Getting the most out of your iPhone’s battery usage is crucial. There are dozens of tips and tricks that can help you, but if your battery is really low right now or you won’t be able to charge it for a while, here’s a simple tip to conserve battery life: turn on low power mode.
Low Power Mode is a feature starting in iOS 9 that turns off some iPhone features to help your battery last longer.
How much extra time does low power mode give you?
The amount of extra battery life Low Power Mode offers depends on how you use your iPhone, so there’s no single prediction. However, according to Apple, the average person can expect up to an additional 3 hours of battery life .
How to turn on iPhone low power mode
Sound like something you want to try? To activate low power mode:
- Tap the Settings app to open it.
- Tap Battery .
- Move the Low Power Mode slider to On/green.
To turn it off, simply repeat these steps and move the Off/White slider.
However, this is not the only way to activate low power mode. The iPhone gives you other options:
- Siri: Just tell Siri to “turn on low power mode” (or a variation of that phrase) and she’ll take care of it for you.
- Popup: When your iPhone’s battery life drops to 20%, and back to 10%, iOS displays a popup warning. In that warning there is a button that can activate the low power mode. Tap it to start saving battery.
- Control Center: In iOS 11 and up, you can add Low Power Mode to Control Center. For more information, see the section at the bottom of the page.
What disables low power mode?
Extending battery life sounds great, but you have to understand the pros and cons to know when it’s the right choice. When Low Power Mode is on, this is how the iPhone changes:
- Processing power is reduced: The speed of the iPhone’s processor influences the amount of battery it uses. Low Power Mode reduces the performance of the processor and graphics chip to conserve battery power. This means that your phone will be a bit slower and may not perform as well in games and other graphics-intensive tasks.
- Background app refresh is disabled: Your iPhone learns how you use apps and automatically updates them at the time you usually use them to make sure the latest data is always waiting for you. It’s a cool feature, but it also requires battery life. Low Power Mode temporarily suspends this feature.
- Email fetching is off: iPhone can be set to periodically fetch new email from your accounts. Low Power Mode disables this feature and forces you to manually check for new messages (open Mail and swipe it down from the top of any inbox to refresh it).
- Automatic downloads are disabled: You can set your iPhone to automatically download app updates or purchases made on other devices. This keeps the content in sync, but it also requires power. Low Power Mode prevents automatic downloads while powered on.
- Visual effects and animations are suspended: The iOS is full of all kinds of visual effects and animations. They make using the iPhone more fun, but they also use up the battery. When you turn them off, Low Power Mode saves energy.
- Screen brightness is off: The brighter your phone’s screen, the more battery it uses. Low power mode reduces screen brightness to save power.
Can you use low power mode all the time?
Since Low Power Mode can give your iPhone up to 3 hours of extra battery life, and since the features it turns off aren’t entirely essential to using your phone, you might be wondering if it makes sense to use it all the time. Writer Matt Birchler tested that scenario and found that Low Power Mode can reduce battery usage by 33%-47% in some cases. That’s a big savings.
So if you don’t use the above features much, or if you’re willing to give them up to get more power in your battery, you can use Low Power mode all the time.
When Low Power Mode is automatically disabled
Even if you have activated the low power mode, it automatically turns off when the battery charge exceeds 80%.
Adding a Low Power Mode shortcut to iOS 11 Control Center
In iOS 11 onwards, you can customize the options available in Control Center. One of the changes you can make is to add low power mode. If it does, activating the mode is as simple as opening Control Center and pressing a button. This is how you do it:
- Tap Settings .
- Tap Control Center .
- Click Customize Controls .
- Tap the green + icon next to Low Power Mode. It will be moved to the Include group at the top.
- Open Control Center and the battery icon at the bottom of the active screen turns off Low Power Mode.
