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

[code-m]

iPhone 12PM and iPhone 13 Mini both after having a life and not worrying about a phone battery’s life the health in it was 82-86%.

Mobile gaming for extended periods of time will overheat the device which places strain on the battery as well. YouTube decoding videos have hardware optimization hence it doesn’t strain the battery like some mobile games.

Keeping it plugged in while at home I believe bypasses the battery and just tops it off. I set it to 80% while at home.

Battery recharge cycles is calculated as accumulative as in even if you charge up to 80% if the battery discharges 10% over the course of 10 days that total sum is 100% which counts as 1 cycle as per Apple.

Apple already reduces the speed to trickle charge past 80% to reduce heat, prolonged battery health and not cause the device to fry. Usually after a year my devices without any paying attention to these nonsense tactics has remained at 94-100% after a year. After three years it’s usually down to 82-86%.

Please have a life rather than cater to a devices battery health that can be replaced. What more important using a device and in case of emergency be able to receive help or worry about nonsensical things that may or may not be an issue 3+ years later.

 

[kingjames1970]

Launch day 15 pro max. Cycle 163 times, health 100%. No charge limit.

 

[jrlcopy]

15 Pro
No limit turned on.
96% capacity
290 cycles

 

[bodonnell202]

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?

It depends on use case. If you typically wouldn't use more than 50% of your capacity in a normal day it doesn't hurt. The real benefit for me is preventing my phone from charging over 80% while plugged into (wired) CarPlay for hours.

 

[av3nger]

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?

 

[lauraf13]

I still have 100% capacity with a 155 cycle count. For my iPhone 15 Pro I always charged to 100% and never ran it down very far before charging back to 100%. I received it September of 2023. I used mostly wired charging. I don’t charge overnight. I made sure it was at 100% before going to bed. I have long charging cords, so I can charge it while sitting on the couch and use it while it’s charging.

 

[AppleEnthusiast1995]

Not sure if this is good or not, I use optimized and only charge overnight on a Belkin MagSafe bedside charger.

 

[Rob9874]

What is the point of protecting the battery to save capacity, when you’re limiting to 80% anyway?

(I didn’t read other comments before posting mine. I’m sure others have made the same observation.)

 

[chi-tamarindo]

I'm at 548 cycles with 89% max capacity for a launch purchase iPhone 15 Pro - never use 80% charging limit though do use Optimized charging settings. I do try to remove it from the charger before I hit 80% during the day if charging a second time though always charge to 100% at night. 50% MagSafe charging (all night charges) vs. USB-C (all day charging).

This is in line with the author's findings if you do a linear extrapolation to my cycle count so it wouldn't seem the 80% limit did much... Good to know this isn't an unreasonable result though and reminder to myself that I need to limit my phone use more...

 

[now i see it]

Yeah, limiting the max charge level to 80% won’t help the battery lifespan if you’re then discharging deeper on the low end to make up for it. It may almost be a wash.

Where the 80% max charge level really shines through is when leaving the device plugged in all the time. I think that’s it’s main purpose.

 

[redbeard331]

I’m a heavy user, but expect better than this, didn’t use this phone until Halloween last year.

 

[Eriamjh1138@DAN]

164 cycles, 100%
15 Pro Max. New in February.

Charged to 100% about 2-3x by accident.

95% corded charging. MagSafe makes too much heat.

 

[Jimmy Bubbles]

I tried this feature for a few weeks, but then turned it back off.
iPhone 15 Pro
Capacity: 91%
Cycle Count: 419

 

[bodonnell202]

What is the point of protecting the battery to save capacity, when you’re limiting to 80% anyway?

(I didn’t read other comments before posting mine. I’m sure others have made the same observation.)

If you are lighter user (honestly the newer iPhones have great battery life and I can't imagine killing my iPhone 15 in a day) and only use less than 50% of the capacity in a day why not? Also useful for not running at 100% charge for hours when on a long drive with wired CarPlay.

 

[jtgil]

This thread is definitely interesting. I might do a table to see trends here.

My 15PM is at 95% with 335 cycles. From November, (yeah I had to wait a long time for mine🥲)

It has been on 80% limit since day one with occasional charge to 100%. Did not let it drop below 40% around 70% of the times and if it did, rarely below 20%. iPhone is never charging over night and I would interrupt the charging process sometimes if I felt it was getting really hot, I got a cooler as well which help during elevated ambient temps. No MagSafe charging but used mostly 20-30w chargers.

I know it may not look like but I wasn’t really micromanaging that much, just my day to day usage I have access to charging easily and just charge and discharge as desired. I wasn’t thinking too much or losing sleep over it.

Also, while charging rate and percentage charge to max are huge variables, no one has really mentioned battery temperature. That is a super huge factor in battery life.

Heat is the number 1 reason for battery degradation and for most of you with the worst numbers, the phone probably warmed up considerably and for extended durations.

I read someone earlier perplexed about his numbers compared to their partners, and the fact that he had played games heavily did not register in his mind, and games the likes of genshin impact, man…that is the number 1 most heavy game you can pretty much play on a mobile device, the phone must have been boiling and the high discharge rates probably did not help either (affects longevity too).

Anyways, heat during charging is usually the main issue for most.

 

[jase1125]

Never limited the charge. Charged overnight to 100% every night. 193 cycles and my battery health is at 100%.

 

[Turmoil2K1]

I got a 15 Pro at launch and was using the 80% limit except if I'm going hiking or on vacation. Always wired charging at room temp.
100% health at 140 cycle count.

I had a 13 Pro(also purchased at launch) before that and would usually try to not charge it past 90% and the battery health was 100% when I traded it in.

 

[emoore33]

iPhone 15 Pro. 253 cycles 100% battery life. Only charge to 80% mostly on usb C. I'd say the charging limit worked well.

 

[SoybeanStasher]

I'm so ashamed of how much I use my phone. Most of y'all have sub-300 cycles over the past year and I was at 450 😅

I mostly used the 80% limit and I was down to 91% battery health

 

[Elusi]

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.

Bingo. Enabling a simulation how life would be with 80% of design capacity (something that usually takes 3 years of daily care-free usage) from day one kind of defeats its purpose from the get-go.

 

[zilchfox]

iPhone 15 Pro, purchased on launch day.
Battery Health: 93% at 333 cycles.
Never turned on charging limits.

I don’t see a reason to limit my battery, defeats the purpose. Simulate having a bad battery to… not have a bad battery. Hm.

 

[MikeHawk]

385 cycles 92%, but optimized charging to 100%.

 

[cmf5]

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?

Launch day iPhone 15 Pro: I’ve had the 80% charge limit on for ~95% of the year besides for one vacation where I needed the extra juice.

Battery health was pegged at 100% until a couple of weeks ago, where it fell to 99, 98, 97, and now to 96% pretty quickly. 314 cycles.

 

[Eriamjh1138@DAN]

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?

I’d like to go 4-5 years, not 3 with 82% like my 12PM After only 3. Its battery life sucked. I charge at lunch at my desk where I am every day. I charge in the car. I’t’s not inconvenient at all.

 

[Biro]

iPhone 15 Plus here… purchased the day they were available in Apple stores. Battery still at 100 percent. Charging limited to 80 percent except for possibly three or four times when I had long days ahead of me. Battery health app says 49 cycles. But I have used the phone each and every day.