Apple iPhone 11 users can save battery using Dark Mode, new tests show

Dark Mode is increasingly getting popular. Apps such as Twitter have offered it for long and now even Apple has adopted. The company introduced the feature in iOS 13.

But does it do much more than making the phone less stressful to your eyes after sundown? Tests done by Phone­Buff reveal that the Dark Mode also saves battery.

But how did they ascertain this? They took two identical iPhone XS devices and switched on Light Mode on one and Dark Mode on the other. They not only put the phones on standby in both modes but also tested them on a regular use basis. Both phones were also measured for battery drainage, which included watching YouTube videos, using Twitter, Google Maps and chatting on the Messages app.

At the end of the tests, they found that the phone with the Dark Mode performed 30 percent better than the phone with the Light Mode.

The test results are a good point for those who regularly complain about the battery dying on their iPhone.

iPhones are run at 200 nits of brightness, which is fairly taxing on the battery.

However, the Dark Mode may benefit users of newer iPhones than older ones as OLED phones are impacted more than LCD phones. When you shut the screen off on an OLED phone, they stop consuming power unlike on an LCD phone. This is also the reason that OLED phones have better contrast ratios.

Phones such as iPhone 11 Pro, iPhone 11 Max, iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone X, Samsung Galaxy S10, Samsung Galaxy Note 10, Google Pixel 3, Google Pixel 4, OnePlus 7, OnePlus 7T, Huawei P30 and Mate 20 come with OLED. iPhone 11, XR, 8, 8 Plus, 7 and 7 Plus come with LCD.

Dark Mode is not everybody's cup of tea though since it shows the screen differently than it is seen usually. Normally, the device has a white light in the background and every letter is in black. In Dark Mode, this is reversed.