Apple was quick to release iOS 14.5.1 after the release of iOS 14.5. A minor point release, iOS 14.5.1 was aimed to fix a security flaw with the OS. However, the update seems to be causing massive performance and battery life issues on many iPhones.
Many iPhone owners have reported that their iPhone is posting lower than usual scores in the Geekbench benchmark after updating to iOS 14.5.1. There have also been many battery life complaints. A battery drain test by YouTuber iAppleBytes now pretty much confirms that iOS 14.5.1 brings about a major decline in the battery life of all iPhones.
In the Geekbench battery drain test, the iPhone 11 lasted for 5 hours 25 minutes. That’s a notable decline from its score of 5 hours 54 minutes that it managed while running iOS 14.5. The iPhone XR lasted for 5 hours in the test, down by 10 minutes when running iOS 14.5.
The iPhone 7, iPhone 8, and iPhone SE (2020) did see a slight boost in their battery life, but the boost is not big enough to be noticeable in daily life.
At this point, it is unclear what exactly Apple has changed in iOS 14.5.1 that’s having such a major impact on performance and battery life. If you have already updated your iPhone to iOS 14.5.1 and are facing battery drain issues, check out these tips to improve your iPhone battery life.
Alternatively, you can consider upgrading your iPhone to the latest iOS 14.6 beta since it does not seem to suffer from any performance and battery life issues.
