Other What have you done with a pre iOS 26 compatible iPhone

[FeliApple]

I don’t really pay attention to battery cycles and don’t have Coconut Battery or any other third-party app to give me an accurate count. I tend to charge my 8’s battery once a day, from around 50% to 100%, using a 12W charging pad. I didn’t expect it to drop to 92% battery health so quickly, though. It doesn’t affect my usage as the 8’s SoT is well over 4 hours and I only really use it for video streaming and web browsing.

I ran a small test. iPhone 8, 2300 cycles, 76% health, running iOS 14.7.1:

2.5 hours of SOT 100% to 75%. In other words, the same SOT I have always gotten from 4.7-inch iPhones on original or good iOS versions. This matches my 6s on iOS 9 when it was there, and it matches my current 6s on iOS 10.

This is the usual: 7-8 hours of light SOT on Wi-Fi, about 6 hours of moderate cellular use with outdoor brightness. Anything more intensive and it’s no longer enough for a full day, at least for me.

We’ve come far. My 16 Plus after 2.5 hours is at 95% remaining. After 8 hours of SOT, it has 70% remaining. The iPhone 8 would be dead.

Still, you can see why I don’t care about battery health with this exact screenshot. Battery life never drops if the iOS version is good.

 

[Andeddu]

Yeah, maybe just for videos those devices work. Battery life is also decent on those iOS devices so if performance is good enough to just open the app and play videos then it might work. Still, with newer devices I wouldn’t even tolerate that. The Mini 4 that you have may run poorly, but it surely runs circles around the 1st-gen Mini. Still, the A8 was quite underpowered for iOS 15. It should’ve been dropped sooner. That’s probably true for most iOS devices pre-iPhone 8, however. And if we’re are mentioning battery life I’d even go newer than that. Maybe the Xʀ/Xs, well, the A12 Bionic devices remain half-decent on iOS 18. iOS 26 is killing everything so it just ends there. The iPhone 8 on iOS 14 is like-new. iOS 16 is probably worse but how much I can’t tell you. If you get 5 hours with low brightness, then maybe I can get 7-8, so 25% worse or so? Nothing unusable, in any case.

I’ve long intended to run a battery life test on my iPhone 8 on iOS 14. Considering it doesn’t last very long (7-8 hours of SOT isn’t much. I get 16 on the Xʀ and 27 on my 16 Plus), maybe I’ll run one and let you know.

The Mini 4 is barely tolerable for web browsing, but everything appears to load properly, so I’m glad Safari is mostly supported. It does run rings around the Mini 1, and I’ll be bringing it on a trip soon to a hotel so I can watch movies and TV shows with my partner.

Yeah, I did say before that newer devices seem to be less affected by iOS updates. For example, the iPhone 13, which launched with iOS 15, runs iOS 18 without any noticeable issues. iOS 25, which appears to have impacted it, still performs well and battery life seems to last a long time. I managed to get a full day’s battery life on my iPhone 13 with iOS 25.

Yeah, it’s like I said earlier, even with poor battery life, devices remain usable because battery life isn’t as needed anymore. 4-5 hours is decent and usable.

That’s why I don’t really track battery life on my secondary devices. I just require them to last a maximum of 3-4 hours per day for YouTube videos, light browsing and other media streaming apps.

To be fair, the 1st-gen SE has practically 6s Plus-like battery life on iOS 9 and 10. Not quite there, but close. It is not surprising that it maintains some kind of advantage over the regular 6s, even if it is now unremarkable. Even 5-6 hours would be rather poor with low brightness content consumption. It was around 9-10 on iOS 9.

I haven’t really tried a full battery drain with my OGSE in its current state. However, I do recall posting a SoT back when I had a replacement battery on iOS 15. With a medium volume and adaptive brightness, I was getting around 5.5+ hours of constant video streaming which is impressive for such a diminutive device.

Yeah, that’s a good way of keeping your devices usable for as long as possible. The Xʀ goes really dim, I think it is dimmer than both the 8 and the “1 nit brightness” 16 Plus. I didn’t activate reduce white point on the latter, however.

I never liked Apple pushing iPads more than iPhones. My theory has always been that they can’t kill battery life more on iPhones and they wait until iPads are similarly poor (9.7-inch iPad Pro on iPadOS 16: garbage; 10.5-inch iPad Pro on iPadOS 17, garbage battery life too)

The dimmest secondary phone I own is the iPhone 13, which dips well below the 8’s level of brightness. However, I might find it considerably heavier than the OGSE and the 8.

Apple definitely pushes iPads further than iPhones because of their battery capacities. For example, my 10-year-old iPad Mini 4 still lasts a fairly long time on iOS 15.

That makes a lot of sense, and that, I guess, is the advantage of updating. When battery life drops and it doesn’t matter the importance of compatibility increases.

With the use I give them however, updating now would be pointless. I doubt I’d use my Xʀ more if it were fully updated in spite of its current lack of compatibility.

It’s funny that we both have our newest secondary iPhones as the least-used iPhones. I don’t plan to change my approach: my main secondary iPhone will remain my iPhone 8, I really love it. The final 4.7-inch flagship ever. It’s just perfect. Good storage for music (64GB, more than enough for me), good (like-new) battery life, completely smooth performance, good compatibility. Just the whole package that I need for a secondary phone. And I also get to use the classic iPhone design.

I’ll miss the 8’s design, especially the large bezels that prevent accidental screen touches and fast-forwarding/rewinding videos. I’m starting to wish I had picked up a new SE3 a couple of years ago. I also love that I can simply lay the phone on the charging pad and never have to worry about plugging it in.

 

[goldmac2006]

As a second camera it is cool! Also for music like I use the iPhone 8 on iOS 14. That will probably work forever. I pretty much don’t use the camera on the Xʀ however. I grab that one to browse my pictures and a little MacRumors sometimes (as it still works perfectly on iOS 12 - and 10, last I tried).

I don’t have much use for a second camera myself, so the Xʀ is sadly mostly unused, even if I would like to use it. For some games I just use the iPhone 8 too.

Thing is, there is obviously a massive overlap between my main iPhone (a 16 Plus) and the others, so it leaves the older iPhones relegated to some specific functions.

I use them for music, a second camera, some games, and there’s not much else. I have the same issue with the internal “competition” between my Air 5 and my 11th-gen iPad. Since standby battery life is so poor on the Air 5 even though it is on iPadOS 15 (its original version), I prefer to keep it off instead of watching it be drained by standby inefficiencies.

The iPad Mini 1 on iOS 9 is completely unusable for me. A family member has one and I just cannot tolerate its performance. If I don’t update current, 64-bit iPhones do as not to lose performance and battery life, the Mini 1 is definitely intolerable for me. Even with full compatibility I wouldn’t use one. Basic functions like (yes!) sliding to unlock are so slow and laggy that I don’t even have the patience for that. It crashes a lot and when it doesn’t it’s so laggy that I can’t tolerate it. The lightest games and apps crash it, so it’s no surprise it crashes too for you.

My similar device in terms of processing power is an iPod Touch 5G… flawlessly running iOS 6.0.

Those devices if updated aren’t worth the materials with which they are built. It’s so pathetic, I don’t understand how Apple’s software division ever approved those updates. The iPhone 4s on iOS 9 is yet an another piece of garbage.

I do rly agree with that. I use my iPhone 7 for the photos and videos as a secondary camera and I do browse some photos from the past on there. I also use it if I need to run older iOS apps.

That iPad mini I did witness these slowdowns when it was in its last leg at iOS 9. Now with every app requiring iOS 16 or later for most of them, it cannot be useable for video streaming anymore.

Still use my iPhone 15 pro as primary device for everything else, even to play music, wear my Apple Watch and track runs on Nike Run Club, in case I need to play roblox and apple arcade games when my Mac’s not with me, etc., content consumption, emails, etc.

 

[arefbe]

My old iPhone 11 Pro Max makes an excellent iPod touch. It's on iOS 16.7.2.

 

[FeliApple]

The Mini 4 is barely tolerable for web browsing, but everything appears to load properly, so I’m glad Safari is mostly supported. It does run rings around the Mini 1, and I’ll be bringing it on a trip soon to a hotel so I can watch movies and TV shows with my partner.

Yeah, I did say before that newer devices seem to be less affected by iOS updates. For example, the iPhone 13, which launched with iOS 15, runs iOS 18 without any noticeable issues. iOS 25, which appears to have impacted it, still performs well and battery life seems to last a long time. I managed to get a full day’s battery life on my iPhone 13 with iOS 25.


That’s why I don’t really track battery life on my secondary devices. I just require them to last a maximum of 3-4 hours per day for YouTube videos, light browsing and other media streaming apps.

Yeah, as long as they more or less give a full day of light use with not-so-many hours of SOT, it’s fine. The issue comes, imo, when they don’t.

Even for music, I have to charge my 6s on iOS 13 in the middle of the day if I use it significantly during the morning. That is annoying for me. The rest of my music iPhones (6s on iOS 10; 8 on iOS 14; and if I were to use it, Xʀ on iOS 12) have more than enough battery life for a full day. Sure, maybe I have 60% by noon. But I know 60% with this 6s isn’t enough to comfortably use it during the (longer) afternoon. So I must charge it. I can’t charge it outside other than with a power bank (with the sun and the heat? Not a good idea). Is it doable? Yes. Is it so bad so as to render it unusable? No. But it’s annoying, because if Apple hadn’t forced it out, I’d be getting more than twice the battery life on the iOS version it should be: iOS 9.3.3.

I haven’t really tried a full battery drain with my OGSE in its current state. However, I do recall posting a SoT back when I had a replacement battery on iOS 15. With a medium volume and adaptive brightness, I was getting around 5.5+ hours of constant video streaming which is impressive for such a diminutive device.

This is far better. Maybe this SE would be enough for me.

The dimmest secondary phone I own is the iPhone 13, which dips well below the 8’s level of brightness. However, I might find it considerably heavier than the OGSE and the 8.

While it is heavier, I think that it has the same advantages as my Xʀ: battery life is probably far better. As I said, I haven’t used it like that, but just for music I reckon I’d finish the day with, I don’t know, 75-80% with the same usage for which I need more than 100% of my 6s on iOS 13’s battery. The difference is massive.

Apple definitely pushes iPads further than iPhones because of their battery capacities. For example, my 10-year-old iPad Mini 4 still lasts a fairly long time on iOS 15.

They end up pushing too much
sometimes: The Air 2, 9.7 and 10.5-inch iPad Pros, and others have appalling battery life on their final iOS versions. I’m lucky to have my 9.7-inch iPad Pro on iOS 12 even if, like the 6s, it should be on iOS 9.3.4. The Air 2 as far as I know is quite poor, I don’t know how your Mini 4 remains good.

I’ll miss the 8’s design, especially the large bezels that prevent accidental screen touches and fast-forwarding/rewinding videos. I’m starting to wish I had picked up a new SE3 a couple of years ago. I also love that I can simply lay the phone on the charging pad and never have to worry about plugging it in.

Yeah, maybe if the streaming apps you use stop working (I reckon you have a long time still. Netflix works on iOS 10) you can find another purpose, like music.

Unless something magically changes, I’m going to keep using my iPhone 8 for music.

I just wish I could take advantage of my Xʀ on iOS 12 a bit more. It’s my least used secondary iPhone, and arguably, it is the best (by FAR). iOS 12 and the A12 Bionic came after the iOS 11 fiasco. Apple put a lot of emphasis on performance for iOS 12.

It shows. The best-performing iOS device I’ve ever used, and one of the most optimised iOS versions ever. It’s a shame it lives powered off.

You know, I also considered the SE 3 as a music device when my main iPhone was the Xʀ and I was using the updated 6s for music. I think it would be a great device, especially on iOS 15. Luckily for us, I think the iPhone 8 can play that role for both of us.

 

[FeliApple]

I do rly agree with that. I use my iPhone 7 for the photos and videos as a secondary camera and I do browse some photos from the past on there. I also use it if I need to run older iOS apps.

That iPad mini I did witness these slowdowns when it was in its last leg at iOS 9. Now with every app requiring iOS 16 or later for most of them, it cannot be useable for video streaming anymore.

Still use my iPhone 15 pro as primary device for everything else, even to play music, wear my Apple Watch and track runs on Nike Run Club, in case I need to play roblox and apple arcade games when my Mac’s not with me, etc., content consumption, emails, etc.

Interesting that you use the 15 for Music. I assume you don’t take the iPhone 7 with you and you use it at home like me.

I’d recommend the 7 as a music device if battery life is good enough (which considering my experience with the 6s on iOS 13, it might not be). I think it’s a great purpose for a secondary iPhone.

I also have some games I play on the iPhone 8, but that’s just to conserve battery on the 16 Plus.