• After more than 15 years covering everything Apple, it’s with a heavy heart we announce that we will no longer be publishing new content on iMore and the iMore forums will be closing as of November 1st, 2024.

Where do you keep your brightness?

Tanbam

Well-known member
Feb 11, 2012
191
3
18
Visit site
In the grand scheme of things, the display brightness doesn't make that much of a big deal.

The battery load between lowest and highest screen setting only changes about 100mA. While it will absolutely cause your battery to drain faster, it still doesn't affect the overall battery range as much as using it does.

For example, an iPhone 4S with all of the radios off and displaying a static screen at lowest brightness: 87mA (16 hours)
Same conditions, full brightness: 189mA (7. 5 hours)
The current draw is liner throughout the range, so you can estimate different settings pretty easily.

For perspective, simply typing text into the notes app causes the current draw to climb an additional 300mA, and an additional 25mA if you have keyboard taps enabled.

If you factor in the wifi, cellular, and GPS radios turned on and working, you can start to understand why the battery life is so short with these devices.

It seems counterintuitive that typing a note or swiping your home screen will drain your battery faster than watching a movie, but Apple made the decision (and a good one at that) to sacrifice battery endurance in order to max out the CPU on user interactions. There's a reason why it appears to run so smoothly - and it's not because of special hardware.

Your battery could have lasted longer, at the expense of lags in the user interface.
 

jakeless.123

Well-known member
Oct 7, 2011
213
6
0
Visit site
I would have to say that i keep mine lil' more than half way on the total bar. I dont mind sacrificing a little battery life so that i can see what im doing. :D
 

jwsnj3rd

Well-known member
Mar 29, 2011
166
1
0
Visit site
In the car I keep it down because it's so bright when I'm out or at home it's almost up all the way I love the nice bright screen :)
 

fury

Well-known member
Aug 8, 2010
117
6
18
Visit site
Usually at 50% with auto-brightness on. Sometimes I go manual and turn it all the way down (at night and insomnia kicks in), or all the way up (using it for GPS directions, and auto-brightness doesn't always work while in my car)
 

Trending Posts

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
262,083
Messages
1,773,897
Members
441,389
Latest member
Jethro7