One of the biggest concerns for smartphone owners is getting their device’s battery to last all day. Experiencing battery drain without knowing the cause is one of the most frustrating situations we can encounter. It seems that’s exactly what’s been happening with users of the latest iPhones and iOS 18. Reports indicate that the iPhone 16 series is experiencing excessive battery drain, with iOS 18 potentially being the cause.
Several users have been complaining on forums about battery drain after installing iOS 18. The first related posts date back to the beta release, but the availability of the stable update and Apple’s new-gen mobile flagships revived the discussion. While several owners of the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro (Review) are reporting battery drain, users of older models are also experiencing the same issue. So, we may have to look at iOS 18 to find the potential culprit.
iOS 18 could be causing excessive battery drain on iPhone 16 series and older models
Reports indicate that the issue is particularly prevalent when the phone is not in use. Apparently, iPhones running iOS 18 are consuming a noticeable amount of power while the device is asleep. This could potentially indicate a bug in underlying iOS 18 processes, keeping them active when they shouldn’t be. Some reports mention a 10-15% battery drain overnight while users sleep. An iPhone 16 Pro user says they get much worse battery life than their previous device, the iPhone 12.
It is noteworthy that modern smartphones resort to systems that “learn” people’s usage habits and adapt to them to manage battery usage. That means that the first few days after an update (especially a big one) tend to bring excessive battery consumption. On Android, users can enable or disable the system from the “Adaptive Battery” option. However, the iPhone 16 series and iOS 18 have been available long enough for the issue not to be present.
Affected users have tried multiple methods to resolve the battery drain. They have attempted to disable features such as ProMotion (120 Hz) and AOD, remove widgets, and even perform a factory reset on their devices. In the majority of cases, none of these fixes were successful.
Will iOS 18.1 fix the problem?
iOS 18.1 is expected to arrive sometime this October. The update will bring the first Apple Intelligence features to eligible devices. However, given what we’ve seen, users are probably also waiting for noticeable improvements in the battery life department.