IOS 18 Battery Life

[GrayG]

Hello all
Im still currently running ios 17.7, ive been reluctant to upgrade to ios18 because the battery life on my 15 pro max on 17 is really good and im running with no tracking and all features very private.
I have 2 questions
1 - Can anyone report on the battery life on 18 as to how it compares, is it as good as 17 or any differences between recharge times?
2 - Ive read Ios 18 features are going to be based around AI, im not a massive fan of that, i wondered how it may affect my privacy, tracking, tracking in web browsers etc etc.
I think AI to a degree relies very much on learning a users browsing habits, messaging etc etc to be able to recognise patterns and be able to intergrate with that, im concerned that its so deeply embedded ito ios 18 that it may well compromise complete privacy, Anyone any thoughts on it?

 

[ThatTechyGuy]

Hello all
Im still currently running ios 17.7, ive been reluctant to upgrade to ios18 because the battery life on my 15 pro max on 17 is really good and im running with no tracking and all features very private.
I have 2 questions
1 - Can anyone report on the battery life on 18 as to how it compares, is it as good as 17 or any differences between recharge times?
2 - Ive read Ios 18 features are going to be based around AI, im not a massive fan of that, i wondered how it may affect my privacy, tracking, tracking in web browsers etc etc.
I think AI to a degree relies very much on learning a users browsing habits, messaging etc etc to be able to recognise patterns and be able to intergrate with that, im concerned that its so deeply embedded ito ios 18 that it may well compromise complete privacy, Anyone any thoughts on it?

1- I can’t give any scientific specifics, but battery life has improved significantly from the first iOS 18 beta this summer. I’m not running the official iOS 18 release, instead I’ve been on iOS 18.1 beta. I can say that my battery life is just okay. It’s not great, and I normally find myself charging my phone twice a day. (15PM)
2- iOS 18.0 does not have any of the Apple intelligence features. As far as other improvements, they would be machine learning features that Apple has been implementing for years now. Apple's main focus is always privacy, I would be worried about it with any other company besides Apple. Having worked there for years, I can tell you first hand that Apple's commitment to privacy goes far beyond marketing/advertising.

If you’re still just not a fan of AI, you have to go into settings are turn it on. It doesn’t automatically turn on.

 

[GrayG]

Thanks for the reply, based on what youve said about battery i shall remail on 17 for now to see how things improve, on 17.7 my 15 pro max lasts 2 full days on a charge which is darn good for an apple phone, im very reluctant to mess that up.
The reason i asked about AI is because every post ive seen from apple states the iphone 16 comes with AI as standard and the rest will get AI starting at ios 18, i agree that any other brand on Android especially it would be a serious security concern for me, im not the biggest fan of having devices listening and learning from whatever i do online, im still suffering from data breaches and spam callers from details being passed around and sold on from back in the Android days, it was the main reason i turned to Apple, but i thought id put it out there as lots of companies who prided their platform on Encryption and security are now bowing down to the pressure and selling out their users, Telegram seemingly the latest, the world has gone mental yet youd think we all should be entitled to privacy if thats what we wanted.

 

[scifan57]

After 12 hours, my iPhone 16 Pro Max is still at 81%. I’m currently on iOS 18.1 Beta 5.

 

[ThatTechyGuy]

Thanks for the reply, based on what youve said about battery i shall remail on 17 for now to see how things improve, on 17.7 my 15 pro max lasts 2 full days on a charge which is darn good for an apple phone, im very reluctant to mess that up.
The reason i asked about AI is because every post ive seen from apple states the iphone 16 comes with AI as standard and the rest will get AI starting at ios 18, i agree that any other brand on Android especially it would be a serious security concern for me, im not the biggest fan of having devices listening and learning from whatever i do online, im still suffering from data breaches and spam callers from details being passed around and sold on from back in the Android days, it was the main reason i turned to Apple, but i thought id put it out there as lots of companies who prided their platform on Encryption and security are now bowing down to the pressure and selling out their users, Telegram seemingly the latest, the world has gone mental yet youd think we all should be entitled to privacy if thats what we wanted.

What is your battery health? That would have been amazing for me on iOS 17.0 haha. I don't think I have ever gotten that much battery out of my 15 Pro Max.

The good thing is that you have to opt-in to any Apple Intelligence features on 15 Pro/16 line. And none of those Apple Intelligence features are in iOS 18.0, they will roll out slowly between iOS 18.1 and iOS 18.4.

 

[ThatTechyGuy]

Here are some screenshots for posterity.

 

[GrayG]

What is your battery health? That would have been amazing for me on iOS 17.0 haha. I don't think I have ever gotten that much battery out of my 15 Pro Max.

The good thing is that you have to opt-in to any Apple Intelligence features on 15 Pro/16 line. And none of those Apple Intelligence features are in iOS 18.0, they will roll out slowly between iOS 18.1 and iOS 18.4.

Batt health normal after a year its at 99%

 

[ThatTechyGuy]

Batt health normal after a year its at 99%

That is incredible! How do you charge your phone to keep your battery so healthy?

 

[Aerofly]

I’ve been running all of the iOS17 public beta’s and then all of the iOS18 public beta’s and using ‘Optimised Charging’ every night. After a year my iPhone15 Pro is still at Max 100%…..

 

[ThatTechyGuy]

I’ve been running all of the iOS17 public beta’s and then all of the iOS18 public beta’s and using ‘Optimised Charging’ every night. After a year my iPhone15 Pro is still at Max 100%…..


View attachment 115458

WOW!!!

That is actually incredible! 100% after more than a year! How often do you charge your phone? I always charge mine every night, even when I first got my iPhone 15 PM it would be around 25% at the end of the day.

 

[GrayG]

My 15 Pro Max gets charged every few days once it gets down to around 20%, im just using an Apple official fast charger, it never gets left to charge overnight or long periods of time, as soon as its at 100% its unplugged.

 

[ThatTechyGuy]

My 15 Pro Max gets charged every few days once it gets down to around 20%, im just using an Apple official fast charger, it never gets left to charge overnight or long periods of time, as soon as its at 100% its unplugged.

Hmm. I always charge overnight. I use a Belkin Magsafe charger. I wonder if the extra heat generated from wireless charging is killing my battery.

 

[scifan57]

Wireless charging is also less efficient than wired charging. It takes longer and consumes more electricity.
I don’t use wireless charging on my iPhone but on my Apple Watch wireless charging is the only option as Apple didn’t want to waste internal space in the Apple Watch for a charging jack.

 

[GrayG]

Hmm. I always charge overnight. I use a Belkin Magsafe charger. I wonder if the extra heat generated from wireless charging is killing my battery.

As long as its an MFI rated charger i wouldnt see an issue with that.
I guess the 1st point would be Apple have always been light years behind the rest when it comes to battery life lol, always will be, it appears its one of the things they arent really interested in bringing up to spec.
I must point out, my first 15 pro max lasted 2 days, i was using a standard fast charger, wasnt an Apple one and wasnt MFI, but it did damage the battery on my iphone which got repleced under the company i bought it off, i couldnt do anything with it, the phone just rebooted every 20 seconds or so, completely unusable. After the replacement i read about MFI products and have made sure thats all ive used since.

 

[Aerofly]

WOW!!!

That is actually incredible! 100% after more than a year! How often do you charge your phone? I always charge mine every night, even when I first got my iPhone 15 PM it would be around 25% at the end of the day.

I charge every night on a MagSafe charge stand (along with my Ultra watch). I use a smart plug on the charger to start the charge at 3.00am and stop at 7.00am, so it only gets a 4 hour charge on optimised charging. My iPhone15 Pro doesn’t get a lot of use and doesn’t usually go lower than 40% during the day.