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iOS 18 Battery Life Thread

jazzzyJeff said:
@lleial If a 20% capacity is lasting you the whole day then you should set the charge limit to 80%. Good for the battery long term.
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That’s a great idea! If you prefer your battery to last longer, you can try stopping it by 90% when you’re not using it. On a regular day, my iPhone only needs twice daily charging to full, and I usually leave it on my dock overnight or when I’m in my room a lot. When I was on a business trip working 11 hours a day for a week, I capped it at 95% to save battery life.

But hey, if you keep your iPhone on clean energy charging (which is a USA feature) or use optimized battery charging, it can also reduce your iPhone’s charging to 75-85% if it’s feeling too hot or based on your charging habits. This helps to save electricity and prolong your battery life. 💡
 
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Can anyone comment on how battery life on 18.3.1 is for 13PM and regular 14? I have both devices still on 17.7.2. Apple seems to have stopped updating iOS 17, and it's really falling behind on security.
 
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mondaymorning said:
Can anyone comment on how battery life on 18.3.1 is for 13PM and regular 14? I have both devices still on 17.7.2. Apple seems to have stopped updating iOS 17, and it's really falling behind on security.
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I don't have the ProMax but the regular 13 Pro as my daily driver and a 14 as a workphone. Also have a number of testdevices but can't say much about them as they don't reflect an average user as they don't have many apps installed and are pretty much stationary all the time on Wifi.

My 13pro has been solid since I upgraded, when Apple stopped providing security updates for 17 I jumped directly to 18.2.
The 14 is being used a lot but mainly office apps such as MS Teams, Outlook and so on and has been fine as well.

I did notice a slight dip in battery performance in 18.3, but its so small it could be anything such as me using cellular a bit more or spending time on a different WiFi network than I used to.
18.3.1 seem to have corrected the tiny dip I experienced but at the same time its to early to tell as I installed it the other day.

All and all I'm happy with 18.3.1, considering how much more i'm using 5G compared to when I got it and that the battery is down to 85% in capacity I'm pretty impressed by the batterytime is still delivers.
 
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Both of these iPhones have been on iOS 18 until 18.1.1, but they were downgraded back to 17.7 because battery life was terrible on both. It felt like the battery life was halved on iOS 18. The 14 has been even on 18.2 betas for some time, which was the reason they were switched back to iOS 17 as the battery life wasn't getting any better.
 
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I wish Apple would provide more updates to iOS 17. iPadOS 17 is already 3 updates ahead with 17.7.5, but it seems as if they really want us on the AI iOS.
 
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mondaymorning said:
I wish Apple would provide more updates to iOS 17. iPadOS 17 is already 3 updates ahead with 17.7.5, but it seems as if they really want us on the AI iOS.
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If they want us on the AI then they might as well upgrade us to 16 Pros as the devices that don’t support AI are in vast majority. So no, that argument is moot.
Otoh the current iOS takes priority as the previous one’s already been optimized and only looked at for security vulnerabilities.
 
I know I’ve said this on pretty much every thread since the iPhone 11 Pro Max debuted on iOS 13, but...

First, please don’t interpret this the wrong way. That said, I’m utterly and completely surprised by the inefficiency of most users here.

I reckon pretty much everyone has all of the draining settings enabled? All location services, all apps on background app refresh, all Bluetooth processes. Also, I reckon you are running at high to full brightness all day, right?

The iPhone 16 Pro Max is quoted by Apple to be able to get... 33 hours of screen-on time! The maximum I’ve seen on this thread is about 12. A nearly 67% (or two-thirds) SOT loss is outrageous, even for the general public’s standards.

I am the exact opposite. My phone (hopefully until next month when I’m upgrade) is an iPhone Xʀ running iOS 12. Original battery, 89% capacity. I’m getting anywhere between 16 and 18 hours of SOT, but my configuration is fine-tuned to be battery efficient. Every draining setting is disabled and brightness is low. I have a great signal.

I’ve been tracking battery life here (which mostly consists of users on new iPhones running original iOS versions), and a good rule of thumb is about 50% of Apple spec due to these user inefficiencies.

But there’s something wrong here. A third at best is abhorrent, I have better battery life than that on a 6-year-old iPhone Xʀ with the original battery on iOS 12.

Either the settings are really THAT inefficient and kill batteries, your usage patterns are too heavy, or something else is wrong.

With a little luck, I’ll join you with the iPhone 16 on iOS 18 next month, but I’m pretty much expecting to be at or near Apple’s 22 hours of SOT spec.

And lastly, raw numbers are astonishing. Many are getting 4 hours on 50%? I can get that with an iPhone 6s on iOS 10; even if ridiculously inefficient, a massive battery like the one on the 16 Pro Max should almost beat that with any usage.
 
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Cobalt Blizzard said:
Those “33 hours” only for offline video with airplane mode on.
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Yes, but some people are getting 4 hours on 50%. That’s what I can get on my 6s on iOS 10, how heavy are you using the iPhone to get that?

Like I said, I know most people are relatively heavy users, but they aren't even hitting half of Apple spec. I’d expect at least 17-18 hours consistently, maybe a little less if you like? An actual 50%?

But I’m able to get 16 hours (Apple spec) on my Xʀ on iOS 12 pretty consistently, nearly 6 years later.

I’ll hopefully try the new iPhone next month and report back...

The 11 and 13 Pro Max had similarly insane specs and battery life on iOS 13 and 15 was similarly poor. Too inefficient, imo.
 
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FeliApple said:
Yes, but some people are getting 4 hours on 50%. That’s what I can get on my 6s on iOS 10, how heavy are you using the iPhone to get that?

Like I said, I know most people are relatively heavy users, but they aren't even hitting half of Apple spec. I’d expect at least 17-18 hours consistently, maybe a little less if you like? An actual 50%?

But I’m able to get 16 hours (Apple spec) on my Xʀ on iOS 12 pretty consistently, nearly 6 years later.

I’ll hopefully try the new iPhone next month and report back...

The 11 and 13 Pro Max had similarly insane specs and battery life on iOS 13 and 15 was similarly poor. Too inefficient, imo.
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Ok, I don’t think you have followed this thread long enough. Or gone back long enough. Some of the more recent post don’t give context to what has been changed, modified, or asked to Apple by people in this group. So just to inform a bit. Apple has told several of us that getting 24 hours on a single charge is asking too much on a 16 pro. That 16 hours is more normal. They told us that SOT would be maxing out at 10 hours. So, your XR does a lot less stuff than these more modern iPhones.

Another thing, most of us that have been dealing with this since the release of iOS 18 and the release of the 16 series of phones have pretty much turned off all battery hogging settings. No background refresh, no or little location services, and other things Apple has told us to do.

This is to say, I don’t think it’s as cut and dry as you think.
 
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kirbysmartsdawg said:
Ok, I don’t think you have followed this thread long enough. Or gone back long enough. Some of the more recent post don’t give context to what has been changed, modified, or asked to Apple by people in this group. So just to inform a bit. Apple has told several of us that getting 24 hours on a single charge is asking too much on a 16 pro. That 16 hours is more normal. They told us that SOT would be maxing out at 10 hours. So, your XR does a lot less stuff than these more modern iPhones.

Another thing, most of us that have been dealing with this since the release of iOS 18 and the release of the 16 series of phones have pretty much turned off all battery hogging settings. No background refresh, no or little location services, and other things Apple has told us to do.

This is to say, I don’t think it’s as cut and dry as you think.
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Okay, I can’t argue with that right now. But like I said, I am upgrading next month to the iPhone 16 on iOS 18.

I fully expect to see better battery life than the 16 hours of screen-on time I get with the Xʀ.

When I complete a cycle I’ll join the conversation.
 
FeliApple said:
Okay, I can’t argue with that right now. But like I said, I am upgrading next month to the iPhone 16 on iOS 18.

I fully expect to see better battery life than the 16 hours of screen-on time I get with the Xʀ.

When I complete a cycle I’ll join the conversation.
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A standard 16 is a lot different a 16 pro as well.
 
kirbysmartsdawg said:
But remember bigger processor 120 hrz display. I do agree with you, it should, but that’s not the case. That’s why lots of us have been here. There has to be an issue.
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Yeah, absolutely.

That said, like I said, users typically are nowhere near matching Apple spec.

The 16 plus seems better. Look, I don’t mean to presume or anything, but I haven’t seen many people match my SOT, because my usage is too light for modern standards. The result I get on my 16 will be pretty telling. If it sucks for me with my efficiency, it’ll probably suck for everyone.

I at least expect an improvement over my Xʀ. If it can’t get a little more than 16 hours then there’s a problem.

I’ll report back next month.
 
FeliApple said:
Yeah, absolutely.

That said, like I said, users typically are nowhere near matching Apple spec.

The 16 plus seems better. Look, I don’t mean to presume or anything, but I haven’t seen many people match my SOT, because my usage is too light for modern standards. The result I get on my 16 will be pretty telling. If it sucks for me with my efficiency, it’ll probably suck for everyone.

I at least expect an improvement over my Xʀ. If it can’t get a little more than 16 hours then there’s a problem.

I’ll report back next month.
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My point was that most of us have tried almost ever power saving problem solving technique. Still hasn’t helped.
 
kirbysmartsdawg said:
Auto brightness as Apple suggested. Never has an issue on my iPhones until iOS 18.
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If auto-brightness sets it high, then maybe that’s the issue.

Brightness is the #1 battery killer that’s independent of usage.

Even with light usage, crank the brightness up to full and battery life will be abhorrent. That’s true for every Apple device ever on any iOS version, no matter how efficient.
 
FeliApple said:
If auto-brightness sets it high, then maybe that’s the issue.

Brightness is the #1 battery killer that’s independent of usage.

Even with light usage, crank the brightness up to full and battery life will be abhorrent. That’s true for every Apple device ever on any iOS version, no matter how efficient.
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I know that, and no I don’t have it set to high. Not even close.
 
kirbysmartsdawg said:
Ok, I don’t think you have followed this thread long enough. Or gone back long enough. Some of the more recent post don’t give context to what has been changed, modified, or asked to Apple by people in this group. So just to inform a bit. Apple has told several of us that getting 24 hours on a single charge is asking too much on a 16 pro. That 16 hours is more normal. They told us that SOT would be maxing out at 10 hours. So, your XR does a lot less stuff than these more modern iPhones.

Another thing, most of us that have been dealing with this since the release of iOS 18 and the release of the 16 series of phones have pretty much turned off all battery hogging settings. No background refresh, no or little location services, and other things Apple has told us to do.

This is to say, I don’t think it’s as cut and dry as you think.
Click to expand...
Y’all, my iPhone XR ended up with 83% battery health before I had to let it go and upgrade to the 15 Pro.

I had turned off background app refresh, disabled analytics collection for Siri, and reduced location services usage for my apps that aren’t shopping, restaurants, or maps. On a single charge, my XR usually only gives me 2-4 hours of adequate screen time, while my 15 Pro lasts over 10-12 hours before I need to fully charge it.

If it’s an app like McDonald’s that relies so much on location services in order to track my order I only set it to whole using.
 
goldmac2006 said:
Y’all, my iPhone XR ended up with 83% battery health before I had to let it go and upgrade to the 15 Pro.

I had turned off background app refresh, disabled analytics collection for Siri, and reduced location services usage for my apps that aren’t shopping, restaurants, or maps. On a single charge, my XR usually only gives me 2-4 hours of adequate screen time, while my 15 Pro lasts over 10-12 hours before I need to fully charge it.
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You were on iOS 17 probably, right? Or 18?
 
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