Apple just released iOS 26 with a new “Liquid Glass” design and some fresh features—one of which aims to extend battery life through intelligent resource management. However, it doesn’t come without a catch: users may notice a dip in performance while the system tries to save power. Apple was previously rumored to be working on an AI-powered battery management feature, which appears to be this “Adaptive Power” function.
Unlike the controversial UI redesigns, this could actually be a meaningful upgrade for the iPhone 17 lineup—if it’s done right. The iPhone 16 packs a 3,561mAh battery, and its successor, the iPhone 17, isn’t widely expected to feature a significantly larger one. In fact, the 5.5mm-thin iPhone 17 Air is rumored to include a battery as small as 2,800mAh.
To put that into perspective, the 5.8mm Galaxy S25 Edge—featuring the latest and most efficient Snapdragon 8 Elite chip—packs a relatively larger 3,900mAh battery. This “razor-thin” Android, unlike the other models in the S25 lineup, delivers mediocre battery life at best. You can learn more about the S25 Edge’s battery situation here.
While Apple has the advantage of deep software-hardware integration, and thus better power efficiency, the Air model’s battery capacity will likely still lag behind the base variant. That’s where the new AI-powered Adaptive Power feature could become essential for the iPhone 17 Air.
This feature may also help other iPhone 17 models maintain their lead in battery life, especially as most Chinese smartphone makers are already offering 6,000mAh+ batteries, thanks to silicon-carbon battery tech—which Apple has yet to adopt.
That said, the effectiveness of this AI-based resource management remains to be tested in real-world use, and we’re looking forward to evaluating it.
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