Your iPhone 15 Can Show the Time When It's Out of Battery in iOS 18 - MacRumorsOpen MenuShow RoundupsShow Forums menuVisit ForumsOpen Sidebar
Skip to Content

Your iPhone 15 Can Show the Time When It's Out of Battery in iOS 18

The iPhone has had a Power Reserve function that holds back a small amount of battery life to allow features like Find My and NFC unlocking to work even when your device has died, and in iOS 18, Apple seems to be improving the feature further for the iPhone 15 models.

Generic iOS 18 Feature Real Mock
As demonstrated on Reddit, when the battery on an iPhone running iOS 18 is exhausted, the phone can continue to show the time in the upper left corner of the device, which is a small but useful upgrade. The battery icon still shows up, and you'll see "iPhone is Findable" while reserve battery is left.

ios 18 iphone time off
It appears that this feature is limited to the iPhone 15 models. We tested on an iPhone 14 Pro Max and were not ale to get the time to show up, but it did work as expected with an iPhone 15 Pro Max.

Power Reserve has been a feature on iPhones dating back to the iPhone XR and iPhone XS, so it's not clear what the limiting factor is in terms of showing the time on display when the battery has drained on older devices.

Related Forums: iOS 18, iPadOS 18

Popular Stories

macOS 27 on MacBook Pro

Apple Says macOS 27 Won't Be Compatible With These Macs

Wednesday June 3, 2026 8:29 am PDT by
During WWDC 2025, Apple revealed that macOS 26 Tahoe would be the final major macOS version for Intel-based Macs. macOS 27 will be compatible with Apple silicon Macs only, meaning that you will need a Mac with an M-series chip or a MacBook Neo with an A18 Pro chip in order to install the software update. Apple will unveil macOS 27 during its WWDC 2026 keynote this Monday, June 8, and the...
MacBook Neo on Yellow Feature

MacBook Neo is So Popular That Apple Reportedly Doubled Production

Wednesday June 3, 2026 9:24 am PDT by
On an earnings call in late April, Apple's CEO Tim Cook said that customer response to the MacBook Neo was "off the charts," and the popularity of the laptop has reportedly led the company to significantly boost production. Apple supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo this week said he believes that MacBook Neo shipments to Apple were doubled from an initial target of 5 million units to 10...
iphone 18 pro blue%402x

iPhone 18 Pro: Dark Cherry, Light Blue, and Dark Gray Chassis Leaked [Update]

Thursday June 4, 2026 5:18 am PDT by
Update: Since publication, new information has come to light suggesting the images have been AI-manipulated and are not in fact iPhone 18 Pro chassis parts. The original article follows. The color options Apple is reportedly planning for the upcoming iPhone 18 Pro and ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ Max have appeared online today in the form of images of chassis parts of unknown authenticity....

Top Rated Comments

26 months ago
The "limiting factor" is very clearly Apple's arrogance...
Score: 27 Votes (Like | Disagree)
klasma Avatar
26 months ago
But can it show the battery when it's out of time?
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
klasma Avatar
26 months ago

Why is time still so small. Make this info...time, date, %battery,...BIG...BIGGER...BIGGER
I agree, iOS is really lacking big time.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
26 months ago

You should never let your iPhone completely run out of battery.
Nor should you let your car run out of gas or checking account reach a zero balance or forget to pick up your smoking jacket from the cleaners.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
sw1tcher Avatar
26 months ago

Because iPhone sales have been slowing down and people are keeping their iPhones longer and longer, Apple is becoming more and more aggressive in creating artificial restrictions to get users to upgrade - this is a classic example. The author even pointed this out in their article - "Power Reserve has been a feature on iPhones dating back to the iPhone XR and iPhone XS, so it's not clear what the limiting factor is in terms of showing the time on display when the battery has drained on older devices."

If you want further proof, look no further than these examples:

* Adaptive Charging limit ('https://www.macrumors.com/2024/06/12/ios-18-charging-limit-recommendations/')
* Additional charging limit options ('https://www.macrumors.com/2024/06/10/ios-18-introduces-more-charging-limits/')
* Apple Intelligence compatibility is restricted to iPhone 15 Pro and later (however, this also could be due to the increased RAM that are in these devices)

Maybe the reason none of the prior iPhone models have this exclusive to iPhone 15 series feature is because none of them have A16 chip 6GB RAM Dynamic Island USB-C port that's needed to enable the feature? 🤷‍♂️
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
anshuvorty Avatar
26 months ago
Because iPhone sales have been slowing down and people are keeping their iPhones longer and longer, Apple is becoming more and more aggressive in creating artificial restrictions to get users to upgrade - this is a classic example. The author even pointed this out in their article - "Power Reserve has been a feature on iPhones dating back to the iPhone XR and iPhone XS, so it's not clear what the limiting factor is in terms of showing the time on display when the battery has drained on older devices."

If you want further proof, look no further than these examples:

* Adaptive Charging limit ('https://www.macrumors.com/2024/06/12/ios-18-charging-limit-recommendations/')
* Additional charging limit options ('https://www.macrumors.com/2024/06/10/ios-18-introduces-more-charging-limits/')
* Apple Intelligence compatibility is restricted to iPhone 15 Pro and later (however, this also could be due to the increased RAM that are in these devices)
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)