Extend Your iPhone Battery Life In Three Taps with Low Power Mode

Figuring out how to get the most life out of your iPhone battery is crucial. There are dozens of tips and tricks to achieve it, but if your battery is very low right now or you won't be able to charge for a long time, there's one simple thing you can do to conserve battery life: turn on Low Power Mode.
Low Power Mode is an aspect of iOS 9 that disables some features of the iPhone in order to make your battery last longer.

How Much Extra Time Does Low Power Mode Get You?

Because the amount of extra battery life Low Power Mode delivers is so dependent on how you use your iPhone, I can't say exactly how much time it will save you. According to Apple, though, the average person can expect to up to get an extra 3 hours of battery life with it on.

How to Turn On iPhone Low Power Mode

Sound like something you want to try? To turn Low Power Mode on:

1. Tap the Settings app to open it
2. Tap Battery
3. Move the Low Power Mode slider to On/green

To turn it off, just repeat these steps and move the slider of Off/white.
This isn't the only way to enable Low Power Mode, though. The iPhone gives you two other options:

• Siri—Just tell Siri "turn on Low Power Mode" (or a variation of that phrase) and she'll take care of it for you
• Pop-up Window—When your iPhone's battery life drops to 20%, and then again at 10%, the iOS gives you a pop-up warning. In that warning is a button that can turn on Low Power Mode. Tap it to start saving battery.

What Does Low Power Mode Turn Off?

Getting your battery to last longer sounds great, but you have to understand the trade offs you're making in order to know when it's the right choice for you.

• Processing power is reduced—The speed that the processor in the iPhone runs influences how much battery it uses. Low Power Mode controls the performance of the processor and the graphics chip in the phone to reduce the amount of battery it uses. This means your phone will be a little slower and might not perform as well in games and other graphics-intensive tasks

• Background app refresh is disabled—Your iPhone learns how you use your apps and automatically updates them around the times you usually open them to ensure that the latest data is always waiting for you. It's a cool feature, but it also requires battery life. Low Power Mode temporarily suspends this feature 
• Email fetch is turned off—The iPhone can be set to periodically grab new email from your accounts. Low Power Mode turns this feature off and forces you to manually check for new messages (open Mail and when you're in an inbox swipe down from the top to refresh) 
• Automatic downloads are disabled—You can set your iPhone to automatically download app updates or purchases made on other devices. It's great to keep your content in sync, but doing that requires power to check for downloads and perform them. Low Power Mode prevents automatic downloads while it's on
• Visual effects and animations are suspended—The iOS is packed full of all sorts of cool visual effects and animations. They make using the iPhone more fun, but they also require battery. By turning them off, Low Power Mode saves power
• Screen brightness is turned down—The brighter your phone's screen, the more battery you use. Low Power Mode reduces your screen brightness to save energy.

Can You Use Low Power Mode All the Time?

Given that Low Power Mode can give your iPhone up to 3 hours of extra battery life, and the features it turns off aren't completely essential to using the phone, some people may be wondering if it makes sense to use all the time. Well, you're not alone. Writer Matt Birchler tested that very scenario and found that Low Power Mode can reduce battery use by 33%-47% in some cases. That's a huge savings.
So, if you don't use the features listed above very much, or are willing to give them up for more juice in your battery, you could use Low Power Mode all the time.

When Low Power Mode Is Automatically Disabled

Even if you've turned on Low Power Mode, it's automatically turned off when the charge in your battery exceeds 80%.