Reduce Transparency actually drains battery

[deuxani]

An interesting test shows that the Reduce Transparency option actually uses more battery, because it’s not turning off Liquid Glass, but sort of increasing it:

“And sadly, the “Reduce Transparency” option doesn’t help at all. “Reduce Transparency” makes it worse.

• With Reduce Transparency = ON, most actions added ~+1W.
• Control Center can hit ~10–11W. Feels like a brute-force path under the hood.”

For the full battery test of iOS 26 see:

https://www.reddit.com/r/iPhone17Pro/comments/1nrc5zi/iphone_17_pro_max_ios26_is_actually_crazy_battery

 

[iLuddite]

What?! Apple need to fix this immediately; I gotta have my Reduce Transparency. No logic at all to this feature requiring more power.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Lovely.
Great work Apple.

 

[FeliApple]

17w for a screenshot and 10-11 for a simple control center swipe is utterly ridiculous. Well done, Apple, we love your re-design.

Keep killing battery life.

 

[Reverend Benny]

Quite fascinated that people are shocked over a 17w screenshot power drain when no one has anything to compare it with. We are talking max brightness for a split second, quick access to storage, image processing, what is an acceptable wattage? What wattage do earlier versions consume?

Its obvious that there are issues to be fixed and this guy has done a good job of demonstrating some of them, prob helping towards a solution.

 

[Isamilis]

I am pessimistic with Apple’s direction nowadays. I may hold the new hardware upgrade until it’s clear the critical bugs have been addressed.

 

[theapplehead]

I'd be interested in seeing the direct comparison to a 15 Pro Max on iOS 18. I'd be even more interested to see if the Reduce Animation feature helps limit some of the power draw this guy found during his testing

 

[Paddle1]

It's obvious iOS 26 was rushed. Seems they didn't even manage to complete the redesign seeing as there are more design changes in 26.1 beta.

 

[ProbablyDylan]

This is actually pretty funny. One has to wonder how iOS 26 got this far in this state. Does nobody at Apple HQ ask questions? Look at analytics data?

 

[FeliApple]

This is actually pretty funny. One has to wonder how iOS 26 got this far in this state. Does nobody at Apple HQ ask questions? Look at analytics data?

I think they don’t care about maintaining quality of non-current iPhones.

They don’t allow downgrading and the practice of massive impact to battery life has been proven since pretty much the beginning.

 

[ProbablyDylan]

I think they don’t care about maintaining quality of non-current iPhones.

But if you check the reddit post, this massive battery drain was observed and measured on the current and latest iPhone, 17PM. Which to me would indicate they don't care about their current products either.

 

[FeliApple]

But if you check the reddit post, this massive battery drain was observed and measured on the current and latest iPhone, 17PM. Which to me would indicate they don't care about their current products either.

I wonder then how’s battery life with a regular usage pattern (that probably makes use of these animations far more than a simple app looping test like most like to run) on a 17 series on iOS 26 vs a comparable 16 series on iOS 18 (say, regular vs regular or 17 Pro Max vs 16 Pro Max/Plus, or 17 Pro vs 16 Pro).

That’s tougher to compare with a simple app looping test.

 

[FatLouie]

Thankfully, this Liquid Glass is a success, as now we have forgotten about that small AI problem.

All in all, this is sad when turning off a feature causes an increase in battery drain.

 

[papbot]

I wonder then how’s battery life with a regular usage pattern (that probably makes use of these animations far more than a simple app looping test like most like to run) on a 17 series on iOS 26 vs a comparable 16 series on iOS 18 (say, regular vs regular or 17 Pro Max vs 16 Pro Max/Plus, or 17 Pro vs 16 Pro).

That’s tougher to compare with a simple app looping test.

It’s not really indicative of anything not specific to me, but battery life on my 17PM, which I’ve been extensively using as is typical when getting a new device, has been outstanding. Now the Home Screen icons and folders, as well as the Safari start page, redrawing is a significant issue with iOS 26, and still a really bad issue on 26.1 on my iPad Pro, but battery life has not been. And the Calendar search issue was able to be fixed by the Reddit suggestion posted on MacRumors as well as elsewhere. It is unacceptable though, that, to get reasonable battery life out of a new software release, you have to purchase a new device. I understand it is somewhat understandable from a business point of view, more sales of your new device, but what a slap at even those who have recent devices.

 

[AlixSPQR]

Good thing I haven't installed any 26's yet.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Good thing I haven't installed any 26's yet.

I sure wouldn't be rushing to do it..

They have a LOT to clean up.

 

[HouseLannister]

I look forward to Apple doing their phone releases twice a year and splitting up the models. Maybe then we will eventually get WWDC and iOS updates to be completely separate from phone shipping cycles. No more crunch culture every summer. Phones with a current working, patched OS instead of what is essentially a beta without a beta tag. Maybe move the OS GM release back to January like in the Macworld Expo days so then calling it iOS 27 in 2027 will make a little more sense.

 

[klasma]

Reduce Transparency still computes color based on the background (see the screenshot below), so it’s not surprising that it doesn’t reduce power usage. But maybe it actually adds additional UI layers, and/or (what amounts to) the larger blur radius consumes more power.

 

[cwm]

Thankfully, this Liquid Glass is a success, as now we have forgotten about that small AI problem.

All in all, this is sad when turning off a feature causes an increase in battery drain.

Well to be fair, if it was a success then people could move on to talking about other things like AI again... They need it to stay in the news to maintain the attention away from Siri/AI so no point in making it too good to begin with

 

[boswald]

I just leave it alone and try to enjoy it for what it is. That said, my battery has been draining more than usual lately. Do you think Apple rushed 26 to compete with Android 16's UI refresh?

 

[canadianreader]

I just leave it alone and try to enjoy it for what it is. That said, my battery has been draining more than usual lately. Do you think Apple rushed 26 to compete with Android 16's UI refresh?

It’s been this way for years. What they call beta is actually alpha and the official release is the actual beta. Personally I don’t like the liquid glass theme but if I had to upgrade I’d wait for 26.3 or .4

 

[NewOldStock]

I want my Watt back?
First world problems.

 

[MallardDuck]

As far as I'm concerned, this is watts well spent. Transparency is horrible, and even with that toggle on, it's active on a reboot, which makes entering the password extremely difficult.

 

[Davieis]

My thoughts are that liquid glass was meant for WWDC 2026 but the deadline was brought forward for some reason, possibly due to the Apple Intelligence debacle.

 

[ProbablyDylan]

My thoughts are that liquid glass was meant for WWDC 2026 but the deadline was brought forward for some reason, possibly due to the Apple Intelligence debacle.

I could believe this. Pulling the software teams together and telling them if they can't get AI working they need to get the redesign out instead. Would partly explain why they're hemorrhaging AI talent too - those folk can't stand Liquid Glass either!