Evaluate battery life of iOS 26.2 on all iPhone lines
iOS 26.2 is the latest update from Apple, bringing significant improvements to older iPhone lines such as iPhone 11 and iPhone 16, which show signs of “exhaustion”.
Just over a month after iOS 26.1 was launched with many compliments about its stability, Apple continued to release the iOS 26.2 update in December 2025.
The iFan community once again woke up with the eternal question: “Should I upgrade or not?”. To answer this question, we need to put the two versions on the scale, directly compare from Geekbench performance scores to actual battery life on each model.
Is the new update really more optimal than its predecessor, or is it an unfortunate “retrograde” step? Let’s analyze with Minh Tuan Mobile right below.
To experience the latest features of iOS 26.2 smoothly, upgrade your device now:
CPU performance: iPhone 15 has a multi-core breakthrough, iPhone 16 has a slight decrease in heat
In terms of processing performance, iOS 26.2 shows stability without too many major fluctuations compared to iOS 26.1, but there are still bright and dark spots alternating between generations.
| Device | Multi-Core Point | Performance evaluation |
| iPhone 16 | 8724 | Monster: Handles all heavy games, renders 4K videos smoothly, unrivaled. |
| iPhone 15 | 6786 | Excellent: Multi-core score skyrocketed compared to the old version, handles heavy tasks extremely well. |
| iPhone 13 | 5523 | Very good: Still more than enough to meet basic gaming and video editing needs, stable operation. |
| iPhone 12 | 4727 | Good: Performance increased slightly, enough for all daily tasks and gaming at moderate settings. |
| iPhone 11 | 4023 | Good: Starting to show signs of fatigue with new heavy applications, but still smooth for basic tasks. |
With older models like the iPhone 11, the Geekbench 6 score on iOS 26.2 (1778 single-core / 4023 multi-core) is almost flat compared to version 26.1 (1782 single-core / 4027 multi-core).
This shows that Apple has optimized the hardware scenario of the A13 Bionic chip and can hardly ask for any further breakthroughs.
Similarly, iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 also maintain stable performance, the difference in scores between the two iOS versions is negligible, ensuring the experience of swiping and opening apps remains equally smooth.
The interesting point lies in the iPhone 15. On iOS 26.2, the multi-core score of this device skyrocketed to 6786 points (compared to 6535 points in iOS 26.1), showing that the ability to handle heavy tasks such as rendering videos or playing high-graphics games has improved better.
In contrast, the “monster” iPhone 16 shows signs of a slight decrease in score on the new version (3452/8724 compared to 3479/8870 of iOS 26.1). However, this decrease is very small and can be considered an error during testing. In fact, the power of the A18 chip is still “unmatched” at the present time.
Battery life: Extreme “twist” between generations
If performance isn’t too dramatic, battery life is a completely different story. iOS 26.2 has created a huge shakeup in the battery rankings, with clear winners and losers compared to iOS 26.1. Below is a detailed comparison table of battery life when tested continuously at the same brightness conditions:
| Device | iOS 26.1 (Old) | iOS 26.2 (New) | Change |
| iPhone SE 2020 | 3 hours 22 minutes | 3 hours 28 minutes | Increase by 6 minutes |
| iPhone 11 | 5 hours 21 minutes | 4 hours 38 minutes | Reduced by 43 minutes |
| iPhone 12 | 5 hours 53 minutes | 5 hours 46 minutes | Reduced by 7 minutes |
| iPhone 13 | 5 hours 13 minutes | 6 hours 53 minutes | Increase 1 hour 40 minutes |
| iPhone 15 | 9:40 a.m | 8:08 a.m | Reduced by 1 hour 32 minutes |
| iPhone 16 | 2 hours 56 minutes | 2 hours 56 minutes | Unchanged |
Looking at the data table, we see that iPhone 13 is the “bright star” of this update. From a fairly modest battery level in iOS 26.1, this device has had a spectacular comeback in iOS 26.2 with an increase of up to 1 hour and 40 minutes of use.
This is extremely good news for the very large iPhone 13 user community. Besides, iPhone 16 still maintains its “buff” performance with nearly 15 hours on-screen, proving that Apple’s optimization for the latest flagship is extremely stable.
However, the “victims” of iOS 26.2 are named iPhone 15 and iPhone 11. The iPhone 15 suddenly had a serious decrease in usage time of more than 1 and a half hours, a very alarming number.
Similarly, iPhone 11 also lost more than 40 precious minutes. It seems that iOS 26.2 is having problems optimizing background power on these two models, causing battery drain to be significantly faster.
Actual experience: Temperature and smoothness
In terms of daily use experience, iOS 26.2 still maintains the famous smoothness of Apple’s operating system. Transition and multitasking effects on models from iPhone 13 and above are very smooth, with almost no lag.
In particular, the overheating error when charging or using 4G that appeared sporadically on iOS 26.1 has been better resolved on version 26.2, especially with iPhone 16 and iPhone 12.
However, for iPhone 15 users, rapid battery drain on iOS 26.2 is often accompanied by the phenomenon of the device warming up faster when playing games or filming for long periods of time. This is something to consider carefully before pressing the update button.
Who should get on, who should “turn around”?
To sum up, iOS 26.2 is a two-sided update. It is the “elixir” for iPhone 13 and iPhone SE 2020 users when it brings better battery life and stable performance.
iPhone 16 users can also safely update to enjoy the latest features without worrying about affecting the experience.
On the contrary, if you own an iPhone 15 or iPhone 11 and are satisfied with the stability of iOS 26.1, our sincere advice is to not rush to update.
The battery drop on these two devices is quite large and can directly affect your usage needs during the day. Please wait patiently for iOS 26.3 or subsequent patches for a more complete experience.
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