iOS 14.4 Battery Drain Test on iPhone 8, iPhone SE, iPhone 11

BY Rajesh Pandey

Published 26 Jan 2021

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Apple today released the iOS 14.4 update with some minor bug fixes and improvements. While not mentioned in the change-log, does the iOS 14.4 update help improve the battery life on older iPhones? After all, many iPhone owners have been complaining of unexplained battery drain on their device for a few months now.

An exhaustive iOS 14.4 battery drain test done by YouTuber iAppleBytes on the original iPhone SE, iPhone 6s, iPhone 7, iPhone 8, iPhone 11, and iPhone SE (2020) shows that the latest iOS 14 update does indeed bring some improvements in the battery life department. When running iOS 14.4, the iPhone 11 lasted for 5 hours and 33 minutes in the Geekbench battery test. For comparison, the device had lasted for 5 hours and 7 minutes in the same test while running iOS 14.3 so there’s a noticeable jump in battery life by about 21 minutes.

Similarly, the iPhone 8 lasted for 3 hours and 47 minutes in the test, up by 15 minutes from iOS 14.3. The iPhone 7 also saw an increase in its battery life by about 15 minutes, while the iPhone SE (2020) saw a jump of around a few minutes.

While the YouTuber has not tested the battery life of the iPhone 12 in the drain test, the video does make it clear that all iPhones should see a noticeable jump in their battery life after the iOS 14.4 update. The improvement might not be immediately visible since iPhones can take a few days to settle down after installing an iOS update. But going by this battery drain test, it looks like iOS 14.4 will finally put an end to all the battery life woes and complaints from iPhone 11 and iPhone 12 owners.

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If you end up noticing any improvement in battery life on your iPhone or iPad after installing the iOS 14.4 update, do drop a comment and let us know about it!