
What If You Used iOS 9's Low Power Mode All the Time? - maxmouchet
http://www.birchtree.me/blog/wqoc7twm9a26g29pbwkvjikqju8tz7
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guelo
The Android dig at the end is wrong. I don't know what he means by "basically
turn everything off and turn your $600+ phone into a dumb phone" but an
Android phone is still very usable in low battery mode. Basically it dims the
screen, slows the CPU and limits background data syncing. Probably the same
thing the iphone does.

~~~
bsimpson
My Nexus 5 is so slow and clunky in Battery Saver mode that I seriously wonder
if it actually helps. Taking a minute to do something in Battery Saver mode
isn't necessarily more efficient than spending 5 seconds in normal mode.

~~~
jff
I've found the exact opposite... by turning on Battery Saver mode, it disabled
all the extraneous animations and transitions and actually made my old Nexus 4
feel responsive again!

~~~
NolF
Under the developer options section, you can disable animations.

~~~
lugg
Where is that? (google did not help..)

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pmh
I followed [http://www.cnet.com/how-to/speed-up-your-android-by-
adjustin...](http://www.cnet.com/how-to/speed-up-your-android-by-adjusting-
animation-settings/) on a Moto X (reached via Googling "android disable
animations").

~~~
lugg
Thank you!

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sekasi
I don't at all mean to sound condescending, but I'm genuinely curious how much
of an issue battery life is for people nowadays?

Using a 6S, I'll comfortably get through a long long day without the need to
plug it in.

But that's not my point. The point is I'm constantly around an opportunity to
charge my phone. Everywhere. The only times I can see this being a real issue
anymore is when you're travelling long distances without lounge access..
maybe? But even then, a battery pack solves all those woes.

I just personally feel like we're at a point now where batteries are a non-
issue. Does anyone else have major issues with newer smartphone batteries? I
just don't feel like it's a thing anymore.

~~~
listic
You know, it's because of people like you (and a vast mass of people who don't
care enough) that we can't have long-working phones. In short, a phone with
greater battery life is a boon when you:

* travel a lot. It doesn't have to be often - but when you leave your room early in the morning for a long day in a new town, and use it a lot, it really gives you peace of mind to know that you _will_ be able to make that last important call in the evening.

* forget to plug it in. Seriously: do I really really _have_ to plug this gadget in evry single evening? what if I forget or don't have the means to, every once in a while? It's a flagship device we're talking about; isn't it supposed to make my life easier?

* want your phone to have extra margin of reliability just in case - either to prolong its life when the battery deteriorates over time, or use it in cold weather - I am not sure if it's permanent damage, but battery holds less charge in the cold.

The iPhone is not the worst offender - it's probably slightly above average as
far as smartphone battery life goes, but, to me, saying that battery life is
not an issue sounds like a blasphemy: we (the consumers) have just squeezed
barely adequate battery life from the manufacturers and voicing the opinion
that it's enough feels like inviting back the compromises that they (the
manufacturers) are far too happy to use.

The battery pack sure solves some woes, but it's not by coincidence we call it
a _mobile_ phone: it is supposed to be self-sufficient. Do you like to carry
around a second box on your body at all times, just to be able to use a
smartphone reliably? I don't. Battery pack should be a bonus that's _nice to
have_ , not a requirement to last through the day.

~~~
grandalf
exactly. Those are the scenarios where I always end up needing more battery
life. Even a slightly busy day where I don't have a chance to charge after
leaving home in the morning can sometimes result in a pretty low battery by
the end of the day.

I got an Android phone at Google IO one year that was the latest and greatest.
It lasted between 1-2 hours on a full charge. A friend of mine bought the same
model and had to carry around two spare battery packs.

Clearly nobody tests phones for normal usage patterns before deciding how much
battery is enough. To make matters worse, once the phone is over a year old,
battery life is typically about 80% of what it was when new.

~~~
kuschku
I need 3 days battery on low usage (offline maps and IRC, plus checking
calendar every so and so often, etc), and one whole day (24 hours) with full
usage.

The only way I could get it was by throwing every single Google service out,
disabling most location services [1], reducing screen brightness (seriously,
fuck Lollipop for the new slider), and so on.

And it was also only possible with the Moto G.

–— [1] if I turn on Google WiFi location, it just ends up constantly enabling
GPS, then connecting to the internet, then waiting 2 minutes, then again, I
suspect it’s trying to map out WiFi network strength, because no one in my
city actually ever ran around with an Android phone with WiFi and location
enabled at the same time, and Google never bothered to send their StreetView
cars here

~~~
listic
My go-to resource for comparison of phones' battery life is GSMArena's
_Battery life test results_. [1] I _customize usage pattern_ to 1h calls, 3h
web browsing and 3h video playback (I don't watch much video on the phone, but
I believe that power consumption of Skype, GPS navigation, etc. should be
somewhat similar)

I feel that today's phones are way too large, so I limit my choice to non-huge
ones. So far, last year's _Sony Z3 Compact_ tops the chart: 44% better battery
life than iPhone6s in my 'heavy usage' scenario, 63% better in the default
scenario. I'm eagerly awaiting the results for the recent Z5 Compact: it might
provide even better battery life (72.5 hours compared to 'two and a half
days', as tested by The Guardian [2] [3]).

[1] GSMArena: Battery life test results [http://www.gsmarena.com/battery-
test.php3](http://www.gsmarena.com/battery-test.php3)

[2] The Guardian: Sony Xperia Z3 compact review
[http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/oct/03/sony-
xperi...](http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/oct/03/sony-
xperia-z3-compact-review-best-small-android-phone-and-iphone-6-competitor)

[3] The Guardian: Sony Xperia Z5 Compact review
[http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/sep/23/sony-
xperi...](http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/sep/23/sony-
xperia-z5-compact-review-best-smaller-smartphone)

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ariwilson
Didn't Android already have this* exact feature? I use it when I'm traveling
and it keeps my battery going for much longer.

* [http://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-to-enable-battery-saver-on-an...](http://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-to-enable-battery-saver-on-android-5-0-lollipop/)

~~~
enoch_r
You might read this article as saying "here is a new innovation by Apple that
you should be amazed by," but I think a much more natural reading is "here is
a hack to get a better experience from your (Apple) product if you don't mind
trading battery life for CPU/brightness."

The author does mention this Android feature in passing, claiming that "it’s
not like the extreme low power modes found on Android phones that basically
turn everything off and turn your $600+ phone into a dumb phone."

Disclaimer: I use an Android phone. I don't use low power mode, so I don't
know if his "dumb phone" claim is correct.

~~~
LoneWolf
From my experience no it does not turn them into dumb phones, just disables
most background sync, you can still turn on mobile data and wifi and use them,
but they will turn off as soon as the phone "sleeps", lowers brightness etc
etc.

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keyle
Low power mode is my new permanent mode. I haven't done the science but it's
roughly ~doubling my battery life.

I just wish it could be enabled from the swipe bottom panel or a gesture, or
the triple home button click.

~~~
listic
> new permanent mode

Do you actually turn it on manually every time?

What does the low power mode actually do?

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keyle
Yes I turn it on after every recharge. It turns the battery indicator to
yellow.

On a serious note, it does double my battery life and I'm not the kind of
person to ever run bluetooth to start with.

It just kills every app process background, turns off the non-sense, reduces
consumption of the 4G / Wifi too I think.

It gives me a smart phone I actually wanted in the first place.

To me, this is the one reason to upgrade to iOS9 (also my ipad mini seems
alive again after iOS8 ran it to the ground).

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memco
I upgraded my 4s on the premise that it got better battery life just by being
on ios9, but it got much much worse. My battery was on the decline before the
switch, but I could generally get through a day with just enough juice left at
night. Now, I have to have it in LP mode all the time or it will die within a
few hours.

~~~
acdha
This happened to my 4S as the battery aged, but that was during the iOS 8 era.
One thing which made a huge difference was disabling background refresh. If
you're not willing to go that far, use the battery menu to disable all but the
most important apps. Otherwise, they tend to go things like keep the radio
running, which is even worse with the 4S's 3G radio and correspondingly longer
times to connect, and especially bad in areas of low signal (e.g. the building
I work in).

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atrust
I use Low Power Mode all the time since the iOS 9 update. It does work well.

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kitwalker12
I found it pretty funny that it wouldn't have occurred to me either to use
Siri for turning the low power mode on.

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newman314
What would be nice is if switching to airplane mode enables low power mode. At
least as an option.

~~~
Amorymeltzer
I'm happy they are kept separate, they (often) serve totally different
functions. I was genuinely surprised not to see it in the control center
though, seems like that would be helpful.

It shouldn't be needed most of the time, so it'd be a waste of space, but
really it just emphasizes the need to have user control over the control
center. I'd love to swap out some of the icons there for things I use more
often.

~~~
newman314
To be clear, I didn't mean that they had to be tied together.

If they are available as options on the same page, that would be nice tho.

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muddi900
>Screen is a bit dimmer

iPhones screens are always too bright anyway. 90% of iPhone use was with the
brightness setting on 0. I jailbroke specifically because SBsettings allowed
me to do it conveniently. That saved a lot of battery time, about 20%.

I moved on to Android by the time Apple came up with Control Center. I loved
being able to read comfortably in the dark.

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grandalf
Dear Apple: Please let us permanently enable low power mode.

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ratfacemcgee
then that would be the base level, and they would need to introduce a "lower
power mode".

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seabrookmx
TL;DR - Low Power Mode works!

How informative..

> It turns some things off, yes, but nothing that really changes how you use
> your phone. Sure, your screen is a little dimmer, the CPU is cranked down a
> bit, and your apps don’t update as regularly in the background

You mean exactly like Android?

> The phone was connected to an Apple Watch

It all makes sense now. Next up, a review about how the Apple Watch is a
revolutionary new product!

I know there's lots of Apple fanboys in these parts, and that's totally cool.
But at least put some content in the articles.

