iPhone 15 Pro iPhone 15 Pro disappointing battery life (coming from a 13 mini)

[bbates123]

Huge fan of the 13 mini and had been using it since launch. Just decided to upgrade to the 15 Pro due to fantastic T-Mo trade in deals and I really wanted some of the new features of the 15 Pro, but especially 120hz and the always on display.

I've been using it for about 5 days now and I have to say, I'm underwhelmed with the battery. I thought it would be much much better than my 13 mini, but it's only slightly better at best. With the 13 mini and light use, I would typically end the day at 40-50% remaining. With the 15 Pro I'm running about the same with light use. On days when I use it more, I'm in the 20s - 30s. I thought it would be a phone that I could use as much as I wanted and not worry about getting through the day but that appears to not be the case. I'm guessing a part of the problem is the always on display, but that's one of the main reasons I got the phone.

I guess it goes in line with all the battery tests that show the base 15 lineup outperforming the pros, even though Apple's own battery numbers should be telling a different story. Still hoping it improves with a future software update. Other than that, and having to get used to the size and weight, I really do like it.

 

[Barbareren]

Guess you should have gone for the Pro Max or the regular Plus if battery life is your major concern. I'm still blown away by the battery on my 15 Plus - granted I upgraded from a 12 Mini, so obviously it's a world of difference!

 

[haruhiko]

The small Pro always has poor battery life, especially the 14 Pro with its quickly deteriorating battery health. 15 Pro may be a little better but I can’t take the risk anymore, I’ve changed to the Max this year due to the reduced weight.

 

[bbates123]

Guess you should have gone for the Pro Max or the regular Plus if battery life is your major concern. I'm still blown away by the battery on my 15 Plus - granted I upgraded from a 12 Mini, so obviously it's a world of difference!

Battery isn't my main concern, it was more an observation of how the battery life really isn't all that much better than my 13 mini which was kind of a shock.

 

[Borophyll0520]

Curious what your battery graph looks like? Are you more on cell than WiFi during the day? I disabled always on to save battery on mine. I noticed that the always on cranked the brightness in the office.

 

[bbates123]

Here's where I'm at so far today. I'm currently at 52% at 8:35pm. I normally take the phone off the charger at 5:30am but left it on till a little after 7am. I spent a little more than normal looking at my Eufy cameras live stream today. Today I spent 90% of the time on wifi vs cellular and normally it's more like 99% on wifi.

 

[JPack]

AOD and 120Hz taketh away. For a fair comparison with the mini, those two should be turned off.

Are you using AOD with the wallpaper on?

 

[mjpearce023]

Home/Lock Screen at 12% seems pretty high. Do you have widgets on the Lock Screen? One thing I did was turn the background off for AOD. Not for battery sake but just because I can see the time/notifications better. That might help.

 

[bbates123]

AOD and 120Hz taketh away. For a fair comparison with the mini, those two should be turned off.

Are you using AOD with the wallpaper on?

Yep, it seems like this phone with AOD and 120 on is comparable to the mini's battery life. Wallpaper is turned off.

 

[bbates123]

Home/Lock Screen at 12% seems pretty high. Do you have widgets on the Lock Screen? One thing I did was turn the background off for AOD. Not for battery sake but just because I can see the time/notifications better. That might help.

I do have widgets but nothing fancy...battery widgets for the phone and watch, and Google. The background/wallpaper is off for AOD.

 

[krvld]

Something I found online which seems accurate.

If i were to upgrade my 13 mini it would only be for cameras (especially x2, x3 zoom features and more natural processing without over-sharpening stuff). But that's too big of a price to pay.

 

[zorinlynx]

Curious what your battery graph looks like? Are you more on cell than WiFi during the day? I disabled always on to save battery on mine. I noticed that the always on cranked the brightness in the office.

I too notice how bright AOD can be in some situations. When I was driving to work today with my phone in the cradle AOD was quite bright so it was visible on a sunny bright morning. I bet it was using significant power at that time.

Everything has a price, and AOD has a price in battery life. My suggestion, enjoy it, but remember to turn it off if you're going to be away from a charger for a long time (going to a theme park, for example, or on a long hike.) It's off if the phone is in your pocket or bag, so leaving it in there can also reduce AOD battery usage.

I've yet to turn it off myself. I'm enjoying the feature too much, but I do miss nearly two days of usage on one charge from my 11 Pro Max.

 

[robfoll]

My 15 Pro Max is very good on battery life, glad I went large TIP; Set refresh rate from 120hz down to 60hz max. Improves battery life with no downsides that I can observe.

 

[Surfsalot]

My 15 Pro Max is very good on battery life, glad I went large TIP; Set refresh rate from 120hz down to 60hz max. Improves battery life with no downsides that I can observe.

may as well got a plus

 

[Frytas93]

Try to install 17.1 RC or wait for full release. 17.1 improved battery life for me a lot

 

[MarkNewton2023]

Huge fan of the 13 mini and had been using it since launch. Just decided to upgrade to the 15 Pro due to fantastic T-Mo trade in deals and I really wanted some of the new features of the 15 Pro, but especially 120hz and the always on display.

I've been using it for about 5 days now and I have to say, I'm underwhelmed with the battery. I thought it would be much much better than my 13 mini, but it's only slightly better at best. With the 13 mini and light use, I would typically end the day at 40-50% remaining. With the 15 Pro I'm running about the same with light use. On days when I use it more, I'm in the 20s - 30s. I thought it would be a phone that I could use as much as I wanted and not worry about getting through the day but that appears to not be the case. I'm guessing a part of the problem is the always on display, but that's one of the main reasons I got the phone.

I guess it goes in line with all the battery tests that show the base 15 lineup outperforming the pros, even though Apple's own battery numbers should be telling a different story. Still hoping it improves with a future software update. Other than that, and having to get used to the size and weight, I really do like it.

It takes a few days for the phone battery to calibrate. Your phone battery should get better. Please ensure any app background refresh and any other features consuming battery unnecessarily are disabled. Enjoy your new phone 😊

 

[Trader05]

Coming from an 11 Pro (which had amazing battery life 6-8 hours of SOT), i thought my 15 Pro was not as good for about a week in. After a week or so it leveled out. Yesterday I had about 4.5 hours of SOT with about 48% left which is awesome for me.
It looks like Eufy is killing your battery in the background - i'd uninstall and reinstall it if you haven't.

 

[Mistletoe66]

Coming from an 11 Pro (which had amazing battery life 6-8 hours of SOT), i thought my 15 Pro was not as good for about a week in. After a week or so it leveled out. Yesterday I had about 4.5 hours of SOT with about 48% left which is awesome for me.
It looks like Eufy is killing your battery in the background - i'd uninstall and reinstall it if you haven't.

My 11 pro with 75% battery health was on par with my 11 pro max…. Somehow the reviews in YouTube battery drain got apple 12 hours of screen time but mine reached 50% with light safari browsing with 15% brightness …. I’m crying because I bought from reseller and I can’t get refunds

 

[timmodugdale]

Huge fan of the 13 mini and had been using it since launch. Just decided to upgrade to the 15 Pro due to fantastic T-Mo trade in deals and I really wanted some of the new features of the 15 Pro, but especially 120hz and the always on display.

I've been using it for about 5 days now and I have to say, I'm underwhelmed with the battery. I thought it would be much much better than my 13 mini, but it's only slightly better at best. With the 13 mini and light use, I would typically end the day at 40-50% remaining. With the 15 Pro I'm running about the same with light use. On days when I use it more, I'm in the 20s - 30s. I thought it would be a phone that I could use as much as I wanted and not worry about getting through the day but that appears to not be the case. I'm guessing a part of the problem is the always on display, but that's one of the main reasons I got the phone.

I guess it goes in line with all the battery tests that show the base 15 lineup outperforming the pros, even though Apple's own battery numbers should be telling a different story. Still hoping it improves with a future software update. Other than that, and having to get used to the size and weight, I really do like it.

Sorry to hear that. I have the 15 Pro, as well, and haven't noticed issues. I upgraded from the 14 Pro which had crappy battery life. After less than a year, battery health was down to 88%.

 

[FeliApple]

Here's where I'm at so far today. I'm currently at 52% at 8:35pm. I normally take the phone off the charger at 5:30am but left it on till a little after 7am. I spent a little more than normal looking at my Eufy cameras live stream today. Today I spent 90% of the time on wifi vs cellular and normally it's more like 99% on wifi.



View attachment 2301456

This is extremely poor. About 2.5 hours 100-53% on Wi-Fi? Unless your camera app is very heavy, that looks borderline unusable. Is brightness too high?

If that’s the battery life you’re getting on Wi-Fi, a full cellular day is only a dream.

 

[gwang73]

Here's where I'm at so far today. I'm currently at 52% at 8:35pm. I normally take the phone off the charger at 5:30am but left it on till a little after 7am. I spent a little more than normal looking at my Eufy cameras live stream today. Today I spent 90% of the time on wifi vs cellular and normally it's more like 99% on wifi.

From your stats, I'd look into the Eufy app since it's your number 1 battery user. Also, what app is running all the time during charging? I'd look into that as well. You should be getting way more on-screen usage than you are currently.

 

[reppans]

2-ish hrs on 47% battery? Yeah that’s really bad.

Your GPS arrow in the upper left is solid… were you navigating while taking the screenshot? Do you have AirTags nearby?

Could be Apple ‘crowdsource beacon’ drain - that doesn’t show up in the batt graphs for obvious reasons:

 

[Borophyll0520]

Here's where I'm at so far today. I'm currently at 52% at 8:35pm. I normally take the phone off the charger at 5:30am but left it on till a little after 7am. I spent a little more than normal looking at my Eufy cameras live stream today. Today I spent 90% of the time on wifi vs cellular and normally it's more like 99% on wifi.



View attachment 2301456

The “jumps” in the battery graph are concerning. The graph should be somewhat linear, with the graph being steeper the more you use the phone, but dropping large chunks at a time are not normal. I’d guess the Security camera app is not optimized for the A17pro or something to that effect. I noticed that some apps, looking at you NFL mobile, drain the battery much more than on my 14 pro.

 

[bbates123]

Try to install 17.1 RC or wait for full release. 17.1 improved battery life for me a lot

I'm on 17.1 RC going on 5 days now and hasn't really made a noticeable difference for me.

 

[bbates123]

Coming from an 11 Pro (which had amazing battery life 6-8 hours of SOT), i thought my 15 Pro was not as good for about a week in. After a week or so it leveled out. Yesterday I had about 4.5 hours of SOT with about 48% left which is awesome for me.
It looks like Eufy is killing your battery in the background - i'd uninstall and reinstall it if you haven't.

From your stats, I'd look into the Eufy app since it's your number 1 battery user. Also, what app is running all the time during charging? I'd look into that as well. You should be getting way more on-screen usage than you are currently.

Yeah, the Eufy usage was while I was away from home for a short while, monitoring the dogs to make sure they weren't getting into trouble, it's not typical usage for me. But the battery life yesterday was typical of what I've been getting every day, around 50% or less with light usage.

Also, I have Standby mode on all night so I think that's why you're seeing on-screen usage while charging.