The iPhone Air is a brand-new type of phone for Apple, shrinking down the iPhone\u2019s internals into the thinnest form factor yet, at just 0.22 inches thick. Despite all that, Apple is promising up to 27 hours of video playback, which is just three hours fewer than it\u2019s estimating for the iPhone 17. <\/p>\n
Honestly, I’m skeptical\u2014and I\u2019m not alone in that<\/a>. Most of the phones I test<\/a> don\u2019t quite live up to their official battery life estimates, which are always done in ideal conditions and usually come with a number of caveats. It’s possible the iPhone Air will have significant battery shortcoming compared to the other new iPhones, which I’ll confirm when I’ve been able to test it. But despite not getting extended time with the phone, I have gotten to hold the iPhone Air, and I will admit that it feels downright magical in the hand, almost like a credit card that can make phone calls. <\/p>\n I won\u2019t blame you if you\u2019re willing to sacrifice some battery life or camera potential to snag one for yourself, but if you do, here are the settings you\u2019ll want to turn on to eke out some extra battery life.<\/p>\n Low Power Mode<\/p>\n Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt\n <\/p>\n The most obvious way to extend battery life on your phone is to turn on Low Power Mode<\/a>. On an iPhone, doing so is as simple as swiping down from your Home Screen\u2019s top right corner and tapping the battery icon in the control center (or you can go to Settings > Battery > Power Mode<\/strong> and toggle on Low Power Mode<\/strong> from there).<\/p>\n This will make the most battery life-extending changes for you, but will also come with the biggest hits to performance and usability. That means it\u2019ll reduce your background activities, lower your refresh rate and brightness, and limit features like 5G and iCloud syncing. It\u2019ll also cut some animations and start automatically locking your phone after 30 seconds of inactivity. Essentially, it\u2019s probably not how you\u2019ll want to use your phone most of the time, but it can help in a pinch.<\/p>\n Adaptive Power mode<\/p>\n Adaptive Power mode<\/a> is kind of like a less aggressive Low Power Mode. You\u2019ll find it in the same menu as Low Power Mode, under Settings > Battery > Power Mode<\/strong>, although you\u2019ll need an iPhone 15 Pro or above and iOS 26 to access it.<\/p>\n When enabled, this will use Apple Intelligence to adjust your phone\u2019s performance on the fly, rather than immediately battening down all hatches like Low Power Mode. Based on your usage patterns, it\u2019ll attempt to predict when you\u2019ll need more battery life than usual, and will make tweaks like stopping background apps from refreshing, lowering screen brightness by 3%, or just generally making \u201cperformance adjustments.\u201d How it works is all very new and behind the Apple curtain for now, but the idea is that while you\u2019re only meant to turn Low Power Mode on when you absolutely need it, you can set Adaptive Power mode and forget it. And it\u2019s not one-or-the-other, either. You can still use Low Power Mode in addition to Adaptive Power Mode. In fact, if your phone is at less than 20% battery, Adaptive Power Mode will turn Low Power Mode on for you.<\/p>\n The catch? Adaptive Power Mode needs seven days to learn your charging habits, so you\u2019ll need to enable it at least a week before you actually want to use it.<\/p>\n Turn down your brightness<\/p>\n Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt\n <\/p>\n Let\u2019s say you don\u2019t trust Apple\u2019s various power modes to adjust your phone\u2019s settings for you, or you only want to limit a few things. That\u2019s totally an option. In that case, let\u2019s start with brightness. Keeping your phone at max brightness all the time isn\u2019t just eye-searing, but it\u2019ll also drain your battery faster. That\u2019s why you\u2019ll probably want to turn it down to just what you need for the situation you\u2019re in.<\/p>\n You\u2019ve got a few options here. The easiest is to simply swipe down from your Home Screen\u2019s top right corner, then adjust your brightness using the slider with the sun icon on it. If you prefer to adjust your brightness in the Settings app, you can head over to Settings > Display & Brightness<\/strong> and scroll down until you see the slider there. You\u2019ll see a bunch of other options here, but they\u2019re more about color temperature, and won\u2019t actually help you adjust your brightness (although we will return to them later on in this guide).<\/p>\n But if you\u2019re like me, manually controlling your brightness all the time will get a bit tiring. That\u2019s why I prefer to turn on Auto-Brightness<\/strong>. Simply toggle it on under Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size > Auto-Brightness<\/strong>, and your phone will automatically lower the brightness when you\u2019re in a dark environment or turn it up while you\u2019re surrounded by sunlight. It gives you a bit less control, but it\u2019s pretty convenient.<\/p>\n Turn down the amount of time until your phone auto-locks<\/p>\n Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt\n <\/p>\n Back in Settings > Display & Brightness<\/strong>, you\u2019ll see a toggle called Auto-Lock<\/strong>. This is what kicks you out of your phone and back to your lock screen after a certain amount of inactivity. Personally, I like to leave it at five minutes, so I can safely read long articles or check recipes while cooking without being kicked out for not tapping the screen enough. But that does drain my battery faster.<\/p>\n To eke out more battery life from your phone, try turning it down to the 30-second or one-minute mark. You might need to remind your phone that you\u2019re there more often than you\u2019d like, but it\u2019ll keep you from needlessly draining your battery if you accidentally get up and leave your phone behind without locking it first.<\/p>\n And don\u2019t worry: even with the auto-lock set to its strictest settings, it won\u2019t lock the screen while you\u2019re watching a video or playing a game.<\/p>\n Turn off the always-on display<\/p>\n Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt\n <\/p>\n The iPhone\u2019s always-on display, added with the iPhone 14 Pro, is one of my favorite things about Apple\u2019s most recent iPhone models, since it makes it easy to check notifications or the time at a glance. But it will drain your battery, even if it\u2019s set to a low, 1Hz refresh rate. <\/p>\n To turn it off, again head to Settings > Display & Brightness<\/strong>, then tap Always On Display<\/strong> and toggle off Always On Display <\/strong>at the bottom of the menu that pops up. If you want to compromise, you can simply toggle off Show Wallpaper<\/strong> at the top of the same menu. This will keep the always on display on, but everything except for the clock and your widgets will be black. That\u2019ll save you some battery life needed to display color, which brings me to my next tip.<\/p>\n Turn on Dark Mode<\/p>\n Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt\n <\/p>\n Here\u2019s my final tip for Settings > Display & Brightness<\/strong>. At the top of this page, you\u2019ll be able to select whether you want your phone in Light Mode or Dark Mode. If you want to save battery life, choose Dark Mode. That\u2019s because the iPhone uses an OLED screen, so each individual pixel is self-illuminating. If a pixel only needs to display black, it just won\u2019t turn on, saving you battery life.<\/p>\n Dark Mode won\u2019t work across all apps, but in ones that support it, it\u2019ll swap your background to black, which should help your phone last longer over time.<\/p>\n Manage your data consumption<\/p>\n Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt\n <\/p>\n Connecting to a network to use data actually drains more power than wifi, because a cellular connection requires a stronger signal over long distances. That means, to save battery life on your iPhone, you\u2019ll want to be a bit strict about data consumption.<\/p>\n What do you think so far?<\/p>\n You\u2019ve got a few options here. The easiest is to simply turn off data altogether, by swiping down from the Home Screen and turning off the small green data icon next to the Bluetooth icon in the top left corner. This will turn off data altogether, but because it doesn\u2019t discriminate between apps, it\u2019s not ideal for everyday use.<\/p>\n To be a bit more specific with how your iPhone uses data, you\u2019ll need to navigate to Settings > Cellular<\/strong>. Here, you\u2019ve got a few controls at your fingertips. <\/p>\n The easiest choice to make here is disabling Wi-Fi Assist<\/strong>, which supplements your wifi with data connection when it\u2019s running slow. Since our goal here is to reduce our reliance on data, having it on isn\u2019t ideal.<\/p>\n You might also want to turn off iCloud Drive<\/strong> and iCloud Backup<\/strong>, which will use your cell network to transfer and backup files to iCloud when wifi isn\u2019t available.<\/p>\n Above these toggles, you\u2019ll also be able to see your most data hungry apps and restrict their access to your network. This can be helpful even if you\u2019re not trying to increase battery life, as you can probably cut down on unnecessary data usage here as well.<\/p>\n Finally, let\u2019s enable Wi-Fi Calling<\/strong>. This will allow your phone to make calls over the internet while you\u2019re connected to wifi, saving you some cellular data. Head back to the main Settings<\/strong> menu, then scroll down to Apps > Phone<\/strong>. Here, scroll down to Calls<\/strong> and ensure Wi-Fi Calling <\/strong>is turned on. If you want to, you can even scroll up and uncheck Cellular Data<\/strong> under Allow Phone to Access<\/strong>, although this will keep you from making calls unless you\u2019re connected to wifi.<\/p>\n Manage background app refresh<\/p>\n Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt\n <\/p>\n Just because you\u2019ve navigated away from an app on your iPhone doesn\u2019t mean it isn\u2019t running anymore. Instead, plenty of apps will continue to refresh in the background, updating their content but also draining your battery. Luckily, you have a few choices here.<\/p>\n To see your options, head to Settings > General > Background App Refresh<\/strong>. You\u2019ll see your phone\u2019s general approach to refreshing apps in the background, as well as toggles for every app on your phone.<\/p>\n Click the Background App Refresh<\/strong> button in the menu and you can choose whether to turn it off, keep it on all the time, or only enable it when you\u2019re on wifi. Off<\/strong> is the most battery efficient option, but if you\u2019re not that strict, you can also choose Wi-Fi<\/strong> to at least keep the feature from using your data (which, again, drains more battery).<\/p>\n With that done, if you\u2019ve left the feature on, you can now scroll through your list of apps and select which apps you want to allow to refresh in the background. This could save you some battery life if you don\u2019t want to turn the feature off altogether, but do want to disable it for certain hungry apps. Unfortunately, unlike with the Cellular Data menu, you won\u2019t see how hungry your apps are here, so you\u2019ll have to guess.<\/p>\n Just buy an external battery pack<\/p>\n Credit: Apple\n <\/p>\n Finally, you could just give up and buy an external power pack. The iPhone Air will work with any external batteries that your other iPhones do, and despite being so thin, it will securely attach to compatible batteries via MagSafe. As much as I hate to suggest \u201cjust spend more money\u201d as an option, Apple doesn\u2019t share that concern. In fact, it\u2019s even made a MagSafe battery designed specifically for the iPhone Air<\/a>, which it says will give you \u201c65 percent additional charge\u201d while still maintaining a slim profile.<\/p>\n It costs $100, and whether that\u2019s worth it to you will depend on your priorities. Personally, I\u2019m not quite sure myself, since you\u2019d presumably be buying the iPhone Air because it\u2019s thin and light. If that\u2019s the case, why slap an external battery on it? But I can also see why you\u2019d want a MagSafe battery some of the time and a slim form factor at other times. Just be aware: This battery is a bit tall, so it won\u2019t fit vertically on either the iPhone 17 or iPhone 17 Pro.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We may earn a commission from links on this page. 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