iPhone 15 Pro Max Battery Drain and Heating

I recently traded in my iPhone 12 Pro Max for an iPhone 15 Pro Max, specifically for the upgraded camera and battery life. I've found that the battery drain on the new phone isn't much better than the old phone. An example is this morning. I charged my phone overnight (like I always do) to 100%. I got up, only used my phone to check my mail, Twitter, and FB (a quick glance at each),closed the apps, set it down, and came back a half hour later and it was on 85%. Over the past week, I've tweaked all my settings, including turning low battery to "on," all background app refresh is "off," I even turned my Apple watch off and turned off bluetooth. I keep my display brightness turned down pretty low, and always fully close an app after I'm done with it. When I'm on a phone call for longer than a couple of minutes, the battery drains even more and the phone gets hot. I have Instagram installed but rarely use it, and it's certainly not open all the time. I've installed all the software updates. I've read that others are having these same issues, but what's the solution? This is very frustrating, to pay $1200 for a new phone that doesn't really function any better than the old one.

iPhone 15 Pro Max

Posted on Oct 9, 2023 7:50 AM

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87 replies

Oct 12, 2023 9:38 AM in response to kbellmer

Same here. I took it off the charger two hours ago and I’m at 77%. This is worse than my iPhone 11 Pro Max. I turned off all the background app refresh, turned off the always on display, I’ve taken 3 calls, all of which were short less than 10 mins, checked emails and listened to a couple songs. Last night I updated to the newest update that said it would fix the overheating. I’m so irritated. Can’t go a whole workday without my phone dying.

Oct 14, 2023 4:42 AM in response to kbellmer

Literally the same thing is happening to me. I came from a 13 pro max and the first few days I noticed my battery being lower after work than normal. So I started monitoring it closely. After just 1 hour and 20 min of NOT continuous use, but intermittent email and message checking, my battery was at 75%! At that rate, I won’t get 6 hours of idle time from this new $1500 phone! So last night I charged both the 15pm and the 13pm to 100% overnight. Woke up this morning and took them both off the charger at the same time. I used the 13pm for 10 min and then the 15pm for 10 min. Just scrolling fb and replying to emails. My 15 pm is at 98% and my 13pm (which I’m using to reply to this message) is still at 100%. I really hope this is just a software issue but I’ve searched online for others experiencing the same issue and there are TONS of them! Either Apple has royally screwed up in development or the software needs a bug fix. Either way, this is the FIRST time that I’ll be returning an Apple product due to lack of product efficiency. Really hope they figure this out.

Oct 14, 2023 4:49 AM in response to Emmasorrell

I’m glad it’s not just me, I thought I got a dud. I took my 15pm to Apple and they looked at the battery use graph and confirmed that it shouldn’t be draining that fast. They then said it was because the phone had to “defrag” and that can take sometimes 3 weeks to complete? lol 😂 so just outside of the return window. They did a reset of the device and said if it’s still happening to come back. Well, it’s still happening so I plan on returning this on my next day off. Really disappointed in Apple on this one.

Oct 15, 2023 8:20 PM in response to kbellmer

This is disheartening because I’ve been hearing of this problem of overheating and battery drain on iOS 15 pro max the one I’ve been thinking on getting-trade in i ph 12. Now I’m on hold maybe forever. What in the(>>>>>£#>!~) is apple going to do or even say??? bout this. They are not getting my money until I hear a good ‘robust’ response and solution for those who are experiencing this problem like you are. Good luck.

Oct 16, 2023 4:48 AM in response to tejas190

Did you end up returning it? Did Apple try and tell you it was your fault for having background apps running? This was my experience, even though, the SAME day, Apple realeased a statement saying there is still a group of people experiencing battery drain issues. They are taking no accountability or responsibility for this issue, and saying it’s my fault for how I use the phone. I literally use it the same as my 13PM and when testing the two side by side, the 15pm dropped to 79%, and the the 13PM, in the same amount of time and use, was at 88%. I had WiFi, Bluetooth, and cellular data turned off, on both phones, and this was the result after several hours of just sitting side by side.

iPhone 15 Pro Max Battery Drain and Heating

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