How I get the longest battery life from my iPhone

Key Takeaways

Some built-in methods of bettering iPhone battery life embody Low Energy Mode and Darkish Mode.
If that is not sufficient, you possibly can manually alter brightness and/or disable some wi-fi radios.
Keep away from processor-hungry apps like video games and streaming video companies.

Within the race for the longest-running grievance Apple hasn’t solved on the iPhone, the “winner” is definitely battery life. Whereas the corporate tries to handle it yearly, typically even making substantial leaps, there’s nonetheless no such factor as a two-day iPhone, even if you happen to shell out $1,200 for a Professional Max. Overlook to charge your iPhone at night time, and you might get up to it lifeless within the morning.

When I haven’t got quick access to a charger, I exploit numerous strategies to maintain my iPhone going till bedtime, even on cross-continental journeys. I like to recommend conserving a battery packwith you in case your telephone is mission-critical, however in any other case, it should not be too arduous to finish the day with juice to spare.

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1 Use Low Energy Mode when you possibly can

There isn’t any sense mashing the throttle on a regular basis

Apple’s default reply is Low Energy Mode, however a mistake you is likely to be making is ready till your iPhone prompts you to show it on. The longer Low Energy Mode is on, the extra battery you will save, so that you would possibly as properly use it if you happen to’re not doing something essential. You possibly can toggle it manually by going to Settings > Battery or opening Management Middle and tapping on the battery icon. It’s possible you’ll must customize Control Center if the icon is lacking.

Beneath is an inventory of the modifications Low Energy Mode makes:

Decreased display screen brightness
Decreased iOS animation
Throttled/optimized efficiency
Disabled background downloads for some apps, like Mail
AirDrop, iCloud sync, and Continuity options are disabled

Word that Low Energy Mode turns off mechanically as soon as your iPhone fees over a sure threshold.

The Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra sits in sand.

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2 Quickly disable wi-fi radios you do not want

That is widespread sense for vacationers

Control Center on iPhone showing Measure, Level, AirDrop and Satellite controls

If Low Energy Mode is not sufficient, a simple fallback is disabling Wi-Fi, mobile, and Bluetooth utilizing the suitable choices in Management Middle or the Settings app. These radios all the time hunt for indicators, even after they’re not linked or don’t have anything to connect with. There’s not a lot level in having Wi-Fi on if you happen to’re on a distant hike within the Rockies.

You possibly can disable a number of radios without delay utilizing Airplane Mode, however I favor toggling issues off individually. Why? I would like Bluetooth for my headphones and Apple Watch, and regardless that I normally skip in-flight web, some system capabilities, akin to AirDrop, could rely upon Wi-Fi being energetic.

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3 Drop brightness to the bottom readable degree

Coping with the quantity two battery killer

One of many perks of latest iPhones is unimaginable display screen brightness that makes textual content legible within the noon solar. However if you happen to’re not standing in line at Disney World or making an attempt to get strolling instructions in New Orleans, you possibly can most likely afford to show that brightness down somewhat — or loads, if you happen to’re indoors more often than not. An iPhone’s show might be its most power-hungry part subsequent to the processor.

The quickest method to alter brightness is by opening Management Middle and dragging the related slider. By default, this can be a relative setting — your display screen will nonetheless get brighter or darker relying on ambient lighting. When you’re apprehensive about studying your iPhone in daylight, tweak the Brightness slider barely the following time you are outdoors.

Tapping on an Apple Watch Ultra 2 while wearing it.

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4 Preserve Darkish Mode on completely

Higher effectivity, on a regular basis

Changing Display & Brightness settings in iOS 17.

Apple / Pocket-lint

Brighter colours eat extra energy, so a easy means to enhance effectivity is to go away iOS in Darkish Mode 24/7. Go to Settings > Show & Brightness, choose the Darkish look, and toggle the Automated choice off.

This may not make an enormous distinction in case your iPhone is an LCD mannequin just like the 2022 iPhone SE, however the affect might be important with OLED fashions just like the iPhone 16. That is as a result of OLED screens do not want a backlight, and can shut off particular person pixels to realize true blacks — so the darker your display screen, the higher. For a similar motive, you would possibly contemplate switching to darker homescreen and lockscreen wallpapers.

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5 Keep away from video games and streaming video

Do much less, save extra

Assassin's Creed Mirage on the iPhone 16

As I discussed earlier, your iPhone’s processor is the primary battery life killer, however some actions put extra pressure on it than others. Consider it like a fuel engine — you will eat rather more fuel at 80 MPH than you do at 40.

Essentially the most intense exercise is high-end gaming because it tends to max out an iPhone’s CPU and GPU cores, particularly on chips that are not state-of-the-art. 2D gaming is much less demanding, nevertheless it nonetheless pulls extra energy than shopping the online or writing an electronic mail. In the meantime, streaming video forces your iPhone to buffer and decode whereas continually displaying brilliant shifting photos. So, as tempting because it is likely to be to stream a YouTube video when you’re ready for a flight to board, I would advise in opposition to it until you have bought a battery pack or outlet you should use.