Apple promises up to 24 hours of 3G talk time and up to 12 hours of LTE Internet or Wi-Fi use on the iPhone 6s Plus. iPhone 6s Plus battery life usually comes in a few hours more than the 12 hours Apple promised, but there is an iOS 9 feature that helps users get more battery life out of their iPhone. We wanted to find out how much battery life the iPhone 6s Plus Low Power Mode could add to a day’s battery life, so we put the phone in an unofficial real-world test. Here’s what we learned.
iPhone 6s Plus Battery Life Test
iPhone 6s Plus battery life ranges from 13-15 hours depending on how the person uses the phone. We’ve already shared some tips for extending iPhone 6s Plus battery life. This post is for 6s, but these tips will also work on 6s Plus.
To test how much battery life the iPhone 6s Plus Low Power Mode adds, I first ran an iPhone 6s Plus all day with Low Power Mode off and Wi-Fi, LTE, and Bluetooth turned on. The day also included the use of regular phone calls, text messages and email. I also used the Safari browser and other apps that connect the phone to the internet throughout the day. I used most of the time Pocket Casts ($3.99) for watching video podcasts. Finally, I used the built-in Maps app for navigation for several hours.
The phone came out of my dock around 7:30am and came back around 5:30pm the first day because the battery wore out more than usual and didn’t last all day.
On the second day, around 7:30 am, I disconnected the phone and immediately turned on Low Power Mode using the steps below. Throughout the day, the phone delivered the same things it did on the first day, including calls, texts, email, web browsing, apps, a few hours of navigation, and lots of video podcasts.
At the end of the second day I checked the battery percentage around 5:30pm which I gave back to the charger on the first day.
How To Turn On Low Power Mode On iPhone 6s Plus
Open the Settings app and scroll down until you see the second-to-last green icon in the third section on the home screen of the Settings app. You will see it at the top of the next screen. Tap the on/off button to turn it on, it will turn green. You can tell that this feature is on when the battery icon in the status bar at the top of the screen turns yellow as seen below.
Take a look at other items while in the battery section. From this screen, users can toggle on or off, which shows the percentage of battery life remaining in the status bar at the top of the screen, as seen above. This makes it easy to see how much battery life the phone has left.
On the left, find Battery Settings in the Settings app. On the right, see which apps are using the most battery power.
For more information on using Low Power Mode, see our how-to.
What Features Turn Off In Low Power Mode?
The help text below the iPhone 6s Plus Low Power Mode toggle switch in Settings tells users that this feature turns off features to reduce the amount of power the phone uses. Here is a list of things affected:
iPhone 6s Plus Low Power Mode Test Results
So, how much battery life did the iPhone 6s Plus Low Power Mode add in a day of heavy use? On the second day of testing, the iPhone 6s Plus lasted 25% longer thanks to Low Power Mode. The phone lasted for about 10 hours before draining to 10% on a day of heavy use without Low Power Mode. With the setting turned on, the phone lasted longer, getting closer to 12.5 hours in Low Power Mode on the second day of heavy use.
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