How Long Can You Leave Your iPhone Flashlight On?

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Most iPhones come with a rear-facing flashlight that we’ve come to take for granted. You can light things up with a simple press of a button — or even easier, turn on your iPhone’s flashlight without touching it. Maybe you’re jogging at night and the park lights go out, or maybe you’re hunting for a misplaced Lego brick under the couch. But these are instances where you turn off the flashlight immediately after using it. In case you were wondering whether you can use the iPhone flashlight continuously for several hours without turning it off, there are both advantages and limitations. The good news is that the iPhone flashlight can stay on for several hours. The bad news is that there are too many factors at play to predict exactly how long, including the battery charge, how you use your handset while the flashlight is on, the age of the device, and the environment.

Safety equipment manufacturer Petzl ran experiments to determine how much energy a smartphone uses while powering the flashlight. The company left a smartphone flashlight on for three hours, using the device minimally during the test. The test found that the battery dropped from 65% to 19%. That’s about 15% per hour or 1% every five minutes. Petzl argues that users should consider dedicated illumination hardware, like its own headlamps, instead of smartphones.

Petzl did not say whether it used an iPhone or Android device for the experiment. However, the company mentioned that phone flashlights can…

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