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Apple's 80% Charging Limit for iPhone: How Much Did It Help After a Year?
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Came here and logged in just to thank the author for this experiment and sharing it with us. From the bottom of my heart thank you!
It seems to take a long time to go from 100% to 99% but after that the brakes are off.
People be like...
"My unhealthy lifestyle is going to shorten my lifespan by years?" 🤷♂️
"The way I charge my phone is going to shorten its battery life by a few percent?" 😱
"My unhealthy lifestyle is going to shorten my lifespan by years?" 🤷♂️
"The way I charge my phone is going to shorten its battery life by a few percent?" 😱
So basically, you're going out of your way to put stress on your battery by letting it discharge almost fully and then charging to full. Great advice on what not to do!
Yeah, I'm sure that's why electric cars all recommend a 80% charging limit. Please stop giving bad advice.
15 Pro, using 80% limit, with occasional returns to 100% limit when traveling (about five times in the past year). 95% health after 296 cycles. For much of the year it seemed my battery health stayed at 100%, but has dropped some percentage points recently.
AppleCare+ is a waste of money. It's for people that want to increase Apple's margin.
I didn’t use the 80% limit option but I tried to manually never charge my iPhone 15 Pro above 90% or let it drop below 20%. I sinned against the 90% limit a few times a month but never let it sit on the charger for hours.
I managed 100% battery health until 249 cycles, to the point where I was questioning whether the battery health level was actually working. Currently I’m at 98% with 275 cycles.
I’ve set the charge limit to 90% in iOS 18.
I managed 100% battery health until 249 cycles, to the point where I was questioning whether the battery health level was actually working. Currently I’m at 98% with 275 cycles.
I’ve set the charge limit to 90% in iOS 18.
15 Pro Max (a week after launch), charge limit = 100%.
Fair mix of wired and wireless charging through the year. Usually would go the whole day without charging and then leave on charger all night.
Health = 280 cycles with 91% maximum capacity.
Fair mix of wired and wireless charging through the year. Usually would go the whole day without charging and then leave on charger all night.
Health = 280 cycles with 91% maximum capacity.
When y'all get tired of battery discussions you might consider joining an oil thread on a motorcycling forum. It's the only other place I am aware of where so many questionable opinions are so enthusiastically defended.
I upgrade my phone every two years, so I just acquired an iPhone 16 Pro after having relinquished an iPhone 14 Pro, thus I have not had the opportunity to keep an iPhone before now at 80% using a built-in setting. I will religiously attempt to do so with the 16 pro. I can say, however, that since using al dente for the last 14 months, my M1 MacBook pro's battery has seen its degradation and the speed at which it goes through cycle counts radically improve. I set battery max charge to 80% and have it float down to 70% before it recharges. I connect it to a studio display and use it as my home computer as well as work computer. Its battery health has really been stabilized by the use of al dente, so I have high hopes for my iPhone.
Family phone 15 pro max
Always set to 80% charge limit
First use November 2023
209 cycles
100% capacity as of now
Always USB C with 15W charger cube.
Always set to 80% charge limit
First use November 2023
209 cycles
100% capacity as of now
Always USB C with 15W charger cube.
Looks to me like (purely anecdotal... yes) that the 80% charging limit does not help. I have never used it. I'm at 95% capacity on my day-one 15 Pro. 356 cycle count, almost always charged with Magsafe, rarely have to charge during the day (except during those early-18 beta cycles, if you know what I mean).
I'm also starting to think that the battery life percentage is not terribly accurate, nor is the degradation linear. It seems that as battery life diminishes, it does so faster and faster once it's below, say, 85% - although perhaps this is more pronounced on smaller batteries.
I'm also starting to think that the battery life percentage is not terribly accurate, nor is the degradation linear. It seems that as battery life diminishes, it does so faster and faster once it's below, say, 85% - although perhaps this is more pronounced on smaller batteries.
I've used the 80% on my 15Pro for a year and it's still at 100% capacity (178 cycles), however I think, it's down to how much you use the battery, more then anything else.
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?
80% was designed for people like me, most days, I use 40% of the battery, if I used more, than I wouldn't do it for the 5% extra capacity a year
I never limited the charging on my 15 Pro Max and my numbers were right on board with the person who did limit to 80%. Therefore I assume it is not worth the inconvenience. Maybe if I was one who kept a phone for five years this would matter, but I am not and will not.
to replace the battery is another option if a long term issue arises... I buy a phone to use it and not to baby it... to spend much time to extend the life of a batter by perhaps a few percent in a test like this is meaningless.
iPhone 15 Pro Max at 80% since new. Charged on MagSafe 95% plus of the time.
Manufactured: October 2023
First Use: November 2023
Maximum Capacity: 98%
Cycle Count: 145
I almost never need to charge during the day, and have only used a MagSafe battery a couple of times.
Manufactured: October 2023
First Use: November 2023
Maximum Capacity: 98%
Cycle Count: 145
I almost never need to charge during the day, and have only used a MagSafe battery a couple of times.
My 15 PM was just set to optimized charging
221 Cycles
100% Health
I hope my 16 PM is the same.
221 Cycles
100% Health
I hope my 16 PM is the same.
So it's about 3/4% to the good when you use a limit, I'm on 178 cycles and 100% capacity and I've had the 80% limit on my 15 pro
Good test.
Ultimately $100 or so for a battery isn’t all that bad on a $1000-1500 device to just use it how you wish and not worry about it. 80% max capacity isn’t debilitating either even if it’s annoying.
Ultimately $100 or so for a battery isn’t all that bad on a $1000-1500 device to just use it how you wish and not worry about it. 80% max capacity isn’t debilitating either even if it’s annoying.