Apple's 80% Charging Limit for iPhone: How Much Did It Help After a Year?

[Turribeach]

This is clearly not worth it to me. No matter what you do your battery will get to 80% capacity if you keep your phone long enough or pass it down the family pecking order. When it gets to 80% Apple considers the battery "serviceable" which means it should be replaced. So how long it takes to get to 80% depends obviously on battery use, charging cycles and how you treat your battery. But let's say that for a typical iPhone user it takes 4 years to get your battery to 80% capacity without the 80% charging limit. And if you use the 80% charging limit that gives you 1 more year before getting to 80% capacity so a "25% slow down in battery degradation". But here is the problem. For me to get 1 more year before getting to 80% capacity I will have to spend 5 years charging at the 80% charging limit. Whereas not using the limit I will have year 1: 100-95%, year 2: 95-90%, year 3: 90-85% and year 4: 85-80% (assuming linear degradation). It just seems very silly math to me. Charge it always to 100% and when the battery gets to 80-85% change it. Very simple...

PS: In most cases I wouldn't keep the iPhone long enough to reach the 80% as it will pass it down the pecking order.

 

[Boneslasher]

They don't say anything about 20% - 80% because it's not important. The only thing they do, which pretty much every modern device does, is trickle charge after 80%, because that maximizes battery life. I think a lot of people are overthinking all this.

All those links together
I totally agree with you: many are overthinking all this. Just use your device and enjoy it!

Now, if it is a matter about not wanting to pay for AppleCare+ (which I do, but this is not a suggestion, just an opinion) to get free swap, or to pay ~100 to replace it, then it should be a completely different topic.

My current device is an iPhone XS. Swapped battery once for 99€ after 4 years of use; now, after 2 more years, it is at 84% which may induce me to think that Apple put a bad battery in. Truth is ... we will never know and it will be a massive loss of time and nerves to even think about it.
These devices are just tools, but perhaps I am old (35-40!)

 

[MilaM]

But let's say that for a typical iPhone user it takes 4 years to get your battery to 80% capacity without the 80% charging limit. And if you use the 80% charging limit that gives you 1 more year before getting to 80% capacity so a "25% slow down in battery degradation". But here is the problem. For me to get 1 more year before getting to 80% capacity I will have to spend 5 years charging at the 80% charging limit. It just seems very silly math to me. Charge it always to 100% and when the battery gets to 80-85% change it. Very simple...

It's very likely, that the impact of this setting is much more dramatic. We are not talking about extending the useful life by one year. It's more like doubling it to 8 years or more.

 

[PhoenixAnhart]

This is so ridiculous. I'm quite happy to just charge and use my phone as I want without thinking about this. That's a better user experience imo even if it does mean slightly lower battery longevity.

 

[ApplesAreSweet&Sour]

I find there is a high correlation between people who get a new phone every year or two, and people who obsess over their battery health. The amount of obsession over battery health I hear on the Accidental Tech Podcast is baffling, and those jokers get new phones every year or two.

Apple (arbitrarily) not allowing me to see any battery health statistics directly in Settings after I got the battery swapped in my iPhone to a non-original, non-OEM battery has been such a huge blessing in disguise.

Initially frustrating, very much so. But now I just use my iPhone and never think about the battery until the capacity actually lowers to a point where I’ll need to replace the battery again.

Once it’s dying on me before the day is over, then it’ll be time to replace the battery. No looking at any numbers or discussion it with other iPhone owners.

Couldn’t be more simple and efficient.

No, I’m not saying battery wear isn’t happening and we should just turn the blind eye.

But all the time effort put into all of this battery babysitting just seems like it induces much more stress and worrying than it keeps anyone’s batteries lasting longer.

Also, if you’re the kind of person who has and will keep upgrading to a new iPhone every 1-2 years, what are you worried about exactly?

Battery life is not a priority for you if you never even come close to <80% capacity before you’ve moved onto a brand new iPhone.

 

[AdamInKent]

But the whole point of battery management software is to prevent them from going over capacity.

Interestingly, my electric car, a Peugeot e208, has a 50 KW battery, with 45 KW usable. I assume that means that as the battery degrades, the software controlling the charge will allow it to use the originally unusable cells to keep capacity around the nominal level.

Unless Peugeot have done something unusual, your car is using all of the cells in the battery. It is just never fully charging or discharging them. You have no spare cells (that would be redundant weight.).

 

[GuruGuy]

For anyone interested I am currently compiling a data spreadsheet with all you guys data. It will be quite informative for me and for everyone else I believe.

If you join in with your experience, please also add in your response if you can:
-battery limit
-phone model
-charging type/style (ie. Cable/wireless/optimised or not)
-below 10% trend to the best of your knowledge.
-general area ambient temp (if possible)

Thank you guys and will come back when I go through the 400 posts here!!

Charging brick

 

[Mac_fan75]

Well I buy each year a new iPhone, and all those years my battery was at 100% (also in coconut). Last year first time ofc I used this 80% and my 15 Pro Max is at 97% (Apple) with 208 cycles so not really a good experience..

 

[Shirasaki]

The scientific data shows shallow charge and discharges are less harmful to the battery.

In the long term, an 80% habit could potentially get 50-100% more cycles compared to a full charge/discharge practice.

Isn’t a cycle mean 0-100% designed capacity, not how much its being charged per day? It’s like instead of eating a full meal, you eat 60% of it, so the same amount of food you buy lasts longer at any given Week. It doesn’t give you more food, but let you use your food up slower. That’s not more cycles, that’s same 500 cycles being spread out for longer.

 

[Shoo]

iPhone 13 Pro, 91% after 440 cycles.
I try to keep the battery level between 20-80%.

 

[DMG35]

So you think Apple engineers have implemented a feature with no science behind it? Is that Apple’s usual approach to design? For those who don’t use the full battery capacity between charges, the feature provides longer battery life for free.

In my experience the problem with a nearly dead battery isn’t just shorter running time, it is lack of reliability. I have had a phone reporting 20% charge that powered off as soon as an attempt was made to make a call because the battery couldn’t supply the power required to do so.

I think Apple provides it because people obsess over it and asked for it.

 

[brofkand]

Isn’t a cycle mean 0-100% designed capacity, not how much its being charged per day? It’s like instead of eating a full meal, you eat 60% of it, so the same amount of food you buy lasts longer at any given Week. It doesn’t give you more food, but let you use your food up slower. That’s not more cycles, that’s same 500 cycles being spread out for longer.

Yes, charging from 0-50 twice, for example, is one cycle. Or from 0-100 once. Or from 60-80 5x. All counts as one cycle.

 

[rizzo41999]

Hmmm, my understanding is that this feature is only on 15 and later phones.

Oh, interesting! Sure enough, it does show up on my 14 and is enabled and works, part of the time haha.

 

[JPack]

Isn’t a cycle mean 0-100% designed capacity, not how much its being charged per day? It’s like instead of eating a full meal, you eat 60% of it, so the same amount of food you buy lasts longer at any given Week. It doesn’t give you more food, but let you use your food up slower. That’s not more cycles, that’s same 500 cycles being spread out for longer.

No, a shallower discharge results in greater number of usable 100% equivalent cycles. For iPhone 15, this means greater than 1,000.

I’d suggest watching one of many research presentations by Dr. Jeff Dahn. He’s a renowned Canadian battery researcher that works with Tesla on the fundamentals of battery technology. There is a clear relationship between state of charge, depth of charge, and heat and reduced number of usable cycles.

His presentation from 2013 is about an hour long but provides very useful data to back this up.

Apple and other smartphone manufacturers emphasize battery capacity and don’t discourage deep discharges due to the limited space for cells in smartphones. But for best health, shallow discharges and keeping below 100% is preferred.

 

[MaxBurn]

I THINK it helped a lot. At the very least it helped my anxiety in not having to take it off the charger at 80% manually.
15 pro max bought November, manufactured October.
99% max capacity, cycle count 130

I have Zero problems with the reduced 20% I don't need. When I need it I'll turn off the limit.

I do plan on keeping this phone 3 years.

 

[kirkmc]

All those links together
I totally agree with you: many are overthinking all this. Just use your device and enjoy it!

Now, if it is a matter about not wanting to pay for AppleCare+ (which I do, but this is not a suggestion, just an opinion) to get free swap, or to pay ~100 to replace it, then it should be a completely different topic.

My current device is an iPhone XS. Swapped battery once for 99€ after 4 years of use; now, after 2 more years, it is at 84% which may induce me to think that Apple put a bad battery in. Truth is ... we will never know and it will be a massive loss of time and nerves to even think about it.
These devices are just tools, but perhaps I am old (35-40!)

AppleCare is obviously for more than just getting a battery exchange. I buy it for all my iPhones, and I've never damaged one, though I have had two replaced because of batteries. So I probably lose out in the long run, especially now that AC is so much more expensive, but if I did break my screen or damage my iPhone in another way, I'd kick myself for not having that protection.

 

[M5RahuL]

15PM ... was a 100% ( 74 cycles as of today. First use Dec 2023 ) till I updated to 18.0 ( ~4 days back ) and it dropped to 98% !!

No charge limit, and charge as needed ( wired )

 

[Moleyman69]

Launch day 15 Pro Max.

99% maximum capacity / 131 cycles / using an old Apple 5w charger overnight. Limited to 80% max charge. Had a handful of 100% calibration charges.

 

[kirkmc]

Unless Peugeot have done something unusual, your car is using all of the cells in the battery. It is just never fully charging or discharging them. You have no spare cells (that would be redundant weight.).

I'm pretty sure that the extra capacity is to allow the battery to last longer by using the unused cells when necessary.

I found this:

Total battery capacity vs. usable battery capacity

www.leadingthecharge.org.nz

And this:

EV tech explained: Why do EVs restrict the amount of battery capacity that can be used for driving? - Charged EVs

All EVs that use lithium-ion batteries are designed so that their full capacity can’t be used in driving – a few kWh are always left over as a buffer. Sometimes you’ll find this figure in spec sheets, which might (for example) quote capacity as “60 kWh (55 usable)” or some such. What is the...

chargedevs.com

 

[Keleko]

80% since I got it except for one week of vacation at the beginning of this month where I set it to max to be sure I’d have enough for photos.

I just changed it to 90% max with 18.0.

 

[phuklok1]

i never understand the vitriol by some in this community about letting people have options - apple loves your type, it certainly makes their job easy.

I want charge limiting when I am in my car using GPS and my phone is baking away at 100% and slowly killing itself with unnecessary heat at 100% charge. I want charge limiting if I am connected to a charger but having a video running. why is having options bad? options don't mean you are forced to use them if you don't want to. i wish they would give this option to pre 15 phones, it is simply a software change for them as the hardware for it is already in these older units. It would be great to have a shortcut control, so for example when it is connected to a car it drops to 80%, but can be changed when disconnected, etc.

 

[prymitywista]

15 pro max

80% from day 1
239 cycles

maximum capacity: 100%

almost 1 y.o

 

[iMac The Knife]

Anyone who can do simple math knows that you would need to own and use your phone for approximately 3 years for the whole 'only charge to 80%' feature to work out in your favor. But, by that time who really cares? It would be time to get a new battery anyway if you value decent battery life. Also, I've found that if you are using a charger that is above say 50-60w (for phones that can actually take advantage of fast charging), it is far better for the battery to use the cable once a day to top it off, than to use wireless or wired charging overnight. I never leave my phone on a charger overnight anymore. For one, there is no need when I can charge my phone from 0-100% in 40 minutes, and secondly leaving your phone charging for extended periods of time degrades the battery much faster than a quick top off once a day, I don't care what kind of settings they claim will prevent this. Just my nickel, less three pennies.

 

[Graphate]

Honestly I don't see the point of it. Yeah it might give your battery a little more longevity, but if its going dead on you throughout the day because you only charged it to 80% it seems like a complete waste to me.

I still don’t get it. Why limit yourself to a phone with 80% battery capacity now just to avoid having a phone with 80% battery capacity in 2-3 years?

I think the idea is that by saving the life of the battery, you can charge to 100% when you think you need it. And it looks like, that could be the difference between nearly 10% capacity (for some) after a year. That might be the difference of an hour or more.

I for one remember noticeable battery degradation after a year in earlier iPhone models.

I am at iPhone 15 Pro 94% and 320 cycles, September 2023.

 

[drakomad]

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.

• Current capacity: 87%. Cycles: 329
  
• Current capacity: 90%. Cycles: 271

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.

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?

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.

• Current capacity: 87%. Cycles: 329
  
• Current capacity: 90%. Cycles: 271

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.

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?

My launch day Iphone 15 pro, I always charged it to 100%.


Maximun capacity 100%. 191 cycles.