Always stop putting your iPhone in power saving mode

Always stop putting your iPhone in power saving mode

Some people enable it permanently, while others believe it is useless… What is the real role of “Low Power Mode” in iOS?

Energy saving modeiPhone Is it useful? This is a frequent discussion on Numerama’s editorial board. Even in social networks, the energy saving method is divided. When you search Twitter, you notice that there are just as many viral tweets praising him as there are hate messages about him.

More fun, They have found some tricks to make it automatic in some applications, with the full confidence that it allows them to improve the autonomy of their phone. Is this true? In this article, we are going to tell you what energy saving mode is really for.

What does power saving mode do on your iPhone?

To measure the true usefulness of power saving mode, you must first understand how it works. As a reminder, the power saving mode is activated manually from the “Battery” settings or from the iPhone control center. Apple recommends activating the iPhone when it drops below 20% and deactivating it once it reaches 80%. This is not a mode that can be activated all the time, it will always deactivate automatically.

When the energy saving mode is activated, this happens:

  • The iPhone app is throttled (about 50%), which can cause some apps and games to crash. A major recession could occur.
  • If you enter a very bright place the brightness of the screen decreases and does not rise as usual.
  • iPhone goes to sleep after 30 seconds of inactivity.
  • Some visual effects are intentionally removed to make your iPhone less fluid. Fewer animations reduce the iPhone’s consumption a bit.
  • Background tasks (sync of iCloud photos, automatic downloads of apps/music and reception of push mails) are interrupted.
  • Compatible iPhones 5G Except in the case of video streaming, they are satisfied with 4G (so they consume normally).
The power saving system is implemented in the control center.  In settings, you can see the percentage of battery used by each app.  // Source: Numerama
The power saving system is implemented in the control center. In settings, you can see the percentage of battery used by each app. // Source: Numerama

On top of that iPhone 13 Pro And iPhone 14 ProThe energy storage system also plays other roles:

  • The refresh rate of the screen is 120Hz to 60Hz just like other iPhones. You will have the impression that everything is much slower, but this is only a visual difference.
  • On iPhone 14 Pro, Always On Display is disabled.

Is the iPhone power saving mode useful?

Saying otherwise would be wrong, the power saving mode should have an impact on the autonomy of your device, as it disables functions and hits the performance of your iPhone.

However, depending on what you’re doing, the impact can be very limited. An example of automation appears to us to spend more time by automatically executing an application, for example, not keeping water. Admittedly, the animations are less beautiful, but the same amount of data is downloaded each time, especially since Grindr (the example mentioned above) does not require much power to operate. This difference is especially noticeable in a game or a resource-intensive application. Often the power saving method is a good placebo effect.

Here are the performance tests carried out on the iPhone 14 Pro Max.  On the left, in normal mode.  On the right, in power saving mode.  The processor is throttled to 50%.  // Source: Numerama
On the left, performance test in normal mode (iPhone 14 Pro Max). On the right, in power saving mode. The processor is throttled by 60%. // Source: Numerama

If Apple refuses to always activate power saving mode, it reduces the intelligence of its smartphone by keeping refreshing data in the background and preventing it from functioning normally. Power-saving mode may be convenient, but, in reality, it won’t make enough of a difference to double your battery life.

We recommend running it 20% (come on, maybe 30%) down…but not more. It’s useful when traveling if you take a lot of photos and spend a lot of time in a mapping application, but beware of big slowdowns… Better to have a functional phone than a phone that’s saved 5 to 10. Battery life at the end of the day %.

Check Also

The Ascendance of Alexei Popyrin Gives Hope of a Long-Awaited Home Australian Open Winner

The Ascendance of Alexei Popyrin Gives Hope of a Long-Awaited Home Australian Open Winner

When Ashleigh Barty won the Australian Open in 2022, it was the first time that …

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *