The iPhone 6s and 6s Plus promise up to 14 hours of video playback and 24 hours of talk time, but your results may fall disappointingly short of those numbers. If they do, it means your settings might be jacked up (or out of whack, if you prefer the more technical term).
Since the inception of iOS 9, there are several new features that are switched on by default, with settings you can tweak to make your new iPhone last all day. By the time you've made your way to the end of this article, you'll be surprised at how long the battery can actually last.
You know what they say, every little bit goes a long way.
Use Low Power Mode
Low Power Mode is the most miraculous part of iOS 9 for people who want to stretch the battery life of their iPhones out as much as possible. Pre-iOS 9, you could only watch on helplessly as the 20% low battery warning flashed up on your iPhone before depleting completely. Low-power mode works by turning off various sensors and disabling notifications, in addition to dimming the screen and turning off background app updates.
Do this: When your iPhone’s battery levels dip dangerously low (20% emergency bells), it will automatically prompt you to activate Low Power Mode. Do it and your battery will change from red to yellow. You don't even need to wait till you're down to 20%; should you expect a long day ahead, you can activate it at any point without crippling your phone. Just go to Settings, Battery, and tap that Low Power Mode. You’ll be surprised at how long your iPhone can last in this power mode
Stay in Low Power Mode
Low Power Mode is at your disposal 24/7, but when you start charging your phone in this mode, it will automatically turn itself off when battery is charged to 80%. You don't have to let your iPhone call the shots though, stay in Low Power Mode for as long as you like.
Do this instead: When that Low Power Mode Turned Off notification shows up on your lockscreen, just swipe to the left to hit Enable Again, saving you from having to remember to enable Low Power Mode later.
Don't share your every move
iOS 9 brings with it the ability to share your location with your friends in Messages, via the little Details tab. It’s an occasionally useful feature, but you don’t really need it switched on the whole day, unless you want people to know your every move in detail.
Do this: Go to Settings, Privacy, Location Services, and Share Location From to disable it. Sorted.
Disable Handoff
iOS 9 and OS X El Capitan present a whole world of convenience by allowing you to move seamlessly from iThing to iThing while you’re doing your work. But if you're not one for writing up Important Business Documents on the go, it's a feature you'll probably hardly ever use.
Do this: Hit up Settings, click on Handoff & Suggested Apps and turn off Handoff. You can always turn it back on again if you need it.
Turn off app suggestions
App suggestions might be helpful, but they certainly won’t help battery life. This setting uses your location to push app suggestions to you at the bottom left hand corner of your Lock screen. For example, bringing up an airline-related app if you’re at the airport. But at least you have the option to turn it off.
Do this: Again, tap on Settings, Handoff & Suggested Apps and switch off either My Apps (to not get alerts based on the apps you have) or App Store (to not get app suggestions based on what you don’t already have). Thanks, but no thanks.
Image: BGR
Kill hungry apps
Ever been so sick of your iPhone dying on you that you just close every app in desperation? Now you don’t have to. This insight is brought to you by iOS 9 under the new dedicated Battery tab, which names and shames the apps - like Facebook - that are lapping up most of your battery juice
Do this: Go to Settings, General, Usage and finally Battery Usage to pin point the greedy apps and discharge them accordingly. Begone now, you evil energy-sapping app. (We’ll have you back when our iPhone battery is recharged)
Stop apps refreshing in the background
Unbeknownst to you, your iPhone is killing its own battery by ensuring your apps are constantly refreshed when you’re on Wi-Fi or your mobile network - essentiall, all the time. Do you really need breaking lists from BuzzFeed pushed to you the second they're published? We didn’t think so.
Do this: Tap on Settings, General, and lastly Background App Refresh. Turn the entire thing off if you, or disable it on an app-to-app basis.
Nullify notifications
It’s nice having your phone vibrate like you’re the most popular person in the world - whether it's an achievement unlocked on a game, a new messages on Facebook or a new Tinder match - but it’s best to keep notifications just for the essentials. Otherwise you're just whittling down your battery life every time an app tells you there's a new colourful hat for your characters to wear.
Do this:: Go to Settings, Notifications Centre, and then Customisations and disable all the notifications for non-essential apps. You’ll be surprised at how many you’ve unwittingly enabled.
Don't close every app
Surprise! Closing apps can actually make your battery life worse, as iOS 9 has been designed to intelligently handle apps that are in the background. On the flipside, every time you load an app from scratch, it drinks up more battery life than if you were to wake a sleeping app up.
Do this: Keep your apps running unless you know it’s something you won’t be using in a long while. If you keep on returning to WhatsApp, it might be worth your while to let it slumber in the background.
Use Wi-Fi wherever possible
Some people think that turning Wi-Fi off will improve battery life, but turning it off can actually drain your iPhone's battery. That's because the amount of power required to communicate with Wi-Fi base stations is minimal compared to using mobile data.
Do this: Simple. Whenever possible, use Wi-Fi. Under Settings, make sure Wi-Fi is switched on, and connect to any network you have access to. Obviously turning both Wi-Fi and mobile data off will be even better for your battery.
Use Airplane Mode in emergencies
That little airplane icon is underused. Leaving your phone's radio on when there's no Wi-Fi reception and no signal is rather pointless, and all it does is drain your battery for no reason.
Do this instead: In dead zones with zero coverage or when you’re overseas without roaming enabled, turn on Airplane Mode. You can get to it right from Control Centre by swiping up from wherever you are on your iPhone without having to weave your way around the workings of your iPhone. Otherwise, access it from Settings, then Airplane Mode.
You can still play games, read books and listen to music, and your battery life will increase by a massive amount. Airplane mode is also ideal for events like festivals, where you're stuck without a power source for a few days.
Dim that screen
It’s really tempting to blitz the brightness all the way up on the iPhone's gorgeous LCD screen, but if you do it'll take a large chunk out of your battery.
Do this instead: Head to Settings, then Wallpapers & Brightness, and switch on Auto-Brightness. Your iPhone will figure out the best level of brightness that won’t put a strain on your eyes or your battery.
Like all smartphones though, auto-brightness isn't perfect. If you could handle a dimmer screen then feel free to manually tweak the brightness it to save even more juice.
Kill Parallax
While iOS 9's parallax effect brings a nice visual touch to your iPhone, it keeps your phone's motion sensors in play, which doesn't do the battery any favours.
Do this: Switch off the parallax effect. It’s not going to drastically alter your experience, unless you're forever getting lost in the hypnotising (or for some, nauseating) effect of the movement-sensitive wallpaper. Go to Settings, General, Accessibility, and lastly, Reduce Motion to turn it on.
