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Should you let iOS 26 slow down your iPhone for better battery life? I tried it to find out

Apple has a new battery-saving feature, Adaptive Power, in the iOS 26 public beta. Here's what happened when I flipped it on and went for a hike.

So with my backpack on my back and smartphone in hand, I set off to explore a section of the Peak District National Park here in the UK. Sarah Williams-Davies/ZDNET Oddly, I do feel that even though I'm running a beta version of iOS -- and they can be pretty sketchy when it comes to battery efficiency -- my iPhone 15 Pro Max is lasting longer. For what I was doing with my iPhone -- navigating, taking photos, dismissing notifications saying I could send my location using satellite (you get a lot of those when out of cellular and Wi-Fi coverage) -- everything felt as smooth and snappy as usual.

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