The iPhone is not an exception to the rule that older phones don’t keep a charge as well as they formerly did. Instead of concentrating on what consumers really care about, which is longer battery life, phone firms are already adding features like artificial intelligence to their smartphones.
After your iPhone’s battery reaches the magical 20% mark, you can squeeze a bit more use out of it by turning on Low Power Mode, but what if you left it on all the time? Would you be able to use your phone for longer before the battery runs out if you enable Low Power Mode to run permanently?
If you want to understand how Low Power Mode impacts the charge of your iPhone’s battery, find out precisely what it disables, how to toggle it on and off, and how to keep it on permanently. In order to determine if it’s time for a replacement (or a new iPhone), we’ll also go over how to check the health of your battery.
Learn two easy settings adjustments that might extend the life of your iPhone battery and how to speed up the charging process.
What is Low Power Mode on an iPhone?
When the iPhone’s battery is low, the Low Power Mode iOS option turns off several capabilities to save battery life. When your battery reaches 20% and then 10%, your iPhone will ask you whether you want to switch to Low Power Mode.
An image of the iPhone Settings’ battery level graph
Your iPhone indicates when you’re using Low Power Mode in yellow.
Screenshot via CNET/Peter Butler
According to Apple, Low Power Mode extends the life of your iPhone’s battery by lowering the amount of power it uses.
Your battery symbol will become yellow while you are in Low Power Mode, so you can know. When your iPhone’s battery is 80% charged, Low Power Mode is automatically turned off.
When iPhone Low Power Mode is on, what happens?
Apple claims that the following adjustments are made by Low Power Mode to save battery life:
shuts off 5G on iPhone 12 and 13 devices (except from video streaming).
after 30 seconds of inactivity, locks the screen of your iPhone.
lowers the brightness of the display
reduces the iPhone’s display refresh rate with ProMotion
removes a few visual effects
halts the sync of iCloud Photos
halts automatic downloading
halts the email retrieval
prevents background applications from updating
In addition, Low Power Mode lowers CPU and GPU performance, turns off the always-on display on more recent iPhone models, disables video autoplay, and prevents HDR video watching.
How do I activate Low Power Mode on my iPhone?
By selecting Settings > Battery and turning on Low Power Mode, you may manually turn it on. Low Power Mode may also be manually activated using Siri or the iPhone Control Center.
How can I permanently keep my iPhone in Low Power Mode?
Putting your iPhone in Low Power Mode after each charge is the manual method of keeping it in Low Power Mode all the time. That being said, there is a simpler, automatic method to “set it and forget it.”
You’ll need to be a little creative and create your own Personal Automation using the Shortcuts app if you want to keep your iPhone in Low Power Mode all the time.
Turning on Low Power Mode anytime the battery is below 100% is, in my opinion, the simplest way to automatically establish Low Power Mode using shortcuts. In this manner, your iPhone is effectively always in Low Power Mode, but when it is hooked up and fully charged, it can also do backups, finish downloads, and get updates.
To access your App Library, go to the right on your iPhone’s home screen. Then, scroll down and choose Shortcuts (or look for it). After the app has launched, press the blue “+” icon in the top right corner, choose Automation at the bottom of the screen, and then tap the blue “Create Personal Automation” button.
Three iPhone screenshots demonstrating the creation of a custom shortcut
It just takes a few clicks to create a customized automation in Shortcuts.
CNET/Peter Butler screenshots
Choose Battery Level by scrolling down on the New Animation screen. To reach 100%, drag the slider all the way to the right after tapping the Falls Below option at the bottom. Click Next after that. Your condition has been configured to initiate an action.
To switch your iPhone to Low Power Mode, make the action now. Click the blue Add Action button on the Actions screen. After there, you can either hit Scripting and locate it under Device or put “Low” into the search box and choose Set Low Power Mode.
Three iPhone screen grabs demonstrating the addition of the Set Low Power Mode action
You may configure it to run automatically after adding the Low Power mode action.
CNET/Peter Butler screenshots
Following your selection of Set Low Power Mode, “Turn Low Power Mode On” will appear on your Actions screen. Press Next. Toggle Ask Before Running off on the next New Automation panel to enable automatic activation of Lower Power Mode. You may ask to get a notice each time the automation executes, if you’d like.
Verify “Don’t Ask,” then press “Done” to complete. You’re ready. Your iPhone will automatically enter Low Power Mode if your battery falls below 100%.
How can Low Power Mode be set to activate automatically at a certain battery charge, such as 50%?
It’s simple to modify that option to automatically activate Low Power Mode at any certain percentage of battery charge after you’ve figured out how to make a shortcut to permanently turning on Low Power Mode.
Modify the permanent shortcut to shift the activation threshold from 100% to 50% so that your iPhone will automatically switch to Low Power Mode when the battery reaches 50%. To modify your “When battery level falls below 100%” automation, return to the Shortcuts app, choose the Automation tab in the center of the bottom menu, and then touch on it.
Tap the “When battery level falls below 100%” trigger under “When,” and then drag the slider that appears from 100% to 50%. After that, press Done and tap Back. Now, when the battery is less than half charged, your iPhone will switch to Low Power Mode automatically.
How much battery life is possible with Low Power Mode?
Here, you won’t obtain a firm response. Since its inception, there has been discussion on the usefulness of Low Power Mode. According to some estimations, adopting Low Power Mode would extend battery charges by around 1.5 times; however, other studies indicate that battery use hardly changes.
You just need to experiment with Low Power Mode to observe the difference if you’re worried about extending the life of your iPhone battery.
How to disable Low Power Mode once again
Here are two screenshots of iPhones that demonstrate how to disable automatic Low Power Mode.
Disabling or removing the automation will turn off automatic Low Power Mode.
CNET/Peter Butler screenshots
You may disable the automation by going into Shortcuts and turning off Enable This Animation if you discover that Low Power Mode isn’t saving your battery. On the main Automation panel, slide left on your Low Power Mode automation, then hit the red Delete icon to remove it entirely.
By adjusting your iPhone’s settings to implement some of the features that Low Power Mode offers, you may also make your own unique version of the feature. For instance, you may save a lot of battery life by changing your brightness settings or preventing background programs from updating.
Verify that your battery is still in good condition.
A snapshot of Battery Health from an iPhone showing a deteriorated battery
Maximum capacity evaluates how well your battery performs now compared to when it was brand-new.
Apple/CNET Screenshot
You may want to try turning on Low Power Mode permanently, but if you discover that you need to keep it on constantly to obtain good iPhone battery performance, it’s likely that your battery is deteriorating or experiencing other issues.
Navigate to Settings > Battery > Battery Health & Charging to examine the condition of your iPhone’s battery. The maximum capacity of your battery will be shown, along with settings for Clean Energy Charging and Optimized Battery Charging. An “Important Battery Message” alert will appear if the maximum capacity of your iPhone battery has dropped to 80% or less. This indicates that your battery needs to be replaced or repaired since it has severely deteriorated.