The Low Power Mode on iPhone is not a new addition; it was first rolled out with iOS 9 in 2015. However, I often come across complaints online about new iPhones operating slowly. A common factor among these instances is that users have Low Power Mode activated. Continue reading as I explain how this feature impacts the performance of your iPhone.
How does the iPhone’s Low Power Mode function?
As its name implies, Apple designed Low Power Mode to help users prolong their iPhone’s battery life during times when a charger is not readily available. When this mode is activated, it minimizes power consumption by disabling various software and hardware features.
iOS prompts the user to activate Low Power Mode when battery life drops to 20%, but you can manually turn it on whenever you wish.
Apple describes the feature as follows:
Low Power Mode decreases the power usage of your iPhone or iPad when the battery is low. With Low Power Mode activated, your device will last longer before needing a charge, but certain features may take more time to update or complete. Additionally, some functions may not work until you disable Low Power Mode or charge your device to 80% or more.
You can verify if Low Power Mode is active by checking the battery icon in the Status Bar; a yellow icon indicates that the mode is on.
So, what changes does Low Power Mode make on your iPhone? Apple provides an official list on its site:
- Disables or limits 5G usage (depending on your iPhone model)
- Sets Auto-Lock to 30 seconds
- Lowers display brightness and restricts the refresh rate to 60Hz on ProMotion devices
- Disables Always-On Display on supporting iPhones
- Reduces visual effects
- Pauses background tasks (such as downloads, iCloud sync, backups, and email fetching)
Does it slow down your iPhone? Yes
However, there’s an aspect that Apple does not mention. While the listed features do not include anything about performance, activating Low Power Mode indeed causes your device to operate more slowly.
To clarify, the chip within your iPhone comprises several performance and efficiency cores. Under normal conditions, your iPhone utilizes all the chip’s cores, favoring the performance cores during tasks like video editing or gaming. When Low Power Mode is enabled, it significantly reduces the usage of performance cores, relying predominantly on the efficiency cores which are slower but consume significantly less power.
In a benchmark test assessing the performance of various devices, here are the scores for the iPhone 16 Pro Max’s A18 Pro chip when Low Power Mode is disabled (a higher score indicates better performance):
- Single-core: 3341
- Multi-core: 8270
Now, let’s look at the same test conducted with GeekBench 6 while Low Power Mode is enabled:
- Single-core: 1384
- Multi-core: 4093
In essence, your device operates at half its overall performance with Low Power Mode turned on. Consequently, you may notice slower responses depending on the tasks you engage in. While this might seem obvious to some, many users are genuinely caught off guard when they discover this fact.
Conclusion
But surely keeping Low Power Mode activated all the time helps extend battery life? The answer is nuanced. Various tests indicate that Low Power Mode is more effective in diminishing battery usage during standby, with limited benefits when actively using the device.
Therefore, it’s advisable to activate Low Power Mode only when absolutely necessary. It’s also worth mentioning that Low Power Mode is available on iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch.
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