Within the fourth iOS 26.1 beta, Apple added a “Tinted” possibility that reduces the translucency of Liquid Glass for individuals who desire a extra opaque look. I noticed some feedback questioning whether or not the setting would possibly protect battery life, so I assumed I would do some testing.
Take a look at Settings
I did 4 separate checks utilizing the iPhone 17 Professional Max, and I saved the parameters as related as attainable. Listed here are the settings I used for every take a look at:
- Liquid Glass set to Clear.
- Liquid Glass set to Tinted.
- Liquid Glass set to Tinted with Scale back Transparency and Improve Distinction on.
- Liquid Glass with Scale back Transparency, Improve Distinction, and Scale back Movement turned on.
For each take a look at, I used Gentle mode and never Darkish mode, I turned off True Tone and Night time Shift, and set my iPhone to 50% brightness. The show was additionally set to not flip off. My battery well being continues to be 100%, and ambient temperature throughout testing was 68 to 72 levels.
I left my notifications turned on as a result of I get a reasonably even distribution of notifications all through the day and I wished to imitate how I would use my iPhone. My Dwelling Display was set to the usual icons.
How I Examined
I did the very same sequence of actions for every take a look at, timed to the second.
- half-hour of scrolling TikTok.
- half-hour of YouTube movies.
- half-hour of scrolling Instagram/watching reels.
- half-hour of Safari on the MacRumors web site. Scrolling and tapping to a handful of various pages.
- half-hour of the Maps app. I routed myself to the identical location, however I did not really go. It was extra of a take a look at to have the Liquid Glass interface up for a strong 30 minute interval.
Throughout every of the 5 segments, I swiped to entry notifications on the Lock Display 4 occasions, and swiped to open Management Middle 4 occasions. I opened up notifications and Management Middle 20 occasions complete for every take a look at, then swiped again to shut them. These had been timed to roughly 3.5 minute intervals.
After I swapped from one app to a different, I swiped as much as shut it and exit to the Dwelling Display, swiped all the way down to deliver up search, typed within the app title, and tapped to open it.
Each take a look at was 2.5 hours, with a couple of additional seconds between every phase to change apps. Checks had been cut up over two days, one at roughly 3:00 p.m., and one at 5:30 p.m.
I solely cost my iPhone to 80%, so between every 2.5 hour interval, I charged my iPhone again to 80% earlier than beginning the subsequent take a look at. The one wildcard elements had been notifications and the content material that was on TikTok and Instagram as I scrolled.
Take a look at Outcomes
The outcomes weren’t what I anticipated. I went into this take a look at pondering that turning on Scale back Transparency and Scale back Movement would have an impact, but it surely did not. I did not discover a choice of settings that modified the battery that my iPhone used.
- Spherical 1 – This was the “Clear” spherical, and my baseline. I began at 80% and ended proper at 70%.
- Spherical 2 – Tinted mode. I began at 80% and ended at 69%.
- Spherical 3 – Tinted mode, Scale back Transparency, and Improve Distinction. I began at 80% and I ended at 69%.
- Spherical 4 – Tinted mode, Scale back Transparency, Improve Distinction, and Scale back Movement. I began at 80% and ended at 70%.
I did find yourself with 1% much less battery with the 2 center checks, however there wasn’t sufficient of a deviation to attract any conclusion. I am unable to see fractions of a % with battery measurements, so it is attainable that the 2 70% checks had been near 69% and I had minor variations due to the small variations in content material between checks.
Take a look at Outcomes Expanded
I wished to incorporate the % totals for every phase of testing as a result of there have been some minor variations.
- Spherical 1 – TikTok ended at 79%, YouTube ended at 77%, Instagram ended at 74%, Safari ended at 72%, Maps ended at 70%.
- Spherical 2 – TikTok ended at 78%, YouTube ended at 75%, Instagram ended at 72%, Safari ended at 70%, Maps ended at 69%.
- Spherical 3 – TikTok ended at 78%, YouTube ended at 76%, Instagram ended at 73%, Safari ended at 70%, Maps ended at 69%.
- Spherical 4 – TikTok ended at 79%, Instagram ended at 77%, YouTube ended at 74%, Safari ended at 72%, and Maps ended at 70%. On this spherical, I unintentionally swapped Instagram and YouTube, however restarting would have modified the time of day of the take a look at so I simply did these two apps swapped.
Caveats
I wished my take a look at to imitate how I would repeatedly use my cellphone, but it surely was solely a 2.5 hour interval. It is attainable {that a} full 16 hours of swiping out and in of apps and options that use Liquid Glass might have extra of an combination battery saving impact. I am guessing it will solely be a tiny % of general battery utilization although, and principally inconsequential.
The apps that I used do not all have Liquid Glass-heavy interfaces. TikTok and Instagram, for instance, barely use Liquid Glass in any respect. Heavy use of apps which have extra Liquid Glass parts might change the outcomes, however there aren’t many apps that I spend a number of time on that use Liquid Glass like that.
I take advantage of an iPhone 17 Professional Max. I’m curious if there could be a distinction in battery life on an older iPhone that may wrestle extra to render Liquid Glass results.
If anybody with an older iPhone needs to do related testing, I would be comfortable to revisit this with one other article that features extra testing from MacRumors readers. I’m additionally capable of do extra testing if anybody has ideas on what I would be capable to change to really scale back battery consumption.
Conclusion
On the iPhone 17 fashions, I do not suppose there are Liquid Glass-related settings to alter that can make a significant distinction in battery consumption.
There appears to be no purpose to activate one thing like Tinted mode or Scale back Transparency until you need the opacity for visible desire causes.
Low Energy Mode, Adaptive Energy Mode, Darkish Mode, and turning down display screen brightness appear to nonetheless be the simplest methods to eke out extra battery life.