Here’s how the iPhone 14 Pro’s always-on screen drains the battery with and without the wallpaper on

The always-on screens of the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max have raised questions about their battery life when activated. Apple, firmly convinced that the screen refresh rate can be lowered to 1 Hz and thus consume less energy, assures that this will not quickly reduce the iPhone’s autonomy. We now have a video test showing how the always-on display drains the battery with and without wallpaper enabled as well as when the feature is fully disabled.

iPhone 14 Pro autonomy test with/without always on screen

3 iPhone 14 Pro used for testing reset to iOS 16.2. Note that with this version Apple has added a new setting that lets you hide the wallpaper or notifications when the “Always on display” display option is enabled on the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max. All 3 phones do not have apps installed on them (hence do not support widgets) and have signed out of iCloud with airplane mode enabled.

In the first part of the test which lasted 8 hours (with brightness around 150 lux), iPhone 14 Pro with screen on with wallpaper lost 2% and increased to 98%. The model with the screen on without wallpaper also lost 2% battery. As for the iPhone 14 Pro Max, with the features completely deactivated, it doesn’t lose its “crumbs” of power.

In second part of the test which also lasted 8 hours (this time with about 1000 lux brightness), iPhone 14 Pro with screen on with wallpaper lost 3% and increased to 97%. The model with the screen on without the wallpaper lost 2% of the battery. As for the iPhone 14 Pro Max with the feature completely disabled, it still retains 100% of its power.

Finally when the third and final part of the test which lasts 24 hours (again with ambient light 1000 lux), iPhone 14 Pro battery with screen on and wallpaper loses 20% and therefore drops to 80%. The model with the screen on without wallpaper lost 16% of the battery (84% left at the end of the test). For its part, the fully disabled iPhone 14 Pro Max once again emerges victorious retaining all its power.

So, with the screen still on and the wallpaper visible, the battery loses 0.8% charge per hour; with the screen always on without wallpaper, it loses power by 0.6% per hour. Also, it has to be said that most of the time, the always-on screen can turn off automatically in real life. This is because Apple has announced that the screen (always on) iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max turns off when:

• Your iPhone is face down on the table
• Your iPhone is in your pocket or purse
• Rest mode in the Concentration section is activated
• Energy saving mode is activated
• Your iPhone is connected to CarPlay
• You are using the Continuité system (which allows you to turn your iPhone into a webcam on a Mac)
• you haven’t used your iPhone in a while (your iPhone learns your activity patterns and turns off and on the screen as appropriate, including whether you’ve set an alarm or a sleep schedule)
• Your iPhone detects that you’ve moved away from it with your paired Apple Watch (the screen will light up the next time your Apple Watch gets close to your iPhone)

Another interesting comparison during the video is the Apple iPhone 14 Pro versus the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra: both completed 24 hours of testing with 84% charge remaining.

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