iOS 17 | Battery Life & Health

[Populus]

Not been using much this morning and idle drain is brilliant on my 15 Pro running 17.5 beta 4…. It’ll drop like a stone this afternoon 😄

More and more convinced to install iOS 17.5 as soon as it gets released, both on my SE3 and my M2 iPad Pro. I’m curious about the few new features iOS 17 has.

Is the typing experience still bad with beta 4? Some people complained about a more aggressive autocorrect.

 

[Benz63amg]

Does it really make that huge of a difference when it’s turned off?
I have left that on all the time since I feel „safe” when it’s enabled.

I’m not sure but I think it does affect battery life which is why I have it disabled. Perhaps someone with more knowledge can shed some light on that feature

 

[Benz63amg]

More and more convinced to install iOS 17.5 as soon as it gets released, both on my SE3 and my M2 iPad Pro. I’m curious about the few new features iOS 17 has.

Is the typing experience still bad with beta 4? Some people complained about a more aggressive autocorrect.

We all can’t wait to get 17.5, that’s the biggest and most anticipated upgrade in a very long time. It’s a very much needed upgrade too as there are many bugs in the current iOS 17 version

 

[Reverend Benny]

I’m not sure but I think it does affect battery life which is why I have it disabled. Perhaps someone with more knowledge can shed some light on that feature

Just curious of what you think why that is? I haven't drilled any deeper into how it works more than a 10 minute Google session and reading the description of the feature (on the phone).
The function is described as being able to find the phone when its offline, on power reserve and after shutdown.

That sounds to me more like its the U1 chip that's enabled and that the iPhone is being tracked like an airtag or similar. Not sure that it also means that is can talk to wifi or cellular.

 

[James6s]

More and more convinced to install iOS 17.5 as soon as it gets released, both on my SE3 and my M2 iPad Pro. I’m curious about the few new features iOS 17 has.

Is the typing experience still bad with beta 4? Some people complained about a more aggressive autocorrect.

Not a bad experience on beta 4, autocorrect doesn’t seem any different to me tbh. Performance is great and battery isn’t too bad apart from when I’m taking lots of photos when the device gets warm and the battery starts to drain faster. I’ve left feedback for this reason.

Beta 5 or release candidate hopefully today or tomorrow.

 

[Benz63amg]

Just curious of what you think why that is? I haven't drilled any deeper into how it works more than a 10 minute Google session and reading the description of the feature (on the phone).
The function is described as being able to find the phone when its offline, on power reserve and after shutdown.

That sounds to me more like its the U1 chip that's enabled and that the iPhone is being tracked like an airtag or similar. Not sure that it also means that is can talk to wifi or cellular.

Because enabling that feature enrolls your device into apple’s crowdsource database which is how it would be located in case it gets lost and turned off. Apparently it uses Bluetooth to find your device in case it gets lost and it uses apple devices near and far of the location of the lost device to locate it even when it’s off.. I don’t know exactly how it works but it sounds like something that would drain more battery if enabled. If someone can explain to me why leaving it on won’t have a negative effect on battery life then then I’ll turn it on

 

[FeliApple]

Not been using much this morning and idle drain is brilliant on my 15 Pro running 17.5 beta 4…. It’ll drop like a stone this afternoon 😄

You used it a little, but 100-98% after four hours of standby is severely mediocre at best. Standby hasn't been great since iOS 11 (or iOS 12) for iPhones and iPadOS 13 for iPad. If you mean the previous one, it looks decent, with a slight drop of a few percentage points. Good, but still far from the iOS 10 standard.

 

[Reverend Benny]

Because enabling that feature enrolls your device into apple’s crowdsource database which is how it would be located in case it gets lost and turned off. Apparently it uses Bluetooth to find your device in case it gets lost and it uses apple devices near and far of the location of the lost device to locate it even when it’s off.. I don’t know exactly how it works but it sounds like something that would drain more battery if enabled. If someone can explain to me why leaving it on won’t have a negative effect on battery life then then I’ll turn it on

I think we have the same sort of idea of how it works but have a different conclusion of if it drains battery or not.

Not trying to convince you to turn it on, more that it does sound like its only being used when the device is offline, on power reserve or shutdown or in the cases that you describe (its lost).
If an airtag can rely on a small battery, I would guess power drainage is fairly small.

Now, what would go against my theory that it doesn't drain your battery I would say its sending data of your phones whereabouts more often to Apple, that the U1 chips is enabled also when the phone is on.

 

[Benz63amg]

Not a bad experience on beta 4, autocorrect doesn’t seem any different to me tbh. Performance is great and battery isn’t too bad apart from when I’m taking lots of photos when the device gets warm and the battery starts to drain faster. I’ve left feedback for this reason.

Beta 5 or release candidate hopefully today or tomorrow.

If RC of 17.5 comes out today, What’s the best way to install it? does it require the install of a beta profile?

 

[Benz63amg]

I think we have the same sort of idea of how it works but have a different conclusion of if it drains battery or not.

Not trying to convince you to turn it on, more that it does sound like its only being used when the device is offline, on power reserve or shutdown or in the cases that you describe (its lost).
If an airtag can rely on a small battery, I would guess power drainage is fairly small.

Now, what would go against my theory that it doesn't drain your battery I would say its sending data of your phones whereabouts more often to Apple, that the U1 chips is enabled also when the phone is on.

Well, by enabling Find My Network and enrolling your device into an apple’s crowdsource database. Your device will be used to HELP locate someone else’s lost device, No? Isn’t that the concept of how that system works? If that’s the case and your device is being used to help locate other people’s lost devices then it means that some communication must be made back and forth with Apple and it’s servers etc to achieve this and that’s going to come at the expense of your battery life

 

[Reverend Benny]

Well, by enabling Find My Network and enrolling your device into an apple’s crowdsource database. Your device will be used to HELP locate someone else’s lost device, No? Isn’t that the concept of how that system works? If that’s the case and your device is being used to help locate other people’s lost devices then it means that some communication must be made back and forth with Apple and it’s servers etc to achieve this

Yea, sounds correct. The question is, where is the battery drainage happening when this is enabled?

I can see why people would like to do this from a privacy perspective, but not battery drainingperspective if its not a case of lots of data being sent. Or if the BT function is draining the battery, that could potentially be the case.

 

[FeliApple]

Yea, sounds correct. The question is, where is the battery drainage happening when this is enabled?

I can see why people would like to do this from a privacy perspective, but not battery drainingperspective if its not a case of lots of data being sent. Or if the BT function is draining the battery, that could potentially be the case.

Active location is extremely heavy.

 

[Benz63amg]

Yea, sounds correct. The question is, where is the battery drainage happening when this is enabled?

I can see why people would like to do this from a privacy perspective, but not battery drainingperspective if its not a case of lots of data being sent. Or if the BT function is draining the battery, that could potentially be the case.

The battery drainage to your iOS device would be from your device being utilized by Apple by the sending of all necessary communications for the sole purpose of locating other people’s lost devices.. if that feature is turned off then your iOS device won’t be sending signals to Apple to locate other people’s devices. Isn’t that the logical explanation to this scanerio?

 

[Benz63amg]

Active location is extremely heavy.

What do you mean “active location”?

 

[FeliApple]

What do you mean “active location”?

When the device uses location, such as for GPS, it’s probably the heaviest antenna the device has in terms of battery drain. Something that uses your device’s location to crowdsource and constantly needs your location is a horrible use case for battery life.

Even if it pings your location at a certain interval, the difference would still be massive.

Never underestimate three things in terms of battery drain: GPS, high brightness, and extremely poor cellular connection.

You can have the original version of iOS. You can have the most efficient settings. But if you have those three things, battery life will not be good.

 

[Populus]

Not a bad experience on beta 4, autocorrect doesn’t seem any different to me tbh. Performance is great and battery isn’t too bad apart from when I’m taking lots of photos when the device gets warm and the battery starts to drain faster. I’ve left feedback for this reason.

Beta 5 or release candidate hopefully today or tomorrow.

Well, honestly, the phone getting warm or even hot when you leave the camera app open for more than 10 or 20 seconds have always been a thing. Even my SE3 with its archaic camera gets warm/hot when I use the camera app more than for a couple of shots. And it’s been this way before, with my iPhone 8, original 4” SE, and even my 4S or my first iPhone, the iPhone 4.

That’s why I personally think the reason behind the short battery life on the Apple Vision Pro is the constant use of cameras and displaying the environment in real time as a background. But that’s just a bit off topic here.

Anyways, If it was hotter than usual, I’m glad you reported it.

Happy Let Loose event!

 

[Benz63amg]

When the device uses location, such as for GPS, it’s probably the heaviest antenna the device has in terms of battery drain. Something that uses your device’s location to crowdsource and constantly needs your location is a horrible use case for battery life.

Even if it pings your location at a certain interval, the difference would still be massive.

Never underestimate three things in terms of battery drain: GPS, high brightness, and extremely poor cellular connection.

You can have the original version of iOS. You can have the most efficient settings. But if you have those three things, battery life will not be good.

So you recommend turning off ” find my network”? What about find my iPhone?

 

[Reverend Benny]

The battery drainage to your iOS device would be from your device being utilized by Apple by the sending of all necessary communications for the sole purpose of locating other people’s lost devices.. if that feature is turned off then your iOS device won’t be sending signals to Apple to locate other people’s devices. Isn’t that the logical explanation to this scanerio?

Yes, sounds logical. What I am curious about is how much power (and data) this actually drains, this particular function.
And to get a better understanding of how it works I guess we need more info on how this particular function "find my network" actually works.

It might not be a correct comparisson but an Airtags battery consumtion isn't very high, and that keeps sending data to nearby devices. But if an iPhone is being used as a collection point that receive and transmit it would most likely use a bit more power, add sending data to Apple. But since we don't know how much data is being send or how much its utilized its hard to know how much battery it will drain.

Maybe "find my network" deserves a thread of its own

 

[FeliApple]

So you recommend turning off ” find my network”? What about find my iPhone?

I’d never disable Find my iPhone. Find my Network perhaps I’d try and see how that turns out.

 

[Benz63amg]

I’d never disable Find my iPhone. Find my Network perhaps I’d try and see how that turns out.

Do you personally have find my network enabled or disabled?

 

[FeliApple]

Do you personally have find my network enabled or disabled?

I don't have Find My Network - it was added on iOS 14 and I'm running iOS 12 on my iPhone Xʀ.

 

[jazzzyJeff]

Active location is extremely heavy.

Well, by enabling Find My Network and enrolling your device into an apple’s crowdsource database. Your device will be used to HELP locate someone else’s lost device, No? Isn’t that the concept of how that system works? If that’s the case and your device is being used to help locate other people’s lost devices then it means that some communication must be made back and forth with Apple and it’s servers etc to achieve this and that’s going to come at the expense of your battery life

FMN only uses occasional Bluetooth LE, which has negligible impact, pings to communicate with other Apple devices in the vicinity that have the option enabled. It doesn’t use GPS unless a user puts the device in Lost mode from what I recall so the impact of leaving it On shouldn’t be noticeable at all.

One sure fire way to test it is to leave it OFF for a week and then ON for a week and average out the battery stats.

Personally I leave it ON cuz it might help someone find their device with barely affecting my own experience if at all.

 

[Benz63amg]

FMN only uses occasional Bluetooth LE, which has negligible impact, pings to communicate with other Apple devices in the vicinity that have the option enabled. It doesn’t use GPS unless a user puts the device in Lost mode from what I recall so the impact of leaving it On shouldn’t be noticeable at all.

One sure fire way to test it is to leave it OFF for a week and then ON for a week and average out the battery stats.

Personally I leave it ON cuz it might help someone find their device with barely affecting my own experience if at all.

Have you done A/B testing with it it on and off to see what kind of impact it had on overall battery life?

 

[jazzzyJeff]

Have you done A/B testing with it it on and off to see what kind of impact it had on overall battery life?

I never noticed any real battery drain from the network being enabled so No, never found a need to.
But would love to see results if someone can.

 

[reppans]

iOS13 launched the ‘battery optimization’ feature, which oddly (to me anyways) requires location services ON (batt mgt need only clock and user-defined SoC%s). Then they removed the ability to fully turn-off WiFi and BT from the pull-down control panel (white icon = ON for crowdsourcing). So, if all antennas are running, an iPhone’s GPS could be reporting locational data for all sorts of things - just depends on what you’re passing by.