There appears to be an issue with the latest versions of iOS 16, with users reporting significantly less iPhone battery life.
Battery life is universally one of the biggest selling points for manufacturers when releasing new models. The iPhone 13 Pro Max was one of Apple’s best phones, in terms of battery life, but even that model doesn’t appear to be able to overcome iOS 16.
Writing for Digital Trends, Prakhar Khanna outlines the trouble he had upgrading from his iPhone 13 Pro Max to the iPhone 14. When the battery life didn’t compete, he went back to his old phone, only to find the upgrade to iOS 16 had destroyed its battery life as well.
Khanna described his findings:
I realized later that the problem was not the 14 Pro’s battery size, but it was iOS 16’s poor battery optimization. I only realized this when I noticed that the latest OS updates had compromised my iPhone 13 Pro’s battery life as well.
Khanna says there doesn’t appear to be any method or madness to the battery drain:
In my experience, there is no consistent battery life behavior to be pointed out. Sometimes, Spotify drains the battery, while other times, it is Twitter (two of my most used apps). But the battery drain on any app using location services is the worst on iOS 16. These apps include Maps, commuting services, dating apps, and the Camera app (if you have the location tag feature enabled).
Unfortunately, Khanna’s experience is not an isolated one, with Reddit posts and discussions on Apple’s own support forums confirming the issue. Some users have had success downgrading to iOS 15 but, until Apple provides a fix for iOS 16, there doesn’t appear to be a viable, long-term fix in sight.