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Apple's 80% Charging Limit for iPhone: How Much Did It Help After a Year?
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😂😂 idk what it is but I rarely ever drop my iPhones. they don’t tend to slip from my hands. I think I just am very conscious of holding on tight.
Please cite your source. This is the first I’ve heard this, and goes against what Apple says.
You also want to avoid depleting the battery charge to less than 20%.
It’s not giving up anything if you don’t need 100% of the charge most days.Am I getting this right - people are giving up 20% of charge capacity, to potentially save 4-5% several years down the road when they trade it in for a new model?
You are assuming that everyone uses 100% of their battery ever day and that is not true. I limit mine to 80% and it is rare to get down to 30% on a normal day. On a heavy day, I’ll still plug in. Chargers are common. There is nothing missed.
FYI @Rob9874
Day one iPhone 15 pro with overheating issue solved after a month:
With the iPhone 15 models that came out last year, Apple added an opt-in battery setting that limits maximum charge to 80 percent. The idea is that never charging the iPhone above 80 percent will increase battery longevity, so I kept my iPhone at that 80 percent limit from September 2023 to now, with no cheating.
My iPhone 15 Pro Max battery level is currently at 94 percent with 299 cycles. For a lot of 2024, my battery level stayed above 97 percent, but it started dropping more rapidly over the last couple of months.
I left my iPhone at that 80 percent limit and at no point turned the setting off or tweaked it. There were some days when I ran out of battery because I was without a charger for most of the day, and there were other times that I had to bring a battery along to make sure I didn't run out of power. It wasn't always convenient to keep it at 80 percent, but there were days when it didn't have too much of an impact.
It was always a treat when the iPhone randomly decided to charge to 100 percent, which is something Apple has baked in to the 80 percent limit to ensure the battery level stays calibrated.
For the most part, I charged using USB-C rather than MagSafe, but there was some MagSafe charging mixed in. There was probably a 70/30 split between wired charging and MagSafe charging. I did often let my battery get quite low before charging, and it didn't sit on the charger for long periods of time too often. Most charging was done in a room at 72 degrees. I'm adding this context because temperature is a factor that can affect battery longevity, and wireless charging is warmer than wired charging.
You can compare your level battery to mine, but here are a couple other metrics from MacRumors staff that also have an iPhone 15 Pro Max and did not have the battery level limited.
I don't have a lot of data points for comparison, but it does seem that limiting the charge to 80 percent kept my maximum battery capacity higher than what my co-workers are seeing, but there isn't a major difference. I have four percent more battery at 28 more cycles, and I'm not sure suffering through an 80 percent battery limit for 12 months was ultimately worth it.
- Current capacity: 87%. Cycles: 329
- Current capacity: 90%. Cycles: 271
It's possible that the real gains from an 80 percent limit will come in two or three years rather than a single year, and I'll keep it limited to 80 percent to see the longer term impact.
I did set my iPhone 16 Pro Max to an 80 percent limit, but I don't know if I want to continue the test given the lackluster results I had from 2023 to 2024. Will the thermal changes in the iPhone 16 models make any difference? Maybe, maybe not. There's a 90 percent charge limit option too, and that might be more feasible than 80 percent for most people, especially those that have phones with smaller batteries.
Let me know your current battery capacity and cycle count in the comments below, and weigh in on whether you think Apple's limits are worthwhile.
Article Link: Apple's 80% Charging Limit for iPhone: How Much Did It Help After a Year?
usb c official and MagSafe apple charged to 80% but didn’t last at all so 100% quite early:
90% capacity
589 battery cycles
Atrocious heavy phone that overheats for nothing and barely holds a normal day of use.
Overall my worst iPhone battery since 12 , my 13 was better in that aspect.
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Running the battery to zero on your iPhone will likely damage the battery more than if you keep charging it to 100% every night. In this case 80% did you no favors… 😉
In theory yes. But like on an EV Automobile, 0% indicated isn't actually 0%. There is reserve that helps enable features such as Find My, and likely also to protect the cells.
Admittedly i never bothered to turn that feature on.
Battery health is one of the main justifications I have to upgrade.
But that's also because it's a work provided phone. If it dies after 24 months, then I get an upgrade. If my phone lives for 7 years i get nothing but the privilege of using the same phone for 7 years.
But for reference i'm on 88% after 2 years (ip13) and 529 cycles.
Battery health is one of the main justifications I have to upgrade.
But that's also because it's a work provided phone. If it dies after 24 months, then I get an upgrade. If my phone lives for 7 years i get nothing but the privilege of using the same phone for 7 years.
But for reference i'm on 88% after 2 years (ip13) and 529 cycles.
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I turned my limit off. 270 cycles, 97% capacity.
The single biggest factor in how long your battery lasts is how good it was when it left the factory.
The single biggest factor in how long your battery lasts is how good it was when it left the factory.
Had mine, a iPhone 15 Pro Max, for 11 months and sold it. Prior to selling, it was at 100% maximum capacity and 117 cycle counts.
About 95% of the time I kept that 80% charging limit on and mixed charging via MagSafe and cable.
About 95% of the time I kept that 80% charging limit on and mixed charging via MagSafe and cable.
Lot of hand-waving arguments saying 0% is damaging.
Science says otherwise. HIGH state of charge is most damaging, followed by DEPTH of discharge. Hitting 0% is not ideal, but far better than charging to 100%.
Science says otherwise. HIGH state of charge is most damaging, followed by DEPTH of discharge. Hitting 0% is not ideal, but far better than charging to 100%.
I skipped to the end of this thread after the first two pages, is mine really the worst?? Admittedly, I'm addicted to my phone, let it get below 10% SoC, and plug it in multiple times per day (mostly via usb-c, sometimes MagSafe). Mine also used to get extremely hot while charging prior to the software fix in iOS 17 🧐
329 cycles, 89% capacity, first used September 2023.
329 cycles, 89% capacity, first used September 2023.
You're straight up wrong, no doubt about it.
There's plenty of science that you're not aware of. Not sure why you would reference a blog instead of peer reviewed journal articles.
That's pretty neat to see, so in essence, the being discharged to 0% isn't as big of a deal to battery longevity as being fully charged frequently.
Good to know! I always tried to keep it between 20%-80%
Don’t have cycle count on my 14 PM, but currently at 85% capacity.
I am disappointed by the numbers, I would hope that if you treat the battery gently you’d get at least near 5 years before reaching 80% capacity.
I am disappointed by the numbers, I would hope that if you treat the battery gently you’d get at least near 5 years before reaching 80% capacity.
I’m sorry, but: Was that sarcasm?
Were you being sarcastic about it always being a treat? Or was it actually a treat and you always appreciated it when it charged to 100 percent?
It seems like it is probably sarcasm, but I’m not absolutely sure.
15 Pro Max…got it on release date last year. Currently at 87% capacity with 350 cycles. Don’t limit to 80% charge and also charge primarily via MagSafe. Not thrilled with the battery but then again I’m on my phone wayyyyy too much. I’ll get a replacement battery once this dips below 80% capacity as I have AppleCare+.
14 Pro in service on June 1, 2023. Mostly Lightning charged, but MagSafe when in the car. Optimized charging enabled the entire time. I'd say I hit 10% charge about 10% of the time. Infrequent that I end up that low, but lowest has been 3% on one occasion.
93% Maximum Capacity (after 16 months - if rate holds, I'll be down to 86% Feb 2026 and ~80% January 2027)
290 Cycle Count (per Coconut Battery as my 14 Pro doesn't show cycle count in iOS 18).
Battery Manufacture Date: April 17, 2023
93% Maximum Capacity (after 16 months - if rate holds, I'll be down to 86% Feb 2026 and ~80% January 2027)
290 Cycle Count (per Coconut Battery as my 14 Pro doesn't show cycle count in iOS 18).
Battery Manufacture Date: April 17, 2023
Iphone 15 Max Pro. Bought on october 2023, 149 cycles, 100% battery. Using 80% limit since day 1.
With the iPhone 15 models that came out last year, Apple added an opt-in battery setting that limits maximum charge to 80 percent. The idea is that never charging the iPhone above 80 percent will increase battery longevity, so I kept my iPhone at that 80 percent limit from September 2023 to now, with no cheating.
My iPhone 15 Pro Max battery level is currently at 94 percent with 299 cycles. For a lot of 2024, my battery level stayed above 97 percent, but it started dropping more rapidly over the last couple of months.
I left my iPhone at that 80 percent limit and at no point turned the setting off or tweaked it. There were some days when I ran out of battery because I was without a charger for most of the day, and there were other times that I had to bring a battery along to make sure I didn't run out of power. It wasn't always convenient to keep it at 80 percent, but there were days when it didn't have too much of an impact.
It was always a treat when the iPhone randomly decided to charge to 100 percent, which is something Apple has baked in to the 80 percent limit to ensure the battery level stays calibrated.
For the most part, I charged using USB-C rather than MagSafe, but there was some MagSafe charging mixed in. There was probably a 70/30 split between wired charging and MagSafe charging. I did often let my battery get quite low before charging, and it didn't sit on the charger for long periods of time too often. Most charging was done in a room at 72 degrees. I'm adding this context because temperature is a factor that can affect battery longevity, and wireless charging is warmer than wired charging.
You can compare your level battery to mine, but here are a couple other metrics from MacRumors staff that also have an iPhone 15 Pro Max and did not have the battery level limited.
I don't have a lot of data points for comparison, but it does seem that limiting the charge to 80 percent kept my maximum battery capacity higher than what my co-workers are seeing, but there isn't a major difference. I have four percent more battery at 28 more cycles, and I'm not sure suffering through an 80 percent battery limit for 12 months was ultimately worth it.
- Current capacity: 87%. Cycles: 329
- Current capacity: 90%. Cycles: 271
It's possible that the real gains from an 80 percent limit will come in two or three years rather than a single year, and I'll keep it limited to 80 percent to see the longer term impact.
I did set my iPhone 16 Pro Max to an 80 percent limit, but I don't know if I want to continue the test given the lackluster results I had from 2023 to 2024. Will the thermal changes in the iPhone 16 models make any difference? Maybe, maybe not. There's a 90 percent charge limit option too, and that might be more feasible than 80 percent for most people, especially those that have phones with smaller batteries.
Let me know your current battery capacity and cycle count in the comments below, and weigh in on whether you think Apple's limits are worthwhile.
Article Link: Apple's 80% Charging Limit for iPhone: How Much Did It Help After a Year?