Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iOS 18 Battery Life Thread
- Thread starter gwhizkids
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Having used 18.0db1-18.2gr (I'm skipping 18.3 beta until there are some new features to test), I have some conclusions. Nothing scientific, just my observations and thoughts. That said, I have run similar app setups and usage patterns on a lot of devices, so I have definitely noticed some trends those with just a single phone might not have noticed, so I hope there's some merit to these thoughts. I have run 18.x on an iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 16 Pro Max, and two iPad Pro M4s.
I'm just going to take about battery "life," not battery "health." I view batteries as consumable items and don't feel like I need to monitor the health and take steps to baby it. I always charge my devices at night, even if they don't necessarily need it, and I always charge to 100%. I have maintenance insomnia, so I don't bother with optimized charging since I might need my phone at 3 AM with no plans to put it back on a charger. I also exclusively use MagSafe charging for phones. If my habits kill my batteries, that's fine. I can afford new batteries.
Here's what I notice:
I'm just going to take about battery "life," not battery "health." I view batteries as consumable items and don't feel like I need to monitor the health and take steps to baby it. I always charge my devices at night, even if they don't necessarily need it, and I always charge to 100%. I have maintenance insomnia, so I don't bother with optimized charging since I might need my phone at 3 AM with no plans to put it back on a charger. I also exclusively use MagSafe charging for phones. If my habits kill my batteries, that's fine. I can afford new batteries.
Here's what I notice:
- Safari uses more battery in iOS 18 than it did in 17. Full stop. Doesn't matter which phone, which extensions, or which sites. It just uses more than before.
- This is especially true when viewing video in Safari. Safari just needs more battery than it did in 17, but especially for streaming video (over WiFi and cellular). Other streaming apps like YouTube are far less greedy.
- Also iCloud Private Relay seems to hit the battery harder in 18 than it did in 17. This can really make it look like Safari is gobbling up all the juice. I have also had similar observations with NordVPN. (These services always used more battery--it just seems to be even more than it was on 17.)
- Pro phones use more battery on the homescreen or lockscreen in 18 than 17. Base 15 vs 15 Pro, the ProMotion just seems to take a lot more battery when doing almost nothing. Casually swiping around the homescreen and waking it every couple minutes to look at the clock, the Pro is always draining faster. I think the refresh rate is just not going down on static content as often or as low.
- No significant issues with battery on 18.01, 18.1, or 18.2. All the final GR versions are steady (at least a day or two after install), with expected-ish results and no excessive heat. Betas are another story, but I have had zero issues on any device running a GR.
- Idle drain is up a bit from 17, but reasonable. There is definitely more idle drain on devices connected to Apple Watches than in the past, even when all the watch activity tracking is turned off and the watch just being used to receive notifications (and I think it tells time too). Similar activity patterns on my 16 Pro Max can get me 10-20% more in the tank at the end of the day if I leave my watch at home. (Used to be maybe a 5% difference.)
Last edited:
To catch up on this.
I‘m using one eSIM for a few days now, I‘ve removed the physical SIM from the phone, so only one active SIM.
The difference is about 5%.
So not really something to take in consideration as a reason for the drain.
Indeed. In the USA we have to stick with eSIM only since the iPhone 14 series, but it does not matter on battery life even if we dual sim our iPhones! 📱
Thanks, but I‘m located in the EU, so all this fancy stuff isn’t available for me.
So we are still saving a lot of battery capacity in the EU, albeit involuntarily. 
Left my work iPhone 14 on my desk over Christmas (20th December), when I went back to work yesterday, it still had 30% charge left.
My 16 Pro is getting about 10-15% better battery life than the 13 Pro it replaced, on average.
My 16 Pro is getting about 10-15% better battery life than the 13 Pro it replaced, on average.
I have never seen an iOS rollout so fragmented. I am still on 17 with my 15 pro. I have never waited this long to update to the latest iOS but this one has me spooked. My battery life is really good currently.
Hi
After further investigation, I have noticed that battery performance is much better when charge limit is not active.
Here are some results on my iPhone 15 Pro:
MONDAY: 4.5h screen time / 70% battery consumed ➡️ Charge limit INACTIVE
TUESDAY: 2.2h screen time / 70% battery consumed ➡️ Charge limit ACTIVE
This is just an example, but I have been observing the same results on previous weeks, although it was more difficult to compare since I was in roaming.
Can anyone check if this makes sense to you?
Best Regards
After further investigation, I have noticed that battery performance is much better when charge limit is not active.
Here are some results on my iPhone 15 Pro:
MONDAY: 4.5h screen time / 70% battery consumed ➡️ Charge limit INACTIVE
TUESDAY: 2.2h screen time / 70% battery consumed ➡️ Charge limit ACTIVE
This is just an example, but I have been observing the same results on previous weeks, although it was more difficult to compare since I was in roaming.
Can anyone check if this makes sense to you?
Best Regards
How much did you charge to with the limit disabled?
Edit: Cuz battery drain isn’t linear. 100-90% takes much longer to drain compared to 10-0% or 40-30%. So the only way to accurately measure is from 100-0.
I've noticed this on my 15 Pro as well, especially since updating to 18.2. I'd rather not have to disable it - anyone have any suggestions?
I had put this post on the wrong forum.
IOS 22D5040d & iPhone15 PM battery seems to be the best so far. 9 hours Screen Active and just went below 50%.
Can we trust the numbers in settings/battery? Tks
IOS 22D5040d & iPhone15 PM battery seems to be the best so far. 9 hours Screen Active and just went below 50%.
Can we trust the numbers in settings/battery? Tks
Felt that my iPhone took most of its battery consumption out of safari and the Fitness app, too. I even looked at a few battery tests across generations that used apps instead of artificially draining the battery through geekbench, and it is quite unreasonable that idle battery consumption would vary across all devices, dependent on factors like battery health, auto brightness, True Tone, usage of Wi-Fi and opting in analytics for iOS and Apple Intelligence.
Y’all these vids on the latest shipping release of 18.2.1 and the 18.3 beta will further explain these mysteries beneath them:
My feedback for home and lock screen drain got responded to saying it has been fixed in some release, but did not say which.
I got this exact same response yesterday for 3 different battery related feedbacks I sent in. Unfortunately I still don’t see a difference in the battery drain.
Here are the stats of a friend....
iPhone 16
Mixed usage (Netflix, Instagram, Messages,....)
Can you believe it ?
iPhone 16
Mixed usage (Netflix, Instagram, Messages,....)
Can you believe it ?
I believe it was 18.2.1. Saw an immediate decrease from Home and Lock using 17-25% (depending on the day) of my total usage to 8-14%. On a 16 Pro Max phone with ProMotion enabled. But I do not know if these bug fixes have been added to the 18.3 betas yet.
I have a bad habit of sometimes aimlessly swiping between home screen pages when I'm bored, and it does seem like 18.2.1 has decreased the Home and Lock Screen battery usage percentage for me too - at least by a few points every day. On a 15 Pro with ProMotion as well.
