General

The app is designed to run continuously in the foreground, intentionally overriding the system's automatic sleep behavior. The advantage of intentionally overriding the system’s automatic sleep behavior is to ensure uninterrupted operation during active use cases where user interaction or content display must remain visible at all times.

This can contribute to significant battery drain if the screen is set to full brightness. This effect is primarily due to the display being one of the largest power consumers. 

The actual battery impact of this behavior depends on the screen brightness level and the underlying display technology (LCD vs. OLED), both of which influence the power required to keep the screen active.

Details

On LCD screens, power usage is directly linked to the backlight intensity. On OLED screens, higher brightness and light-colored UI elements consume more power, as each pixel emits its own light.

App Behavior and Battery Impact

This app is designed to be kept awake during active use, and is intentionally set to prevent the screen from dimming or locking. Nevertheless, avoid forcing maximum brightness.

Additional Factors Affecting Battery Consumption:

CPU and GPU Usage:
Processor-intensive tasks, real-time data processing, and background activity (especially on iOS 26) can significantly increase CPU load and accelerate battery drain.

Network Activity:
Continuous or high-volume data transfers (e.g. sync, streaming, API polling) via Wi-Fi or cellular can significantly drain the battery, especially under poor or unstable network conditions where retransmissions and increased signal power are required.

Background Services:
Location tracking (GPS), Bluetooth operations, and background tasks contribute to ongoing energy consumption even when not directly visible.

Refresh Rate:
On ProMotion-enabled devices (up to 120Hz), high refresh rates result in smoother visuals but higher battery usage compared to standard 60Hz.

Sensor Usage:
Continuous access to sensors such as the accelerometer, gyroscope, camera, or microphone increases power consumption.

Audio and Video Playback:
Media decoding and rendering, especially at high resolutions or bitrates, are power-intensive operations.

Thermal Conditions:
Heat buildup (e.g., from charging or heavy load) may cause the system to throttle performance or impact battery efficiency.

Battery Health and Device Age:
Older batteries or degraded battery health reduce capacity and can cause faster apparent drain under similar workloads.

Apple XCode Energy Report

Tests on battery usage showed no unusual energy use. The app behaves within expected energy and thermal parameters based on Apple XCode testing. No anomalies or excessive consumption patterns were identified.

Test Setup

Testing conducted in normal indoor conditions (no sunlight exposure).

Operating System

• iPadOS 18.5
• OS26 Beta2

Devices

• iPad Air 5th Generation
• iPad Pro 11" 10th Generation
   

Scenario 1 - Full Sync (67k objects)

• Initial thermal state turned fair during heavy syncing as to be expected.
• Returned to normal after sync completion with no abnormal thermal behavior.

Scenario 2 – Document Browsing & Idle Time

Surfing through documents and leaving app in foreground (fullscreen) for 5 minutes did not result in excessive energy or thermal impact.