Apple released iOS 15 to the public earlier this week after months of beta testing. The public build of iOS 15 was different from the Release Candidate build seeded last week as it carried a different build number. Most major iOS updates tend to have a negative impact on battery life. So how does iOS 15 compare against iOS 14 in this regard? Will your iPhone’s battery life take a hit after installing iOS 15?
An extensive iOS 15 vs. iOS 14.8 battery drain test across all major iPhones released in the last few years — starting from the iPhone 6s to the iPhone 11 and iPhone 12 — reveals some pretty interesting details. To simulate real-world usage, YouTuber UltimateiDeviceVideos played YouTube videos for around an hour, scrolled Instagram for the next hour, played Minecraft for an hour, browsing the web in Safari for 60 minutes, and more. He simulated more real-world usage until all batteries of all iPhones in the test were fully depleted, and they shut down.
On iOS 15, the iPhone 12 saw a notbale 30 minutes increase in its battery life — it lasted 8 hours 40 minutes in the battery life test vs. 8 hours 10 minutes it managed while running iOS 14.8.
The iPhone 11’s battery life remained relatively unchanged, as it lasted for 7 hours 28 minutes while running iOS 15 vs. 7 hours 32 minutes on iOS 14.8. The iPhone XR, too, lasted roughly the same time while running iOS 15 vs. iOS 14.8: 6 hours 3 minutes vs. 5 hours 59 minutes. The iPhone 8, iPhone 7, and iPhone 6s also delivered roughly the same battery life on iOS 15 when compared to iOS 14.8.
So, if you own an iPhone 12, you might want to consider upgrading to iOS 15 right away as it seems to bring a noticeable improvement in battery life. Sure, it is not as big of a jump as the iPhone 13 series bring to the table, but the improvement is still big enough to be noticeable in daily use.
In case you are experiencing poor battery life on your iPhone after installing iOS 15, check out our guide on how to fix iOS 15 battery drain issues.
