Among the many features and changes included in iOS 26 are a series of helpful battery updates for your iPhone. There’s a new charging indicator that appears at the top of the Lock Screen, to let you know how long it’ll take to charge your phone to 80 or 100%; a redesigned Battery settings page, which gives you deeper insights into your battery health and usage; and, most notably, a new “Adaptive Power” feature, that can make small changes in your iPhone’s performance to boost your battery life—like a light version of Low Power Mode.
They might not be the flashiest of features, especially when to compared to Apple’s “Liquid Glass” redesign , but they are quite useful. I don’t know how it’s taken Apple nearly two decades to add a charging estimate to the iPhone, as now you won’t have to wonder how long it’ll take before your phone has enough juice to leave the house. Adaptive Power, too, is great to have here, since Low Power Mode can take things too far in the name of reducing battery consumption. With this new feature, your iPhone will hopefully still feel as fast and snappy as usual, while lasting a bit longer between charges as well.
There’s only one problem here: Your iPhone might not actually be compatible with Adaptive Power, due to how the feature works under the hood.
Adaptive Power is AI-powered
In order to know when to reduce your iPhone’s performance to extend battery life without a noticeable affect on iOS, Apple is tapping into its AI toolkit—Apple Intelligence. If you have an iPhone 15 or older, you know that your iPhone is not compatible with Apple Intelligence, even if the reasoning is a bit dubious .
Nevertheless, Apple Intelligence features are limited to iPhone 15 Pro and newer, which really means there are only six iPhone models that can run them:
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iPhone 15 Pro
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iPhone 15 Pro Max
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iPhone 16
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iPhone 16 Plus
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iPhone 16 Pro
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iPhone 16 Pro Max
Unfortunately, as Adaptive Power uses AI to work, the feature is limited to this list of six devices. MacRumors confirms as much , after testing the battery feature in the first iOS 26 beta. It’s far from the only new iOS 26 feature to be limited to these Apple Intelligence iPhones , too. New features like Live Translation, Visual Intelligence, and the new lens cleaning alert also use AI to function, and, as such, are not included on iOS 26 for older iPhones.
iOS 26 may run on iPhone 11 or newer, but unless you have an iPhone 15 Pro or newer, you’re not getting the full iOS 26 experience.
