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iPhone 15 Pro What is the battery life of the 15 Pro in practice?

H

hajime

macrumors G3
Original poster
Jul 23, 2007
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Hi, in practice, how is the battery life of the 15 Pro? If each day I use it to browse websites for four hours, have the location service feature and LTE on for about two hours to use google map, phone call for about 0-10 minutes, will it last for 2-3 days with one charge?

Can we also completely turn off the Always-On display to save battery life?
 
Just use your phone and charge it when it needs to be charged. Stop overthinking every aspect of the phone.

In practice, everyone's phone is set up differently and used differently so battery life will vary greatly between one person to the next.

Turn off AOD if you want to, or don't. It's up to you. Toggle the feature on and off and test battery life.
 
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I don't have the 15 Pro. Try to skip the step of buying and testing before considering whether to ask for a replacement of the 15 Plus or get the 15 Pro.
 
If you use iPhone (probably same with other smartphones), don’t expect too much days battery usage. It’s hard to achieve and unrealistic for normal / common wear & usages.
 
I have a 15 Pro, and I doubt it'll last even a full day if you're doing two hours of active navigation by Google Maps. Fortunately most people doing that much nav are in the car, where the phone will (presumably) be plugged in.
 
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OK. I shall drop my requirement. How about half an hour of active navigation?
 
I use my 15 Pro with AOD on (no wallpaper) and 120Hz disabled, and I'm usually at 10-20% around 9 PM after unplugging it at 100% at 8 AM. Most of my usage is scrolling/reading, light gaming (solitaire, flow, etc.) and occassionally GPS which drains the battery faster.
 
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Had my 15 Pro since Monday and the battery seems ok so far for my usage. Nothing really heavy usage as yet. As im only on my 2 cycle and I did a fresh install from new.
 
You can turn off the always on display.

Battery autonomy is very variable. If you tend to have a lot of apps then they seem to want ring home a lot of the time even when you aren't using them and that will drain the battery, so it isn't just about how much you use it.
(Why else do they push us to using apps? They say it's to give us a better experience but they don't, it just gives them more information about what we are doing and means we can't block ads).

If you have something like a 13 at the moment I doubt you'll see an improvement in my experience.
If you go to a Max you'll get a lot more autonomy but it probably still won't last 3 days.
 
hajime said:
At least for the 6S Plus, Location Service is the function that kills the battery life the fastest.
Click to expand...
I remember GPS power usage was a big deal on the 6S. Subjectively would say it's much less so on a 15 Pro. Ditto Facetime video. My hypothesis is that everything gets more power efficient over time. Antenna, chips. I keep always on display on but have configured it with a mostly black design and leave face down on the table or put back immediately in pocket. So it's rarely on and better than "turning on" the display. The only times I would worry about multi-day power usage (which also might require GPS navigation) would be when travelling. Always keep a small powerpack in cargo pants (together with charger) and then try not to use it. Peace of mind.
 
For travelling, is it better to get the 15 Pro Max with higher battery capacity or 15 Pro with a portable charging battery?
 
Portable batteries cost nothing, in relative terms. Personally I took a wired (not wireless) one because it was cheapest (good brand though) and, I assumed, smallest and lightest. I have the 15 Pro Max for a variety of reasons. I carry a single charging wire with me (not the little one that comes with the wired powerpack) and an Apple 20W charger. Initially thought to take the VERY small (European one is flat) charger that came with older iphones but, when travelling, sometimes you want to grab power at an airport and only have limited time so fast charging is better. If you vacillate any longer you'll be getting the 16.
 
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hajime said:
At least for the 6S Plus, Location Service is the function that kills the battery life the fastest.
Click to expand...
rb24 said:
I remember GPS power usage was a big deal on the 6S. Subjectively would say it's much less so on a 15 Pro. Ditto Facetime video. My hypothesis is that everything gets more power efficient over time. Antenna, chips. I keep always on display on but have configured it with a mostly black design and leave face down on the table or put back immediately in pocket. So it's rarely on and better than "turning on" the display. The only times I would worry about multi-day power usage (which also might require GPS navigation) would be when travelling. Always keep a small powerpack in cargo pants (together with charger) and then try not to use it. Peace of mind.
Click to expand...
Battery life for heavier usage has been an issue even on original iOS versions for devices smaller than the Plus. By the time Plus iPhones debuted (solidified with the advent of the iPhone Xʀ), battery life has been a non-issue even with some GPS usage (on original iOS versions only).

The iPhone 6s suffered a lot with GPS usage, even on iOS versions like iOS 9 and 10 (I should know. I used a 6s on iOS 9 for three years and have been using - and still have - an iPhone 6s on iOS 10 for almost 8 years), but it was pretty good with light to moderate usage on those iOS versions.

Every larger battery iPhone that suffered for heavy usage afterwards did so solely due to iOS updates, not the device itself. The 6s Plus was great even with GPS usage on iOS 9 and 10. This is no longer the case on iOS 15.

But as long as you respect the device’s original iOS version and avoid heavy usage, I’d say everything since the iPhone 6 on iOS 8 has been manageable. Yes, they did not have the overhead for very heavy usage. Those users perhaps needed a Plus, but for the rest, all iPhones have been great since the iPhone 6.

The 5s even with optimisation and its original iOS version was poor on LTE - I used one for a while. Even my efficiency that gets me 18.5 hours on light Wi-Fi use on my iPhone Xʀ on iOS 12 wasn’t enough to extract good numbers for the 5s. Everything else should be okay.

People who complained about 4.7-inch iPhones on original iOS versions (especially the iPhone 6 and 6s), had usage patterns that do not correlate with what the device can give. No, it cannot do high brightness GPS use with LTE, even on iOS 8 or 9 or 10. As long as you don’t have ridiculously high expectations, it should be okay.

Not that any of this matters nowadays though, the vast majority of 6s and 6s Plus have been obliterated into uselessness thanks to iOS 15, but it’s still worth noting.
 
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Another unknowable when travelling is network coverage: when it's weak the phone struggles to maintain connection and it chews up the battery. Once travelling across a mountainous island in a bus my battery was plummeting, it was the end of the day and didn't have a place to stay yet. Then, against all odds in this underdeveloped place, I spotted a USB port next to a table. "Great!". So I'm charging (note to self remember to take a USB adapter - it was not USBC). At least, the battery stops falling but it's not really gaining power. Terrible throughput. Yeah, always good to have a portable battery for those moments when the stars don't align. (Oh, later that night they did and there were some magnificient night sky views. So I fired up Stellarium Plus (best night sky app). That uses GPS, GPU and more. Power hog. It was worth it. In the end I spent the night out wandering with a pair of binoculars. You can never have enough battery.)
 
hajime said:
For travelling, is it better to get the 15 Pro Max with higher battery capacity or 15 Pro with a portable charging battery?
Click to expand...

The portable battery/power bank will give you more juice. My brother has an iPhone 15 Pro Max and even then, he still used a wireless power bank from time to time during our trip.

I keep both wired and wireless (MagSafe) in my purse.

The wired (20,000 mAh) one for charging inside the purse. It's good for charging the iPad mini, too.

The MagSafe (5,000 mAh) for when I need to use the phone while charging. From experience though, the 5K mAh MagSafe alone (plus full cellphone charge before leaving the hotel) should be enough for a day out.
 
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