Apple is introducing a Low Power mode upon the release of its upcoming mobile operating system, iOS 9. The mode is designed to lengthen the battery life of iOS devices when power is already running low.
According to the description of the feature, Low Power mode will reduce the performance of the iOS device and cut down on apps and services working in the background to extend the battery of the device.
Performance benchmarking app Geekbench 3 has lately received an update to allow it to operate in the yet-released iOS 9, with the app capable of providing more insight into the operation and effectiveness of Low Power mode and how much the performance of the iOS device is affected when it is activated.
Apple news and rumors website MacRumors tested the Geekbench 3 on the iPhone 6 Plus running the beta version of the iOS 9, with results revealing that there is indeed a significant drop in performance when Low Power mode is turned on.
The iPhone 6 Plus gained a score of 1606 on Geekbench 3's single-core processor test and a score of 2891 on the multi-core processor test. When the Low Power mode is activated, the device recorded a score of 1019 on the single-core processor test and a score of 1751 on the multi-core processor test. The significant drop in performance is the trade-off for the significant amount of energy saving that the feature will provide users.
When a similar test was run on the iPhone 5s, the results turned out to be similar. The performance of the device on the iOS 9 when Low Power mode was activated decreased by around 40 percent, with the score of the iPhone 5s being 1386 for the single-core test and 2511 for the multi-core test before the feature was turned on and 816 for the single-core test and 1405 for the multi-core test when the feature was activated.
Low Power mode activates when the iOS device reaches a battery level of either 20 percent or 10 percent. The feature provides the user with a popup notification that gives the option to turn on Low Power mode. The feature can also be activated through a new section in the Settings menu named Battery.
In addition to decreasing performance, Low Power mode disables processes working in the background such as mail fetching, background app refreshing, animated wallpaper and motion effects.
Represented by the battery icon of the device turning yellow, the feature is said to be capable of extending the battery life of an iOS device by up to an additional three hours.
The consumer version of the iOS 9 will be released to the general public in the fall.
