guilty about how pathetic it is in terms of battery life for the first time ever, after nineteen whole iterations…

 

[Parowdy]

I kinda start believing they knew right from the beginning that iOS26 will be trash when it comes to battery life.
The whole redesign of the battery graph that's not allowing us to determine the battery life for a full charge, then this "article" how iOS26 might make battery life worse "for few days" (yeah sure, it's been weeks now and it's suspicious that they said something like that right before the release of iOS26, why they haven't said that in previous years?) and the videos of people testing power draw of iOS26 showing that a single screenshot can draw 19W of power...
I've never seen so many complaints how one update destroyed battery life for so many people and they're everywhere - Reddit, twitter, threads, TikTok, instagram.
Let's hope they fix it, if they're even able to.

My thoughts, too.
Can’t blame the new iOS update if you can’t reliably blame anything anyway.

 

[Parowdy]

I think that Apple has always known that iOS updates kill battery life if enough versions have elapsed. I’m sure they test them on all compatible devices.

I think they don’t really care much.

This case is different as it is precluding the newest iPhones (the 17 series) from beating the 16 Series’ two battery powerhouses (the 16 Plus and the 16 Pro Max) for the first time ever.

Repeated battery tests have shown that these two on iOS 18 are better than ALL 17 models including the Pro Max on iOS 26. That has never happened before.

I think that is what prompted the article: if iOS 26 does that to the iPhones designed for it, imagine what it does to non-current iPhones.

This change is, however, inexcusable, unless their reason is that they want to prevent people from knowing SOT since last full charge. Which would make no sense at all.

Apple has ALWAYS killed battery life with iOS updates. Apple has never really cared. Making the battery page useless to obscure the numbers is something Apple has no reason to do, because that reason would’ve been present ages ago, as they have always killed battery life.

Which is why I really don’t understand this change. Unless iOS 26 made them guilty about how pathetic it is in terms of battery life for the first time ever, after nineteen whole iterations…

Remember iOS 14? Look what screenshot I found in the midst of my library.

 

[FeliApple]

Remember iOS 14? Look what screenshot I found in the midst of my library. View attachment 2563587

Which device is that?

 

[Parowdy]

Which device is that?

Sorry, however I missed mentioning that. iPhone 11 Pro.

 

[FeliApple]

Sorry, however I missed mentioning that. iPhone 11 Pro.

10.5 hours looks decent. Not too high for web browsing unless brightness was high, but it is decent.

Now… if with the same usage you say you’re scraping 6, then that’s ridiculously poor.

I do acknowledge that I am an unusually efficient user. My 16 Plus finishes the day with about 80% (from 100%) after about 6 hours of SOT.

I’m typing this from my 11th-gen iPad (A16) 90% battery remaining after 3.5 hours of SOT (running iPadOS 18, of course). As I said, I’m efficient, these numbers extrapolate to about 26-27 hours of SOT, but 6 hours is very, very poor.

I got 6 hours of light cellular use on my 6s on iOS 10. Heavy users have eaten through the difference, but I think many people can’t really see how far we’ve come in terms of battery life since then, both on iPhones and iPads. Heavy usage blurs devices together because the screen is the #1 killer, but with low brightness newer devices are infinitely better.

All on Wi-Fi, I was getting about 8 hours of light SOT on my 6s on iOS 9. The same usage got me about 12 hours on my 7 Plus on iOS 10, the only device I no longer have. The same usage rose to about 16-18 hours on my Xʀ on iOS 12, to the current 27 on my 16 Plus. A similar story has unfolded with iPads.

With heavy use my 16 Plus is still better than all of my older devices, but the decrease in SOT is still there, even if lessened due to the increased battery size (4,674 mAh on my 16 Plus vs 2,942 mAh on my Xʀ).

Keep in mind that the numbers referenced above are only achievable with maximally efficient settings: Low Power Mode, pretty much every draining settings disabled, low brightness, Wi-Fi, light apps like web browsing, etc. Also key: no social media. Just Reddit, whose app is very, very efficient.

But the current iPhones and iPads on original versions can reach insane SOT with light to moderate use. I run my devices with efficiency because I don’t need to enable those settings. If it is an inconvenience I have always advocated for usability rather than efficiency.

From all of the combos I’ve had, my iPhone 16 Plus and 11th-gen iPad have incredible efficiency, both on-screen and with standby.

This is why the impact of iOS updates saddens me: with a little luck, I will grab this combo in five, six years, and I will have the exact same SOT. And to the thread, I only know these numbers because Apple allows me to. On iOS 26, they don’t.