The always-on screen of the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max always shows something in standby mode, be it the wallpaper, the clock and widgets or, since iOS 16.2, a mix of all of the above. This display requires energy, which affects autonomy. Yes, but by how much?
In our experience, the smartphone battery lasts well even when the always-on screen hits the battery. PhoneBuff’s YouTube channel wanted to get to the bottom of this by restoring iPhone 14 Pros to iOS 16.2 with no cloud connection, no apps other than Apple’s and in airplane mode.
In the first test, after 8 hours in a room with a brightness of 150 lux, the iPhone showing the wallpaper and the one showing only the clock lost only 2 points of autonomy , a solid 98% battery for both. iPhone with nothing still has 100% battery.
Same test, but this time in a room with 1,000 lux brightness. The difference is important because the iPhone has to ensure that the wallpaper is visible even when it is in standby. But even after 8 hours little has changed: the iPhone with the background image has 97% battery, the iPhone with only the clock has 98% and the control iPhone has 100%.
After 24 hours, the iPhone with the wallpaper has 80% battery life, compared to 84% for the iPhone with the clock (and still 100% for the control iPhone).
This test has the advantage of existing, but it is hardly representative of actual use. In real life, the iPhone will be connected to the network, the screen will update the information of the widgets, it will find itself face down on the table, the energy saving mode will be activated or the focus mode will be quiet or it will be in a bag, or we will move us away from it… Apple has listed the different scenarios in which the device always-on screen turns off completely:
iPhone 14 Pro: the 8 scenarios to turn off the always-on screen
PhoneBuff also compared the iPhone 14 Pro in sleep mode with the wallpaper turned off to a Galaxy S22 (which doesn’t show the wallpaper in sleep mode). First observation: the position of the clock varies constantly on the Samsung smartphone, certainly to avoid burn-in effects on the OLED screen. Apple may have found another solution as the clock stays in place on the iPhone!
24 hours later, the batteries of the two smartphones are empty: 84%. Interestingly, the control Galaxy S22, which doesn’t display anything at all, lost juice (-5 points), which was not the case for the control iPhone.