If you just got a shiny new Apple iPhone 14 Pro or 14 Pro Max and are moving from last year’s iPhone 13 Pro or 13 Pro Max, you might be a little surprised by the battery life. despite Apple’s claims that the new phone should have better battery life.
In fact, after rigorously testing the iPhone 14 Pro Max on my own, I found it to be somewhat more power-hungry than its predecessor, at least when I take full advantage of all the new technologies that Apple purposefully introduced. professional phones this year.
Why is this happening?
There are several factors that go into why an iPhone 14 Pro or 14 Pro Max user might see lower battery life than an iPhone 13 Pro or 13 Pro Max user, but below are some of the more important ones:
Always-on display
The iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max feature an all-new always-on display that borrows the same 1Hz refresh rate technology that Apple first introduced with the Apple Watch Series 6. Although these phones feature an OLED display that dims your wallpaper when it’s “sleeping””. To reduce power consumption, the fact remains that an always-on display uses electricity to display pixels continuously.
Apple’s always-on display is quite different from the competition in that it displays a dimmed, full-color wallpaper rather than a black background and plain white text that displays the time and date. The extra colors mean more pixels need to be lit, and while it looks a lot better, it’s harder on the battery.
Higher operating display brightness
The new iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max feature a display with a brightness of 1000 nits in normal mode, 1600 nits at maximum HDR performance, and up to 2000 nits outdoors in direct sunlight. This is comparable to the display of the iPhone 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max, which regularly ran at 1000 nits, 1200 nits at maximum HDR performance.
As you can see, the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max get much brighter under normal conditions, which means that the display can run out of power faster in such conditions. And to make matters worse, the new Dynamic Island provides extra pixels that the notch never had, so the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max should have more pixels than the iPhone 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max.
Slightly lower battery capacity
The iPhone 14 Pro Max has a 4323mAh battery while the iPhone 13 Pro Max has a 4352mAh battery; that’s 29mAh less than its predecessor, and while there’s not much to say about it, the smaller battery means you’ll run out of juice faster.
The iPhone 14 Pro actually gets a bigger 3200mAh battery compared to the iPhone 13 Pro’s 3095mAh battery, which is 105mAh more than its predecessor. That larger battery means the iPhone 14 Pro gets more power to work with, but the device’s new features tend to be taxing, which increases battery capacity very quickly.
Dealing with battery drain
The elements discussed above can affect battery life, but it is entirely up to you, the end user, whether they will or not.
Here are some tips to reduce battery drain on your iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 14, or iPhone 14 Pro Max:
Disable or turn off always-on display
For example, the always-on display is an optional feature. While it looks great, you can put your iPhone face down on a table when not in use, or disable the always-on display entirely by visiting Settings → Display & Brightness → Always On and toggling this switch to Off”.
Also, if you have an Apple Watch, use it. When you walk away from iPhone while wearing a paired Apple Watch, the always-on display automatically turns off until you’re within range again. Without the use of an Apple Watch, your iPhone doesn’t know how to turn off the always-on display when you leave, which wastes battery power unnecessarily.
Manual display brightness adjustment
It may sound frustrating, however, adjusting the brightness of your iPhone’s display using the Control Center is a smart thing to do when your phone turns up the brightness all the way when it’s not needed. In fact, I usually dim the display dozens of times a day; usually as long as it’s just comfortable to watch.
The auto-dimming and brightening feature of the iPhone display tends to over-compensate in both directions. I usually don’t need 100% brightness when I’m outdoors, so I don’t need to dim the display a bit until I can comfortably see what I need to look at.
Take advantage of power saving mode
Despite the differences in battery capacity compared to last year’s models, the impact will be negligible with efficient power management. Low Power Mode is an important tool for power management when you don’t need high performance. This reduces the impact of power-hungry features, including but not limited to:
- Display Refresh Rate Limit
- Fall back to slower 4G data connections when it saves power
- Reducing the relative brightness of the display
- Auto-lock by default for 30 seconds
- Disable or reduce some GPU intensive animations
- Pause iCloud backup and photo sync
- Disabling automatic downloads
- Disabling or limiting e-mail data sampling
- Decrease in processor performance
- Disable Background App Refresh
- And more…
Avoid using the iOS 16 tactile keyboard
New in iOS 16 is the ability to enable a tactile responsive keyboard that gives you a slight buzz when you press the keyboard keys. Android users and iPhone crackers have been enjoying this feature for years, and for the first time, vanilla iPhone users can also take advantage of it. But the effect quickly becomes bittersweet, as unauthorized use of the Taptic Engine consumes battery power.
If battery life is more important to you than a vibrating keyboard, you can turn off this feature in Settings → Sounds and Haptics → Keyboard Responsiveness by turning off the Happiness setting. You can even go further and disable system-wide haptics by turning off the “System Haptic”option in the same settings panel, but this will disable system-wide haptic feedback for various controls and interactions.
Use your Apple Watch whenever possible
You may have an Apple Watch on your wrist, and if you have one, you can easily receive phone calls and reply to text messages right from your wrist without even interacting with your iPhone.
While this requires the use of a Bluetooth connection between your iPhone and Apple Watch, it drains the battery much less than having Call Screen keep your iPhone’s display on or typing on your iPhone. This is because the display on your iPhone is arguably the most power-hungry component.
Your Apple Watch can take some of the load off the battery so your iPhone doesn’t have to, and your iPhone’s battery should last longer throughout the day. Divide and rule.
Use reasonable energy saving measures
iDB has shared extensive tips for reducing power consumption on the iPhone, and they all also apply to the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max.
Some of the best recommendations include:
- Use dark mode as an OLED display may turn off individual pixels to display black.
- Turn off Background App Refresh, as app data may refresh when you’re ready to open an app.
- Limit your location usage to apps and services that need it because location services use a lot of power.
- Store your iPhone at the correct temperature, as high or low temperatures can affect battery life.
- Use Wi-Fi whenever possible, as cellular services (especially the 5G variety) drain your battery faster.
Learn more about different ways to reduce power consumption on your iPhone, regardless of its model.
Conclusion
For the most part, the battery life of the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max should be comparable to the iPhone 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max, and it generally is. Both years’ lines can easily get through a day on a single charge, but it’s clear that some of the new features on the 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max make it much easier to drain the battery to a dead end than its predecessor. It is important to use these features in moderation or consider whether you need them at all.
What are your impressions of iPhone 14 Pro or 14 Pro Max battery life after upgrading from 13 Pro or 13 Pro Max? Be sure to let us know in the comments section below.