I like iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 (haven’t gone for macOS 26 yet, my Mac is mission-critical for work). It’s fresh, and the new features are fun to play with.
But on my iPhone 14 Pro Max, the hit to the battery life is significant. This goes beyond the initial re-indexing and other housekeeping going on behind the scenes. Those days have passed, and it is what it is now. Whatever overhead iOS 26 has, the hit to the battery life on the 14 Pro Max is absolutely not worth it. I hope they improve this. One of the great things about the iPhone has been its battery life, compared to the Pixels and Galaxies I had before.
If you’re on the fence with your 14 Pro or Pro Max, and you value battery life, I would wait to see if they improve the situation before installing iOS 26.
At the end of my typical day when I’m not traveling or doing videoconferencing, I used to have about 45-50% of my battery left. Now, I have about 25% left. So I think iOS 26 is using 20-25% more battery.
Interesting. I’m seeing maybe a 5-10% difference (still significant at the end of a long day.) It feels like I’m losing more rapidly in the middle (between ~40 and ~80); the last 20% behaves similarly.
From what I’ve read in various places, there’s an indeterminate adjustment period (of a few days maybe?) post OS 26 installation, after which battery life returns to normal. Indexing? Caching? No idea. But maybe give it a bit more time.
What’s your overall battery health? Mine is at 78% (need to get it replaced if I want to ride this 14 Pro for another year), so that might be part of the impact on it, right?
