iPhone SE (2022) A question about the battery of an iPhone SE 2022

[Mac Hammer Fan]

I just bought an iPhone SE 2022 64 GB with a 20% price reduction. With the previous SE1, I was not satisfied with the battery, which I had to replace after three years. Despite the fact that people were positive about the battery in many reviews. But I admit that I often left that phone with its cable in the charger for a whole night. Could that perhaps be the cause of the battery wearing out quickly?

Anyway. I have security updates until 2027 and that's great. And the new SE is slightly bigger than my old one. I like the home button and I take relatively few photos. Si I guess I will be happy with my new iPhone.

 

[Jackbequickly]

Leaving the cable connected all night will not harm your phone. The phone will stop charging when it is full and would not start charging again until the battery dropped a percent or two. It will not over charge your battery.

 

[TriciaMacMillan]

After three years, a smartphone battery will have lost part of its capacity, no matter how well or badly you treated it.

 

[reppans]

Li-ion industry standard for consumer devices is ~500 cycles to ~80% capacity, when charging to 100% full capacity (BMS prevents overcharging Li-ion as that risks fireworks). That coincides with the average smartphone upgrade cycle of 2-3yrs, so you sound right on industry targets. The real question is, how easy is it to extend battery life beyond those standards/averages (an unpopular topic).

 

[TriciaMacMillan]

Li-ion batteries are known to age even if not used, while load cycles seem to play only a minor role. However, I have found that battery life is dramatically reduced after exposure to excess heat, like for example in a car or in strong sunlight. Unfortunately, there’s often nothing you can do about it if that’s just how the weather is.

 

[saber32au]

Agree with others here: replacing your phone's battery after 3 years of use is fairly common. A combination of age and charge/discharge cycles reduces your phone's battery capacity over time...

(an unpopular topic).

I'd say it's more a controversial topic than unpopular...

I'm in the "yes, battery life can be extended" camp...that being said, Apple being Apple doesn't make it easy for the end user by not allowing the user to manually set max charge % in setting...unlike say in a macbook (using a third party app such as AlDente), or in Windows (ie for Dell laptops, you can use Dell power manager...there are equivalent software packages for other manufactures of windows based laptops)...

 

[reppans]

…Apple doesn't make it easy for the end user by not allowing the user to manually set max charge % in setting...

It’s not that hard - get a $10 HomeKit compatible smartplug and set-up your own custom charge optimization with a Shortcut Automation. Can also do the same with a Chargie USB dongle. And unlike Samsung phone’s simple 85% charge limiter, you have much more dynamic control over peak charge level AND the timing of when the charge is applied.

Charge timing is actually where I think most batt-mgt folks lose the maximum benefits - eg, they charge to 80% before bed and let it idle there all night. 80% is certainly better than 100%, but you need be <60% to be stress-free. (And FWIW, if you believe that first graph, heat comes in 2nd behind high SoC as a stress factor).

 

[FeliApple]

It’s not that hard - get a $10 HomeKit compatible smartplug and set-up your own custom charge optimization with a Shortcut Automation. Can also do the same with a Chargie USB dongle. And unlike Samsung phone’s simple 85% charge limiter, you have much more dynamic control over peak charge level AND the timing of when the charge is applied.

Charge timing is actually where I think most batt-mgt folks lose the maximum benefits - eg, they charge to 80% before bed and let it idle there all night. 80% is certainly better than 100%, but you need be <60% to be stress-free. (And FWIW, if you believe that first graph, heat comes in 2nd behind high SoC as a stress factor).

Colour me surprised once again... High temperatures are more benign than high SoC?!

I’m way closer to a near-constant high SoC than I am to near-constant heat (as much as I’ve said I don’t take care of battery health in lieu of avoiding iOS updates, I actually do two more things: I avoid heat and I charge as slowly as possible).

Anecdotally I’ve heard horrible things about near-constant heat exposure, and comparatively I didn’t think high SoC was that awful... maybe it refers to keeping a device plugged in constantly? (Case from which I’ve heard abhorrent results, especially on MacBooks that were used like that).

But I allow my devices to discharge and never keep them plugged-in all day, so maybe, like I implied earlier, I’m not on the extreme end of the high-SoC spectrum.

 

[reppans]

Anecdotally I’ve heard horrible things about near-constant heat exposure, and comparatively I didn’t think high SoC was that awful...

As the other poster mentions - it’s controversial. Everyone should do their own research, assuming they even care at all. I personally look for credible AND corroborating scientific research, and Batt Univ Table 3 seems to also imply time spent @100% SoC (room temp) is about equivalent to time spent @50c/120f (but in stressless SoC range).

Then again, you seem to be one of the rare folks that defy these generalities.

 

[arw]

Just leaving the info here because I hard a hard time finding a non-HomeKit alternative to limit/stop charging: https://chargie.org/ [not affiliated in any way]
Connects via Bluetooth and its own app (that must be running while connected to the charger).
Is not 100% reliable but there is also an app-independent hardware mode where the device stops charging when the wattage drops below a customizable value.

 

[asus389]

Li-ion batteries are known to age even if not used, while load cycles seem to play only a minor role. However, I have found that battery life is dramatically reduced after exposure to excess heat, like for example in a car or in strong sunlight. Unfortunately, there’s often nothing you can do about it if that’s just how the weather is.

Yeah, I had basically a perfect 100% health on a new battery I put in my iPhone last summer. I then used it in my car without AC for a few weeks and it really degraded my battery a lot in a short period of time.

I’ve also found letting it run down to the point where it shuts off and takes 10-20 minutes on a charger to turn back on doesn’t do your battery any favors.

Likewise, regularly charging it using a wall charger every night seems to help even out the discharge pattern. When I was on a road trip and mainly charging intermittently in my car, I had pretty erratic discharge patterns.

 

[saber32au]

It’s not that hard - get a $10 HomeKit compatible smartplug and set-up your own custom charge optimization with a Shortcut Automation

I use multiple devices to charge my phone (ie various personal and work laptops, docking stations, USB-C chargers etc etc). For me, it's simply not practical to carry around the smartplug soley to charge my phone. A basic software solution (ie built into the battery section, or heck via an app like AlDente on mac) would be better...

 

[reppans]

I use multiple devices to charge my phone (ie various personal and work laptops, docking stations, USB-C chargers etc etc). For me, it's simply not practical to carry around the smartplug soley to charge my phone. A basic software solution (ie built into the battery section, or heck via an app like AlDente on mac) would be better...

Smartplug is just for home/wifi use. I (and another poster above) also mentioned the Chargie USB dongle (thumb-drive size) which can do the same via BT and is good for on-the-go. Yet another internal software work-around would be a simple Shortcut Automation alarm triggered at your desired peak charge level, although you’ll need to be around/awake to unplug it.

Of course, Apple built-in settings would be ideal… but I wouldn’t hold my breath for that (they’ll lose sales), and even if they did, I highly doubt it’ll be as optimized (ie, peak charge AND charge timing) as you can already achieve with a Smartplug or Chargie right now.

 

[saber32au]

Smartplug is just for home/wifi use. I (and another poster above) also mentioned the Chargie USB dongle (thumb-drive size) which can do the same via BT and is good for on-the-go. Yet another internal software work-around would be a simple Shortcut Automation alarm triggered at your desired peak charge level, although you’ll need to be around/awake to unplug it.

Of course, Apple built-in settings would be ideal… but I wouldn’t hold my breath for that (they’ll lose sales), and even if they did, I highly doubt it’ll be as optimized (ie, peak charge AND charge timing) as you can already achieve with a Smartplug or Chargie right now.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll look into them.