iOS 16.4 seems to drain iPhones much faster than previous versions.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
A week after the release of iOS 16.4, tests show that the new version dramatically reduces battery life across a wide variety of iPhone models.
This has happened in the past for iOS versions and later updates fixed the battery drain.
iPhone battery life drops in iOS 16.4
Conspiracy theorists believe that every iOS update reduces battery life. There’s plenty of data to refute this – iOS 16 has brought an important increase for every Apple handset launched in the past few years.
But the iPhone update released on March 27 does the opposite, according to real-world testing by the YouTube channel iAppleBytes.
When Geekbench battery tests were run on an iPhone 13, iPhone 12, iPhone 11, iPhone XR, and iPhone 8 running iOS 16.4, all of their scores dropped, and some of those models saw double-digit drops in scores compared to iOS 16.3.1. The battery score of the iPhone 13, for example, dropped by 11%. The iPhone 12 was down 12%.
As someone running the new version on an iPhone 14 Plus, I also noticed that my device drained faster than usual.
Wait, if you can
Anyone who hasn’t installed iOS 16.4 yet might seriously consider skipping it. Unconfirmed reports indicate that iOS 16.4.1 will be released soon and may take care of this battery drain.
Watch full iAppleBytes video for details.