Apple did not claim any performance or battery life improvements with iOS 15. After the entire iOS 11 fiasco, Apple has ensured that major new iOS updates don’t slow down older iPhones, which was verified with this iOS 15 beta vs. iOS 14.6 speed test. However, it’s not the same story with battery life, as evident from recent iOS 14 updates that have negatively impacted the battery life of all iPhones. So, does iOS 15 bring about any improvement in terms of battery life?
Recent point releases of iOS 14 have negatively impacted the battery life of most iPhones in a big way. The decline is big enough to be easily noticeable in daily use. A detailed battery drain test conducted by YouTuber iAppleBytes on the iPhone 6s, iPhone 7, and iPhone SE (2020) shows that the first iOS 15 beta does not bring any improvement in battery life over iOS 14.6.
The YouTuber first ran the Geekbench battery test on the iPhone 6s, iPhone 7, and iPhone SE (2020). Then, he reran the same test on these iPhones while running iOS 15 beta 1. On iOS 14.6, the iPhone 7 and iPhone SE (2020) lasted for 3 hours 28 mins and 3 hours 42 minutes, respectively. While running iOS 15, these devices lasted for relatively the same amount of time — 1 hour 53 minutes and 3 hours 41 minutes, respectively.
The results indicate that iOS 15 is unlikely to have any positive impact on the battery life of your iPhone. This is still the first beta of the iPhone, so there’s definitely room for improvement as Apple fixes many of the underlying bugs in the OS.
On the positive side, iOS 15 has plenty of new features that should bring about a major usability improvement. Do note that some of the new iOS 15 features won’t be coming to older iPhones.
