Hardware and software changes will lead to improved iPhone battery life this year
Changes being made to iOS 27 and larger battery capacities will give iPhone 18 Pro series users longer battery life.
You can expect iOS 27 to be released in September around the same time that the Apple iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, and iPhone 18 Fold are offered for sale. With the release of this build, Apple is also supposed to turn Siri into an AI chatbot similar to ChatGPT and Gemini. Under the deal that Apple has with Google, the tech giant pays the Alphabet subsidiary $1 billion per year for a 1.2 trillion parameter AI model that will be used to give Siri a smarter brain.
Report says iOS 27 will improve the battery life on iPhone handsets
If you use Gemini as the digital assistant on your Pixel, you'll know about the fantastic in-depth answers that you get from AI for your queries. Gemini will also set your timers and alarms, send texts that you dictate to the assistant, and make phone calls to people you request a call be made to. But iOS 27 will do more than finally bring Siri to the place technologically where the assistant was supposed to be at in 2024 when Apple released iOS 18.1.
The original iPhone featured a 1,400 mAh battery compared to the 5,088 mAh cell expected to power the iPhone 18 Pro Max. | Image by PhoneArena
This year, iOS 27 is expected to improve the battery life on compatible iPhone models once the update is installed. The latest report about iOS 27 has Apple focusing on performance by reworking some of the operating system's code. Previously, the internal codenames for iOS 27 and macOS 27 were said to be Buttercup and Honeycrisp respectively. Now, the codenames are said to be Rave and Fizz. The new codenames are more aggressive sounding which indicates Apple's desire to focus on performance.
The iPhone's Neural Engine will run more effectively saving battery life
As part of this focus, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman says that better performance from iOS 27 will lead to the improvement in iPhone battery consumption. Gurman says that iOS 27 will reverse the battery drain that many iPhone models experienced with iOS 26. Old, redundant code that does nothing but cause background processes that waste energy and drain battery life will be streamlined.
Are you happy with the rumored iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max battery hikes?
This allows the calculator and compass apps, older built-in apps, to run more efficiently leaving more battery life for users. Engineers are said to be working on ways for the Neural Engine to also run more efficiently, perhaps by throttling the AI processor to prevent AI tasks from draining the battery so quickly. One way to do this would be to look at the temperature and current health of the battery and instead of running AI processes at full speed right away, "drip-feed" the AI tasks to the Neural Engine.
The iPhone battery will hit a milestone in 2026 and one model will sport the largest iPhone battery ever used
Apple also plans to make a change to iOS 27 when it comes to the re-indexing that is led by the Neural Engine during the first 48 hours after you update your iPhone. Re-indexing your complete photo and file library is the cause of the first 48-hour battery drain on your iPhone. Gurman says that Apple will introduce a new background management system that extends this re-indexing over a longer period of time. This will help the battery stay cool and keep the battery from draining too fast immediately following the update.
There are other reasons to expect better battery life on the upcoming 2026 iPhone models. Both the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are rumored to get larger capacity cells. Gurman sees the iPhone 18 Pro getting a nice 18.7% increase in battery capacity from 3,582 mAh to 4,252 mAh. If Gurman is right, the iPhone 18 Pro Max will be the first iPhone to sport a battery with a capacity over 5,000 mAh. He expects the new Pro Max model to carry a 5,088 mAh battery, which is 8.6% more than the iPhone 17 Pro Max's 4,685 mAh cell.
The largest battery in iPhone history is expected to be found inside the iPhone Fold with rumors calling for the foldable to sport a battery capacity in the range between 5,500 mAh and 5,800 mAh. Apple might use two cells for the iPhone Fold and this makes sense since many say that the device resembles two iPhone Ar units joined at the hinge.
It seems that for those iPhone users who care about battery life, and we know who you are, 2026 will be a bumper year for you.
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