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

100% capacity, 75 cycles, 80% limit since day 1, Early october 2023 first use.

I'm not a social media addict and I get thru the day with plenty to spare.
 
I've been manually using an 80-82% 'limit' on my 13 mini by just making sure to always unplug it when I get the Shortcuts alert that it hit 80%. Had the phone for about 2.5 years and the battery's never been below a 25% charge.

According to coconutBattery, it's got 323 cycles and 97.6% capacity (97% reported by Settings.app). I'm satisfied.
 
I set the charge limit to 100% on day 1. I have had it since launch day - 140 cycles, still at 100% capacity.
 
brofkand said:
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.
Click to expand...

Ironic timing on this comment

I am listening to their latest episode right now and it’s dawned on me that I skip about 85% of every single episode now.

I wonder if I’m even gonna be listening in six months.

They have a way of being totally insufferable on so many topics…

Especially when they talk about their just mindless consumerism anytime Apple releases something new
 
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i used the 80% charge limit on my 15 Pro Max since new except for 20 to 25 days while away from home. Almost all MagSafe charging - I rarely plugged it in.

97% health after 277 cycles
 
15 pro, 6 months @ 80% = 100% battery health, 173 cycles. I’ll probably change it to 90% when I update to iOS 18 or just turn it off completely. I do need to charge during the day while at work but it’s not a problem as I have a plenty of options to do so. Mostly tried it out of curiosity.
 
It's great to see actual data like this, even if the sample size is small, so those interested can get a feel for what they're actually getting.

And in the end, assuming this is accurate and the delta is real but also relatively small, whether it's worthwhile depends vastly on how you use your phone, and your future plans for it.

A lighter user (for whom 80% might be enough for their daily use) who plans to keep their phone above the 80% they actually need for at least a few more months, and thus save a few bucks on battery replacement (although if you amortize $99 over say 4 years of battery life, $25/year is not a huge expense, so the real savings are at most a few dollars per year).

A heavier user who plans to keep the phone for a while is going to be annoying themselves with an empty battery every day until their capacity hits 80%, which is an awful lot of cumulative daily hassle to exchange for a few months longer before needing a replacement. Again, if you amortize over the life of the battery, is it really worth saving, say, $12 per year (optimistically) in exchange for years significantly reduced effective battery capacity most of the time? I would assume the vast majority of such users would gladly pay $1/month for an additional 10-20% of battery capacity.

And then there's people on a plan that offers a free phone trade-in upgrade every 2 years (or less). Since the total capacity after 2 years is still going to be over 80% no matter what you do to it, you get absolutely nothing--you're just giving whoever your trade-in gets sold to a slightly-better-condition battery in exchange for getting less use out of it yourself.

My family is in the third category, personally, and even running unrestricted and me usually using it until it's around 10% by bedtime, I've never seen one get below about 85% of new capacity by the time I traded in, so I definitely would not benefit from artificially reducing capacity.
 
I don’t care because I’ll just get a new battery at the store when it needs it. i do turn off background apps to help make the battery last longer during the day.
 
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I honestly don’t get the point of it, this isn’t an expensive EV battery that’s expected to last 10+ years. The vast majority of people will upgrade their phone before battery degradation really becomes an issue. Plus, you can get a battery replacement for fairly cheap now too if you need one.

The degradation difference isn’t large enough to justify a 20% reduction in total battery life usage. Even expanding this out to 2-3 years, the degradation saved won’t even overcome the reduction in battery usage, making it never reach the “break even” point where useful battery life is higher…
 
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No limit on battery charging
300 cycles
80% mag safe charging
20% usb c

iPhone 15 pro max 94% capacity before I traded it into Apple Store for the 16 pro max

It’s pointless to conserve battery capacity if it affects your overall ability to use it.

If you are keeping ur phone for less than 3 years no sense limiting yourself with this non sense.

I don’t even keep my phone more than a year
 
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My iPhone 15 Pro with 345 cycles has 100% health and always charged to 100%. I even used MagSafe as my sole charging method. Couldn’t put a dent in that health.
 
brofkand said:
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.
Click to expand...
yeah I just can’t obsess over it lol. I want to be able to charge and use my phone freely without worrying about that stuff.

part of the reason I don’t worry is because I upgrade every year and always get AppleCare.
 
I don't really see the point of a charging limit, even if lessens capacity degradation over time. If you only charge to 80% all the time, then you're effectively starting on 80% battery health, just in terms of how much runtime you get from that charge.

So, assuming your battery is at 90% health after 2 years and you charge to 80%, that means you get 72% in terms of runtime. If my battery is at 80% health and I charge to 100%, that means I get 80% runtime. Sure, if you then suddenly start charging to 100% instead you'll get better runtime than I do, but you had to compromise on runtime in the two years before that.

Also the few times I tried it, there's no quick way to override the charge limit for one time only, is there? So if I decide I want/need 100% charge today, I need to got to the settings and remove the charging limit I set and then wait for it to charge from 80% to 100%, which takes a long time.

It's just too much of a hassle. I'd rather just charge my phone whenever I feel like it and it should just charge as fast and as much as it can during the day. It can take its time over night, sure, and the "Optimized Battery Charging" setting seems to work well for that. If the battery degrades too much, I'll get it replaced. Yes, that is expensive at like $100 (?) now with the new Pro models, but I'd rather spend $100 after 2 or 3 years than to keep thinking about how I charge my phone.

I also feel like most of it is luck anyway, battery health will mostly depend on how high quality it was from the factory. My 13 Pro was at 90% battery health after two years of mostly just MagSafe charging (>95% of the time), and it didn't have any charging limit set or even possible (because that requires the incredible power of the A17 Pro or higher it seems). I recently bought a used iPhone 12 for someone and its first battery is still at 92% health.

Just use your phones and don't worry about it.
 
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Bought on launch date, enabled 80% limit on day 1. I never let it go pass 80% and I often unplug just before it got to 80%. Always use fast wired charger (45W or more, but this iPhone can only do 30W AFAIK). I never used wireless charging.
Still at 99% after 250 cycles.

I have been doing this to my mac since 2020 and it made a lot of difference (we can manually instruct a mac to stop charging its battery by issuing some SMC commands). Generally, I lose about 1% to 2% of battery capacity annually. Before I did this, that same mac (MacBook Pro 13" 2015) could lose anywhere from 2% to 6% of battery capacity annually, depending on how often it stayed plugged in at 100%.

A more extreme example would be my 2020 MacBook Air M1. I bought it used and it was in immaculate condition. Previous owner said that he often docked this laptop, thus it should spent most of its time at 100%. When I got it, laptop was 1 year and 2 months old with only 30-ish charge cycles and battery health were at 87% already. Now after using it 2 years later and approx. 130 charge cycles later (currently at 164), it still got 85% battery health. Laptop's battery spend most of its time at 40%-60% charge level and I only charge it up to 80% manually when I need to hit the road for an entire day.
 
15 pro max since launch day

charge limit 100%

optimized charging enabled

cycle count 241

max capacity still shows 100%
 
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15 Pro
91%
471 cycle count

during the da often have connected to usb-c at night it's been on a wireless charger with the clock radio thing on screen
 
I got my iPhone 15 Pro Max on day 1, and has set the charging limit to 80% for typical use and to 100% when I am traveling or out on the weekends. I have used MagSafe charging about 80% of the time, and USB-C about 20% of the time.

After 306 cycles, its maximum capacity is 98%. I am very impressed.
 
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DMG35 said:
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.
Click to expand...
Easy. Charge it to 100% when you will need it, like when you need to be out for a full day I.e. in the weekends or holidays. During a typical work day with charger access, limit it to 80%.
My 15 Pro Max is still at 97% after more than 330 cycles using this method.
 
jwsf28 said:
Correct me if I’m wrong, but they only replace the battery after it’s down to 80% health, right? Am I imagining that? 🤔
Click to expand...
You’re right. If you can’t get it down to under 80% in two years your AppleCare+ money is wasted.
 
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Moukee said:
I don't really see the point of a charging limit, even if lessens capacity degradation over time. If you only charge to 80% all the time, then you're effectively starting on 80% battery health, just in terms of how much runtime you get from that charge.

So, assuming your battery is at 90% health after 2 years and you charge to 80%, that means you get 72% in terms of runtime. If my battery is at 80% health and I charge to 100%, that means I get 80% runtime. Sure, if you then suddenly start charging to 100% instead you'll get better runtime than I do, but you had to compromise on runtime in the two years before that.

Also the few times I tried it, there's no quick way to override the charge limit for one time only, is there? So if I decide I want/need 100% charge today, I need to got to the settings and remove the charging limit I set and then wait for it to charge from 80% to 100%, which takes a long time.

It's just too much of a hassle. I'd rather just charge my phone whenever I feel like it and it should just charge as fast and as much as it can during the day. It can take its time over night, sure, and the "Optimized Battery Charging" setting seems to work well for that. If the battery degrades too much, I'll get it replaced. Yes, that is expensive at like $100 (?) now with the new Pro models, but I'd rather spend $100 after 2 or 3 years than to keep thinking about how I charge my phone.

I also feel like most of it is luck anyway, battery health will mostly depend on how high quality it was from the factory. My 13 Pro was at 90% battery health after two years of mostly just MagSafe charging (>95% of the time), and it didn't have any charging limit set or even possible (because that requires the incredible power of the A17 Pro or higher it seems). I recently bought a used iPhone 12 for someone and its first battery is still at 92% health.

Just use your phones and don't worry about it.
Click to expand...
I'll give another perspective here. Most of the time, we don't need the full capacity of our batteries, e.g. like if we're working in the office. Thus only using like 20% to 40% of the battery capacity every day should be sufficient. However, there are occasions where we do need the maximum capacity that the battery could provide. When that time comes, it is nice to have the battery in a healthy state. Charge it to 100%, and the battery would be capable to give me 99% of its capacity, ready to seize the day.

Also, from my experience in buying used MacBooks, I can say that this is not based on luck (see my previous post). Battery health deteriorates faster the longer the battery stays at high charge level. Thus one might disable this battery limit, but if one often charge the phone to 100% overnight and use it rarely throughout the day vs another one who also charge their phone to 100% during the day and start to use it right after it is charged, the 2nd one should have a much better battery health vs the first one.

Lastly, not many people can afford a new gadgets. In many places like in my home country, getting a genuine Apple battery is prohibitively expensive (aftermarket batteries could be bought for a more reasonable price, but their quality could be wildly different from one to another). By keeping our batteries in their prime, people who bought our preloved devices could enjoy them for many years to come without having to sacrifice their battery life and compromise their safety by using non-genuine batteries.
 
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