Liquid Glass Battery Drain Check iOS 26.1 Beta: Colourful 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 I saw some comments questioning if the setting might protect battery life, so I believed I might do some testing.

Check Settings

I ran 4 separate exams utilizing the iPhone 17 Professional Max and stored the parameters as comparable as attainable. Listed here are the settings I used for every take a look at:

1. Liquid glass set to Clear.
2. Liquid Glass set to Coloured.
3. Liquid glass set to Shade with Cut back Transparency and Enhance Distinction enabled.
4. Liquid glass with Cut back Transparency, Enhance Distinction, and Cut back Movement enabled.

For every take a look at, I used Mild mode reasonably than Darkish mode, turned off True Tone and Night time Shift, and set my iPhone to 50% brightness. The show was additionally configured to not flip off. My battery well being remains to be at 100% and the ambient temperature throughout testing was 68 to 72 levels.

I left my notifications on as a result of I get a reasonably even distribution of notifications all through the day and I wished to imitate how I’d use my ‌iPhone‌. My house display screen was arrange with default icons.

How I examined

I did precisely the identical collection of actions for every take a look at, timed to the second.

• half-hour of scrolling on TikTok.
• half-hour of movies on YouTube.
• half-hour scrolling Instagram/watching reels.
• half-hour of Safari on the MacRumors web site. Scroll and faucet by a number of totally different pages.
• half-hour from the Maps app. I headed to the identical location, however I did not truly go. It was extra of a take a look at to have the Liquid Glass interface energetic for a strong half-hour.

Throughout every of the 5 segments, I swiped 4 occasions to entry notifications on the lock display screen and 4 occasions to open Management Heart. I opened notifications and Management Heart 20 occasions in whole for every take a look at and swiped again to shut them. They had been timed for about 3.5 minute intervals.

After I switched from one app to a different, I swiped as much as shut it and exit to the ‌House Display‌, swiped right down to open search, typed the app title, and tapped to open it.

Every take a look at lasted 2.5 hours, with just a few additional seconds between every phase to modify apps. The exams had been divided into two days, one at roughly 3pm and the opposite at 5:30pm.

I solely cost my ‌iPhone‌ to 80%, so between every 2.5 hour interval, I charged my ‌iPhone‌ to 80% earlier than beginning the following take a look at. The one wildcard elements had been notifications and the content material that was on TikTok and Instagram whereas I used to be scrolling.

Check outcomes

The outcomes weren’t what I anticipated. I went into this take a look at considering that turning on Cut back Transparency and Cut back Movement would have some impact, nevertheless it did not. I did not discover a number of settings that modified the battery utilized by my ‌iPhone‌.

• Spherical 1 – This was the “Clear” spherical and my baseline. I began at 80% and completed at 70%.
• Spherical 2 – Tinted mode. I began at 80% and completed at 69%.
• Spherical 3 – Tinted mode, cut back transparency and improve distinction. I began with 80% and ended with 69%.
• Spherical 4 – Tinted mode, cut back transparency, improve distinction and cut back motion. I began at 80% and completed at 70%.

I ended up with 1% much less battery life within the two intermediate exams, however there wasn’t sufficient deviation to attract any conclusions. I am unable to see fractions of a share within the battery measurements, so it is attainable that the 2 70% exams had been near 69% and I had small variations due to the small variations in content material between the exams.

Expanded take a look at outcomes

I wished to incorporate the entire percentages for every take a look at phase as a result of there have been some small variations.

• Spherical 1 – TikTok completed at 79%, YouTube completed at 77%, Instagram completed at 74%, Safari completed at 72%, Maps completed at 70%.
• Spherical 2 – TikTok completed at 78%, YouTube completed at 75%, Instagram completed at 72%, Safari completed at 70%, Maps completed at 69%.
• Spherical 3 – TikTok completed at 78%, YouTube completed at 76%, Instagram completed at 73%, Safari completed at 70%, Maps completed at 69%.
• Spherical 4 – TikTok completed with 79%, Instagram completed with 77%, YouTube completed with 74%, Safari completed with 72%, and Maps completed with 70%. This spherical, I by chance switched Instagram and YouTube, however restarting would have modified the time of day of testing, so I simply switched these two apps.

Warnings

I wished my take a look at to imitate how I’d use my telephone commonly, nevertheless it solely lasted 2.5 hours. It is attainable {that a} full 16 hours of bouncing out and in of apps and options that use Liquid Glass might have an added battery-saving impact. I am guessing it could solely be a small share of general battery utilization, and largely inconsequential.

Not the entire apps I’ve used have Liquid Glass-heavy interfaces. TikTok and Instagram, for instance, barely use Liquid Glass. Heavy use of apps which have extra Liquid Glass components can change the outcomes, however there aren’t many apps that I spend quite a lot of time on that use Liquid Glass on this means.

I take advantage of an ‌iPhone 17 Professional‌ Max. I am curious if there can be a distinction in battery life on an older ‌iPhone‌ which may have a more durable time rendering the Liquid Glass results.

If anybody with an older ‌iPhone‌ desires to do comparable testing, I might be joyful to revisit this with one other article that features extra testing from MacRumors readers. I can even do extra testing if anybody has ideas on what I can change to truly cut back battery drain.

Conclusion

On the iPhone 17 fashions, I do not suppose there are any Liquid Glass-related settings to vary that may make a major distinction to battery drain.

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

Low Energy Mode, Adaptive Energy Mode, Darkish Mode, and lowering display screen brightness nonetheless appear to be the simplest methods to increase battery life.