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iPhone 12 mini after 4 years, my iPhone 12 Mini's battery health finally dropped below 79%

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beerseagulls

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
I bought my iPhone 12 Mini from the Apple Store 4 years ago. I have always charged it with the tiny Apple 5-watt charger on the wall. The phone is used daily as a secondary daily driver.(the primary daily driver has been either the 12PM, 14PM and now 15PM)

After 4 years, the battery health finally dropped below 79% this morning. Just wondering if that's some kind of record? 🙂

Guess I'll have the battery replaced at the Apple Store soon.... (supposedly free on an old iphone, if battery replacement is covered by AppleCare?) 🙂
 
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beerseagulls said:
I bought my iPhone 12 Mini from the Apple Store 4 years ago. I have always charged it with the tiny Apple 5-watt charger on the wall. The phone is used daily as a secondary daily driver.(the primary daily driver has been either the 12PM, 14PM and now 15PM)

After 4 years, the battery health finally dropped below 79% this morning. Just wondering if that's some kind of record? 🙂

Guess I'll have the battery replaced at the Apple Store soon.... (supposedly free on an old iphone, if battery replacement is covered by AppleCare?) 🙂
Click to expand...
That's pretty good! My 13 Mini was down to 74% in just over 3 years.

Battery replacement is indeed free if your AppleCare is current. I keep month to month going after 2 years.
 
Snide said:
That's pretty good! My 13 Mini was down to 74% in just over 3 years.

Battery replacement is indeed free if your AppleCare is current. I keep month to month going after 2 years.
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yeah... I also kept the AppleCare on a month-to-month.... normally I wouldn't do it for a 3 or 4 year phone, but I really like the Mini and want to keep it for as long as possible, especially after Apple discontinued it. 🙂
 
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My daughter’s 12 mini was a daily driver from Dec 2020-Dec 2024 and it was at 83% for the last 6 or 8 months. SOT was really bad, especially on iOS 17 and 18.

She was elated when she got a 16 plus for Christmas. 😂
 
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FeliApple said:
You left aside the most interesting number: cycle count.
Click to expand...

finally got around to finding out the cycle count....

holy cow! my 4-year-old iPhone 12 Mini cyclecount was 1026. Not that I was surprised because I did use it extensively.... what was surprising was that it took 1026 cycles before it dipped below 80% battery health. (unless Apple's battery health is not that accurate to being with?) 🙂
 
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beerseagulls said:
finally got around to finding out the cycle count....

holy cow! my 4-year-old iPhone 12 Mini cyclecount was 1026. Not that I was surprised because I did use it extensively.... what was surprising was that it took 1026 cycles before it dipped below 80% battery health. (unless Apple's battery health is not that accurate to being with?) 🙂
Click to expand...
In my experience, the time-to-cycles ratio helps massively. If you are a heavy user who tends to cycle devices at a decent pace, then the cycles-to-health ratio will be good.

If you are a light user who barely uses devices and is at a 3 cycles/month rate, time will degrade your battery alongside cycles, so your number won’t be as good.

21.37 cycles/month is decent, so your number will probably be good.

As you most likely know, battery health is variable, so this doesn’t mean that ALL batteries will follow this pattern. But the faster you cycle it the higher the likelihood of it having a good health-to-cycles ratio.

How do I know? Because I’m an efficient, light user (in terms of apps) who gets a lot of hours of SOT from one charge. I also don’t use my phone a whole lot, and I never update iOS, so my battery life and screen-on time never degrade.

So, after 5.5 years, my 359 cycles iPhone Xʀ on iOS 12 (a monthly average of 5.36) has 89% health. Not that amazing.

If you go to the extreme, I’ve seen 50 cycles/month iPhones with almost 2000 cycles and they remain above 80%.

Obviously, heavy users will have lower battery health than me in the same timeframe, but they will have a better ratio.
 
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beerseagulls said:
finally got around to finding out the cycle count....

holy cow! my 4-year-old iPhone 12 Mini cyclecount was 1026. Not that I was surprised because I did use it extensively.... what was surprising was that it took 1026 cycles before it dipped below 80% battery health. (unless Apple's battery health is not that accurate to being with?) 🙂
Click to expand...
I’ve never owned a “mini” iPhone. However, that seems like a good run. For example, my iPhone X made it five years and (also) to the around 1,000 cycles mark, which is double what Apple guarantees (i.e., will replace if under warranty), before iOS estimated a 79% battery health. By the way, that iPhone is still going (as a secondary/backup) with a battery health err “Maximum Capacity” of 74% with more than 1,200 cycles — probably ~1,225.
 
SmOgER said:
"Finally"? Ok then you waited a long time! How are you gonna celebrate that milestone?
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well... the Apple Store is next door to the local Taco Bell. Guess I'll have a big lunch while they replace the battery for free? 🙂 probably not... can't afford Taco Bell these days... it's expensive.... my mate and I went there last month. we each had a wrap, a regular taco and a drink.... the bill was $29.38 after tax... 2 wraps, 2 regular tacos, 2 drinks.... what the heck!!!??? fortunately, we were not that hungry at the time.... imagine what the bill would be if we were really hungry. (both of us are big and fat guys... I'm 6'2 and 210 pounds, my friend is 6'3 and 220 pounds)
 
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My dad has had his 12 mini since launch day. I've never asked him what his battery capacity is at, but I know from my mom that he has to charge his phone multiple times a day. I got rid of my launch day 12 mini after two years, capacity was around 80-85%, can’t imagine what his is at right now.

Congrats on holding on to it for so long, I wish I kept my 12 mini (Upgraded to a 14 Pro, then recently downsized back to a 13 mini), would have saved me probably $2000 (Between the devices, cases, screen protectors, AC+, etc) in the long run.
 
xxFoxtail said:
My dad has had his 12 mini since launch day. I've never asked him what his battery capacity is at, but I know from my mom that he has to charge his phone multiple times a day. I got rid of my launch day 12 mini after two years, capacity was around 80-85%, can’t imagine what his is at right now.

Congrats on holding on to it for so long, I wish I kept my 12 mini (Upgraded to a 14 Pro, then recently downsized back to a 13 mini), would have saved me probably $2000 (Between the devices, cases, screen protectors, AC+, etc) in the long run.
Click to expand...

after the Apple Store replaces the battery, I plan to keep on using the 12 Mini as my secondary daily driver. I'll keep using it until Apple releases a new iPhone with the same physical dimensions. (which will probably never happen) 🙂
 
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xxFoxtail said:
My dad has had his 12 mini since launch day. I've never asked him what his battery capacity is at, but I know from my mom that he has to charge his phone multiple times a day. I got rid of my launch day 12 mini after two years, capacity was around 80-85%, can’t imagine what his is at right now.

Congrats on holding on to it for so long, I wish I kept my 12 mini (Upgraded to a 14 Pro, then recently downsized back to a 13 mini), would have saved me probably $2000 (Between the devices, cases, screen protectors, AC+, etc) in the long run.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I reckon a heavily used, updated 12 Mini would be struggle now. The 12 Mini, as a flagship (it shared specs with the top of the line iPhone) has probably the worst battery life on an original iOS version since… the iPhone 8, I reckon.

if it was already poor on iOS 14, push it through 4 major versions AND add to that a degraded battery, and yeah, it doesn’t have the headroom to withstand those updates. It doesn’t even have the battery to provide a good battery life when new and on its original iOS version. It works for light users, but we aren’t many nowadays.

I think that’s ultimately what killed the Mini line. People use their phones too heavily nowadays. A phone like the Mini has no longevity prospects.

You see people repeatedly almost drain the Plus or Pro Max on their original iOS versions these days. What can the Mini do there? Not much.

I’m surprised by People’s ridiculously heavy usage. I get 27 hours on my 16 Plus and people are killing it in 10. If people do that they should forget about the Mini.
 
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