iOS 26 offers massive battery upgrade, but there’s a catch

ios 26 beta on a phone screen

iOS 26 gives the people what they want: a good battery life. Credit: Cheng Xin / Getty Images

Some people just want their phones to have good battery life, and a new iOS 26 feature offers just that.

Liquid Glass might be Apple's splashiest iOS 26 feature, but Apple's Adaptive Power mode is the AI workhorse saving your battery life behind the scenes. "When your battery usage is higher than usual, iPhone can make small performance adjustments to extend your battery life," read the feature description in the first iOS 26 beta (via MacRumors). This includes "slightly lowering the display brightness or allowing some activities to take a little longer."

Adaptive Power mode is different from Low Power Mode, which still kicks in when your iPhone reaches 20 percent battery. This is different in the sense that your iPhone adjusts performance based on your individual habits.

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The new Adaptive Power mode is one of several features introduced with the iOS 26 update that officially debuted at Apple's WWDC. As predicted, the new iPhone operating system focused on a redesigned interface and smaller updates and new features for Apple Intelligence, like Live Translation and Hold Assist, so Adaptive Power mode didn't get much attention. But now that the iOS 26 beta is available to test out, users have discovered this feature in the Power Mode section of iPhone settings.

It sounds pretty useful, but there's a catch. Adaptive Power mode is only available for iPhones that support Apple Intelligence, since it is, after all, part of Apple's collection of AI-powered features. That means this power-saving mode works for the following iPhone models:

iPhone 15 Pro
iPhone 15 Pro Max
iPhone 16e
iPhone 16
iPhone 16 Plus
iPhone 16 Pro
iPhone 16 Pro Max

So Apple users with older phones will have to upgrade to a newer model to get the benefits of preserving precious battery life. If you do have an iPhone 15 Pro, Pro Max, or any of the iPhone 16 models, you can try it out by installing the iOS 26 beta. But be warned, like all betas, the iOS 26 can be buggy, so it's important to make a back-up of your current system before you install it.

Cecily is a tech reporter at Mashable who covers AI, Apple, and emerging tech trends. Before getting her master's degree at Columbia Journalism School, she spent several years working with startups and social impact businesses for Unreasonable Group and B Lab. Before that, she co-founded a startup consulting business for emerging entrepreneurial hubs in South America, Europe, and Asia. You can find her on X at @cecily_mauran.

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