iOS 9’s Low Power mode could weaken your iPhone by as much as 40%

One of the more interesting features in iOS 9 is the new Low Power mode that throttles your devices power in the name of saving power. With the iPhone’s notoriously small batteries, this feature could prove to be exceptionally useful, but how much power are you sacrificing? Well, if a benchmark test that MacRumors performed on an iPhone 6 Plus is anything to go by, the Low Power mode could reduce your iPhone’s power by as much as 40%. 

A benchmark test performed on an iPhone 6 Plus running Apple’s latest iOS 9 beta puts numbers to the upcoming operating system’s Low Power mode, which throttles down processor performance to preserve battery life. Using Geekbench 3 for iOS, which was recently updated with support for iOS 9 builds, MacRumors found Low Power mode dropped an iPhone 6 Plus’ multi-core score from 2,891 to 1,751, while single-core performance fell from 1,606 to 1,019. Results were similar on an iPhone 5s, which saw a 40-percent decrease in performance. It should be noted that the tests were performed using beta software and results will likely change when a final build is released this fall. With iOS 9, Apple promises up to one hour of extra battery life using a combination of power saving tactics and new technologies. For example, iOS 9 will poll ambient light and proximity sensors to check when an iPhone is facedown on a table to prevent the screen from turning on.