iOS 16 Battery Icon and Text Out of Sync
In iOS 15 and earlier, battery percent has not been present on iPhones that have Face ID because of the lack of space on either side of the notch that houses the TrueDepth camera hardware. The new design adds the specific battery level to the battery icon, providing a better idea of battery status at a glance.
In Apple’s latest design, the white battery icon remains completely filled in as the battery level gradually depletes. When the semi-transparent percentage reaches 20% or lower, a fifth of the battery icon turns red and the rest of the icon becomes semi-transparent, while the percentage inverts to white.
Nothing wrong with what Apple released but I think I might’ve preferred something like Alternative A for the battery indicator
I like the iOS 15 indicator that only shows the percentage in Control Center. I don’t want to see the number all the time, just like I don’t set Mail or NetNewsWire to show the unread count in the Dock. It’s distracting.
Update (2022-09-14): Sami Fathi:
Apple has confirmed that users of older generation iPhone models will miss out on the ability to show their iPhone’s battery percentage directly in the status bar.
With this [iOS 16.1 beta] update, iPhone 13 mini, iPhone 12 mini, iPhone XR, and iPhone 11 users can see their battery percentage in the status bar, and battery percentage is officially available on the iPhone XR and later. Devices without a Face ID notch always display the battery percentage as well.
4 Comments RSS · Twitter
Although this is objectively a bad design, the one sliver of good news is it's an optional setting, and one that as far as I am aware is off by default.
This is an okay solution to a bad design. The real solution is get rid of the notch.
But after getting a 13 after having an 8 forever, I really really really missed the number. I was so happy to have this back.
Once they launch the AR glasses they'll have better use for the depth sensor than obscuring a large chunk of the screen, which will make room for all sorts of handy status indicators.
But what will replace face ID? My bet is on in screen finger print reader.
Showing a fully filled in battery icon with different numbers goes against everything we've been used to after a few decades of staring at laptop battery indicators. It should be possible to use some combination of colors to indicate level visually, while still showing text in a readable way on top of that background.