iPhone 15 Pro Max, iOS 17.0.2: down to 87% after 1:05 SOT. It started moving to 99% after 5 minutes. Not great.
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iOS 17 | Battery Life & Health
- Thread starter Pearsey
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iPhone 15 Pro Max, iOS 17.0.2: down to 87% after 1:05 SOT. It started moving to 99% after 5 minutes. Not great.
I’m surprised the 15 Pros are getting affected. They’re the current flagships. They should have the best battery life. iOS 15 is literally made for them.
I’m on 87% right now with 1:45 SOT. iOS 16.6.1.
It's funny, everyone is so focused on saying that the 15 Pros are heating up, but they are ignoring the battery life issue. 3 of my friends and I got the 15 Pro Max at the same time, all 4 of us are massively disappointed by the battery life compared to the 14 Pro Max. It's an absolute disgrace and some of us don't make it to the end of the day without recharging.
All those cool bloggers should focus on that, instead of running around with thermometers in their hands to prove that the iPhone reached 48°C 😂
It's funny, everyone is so focused on saying that the 15 Pros are heating up, but they are ignoring the battery life issue. 3 of my friends and I got the 15 Pro Max at the same time, all 4 of us are massively disappointed by the battery life compared to the 14 Pro Max. It's an absolute disgrace and some of us don't make it to the end of the day without recharging.
All those cool bloggers should focus on that, instead of running around with thermometers in their hands to prove that the iPhone reached 48°C
Why don’t you try restoring and setting it up as new?
I tried that but it didn't make a difference at all. So after a day I re-restored my backup. It's just higher consumption in general. Especially considering that we are 4 people having the exact same issue that I can compare to in real life.
That’s insane. I’d expect that behavior on an older iPhone, but not on the latest iPhone running the OS it was made to run.
Pro Max needs a bigger battery
That’s probably why we’re seeing the rumor of the iPhone 16 pro Max being 6.9”
That’s probably why we’re seeing the rumor of the iPhone 16 pro Max being 6.9”
Yeah, this happened to every iPhone in existence, barring the iPhone 15 (because it hasn’t been updated... yet).
There’s nothing you can do afterwards. That’s the sad part. Battery health doesn’t matter. You can replace the battery, it won’t get what it got on its original iOS version. Once you hit that update button, it’s over.
Updating has its advantages, of course. But users must be aware that there is no solution once they update and this happens.
The few older devices posts I’ve seen about iOS 17’s battery life have been very, very poor. It’s sad, because say, an iPhone Xʀ, an iPhone 11, those devices are completely usable today. Yet users will struggle for absolutely no reason. Plus models! The iPhone 6 and 6s plus were iOS’ initial foray into good battery life. Both were obliterated by iOS 12 and 15, respectively. There’s no battery size, replacement, or health that can save an iPhone if it’s updated far enough.
I’m running the Xʀ on iOS 12. Is it old? Sure. But that doesn’t mean it has to be pathetic. 16 hours of light Wi-Fi SOT, 11-12 of heavier LTE use. Massive camera use with full brightness is still close to 10 hours. It’s incredible. I’ve been using it for four years and I’ve never needed a middle-of-the-afternoon charge. Not once. Even with heavy usage. Like original Xʀ users said, with moderate usage it’s a 2-day phone, easily. There’s no reason why that should be any different.
I would be the first person to praise Apple and update everything I have as soon as they guarantee like-new, original iOS version’s battery life on subsequent updates. I have to recommend people to stay behind as long as this isn’t the case. People who upgrade every year don’t care. The majority who doesn’t will be thankful.
From my circle, those who follow my recommendation to stay behind have never complained about battery life, and their numbers are amazing. Many have followed my advice after being burned by iOS updates before. I’ve checked that this works myself, with over a decade of experience doing this. Like many, I was burned once. After that episode, I told myself I’d try to stay behind and I’d see what happens. It was a one-way road. Never again hitting that update button.
There’s no reason why amazing devices like the iPhone Xʀ, 11, 13, 10.5-inch iPad Pros, and others should forcibly struggle just because they are a few years old.
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I honestly am a bit obsessed about it, true. I could just use my phone and forget about it. In the end, in the evening I still have enough battery. It doesn't matter if that's 20% or 50%.
Still: if I go out on a day trip and take pictures and videos in the sun, I end up having to charge around 8 PM. While before iOS 17, I would still make it throughout the day. So yes, obsessed, maybe, but objectively speaking, there has been an increase in power usage.
Have you used an iPhone or iPad throughout multiple major iOS versions?
Which ones? There has been a decrease on screen-on time numbers on every iPhone if updated far enough. The only iPhone I’ve seen that retains a decent number is the 5c. It is good on iOS 10. The rest? All abhorrent. Some last more than others. The iPhone 8 is very good on iOS 14, perhaps 15. Not so much on iOS 16. The iPhone Xʀ is decent on iOS 13, 14, and 15 (although I’ve read it has dropped, though not massively). Plummets on iOS 16. Apple never stops soon enough. They always push it too far. Conversely, some iPhones plummet a lot quicker. The iPhone 6s and 7 were severely affected by iOS 12, obliterated on iOS 13.
Which ones have you used? Which iOS versions did you install?
Last night when I checked my battery status on my 13 PM, I had used my camera for one minute and it said it took out 31% of my battery for the day. I have no idea what is going on. 17.0.2 for those wondering.
31% is the proportion of the battery used by that app, it doesn’t mean it used 31% of the battery.
If you use two apps with the same energy consumption for two minutes each, they will both show 50%.
This is so soooo true! I own an iPhone 12 mini. 3 years already. And I change battery in it every 10-13 months.
iPhone 12 mini with new battery on iOS 14 was giving me 6 hours of screen on time.
iOS 15 with fresh battery 5,5.
iOS 16 - 5.
For now I am staying on iOS 16.
Replacing a battery improves battery life relative to itself with a degraded battery only if it is updated. If it’s not updated, battery health doesn’t matter.
There are reports of keyboard lag on iPhones 11 and 12 on iOS 17. So performance is beginning to suffer too. Staying behind has drawbacks. But it’s the only way to use a device with no issues for years.
It’s quite sad that iOS users at large don’t put pressure on Apple to do better. iOS adoption rates are absurdly high, even on the oldest supported devices.
Why would Apple care if people don’t care? Apple can just keep obliterating devices, because they can truthfully say: “who cares anyway? People update regardless of what we do”. And they would be right!
13 ProMax
iOS15 was a pain at times but battery life was pretty damn good. Call it awesome. Health was great.
Then came iOS16 - battery took a hit (SOT) and health took a nibble.
Now we have iOS17 - battery showed no improvement, even worse at times (beta) and the health took a massive hit.
Not sure what Apple's goal was but battery was not apparently on the forefront of their concerns.
iOS15 was a pain at times but battery life was pretty damn good. Call it awesome. Health was great.
Then came iOS16 - battery took a hit (SOT) and health took a nibble.
Now we have iOS17 - battery showed no improvement, even worse at times (beta) and the health took a massive hit.
Not sure what Apple's goal was but battery was not apparently on the forefront of their concerns.
With my iPhone 14 Pro Max I ended the day with 50-55% of battery with my typical usage on iOS 16. Then I upgraded to iOS 17, and I ended the day with 30% if I was lucky. Consistently.
Now I got an iPhone 15 Pro Max and I have the same experience like with the 14 on iOS 17, if not slightly worse. Usually you would expect the newest iPhone to behave well on the newest iOS - usually it does. Not this time.
That sounds very poor! Nevertheless, there’s a very specific piece of information that I may not mention every single time (although I did mention it in the quoted comment). The key aspect of all this is “if updated far enough”. Some iOS versions are good. iOS 10 on an iPhone 6s is just as good as iOS 9. I’ve used both for years, I’ve found no difference. iOS 12 on the iPhone 8 is also great. iOS 15 even, on the iPhone 11 is probably fine. But there’s always that one. There’s always the one in which Apple pushes it too far. Sometimes it is on the first one, like you said. Sometimes it takes two or three. But it always happens eventually.
The iPhone 14 has received many complaints, and the numbers I’ve seen aren’t good - my iPhone Xʀ on iOS 12 easily surpasses the numbers I’ve seen, but I’m a light user, so I’m not entirely sure. Your post is also surprising: iOS 17 is too early for such numbers. If the latest iPhone isn’t amazing on iOS 16 or iOS 17, everything else is pretty much guaranteed to be obliterated. Fine, for users who upgrade frequently it doesn’t really matter, but many on the forums don’t, let alone non-enthusiasts. This is the #1 issue plaguing iOS devices, and I don’t see Apple making this better anytime soon. You have two choices: tolerate it for compatibility’s sake, or stay behind and seek workarounds, which is what I do. Neither of these approaches is trouble-free, but sadly, Apple gives us no choice.
However, like I said, people clearly don’t care. Everyone just keeps updating and keeps recommending people to update, so Apple won’t care either. They break adoption records every year.
It’s very funny actually! People routinely recommend updating if you’re one version behind. If I had my Xʀ on iOS 12, and asked whether iOS 13 was recommended, people would say yes. The same with iOS 13 and 14, 14 and 15, etc.
But the funny part is, I’d get recommendations against updating if I were to ask whether jumping was still fine.
“I’m on iOS 12 on my iPhone Xʀ because I like my battery life and performance. Should I update to iOS 17?”. From what I’ve seen, responses will be mixed, and they won’t be as one-sided as if I were to simply update from the previous version. Which is funny, because the end result is the same.
Completely agree, except on my 6s, updating to iOS 10 reduced my SOT by precisely 40 mins. I used to work on my phone nonstop back then. I would get exactly 7 hours of screen on time on iOS 9. On iOS 10, I only got 6 hours and 20 mins. Same conditions. This was well documented by me. I tried restoring and setting up as new. DFU restores. Even went back to iOS 9 (it was still being signed) to double check. I got 7 hours of SOT when I went back to iOS 9. I gave up and bought an iPhone 7. SOT was around 8-8.5 hours on the 7.
Well, now that you mention it, the 6s on iOS 10 is half an hour behind my iOS 9 results. I guess I just consider that negligible, because have you seen the results of the 6s on iOS 15? It’s unusable.
Lots of people either don’t notice the issues or simply gloss over them. Just because you may not have experienced it first hand doesn’t mean the issues don’t exist. And we are on MR, where many will oddly defend Apple and pretend issues are made up.
I upgraded to iOS 16.7 from 15 recently, and I experience many of the bugs that have been reported over the past year. Some not immediately, but then they appear out of nowhere. And I seriously have a very basic, non-complex iOS set up, with many options disabled! As I recall, a certain user on MR assured me that 16 was great 😉
One aspect to consider; with the new chipset, Apple went for performance instead of battery improvement.