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How iOS 13 will make your battery last longer, but only if you have a newer, higher-priced iPhone

There's one feature built into iOS 13 that will help make your iPhone's battery last longer. But the catch is that you'll need a newer, higher-priced iPhone to take advantage of this feature.
Written by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, Contributing Writer
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Dark mode in iOS 13

Dark mode is finally coming to iOS with the iOS 13 release. And not only will it help save your eyes when you use your iPhone at night, switching to use night mode will help you get more out of you battery.

But only if you have a new iPhone, and bought one of the higher-priced models.

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I've come across a number of articles that state that dark mode will mean better battery life for everyone who turns it on, no matter what iPhone they use.

Sorry, but this is not true. It only applies to iPhones that have an OLED display, and that means you'll need to be using an iPhone X, iPhone XS, or iPhone XS Max. All the other iPhones use LCD displays instead of OLED, and dark mode won't make a difference.

Don't believe me? Well, believe the good people at iFixit.

"If your phone has an OLED display, turning on dark mode is like turning off a bunch of lights in your house, and the net power gains add up over time."

This means that older iPhones, and the budget iPhone XR won't benefit from battery saving due to dark mode. And since Apple doesn't have an iPad that uses an OLED display, they will not benefit either.

How much extra battery life will dark mode buy you if you are running a handset with an OLED display? Probably about an hour, which is quite an upgrade, and as iFixit point out, the longer your battery lasts between charges, the less often you need to recharge, which in turn means your battery lasts longer before needing to be replaced.

A win all around.

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Are you interested in using dark mode? Is this a feature that you've been holding your breath for or do you not care about it? Let me know below!

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