iOS 16 brings back the ability to display battery percentage in the status bar so it’s visible at all times. But does your iPhone support it?
Apple reinstates the battery percentage indicator
You may have heard that Apple reinstated one of the most-requested features of iOS, the ability to display battery percentage in the iOS status bar, where it’s visible at all times. But the iPhone X introduction in 2017 changed that because the notch divided the status bar into two smaller areas.
Before iOS 16, the only way to see battery percentage on the iPhone was through the Control Center. You had to pull down from the top-right corner to reveal the Control Center overlay, which displayed battery percentage next to the battery icon in the top-right corner.
iOS 16 changes that so now battery percentage is printed within the battery icon in the status bar. Some people disliked the change, calling it a bad design that suffers from low readability. If you have iOS 16, you can go to Settings → Battery to turn on the battery percentage display. Read: 40+ ways to save the iPhone battery
iPhone models that support battery percentage display
As it turns out, battery percentage doesn’t work across all iPhone models which are compatible with iOS 16. For some inconceivable reason, certain models with smaller screens don’t support battery percentage, including all the iPhone mini models. Here’s the full list of iPhones that have so far been tested to support battery percentage display, verified by MacRumors.
- iPhone 13 Pro Max
- iPhone 13 Pro
- iPhone 13
- iPhone 12 Pro Max
- iPhone 12 Pro
- iPhone 12
- iPhone 11 Pro Max
- iPhone 11 Pro
- iPhone XS Max
- iPhone XS
- iPhone X
If you’re iPhone isn’t listed, we guess you’ll feel a bit left out. On the other hand, iOS 16 is still being worked on and won’t launch publicly before the fall so there’s still time to bring this feature to the smaller models like the iPhone XR, iPhone 11, iPhone 12 mini and iPhone 13 mini. Read: How to check iPhone battery health