Change These Settings to Extend the Battery Life of Your New IPhone Air
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The iPhone Air is a completely new type of smartphone from Apple, shrinking the iPhone’s internal components to the thinnest form factor to date—just 0.22 inches. Despite this, Apple promises up to 27 hours of video playback, which is only three hours shorter than the iPhone 17’s claimed time.
Frankly, I’m skeptical, and I’m not alone . Most of the phones I test don’t quite live up to their stated battery life claims, which are always measured under ideal conditions and usually come with a number of caveats. The iPhone Air may have a significant battery disadvantage compared to other new iPhones, which I’ll confirm once I get a chance to test it. But despite not using the phone for long, I did get to hold it in my hands, and I admit it feels absolutely magical, almost like having a credit card you can use to make calls.
I won’t blame you if you’re willing to sacrifice battery life or the camera’s potential to buy one for yourself, but if you do decide to, here are the settings you should enable to extend your battery life.
Low power mode
The most obvious way to extend your phone’s battery life is to enableLow Power Mode . On an iPhone, you can do this by simply swiping down from the top-right corner of the home screen and tapping the battery icon in the Control Center (or by going to Settings > Battery > Low Power Mode and turning on Low Power Mode ).
This will make the biggest changes to extend battery life, but it will also have the biggest impact on performance and usability. This means background processes will be reduced, the screen refresh rate and brightness will be lowered, and features like 5G and iCloud syncing will be limited. Additionally, some animations will be disabled, and the phone will automatically lock after 30 seconds of inactivity. Essentially, this probably isn’t how you want to use your phone most of the time, but it can help in a pinch.
Adaptive power mode
Adaptive Power is a less aggressive power-saving mode. It’s located in the same menu as Low Power Mode: Settings > Battery > Power Mode . To access it, you’ll need an iPhone 15 Pro or later and iOS 26.
When enabled, this feature uses Apple Intelligence to adjust your phone’s performance on the fly, rather than immediately slamming the brakes like Low Power Mode. Based on your usage patterns, it will attempt to predict when you’ll need more battery life than usual and make adjustments like stopping background app refreshes, reducing screen brightness by 3%, or simply making general performance adjustments. The principle is very new and hasn’t been disclosed by Apple yet, but the idea is that while you should only enable Low Power Mode when you absolutely need it, you can enable Adaptive Power Mode and forget about it. It’s not one or the other. You can still use Low Power Mode in addition to Adaptive Power Mode. In fact, if your phone’s battery level is less than 20%, Adaptive Power Mode will turn on Low Power Mode for you.
What’s the catch? Adaptive Power Mode takes seven days to learn your charging habits, so you’ll need to enable it at least a week before actual use.
Reduce the brightness
Let’s say you don’t trust Apple’s various power modes in your phone’s settings or you only want to limit a few settings. That’s entirely possible. In that case, let’s start with brightness. Constantly maxing out the brightness not only hurts your eyes but also drains your battery faster. So, you’ll probably want to reduce the brightness to a level that’s appropriate for your current situation.
There are several options here. The easiest is to simply swipe down from the top-right corner of the home screen and adjust the brightness using the slider with the sun icon. If you prefer to adjust brightness in the Settings app, go to Settings > Display & Brightness and scroll down until you see the slider. You’ll see a variety of other options here, but they’re more related to color temperature and won’t help you adjust brightness (though we’ll come back to them later in this guide).
But if you’re like me, constantly manually adjusting brightness can get a bit tedious. So, I prefer to turn on Auto-Brightness . Just enable it in Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size > Auto-Brightness , and your phone will automatically dim the brightness in the dark or increase it in sunlight. It gives you a little less control, but it’s still quite convenient.
Reduce the time before your phone automatically locks.
Returning to Settings > Display & Brightness , you’ll see the “Auto-Lock” toggle. This activates the Auto-Lock feature and returns the lock screen after a certain period of inactivity. Personally, I prefer to set it to five minutes so I can read long articles or check recipes while cooking without fear of being kicked out for not tapping the screen enough. However, this drains the battery faster.
To extend your phone’s battery life, try reducing this time to 30 seconds or one minute. You may have to remind your phone of your presence more often than you’d like, but this will prevent unnecessary battery drain if you accidentally get up and leave your phone at home without locking it.
And don’t worry: even if auto-lock is set to the strictest settings, the screen won’t lock while you’re watching a video or playing a game.
Disable Always-On Display
The Always-On Display feature, introduced in the iPhone 14 Pro, is one of my favorite features in Apple’s latest iPhone models because it makes it easy to check notifications or the time. But it drains the battery quickly, even with the refresh rate set to a low 1Hz.
To disable this feature, go back to Settings > Display & Brightness , then tap Always On Display and toggle off Always On Display at the bottom of the pop-up menu. If you’re looking for a compromise, you can simply toggle off Show Wallpaper at the top of the same menu. Always On Display will remain enabled, but everything except the clock and widgets will be black. This will save battery power, which is necessary to display colors, which brings me to my next tip.
Enable dark mode
Here’s my final tip: Settings > Display & Brightness . At the top of this page, you’ll be able to choose between “Light” and “Dark” modes. If you want to save battery, choose “Dark.” This is because the iPhone uses an OLED display, where each pixel lights up on its own. If a pixel only needs to display black, it simply won’t light up, saving battery.
Dark mode won’t work in all apps, but those that support it will have their backgrounds replaced with black, which should help extend the life of your phone.
Manage your data consumption
A data connection actually uses more power than Wi-Fi, as cellular connections require a stronger signal over longer distances. This means you’ll have to be more strict with your data usage to conserve your iPhone’s battery.
There are several options here. The simplest is to disable data entirely by swiping down on the home screen and turning off the small green data icon next to the Bluetooth icon in the upper left corner. This will completely disable data, but since the feature doesn’t differentiate between apps, it’s not suitable for everyday use.
To fine-tune your iPhone’s data usage, go to Settings > Cellular . Here you’ll find several convenient controls.
The easiest way is to disable “Wi-Fi Assist,” which supplements your Wi-Fi connection with internet speeds when it’s slow. Since our goal is to reduce internet dependence, enabling it isn’t ideal.
You might also want to turn off iCloud Drive and iCloud Backup , which will use your cellular network to transfer and back up files to iCloud when Wi-Fi isn’t available.
Above these toggles, you can also see the apps consuming the most data and limit their network access. This can be useful even if you’re not trying to improve battery life, as it can likely also reduce unnecessary data usage.
Finally, let’s enable Wi-Fi Calling . This will allow your phone to make calls over the internet when connected to Wi-Fi, saving your cellular data. Return to the main Settings menu, then scroll down to Apps > Phone . Here, scroll down to the Calls section and ensure Wi-Fi Calling is enabled. You can optionally scroll up and uncheck the Cellular Data option under Allow Phone Access , but this will prevent you from making calls without a Wi-Fi connection.
Managing background app refresh
Just because you closed an app on your iPhone doesn’t mean it’s no longer running. In fact, many apps continue to update in the background, refreshing their content but draining your battery. Luckily, you have several options.
To see the available options, go to Settings > General > Background App Refresh . You’ll see your phone’s overall approach to background app refresh, as well as toggles for each app on your phone.
Tap the “Background App Refresh” button in the menu, and you’ll be able to choose whether to turn it off, keep it on all the time, or only enable it when connected to Wi-Fi. “Off” is the most energy-efficient option, but if you’re not so strict, you can choose Wi-Fi to at least prevent it from using your data (which, again, drains your battery even more).
After that, if you left this feature enabled, you can scroll through the list of apps and choose which ones to allow background refresh. This can save battery if you don’t want to disable the feature completely, but want to turn it off for certain battery-consuming apps. Unfortunately, unlike the Cellular Data menu, you won’t see how much power your apps are using, so you’ll have to guess.
Just buy an external battery
Finally, you can just give in and buy an external battery. The iPhone Air works with any external battery that’s compatible with your other iPhones, and despite its thinness, it securely attaches to compatible batteries via MagSafe. As much as I hate to suggest the “just spend more money” option, Apple doesn’t share that concern. In fact, the company even developed a MagSafe battery specifically designed for the iPhone Air , which the company claims will provide “up to 65% more charge” while maintaining a slim design.
It costs $100, and whether that’s worth it depends on your priorities. Personally, I’m not entirely sure, since you’ll probably buy the iPhone Air for its thinness and lightness. If that’s the case, why bother attaching an external battery to it? But I also understand why you might want a MagSafe battery sometimes, and a thin case in other situations. Just keep in mind: this battery is a bit tall, so it won’t fit vertically on either the iPhone 17 or iPhone 17 Pro.