iOS 26.1 Beta Liquid Glass Battery Drain Check: Tinted vs Clear Mode

Within the fourth iOS 26.1 beta, Apple added a “Tinted” choice that reduces the translucency of Liquid Glass for individuals who want a extra opaque look. I noticed some feedback questioning whether or not the setting may protect battery life, so I believed I might do some testing.

Check Settings

I did 4 separate exams utilizing the iPhone 17 Professional Max, and I stored the parameters as comparable as potential. Listed here are the settings I used for every check:

1. Liquid Glass set to Clear.
2. Liquid Glass set to Tinted.
3. Liquid Glass set to Tinted with Cut back Transparency and Improve Distinction on.
4. Liquid Glass with Cut back Transparency, Improve Distinction, and Cut back Movement turned on.

For each check, I used Gentle mode and never Darkish mode, I turned off True Tone and Evening Shift, and set my iPhone to 50% brightness. The show was additionally set to not flip off. My battery well being continues to be 100%, and ambient temperature throughout testing was 68 to 72 levels.

I left my notifications turned on as a result of I get a reasonably even distribution of notifications all through the day and I needed to imitate how I might use my ‌iPhone‌. My Dwelling Display screen was set to the usual icons.

How I Examined

I did the very same collection of actions for every check, timed to the second.

• half-hour of scrolling TikTok.
• half-hour of YouTube movies.
• half-hour of scrolling Instagram/watching reels.
• half-hour of Safari on the MacRumors web site. Scrolling and tapping to a handful of various pages.
• half-hour of the Maps app. I routed myself to the identical location, however I did not really go. It was extra of a check to have the Liquid Glass interface up for a stable 30 minute interval.

Throughout every of the 5 segments, I swiped to entry notifications on the Lock Display screen 4 instances, and swiped to open Management Middle 4 instances. I opened up notifications and Management Middle 20 instances complete for every check, then swiped again to shut them. These had been timed to roughly 3.5 minute intervals.

Once I swapped from one app to a different, I swiped as much as shut it and exit to the ‌Dwelling Display screen‌, swiped all the way down to carry up search, typed within the app title, and tapped to open it.

Each check was 2.5 hours, with a number of additional seconds between every phase to change apps. Exams had been break up over two days, one at roughly 3:00 p.m., and one at 5:30 p.m.

I solely cost my ‌iPhone‌ to 80%, so between every 2.5 hour interval, I charged my ‌iPhone‌ again to 80% earlier than beginning the following check. The one wildcard components had been notifications and the content material that was on TikTok and Instagram as I scrolled.

Check Outcomes

The outcomes weren’t what I anticipated. I went into this check considering that turning on Cut back Transparency and Cut back Movement would have an impact, however it did not. I did not discover a number of settings that modified the battery that my ‌iPhone‌ used.

• Spherical 1 – This was the “Clear” spherical, and my baseline. I began at 80% and ended proper at 70%.
• Spherical 2 – Tinted mode. I began at 80% and ended at 69%.
• Spherical 3 – Tinted mode, Cut back Transparency, and Improve Distinction. I began at 80% and I ended at 69%.
• Spherical 4 – Tinted mode, Cut back Transparency, Improve Distinction, and Cut back Movement. I began at 80% and ended at 70%.

I did find yourself with 1% much less battery with the 2 center exams, however there wasn’t sufficient of a deviation to attract any conclusion. I can not see fractions of a % with battery measurements, so it is potential that the 2 70% exams had been near 69% and I had minor variations due to the small variations in content material between exams.

Check Outcomes Expanded

I needed to incorporate the % totals for every phase of testing as a result of there have been some minor variations.

• Spherical 1 – TikTok ended at 79%, YouTube ended at 77%, Instagram ended at 74%, Safari ended at 72%, Maps ended at 70%.
• Spherical 2 – TikTok ended at 78%, YouTube ended at 75%, Instagram ended at 72%, Safari ended at 70%, Maps ended at 69%.
• Spherical 3 – TikTok ended at 78%, YouTube ended at 76%, Instagram ended at 73%, Safari ended at 70%, Maps ended at 69%.
• Spherical 4 – TikTok ended at 79%, Instagram ended at 77%, YouTube ended at 74%, Safari ended at 72%, and Maps ended at 70%. On this spherical, I unintentionally swapped Instagram and YouTube, however restarting would have modified the time of day of the check so I simply did these two apps swapped.

Caveats

I needed my check to imitate how I would often use my cellphone, however it was solely a 2.5 hour interval. It is potential {that a} full 16 hours of swiping out and in of apps and options that use Liquid Glass may have extra of an mixture battery saving impact. I am guessing it will solely be a tiny % of general battery utilization although, and largely inconsequential.

The apps that I used do not all have Liquid Glass-heavy interfaces. TikTok and Instagram, for instance, barely use Liquid Glass in any respect. Heavy use of apps which have extra Liquid Glass parts may change the outcomes, however there aren’t many apps that I spend quite a lot of time on that use Liquid Glass like that.

I take advantage of an ‌iPhone 17 Professional‌ Max. I’m curious if there could be a distinction in battery life on an older ‌iPhone‌ which may wrestle extra to render Liquid Glass results.

If anybody with an older ‌iPhone‌ needs to do comparable testing, I might be completely satisfied to revisit this with one other article that features extra testing from MacRumors readers. I’m additionally in a position to do extra testing if anybody has recommendations on what I would have the ability to change to really scale back battery consumption.

Conclusion

On the iPhone 17 fashions, I do not suppose there are Liquid Glass-related settings to vary that can make a significant distinction in battery consumption.

There appears to be no motive to activate one thing like Tinted mode or Cut back Transparency until you need the opacity for visible choice causes.

Low Energy Mode, Adaptive Energy Mode, Darkish Mode, and turning down display screen brightness appear to nonetheless be the simplest methods to eke out extra battery life.