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Interesting article but it sounds like a lot of effort for very little gain.

At the end of the day, we have a 3 year warranty in Europe so I’m pretty relaxed about it and will continue to charge my iPhone 16 Pro to 100% as and when I need to.
Because it's almost USD 400-500 more expensive for a pro max model in EU compared to US.... technically apple care plus + alpha is embedded in the price you paid for.
 
I always turn the optimized charging off, charge overnight and no way would i limit my battery to 80%. All my phones were above 90% after two years (my usual upgrade period) with a good mix of usb charging and wireless charging.

My launch 15 Pro is at 96% with 187 cycles.

Just use your phone and charge it.
 
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iPhone 15 pro - 230 cycles, 100% . almost exclusively wireless charging. I had it at 80% for a few weeks and realized I was forcing myself to suffer the effects of a degraded battery when the battery wasn't even degraded. That made no sense to me.
 
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Interesting article but it sounds like a lot of effort for very little gain.

At the end of the day, we have a 3 year warranty in Europe so I’m pretty relaxed about it and will continue to charge my iPhone 16 Pro to 100% as and when I need to.
But 3 year warranty in Europe? Probably for some issues due to manufacturing or something like this but it won’t cover a highly degrading battery.
 
Day 1 80% max charge
Always used iPhone charger and Apple 20 watt adapter

IMG_3236.png
 
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Wow some of these values are kinda shockingly bad... 10% in one year, ... I have always charged to 100%, always wireless charging and sit at 99% with 250 or so cycles. I changed it to 90% charge limit now though for no reason after reading this here.
 
You can get the continuation for apple care after two years. I still pay for my apple care on my devices that are 3-4 years old. If you pay the lump sum at once, Apple will ask you to switch it and continue with monthly payments, but this is not an option if you pay it monthly either way.

I know it’s overkill but my luck with iPhones is that something always happens, I just realized the issue with green screens on iPhone 14 Pros 🤣🤣
Yes I know about extending AppleCare on a month to month. For me, it’s not worth it. It would have been money better spent buying new items. The calculus could be different for others.
 
ive found a lot of use in using the old 5/10w chargers now, even on my MacBook Pro, and leaving it plugged in over night. 8 hours later and my MacBook is at like 84% charge from a 10w charger from 20-30% the night before. this might too far and extending the charging time but doesnt heat up the bottom like a 85/100/140 charger does
That’s actually a really good idea!
 
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Seriously guys, does it really matter? Is anyone bothered about the battery capacity of their car, or their TV remote? It's a battery, it's not designed to last forever and it makes little difference to the resale value of the phone. Just let it be a battery ffs and stop treating it like a newborn baby.
Yes. As someone who has a 12-year-old EV still getting 90% factory range on the original battery and a 20-year-old Nintendo DS still functioning on the original battery, I’d say I’m doing something right.

I’m in favor of future models having limiters down to 50% since phones have matured and even 80% is in overcharge territory, voltage-wise.
 
Given what I have just read (24 pages of comments), it seems this battery life is ether a completely random reading OR it actually may depend on personal usage. Given I always keep my iPhone 15 at 80% since day 1 and never go below 20% I should have been experiencing 98% capacity at 291cycles ….but it’s 92%:( …..my MIL (same model same date of purchase about same cycle range) has exactly 98% and she never limited to 80% ….always charges to 100%. Our usage differs significantly though, I’d say mine is twice as heavy as hers.
 
Can you please specify current battery stats? % left, cycles and phone model. Heating is not normally mentioned which is why I want to get see how your phone is handling that.
I don't know, it was my 14PM that I just replaced last week. Had it 2 years. Battery capacity was around 84%. I just meant in general, I've read charging your phone to the point of heating it up is bad.
 
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93% after 300 cycles I set my battery capacity to 95% sometime during the year and I charge on everything under the sun (MagSafe, usb-c, usb-a to usb-c)
 
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After a year of use i have 100% on my 15 Pro Max after 255 cycles. I have charged it to 80% most of the time, maybe charged it full 10 times when needed. Definitely worth it.
 


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.

iPhone-15-Pro-lineup.jpg

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.

iphone-15-pro-max-battery-test.jpg

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?
Hello! I have been using the iPhone 15 Pro Max for a year. As for the battery. I have it set to 100% charging limit. I charge it mostly in the evening, often during the day as well. I rarely drain the battery below 50%. I have 202 cycles after one year of use. I still have 100% battery health.
 
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iPhone 15 Pro - 80% limit from day 1 just under a year ago.
96% Max capacity
320 Cycles

I *think* it's only (unintentionally) been charged to 100% twice that I can remember.
 
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iPhone 15 Pro Max since November 2023; no 80% battery limit used; 219 cycles and 94% capacity now.
BTW, Tesla is doing the same (ie suggesting to charge only to max 80% for daily usage) with their cars, so there must be some benefits from limiting to 80%.
 
Given what I have just read (24 pages of comments), it seems this battery life is ether a completely random reading OR it actually may depend on personal usage. Given I always keep my iPhone 15 at 80% since day 1 and never go below 20% I should have been experiencing 98% capacity at 291cycles ….but it’s 92%:( …..my MIL (same model same date of purchase about same cycle range) has exactly 98% and she never limited to 80% ….always charges to 100%. Our usage differs significantly though, I’d say mine is twice as heavy as hers.
The variable they didn't quantify/consider is heat, and it probably has as much or more to do with battery life than how you charge it.

I live in Arizona, where our daytime high temperatures are over 100°F/38°C virtually every day from late May until early October, and my phone is outdoors with me almost every day - sometimes for 6-8 hours a day. From late June until late August, we rarely have daytime highs below 110°F/43°C and our nighttime lows are in the 90s. Park your car for a while in the sun and it's over 140°F when you get back into it and everything you touch burns you. I do my best to keep my phone out of the direct sunlight, but I'm not always successful and I usually over-temp it and get shutdowns at least a few times every summer.

I'd be pretty willing to bet that if I compared my phone's battery health against somebody who lives in a cooler climate with equal age/charging cycles/methods, their battery health would fare a lot better than mine.
 
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Just keeps on dropping, lost 3% the past month. It's not am using the iPhone for hardcore activities and am always using it.
I swear there was a dud batch of batteries last year.
 

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iPhone 11 Pro Max
Probably about 1800 cycles (5 years old, daily use)
Never turned in any battery optimisation at all
Max charge is now 79% and noticeable how quickly it drains.
 
Just keeps on dropping, lost 3% the past month. It's not am using the iPhone for hardcore activities and am always using it.
I swear there was a dud batch of batteries last year.
I had the same issue with iOS 17.6.1. Lost 4% in a few days, even though I didn’t do anything different. Stopped when upgrading to 18.
 
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