iPhones offer pretty decent battery life for their size and the battery capacity they pack, which can be further extended using the Low Power Mode in iOS. The primary aim of this mode is to extend the battery life of your iPhone as much as possible by limiting background functionality.

While iPhones are not the fastest charging smartphones out there, they can be topped up from 0 to 50 percent in about 30 minutes. So, does having Low Power Mode enabled when your iPhone is on charge help it charge faster? Or does it negatively impact the charging speed? We did some tests to find out.

To save you waiting, the answer is a big fat no. Low Power Mode doesn't help your iPhone charge faster. Here's how we know.

Low Power Mode on iPhone

Before we talk about the impact of Low Power Mode on the charging speed of your iPhone, it is important to know what exactly the mode does.

As the name indicates, your iPhone is put on a low-power diet in this mode to extend its battery life. Apple achieves this by limiting many background tasks, disabling push email syncing, background app refresh, system animations, iCloud Photos, 5G, and more. You can read more about how the iPhone's Low Power Mode works here.

All these restrictions help reduce the overall power consumption of the device, which allows it to last longer. Low Power Mode is a software-side implementation and has little to do from a hardware viewpoint.

Fast Charging an iPhone With Low Power Mode Enabled

Charging an iPhone has little to do with Low Power Mode, and we already suspected that this mode would be unlikely to impact the charging speeds. To test this, I drained my iPhone 13 Pro's battery to around 30 percent and charged it for 30 minutes using a USB-C to Lightning cable and a 20W power adapter.

With Low Power Mode enabled, my iPhone 13 Pro charged 47 percent in 30 minutes—from 30 to 77 percent. In regular mode the next day, it also charged 47 percent in 30 minutes—this time going from 31 percent to 78 percent.

In both cases, you can see that the battery charged at about the same rate—1.56 percent per minute—irrespective of whether Low Power Mode was enabled or not. I also further confirmed this by measuring the power drawn by the iPhone from the charger. In both cases, the maximum power drawn did not exceed 20W.

I charged the iPhone 13 Pro for 40 mins in another test, run with the same 30 percent remaining battery capacity but letting it charge for a longer amount of time. Going by the results of the previous tests, the device should have gained an additional 60 percent charge: 1.56 percent for 40 minutes. However, it charged to only 84 percent, meaning the charging rate is not linear as iPhones tend to slow down their charging speeds as their battery capacity reaches full.

All iPhones launched since the iPhone 8 in 2017 feature fast charging support. When charged with a compatible adapter and cable, an iPhone can be fast charged from 0 to 50 percent in 30 minutes. After that, the charging speed starts to slow down, especially after the battery level crosses 80 percent.

After this point, Apple starts to trickle charge the iPhone's battery at speeds of around 4–5W to help increase the battery's lifespan. If you have the Optimized Battery Charging feature enabled on your iPhone, it could take even longer for a full charge.

Similarly, your iPhone won't gain about 45 percent charge in 30 minutes when the battery level starts at a higher charge.

Numerous other factors affect the charging speed of your iPhone. Make sure to check out our guide on how to fast charge your iPhone if you want to charge it at the fastest speed possible. You should also avoid using your iPhone while it's on charge, as that can slow down the charging speed. Similarly, using a 5–10W power adapter will not charge your iPhone at its full speed.

Check out some more tips on how you can charge your iPhone faster.

Low Power Mode and Fast Charging Are Unrelated

As evident from all our tests, your iPhone will not charge faster with Low Power Mode enabled. If anything, you should invest in a good USB-C Power Delivery charger for that. Similarly, if you want to fast charge your iPhone 12 or iPhone 13 wirelessly, you should consider buying a MagSafe wireless charger as they can charge an iPhone at up to 15W speeds.