Apple is taking a subtler approach to battery life with iOS 26. The new feature, Adaptive Power, kicks in when your iPhone detects “unusually high battery usage,” such as editing photos, recording video, or marathon gaming sessions, and makes smart tweaks under the hood to stretch battery life.
It doesn’t shut things down cold. Instead, it might dim the screen a few percent, limit background activity, and even flip on Low Power Mode when the battery dips to 20 percent. If you’re using performance-heavy features like Game Mode or the Camera, Apple promises Adaptive Power won’t get in your way.
Who gets it, and how to turn it on
Here’s the catch: not all iPhones are eligible.
Adaptive Power requires hardware compatible with Apple Intelligence. That means iPhone 15 Pro / Pro Max, all of the iPhone 16 series, iPhone 16e, and of course the just-released iPhone 17 lineup (including iPhone Air).
Among these, only the new iPhone 17 models (plus iPhone Air) have Adaptive Power on by default. Other eligible phones have to manually enable it: go to Settings → Battery → Power Mode, and toggle Adaptive Power.
I spoke with a user of the iPhone 16 Pro who’s been running the iOS 26 beta. “I hardly notice performance drops,” they said. “It makes little tweaks dimmer screen here, background apps held back there—but my phone lasts noticeably longer by evening.”
Why this matters (and the trade-offs)
Battery life has always been one of the trickiest trade-offs in smartphone design. Apple already has Low Power Mode, but Adaptive Power operates more fluidly: it learns your usage patterns, then acts only when needed. That should help avoid the jarring performance hits Low Power Mode sometimes brings.
On the flip side, because the feature relies on prediction and machine learning, there’s a warm-up period of seven days or so before it gathers enough data to work well.
Also, for users of older iPhones (pre-15 Pro), this isn’t available. If your device isn’t compatible with Apple Intelligence, you miss out. That said, for those who do have it, this could be one of the more underappreciated upgrades in iOS 26.
Adaptive Power in iOS 26 isn’t flashy. It’s not something you’ll brag about. But if your phone struggles to make it through high-usage days, this might just be the kind of behind-the-scenes optimization that really improves everyday experience.
If I were you, and you have an eligible iPhone, I’d flip it on, leave it for a week, and see whether it noticeably helps. It won’t solve battery ageing or hardware limits, but for many, this could be the “sweet spot” between performance and endurance.
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