Your iPhone works with lag — this simple feature slows it down

Low Power Mode on iPhone is not a new feature. It was first introduced with iOS 9 in 2015. However, from time to time you can find complaints on the Internet from users who claim that their new iPhone is slow. What do these cases have in common? Usually, the screenshots or videos show that the Low Power Mode is enabled.

9to5Mac writes about how this feature affects iPhone performance.

How Low Power Mode works on iPhone

As the name implies, Apple created Low Power Mode to help users extend the life of their iPhone battery in situations where the charger won’t be available for a long time. When this Mode is enabled, power consumption is reduced by disabling several software and hardware features.

Although iOS suggests that Low Power Mode be turned on when the battery reaches 20%, you can manually activate it at any time.

You can check if the Mode is enabled by looking at the battery icon in the status bar — if it’s yellow, your device is in Low Power Mode.

What exactly does this Mode change on your iPhone?

Apple has an official list of changes that take place when Low Power Mode is turned on:

• turns off or reduces the use of 4G/5G (depending on the iPhone model);
• sets an automatic lock after 30 seconds;
• reduces screen brightness and limits refresh rate to 60 Hz on devices with ProMotion;
• disables Always-On Display on compatible iPhones;
• reduces visual effects;
• pauses background processes (such as downloading, iCloud sync, backing up, and receiving email).

Does it slow down your iPhone?

Yes, but there’s one thing Apple doesn’t mention. Although there is no mention of performance in the list, Low Power Mode also slows down the device when activated.

To explain, your iPhone’s processor has multiple cores for performance and energy efficiency. In normal mode, your iPhone can use all cores simultaneously, giving priority to the productive cores when editing a video or playing a game. When Low Power Mode is turned on, iPhone significantly reduces the use of the performance cores by relying on energy-efficient cores-they run slower but use much less power.

In the performance test, which is used to evaluate different devices, the results of the A18 Pro chip in the iPhone 16 Pro Max without the mode turned on are as follows:

• Single core — 3341.
• Multi-core — 8270.

Now the same test was performed with GeekBench 6 with Low Power Mode enabled:

• Single core — 1384.
• Multi-core — 4093.

As you can see, using this Mode reduces iPhone performance by up to half. This means that you’ll probably notice your phone slowing down depending on the tasks you’re doing. This may seem obvious to some, but it may come as a surprise to other users.

As a reminder, we take several screenshots every day, which eventually accumulate in the device’s memory and become unnecessary. iPhone has a handy Commands application that allows you to create shortcuts that perform certain actions, including deleting screenshots.

We also wrote that USSD codes on smartphones can provide useful information about the device. iPhone also has such codes that can be used in everyday life.