We all use the iPhone’s power saving mode from time to time to save battery life. But what is the effect of this Lower Power mode?
What Does iPhone Power Saving Mode Do?
When the iPhone battery reaches a percentage of 20%, you will be prompted to turn on the power saving mode. Your iPhone will then adjust all kinds of functions and settings, so that your device consumes less energy.
These are the settings that Apple says changes when you activate iPhone power saving mode:
- Automatic retrieval of new e-mail will be stopped.
- Display brightness decreases.
- Automatic lock (going to sleep) happens after just 30 seconds.
- Syncing with iCloud Photos will stop.
- No automatic downloads.
- No apps that refresh in the background.
- No 5G internet (although the more energy-efficient 4G).
- iPhone 13 Pro screen refreshes to a maximum of 60 Hz (instead of 120).
- Videos in Safari do not play automatically.
- Motion effects and animated backgrounds are disabled.
The above points have been known for some time, but the energy-saving mode appears to do more. A user on Reddit discovered that Lower Power mode also has a lot of impact on processor performance.
With the iPhone 13 Pro Max, the power-saving mode completely disables two performance-oriented processor cores. Apple also clocks back four efficiency cores: from 1.8 to 1.32 GHz. In addition, the GPU performance decreases.
What is the effect of the power saving mode?
So the power saving mode adjusts many settings, but how big is the effect? The YouTube Channel PhoneBuff performed an extensive test to discover the difference. An iPhone 12 in power-saving mode was compared with an iPhone 12 in normal mode.
With the help of a robotic arm, all kinds of tasks were performed for one hour at a time, such as calling, snoozing, texting, viewing social media apps and more. The result was not very impressive. The iPhone with power-saving mode activated had a battery life of five minutes longer.
Then the YouTube channel put the iPhones through a series of other tests. With two hours of texting, the iPhone in power-saving mode saves one percentage point. Browsing in safari is 3% and two hours in the Gmail app is a 1% savings, as is two hours of scrolling through Instagram. When opening and closing apps for two hours, the difference is slightly greater: 5%.
So, power saving mode extends battery life, but doesn’t work miracles. Well notice PhoneBuff rightly pointing out that older generations of iPhones may have more advantage because the screens and processors there are less efficient.
More tips
In addition to power saving mode, you can do more to extend your iPhone’s battery life. You can read the tips here:
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