Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

iPhone XS Max Battery Health Observations

walkthruwalls

walkthruwalls

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 30, 2014
66
28
waters of Thailand
I dunno if you guys are familiar with YouTuber Brandon Butch but I had been a big fan of his tech vids since the iPhone 7 days. But I have observed certain stuff about his practices that should help with our battery life. Now some of you may have different practices but I am just relaying something that actually works and has been awesome for my battery health as well.

His current latest vid is about his observations (specifically his annoyances) about the new iOS 12.2 but if you fast forward the vid to 5:53, you will see that his battery health is still 100%. Should raise some questions right? Now let's address those questions. What are his usage? Now on the same vid, slide back to 4:40 and you will see that his usage is actually pretty much like the average working joe, retiring his phone at night to his charger with around 20%. His average daily screentime usage is 6 and a half hours. Even though Butch owns the Galaxy S10 Plus for his YouTube vids, he mentions constantly, even in this vid, that his iPhone is his daily driver, which explains his usage time. Next question, should be a very new phone with a new battery, right? Well, not really. If you had been following his vids, he had an Unboxing Video of this XS Max 6 months ago. Hmmmmm, so that brings us to the meaty question: What are his charging practices? Let's go back to his past vids. September last year he posted a vid about Tips to improve your iOS12 Battery Life. Those are mostly your adjusting stuff in your settings to maximize your battery life, most of which we already know and do. But fast forward the vid to 13:05 and there's the gold: Charge your device constantly.

Now some of us here wont agree with this. I have seen and read battery advise tips that says this is bad for our batteries including from Linus Tech Tips. Well in a way it is a bad practice and I agree with Linus that as the charging gets over 90%, it gets labored to reach 100%. But Linus Tech Tips is also letting us aware that there's also 'Death by Discharge' where constant consuming of our batteries is also degrading its health. So basically we will just have to choose our poison. Constantly using and avoiding charging constantly or charging constantly and avoiding Death by Discharge. I personally, like Butch, is doing the latter and my batteries across all my devices has lasted me ages. Basically I am taking advantage of Apple's design where, when our batteries reach full charge, it cuts off the charging current and goes into Trickle Charge mode, mostly utilizing our electric current instead of the battery. So I am not surprised if Butch's 6/7 month old iPhone XS Max is still in 100% health.

Just my long 2 cents:D. Now I am not saying other people's charging practices are wrong. I'm just observing what works for me and is also proven by another user.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: madrich and BoneHead001
walkthruwalls said:
I dunno if you guys are familiar with YouTuber Brandon Butch but I had been a big fan of his tech vids since the iPhone 7 days. But I have observed certain stuff about his practices that should help with our battery life. Now some of you may have different practices but I am just relaying something that actually works and has been awesome for my battery health as well.

His current latest vid is about his observations (specifically his annoyances) about the new iOS 12.2 but if you fast forward the vid to 5:53, you will see that his battery health is still 100%. Should raise some questions right? Now let's address those questions. What are his usage? Now on the same vid, slide back to 4:40 and you will see that his usage is actually pretty much like the average working joe, retiring his phone at night to his charger with around 20%. His average daily screentime usage is 6 and a half hours. Even though Butch owns the Galaxy S10 Plus for his YouTube vids, he mentions constantly, even in this vid, that his iPhone is his daily driver, which explains his usage time. Next question, should be a very new phone with a new battery, right? Well, not really. If you had been following his vids, he had an Unboxing Video of this XS Max 6 months ago. Hmmmmm, so that brings us to the meaty question: What are his charging practices? Let's go back to his past vids. September last year he posted a vid about Tips to improve your iOS12 Battery Life. Those are mostly your adjusting stuff in your settings to maximize your battery life, most of which we already know and do. But fast forward the vid to 13:05 and there's the gold: Charge your device constantly.

Now some of us here wont agree with this. I have seen and read battery advise tips that says this is bad for our batteries including from Linus Tech Tips. Well in a way it is a bad practice and I agree with Linus that as the charging gets over 90%, it gets labored to reach 100%. But Linus Tech Tips is also letting us aware that there's also 'Death by Discharge' where constant consuming of our batteries is also degrading its health. So basically we will just have to choose our poison. Constantly using and avoiding charging constantly or charging constantly and avoiding Death by Discharge. I personally, like Butch, is doing the latter and my batteries across all my devices has lasted me ages. Basically I am taking advantage of Apple's design where, when our batteries reach full charge, it cuts off the charging current and goes into Trickle Charge mode, mostly utilizing our electric current instead of the battery. So I am not surprised if Butch's 6/7 month old iPhone XS Max is still in 100% health.

Just my long 2 cents:D. Now I am not saying other people's charging practices are wrong. I'm just observing what works for me and is also proven by another user.
Click to expand...

You’ve over-thought this. Everyone should just use and charge their phone however they want. Your battery should remain healthy for years no matter what you do. I don’t even look at my battery health anymore. It’s irrelevant unless I start to actually notice that the battery isn’t meeting my needs anymore. Obsessing over it won’t make much difference in the grand scheme of things.
 
  • Like
Reactions: EM2013 and MEJHarrison
My max is still at 100% usually I plug it in with 20% or less and I leave it plugged in every night. Rarely charge throughout the day.

People obsess too much with the battery thanks to apple, I just use it as intended.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jetcat3
Even though my XS Max is a month old and at 100%, I charge once my device reach 20% and charge overnight. I use my phone 6 days a week to stream music and the 7th day I browse all day.
 
My iPhone X remained 100% even after I received my iPhone XS. It was always charging too, so honestly I don’t think it matters how you treat your battery. If you use it a lot and have to charge it a lot, then you are using up its charge cycle and the battery will just die faster.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BigMcGuire
melancholy said:
My iPhone X remained 100% even after I received my iPhone XS. It was always charging too, so honestly I don’t think it matters how you treat your battery. If you use it a lot and have to charge it a lot, then you are using up its charge cycle and the battery will just die faster.
Click to expand...
Had a couple of iPhone 7 devices that had their batteries replaced last December, so both were at 100% basically. Today, one that mostly only gets charged overnight and often gets used down to around 20% (sometimes a little lower sometimes a little higher) on a daily basis is down to 95% capacity, while the other one which gets used even more often and ends up being charged here and there multiple times on most days is at 99%.

Somewhat hard to really draw meaningful specific conclusions one way or another really.
 
Last edited:
my iPhone XS is only about 2 months old, Brought on 1st February, and I charge it overnight, but it has already dropped to 99% :(
 
I believe this has more to do with the quality of the battery if it starts do degrade so soon. I've seen many display model XS showing 99% or even less battery health. So you just probably was unlucky in battery lottery. Long term effects from bad charging habits show up much later.

For example in our family there are two X'es and one has weak battery while other has strong but guess what? The one that has stronger battery has been abused by running empty and doing deep discharges all the time, while the one with weak battery has been babied and never let run too low or anything like that. Also no too warm conditions or similar. Both have been charged only with 5W adapter and wire. I actually got bad luck in two battery lottery since I already got my X replaced once and the second one has nearly as bad battery as the first one had. So obviously batteries are not what they used to be and there are decent batteries and then there are bad ones. I never had that with my previous iPhones.
 
0906742 said:
I believe this has more to do with the quality of the battery if it starts do degrade so soon. I've seen many display model XS showing 99% or even less battery health. So you just probably was unlucky in battery lottery. Long term effects from bad charging habits show up much later.

For example in our family there are two X'es and one has weak battery while other has strong but guess what? The one that has stronger battery has been abused by running empty and doing deep discharges all the time, while the one with weak battery has been babied and never let run too low or anything like that. Also no too warm conditions or similar. Both have been charged only with 5W adapter and wire. I actually got bad luck in two battery lottery since I already got my X replaced once and the second one has nearly as bad battery as the first one had. So obviously batteries are not what they used to be and there are decent batteries and then there are bad ones. I never had that with my previous iPhones.
Click to expand...

I'd tend to agree with this. I have an 8+ that was purchased in October of 2017. I don't necessarily baby the battery, always charge it wirelessly (apparently deemed to be worse for battery health), has been left in a hot car several times, and my battery health is still indicating 98% a year and a half later.
 
Totally anecdotal, but my son has had his SE for 2 years. He has no regard for battery charging habits- he will keep it plugged in for days sometimes, sometimes he lets the battery completely die and leaves it dead for a while before charging it, and everything in between. The battery health says he is at 97%.
 
My X's battery, bought in Nov '17, had been between 99 and 96% for most of last year, but now it's dropped to 89%. To me it appears to have decreased more in recent months.

My daily usage is ~3 hours (ouch, seems like a lot!) and I charge it near enough every day, once per day at night.
 
I have an XS purchased 10/2018. Was 100% until I got the Apple battery case in early March. Used the case for 3 days then checked the battery health it dropped to 94%! I quickly took off the battery case and returned it to Apple.

My phone has been on 94% ever since. There is no doubt in my mind the battery case affected the battery health.
Just a word of warning...........

CC
 
Launch Day iPhone XS Max and been using the Smart Battery Case for it when that came out and my Battery Health is still 100%.
 
My 7plus is on 96% health on its original battery. I was checking to see if that was reasonable and it sounds like it is, which is a relief.

Sharing my charging style which is not based on any special techniques: I always charge mine up to 100% before I go to bed and before I leave the house in the morning as part of my earthquake and disaster preparedness as I live in Japan. My battery rarely drops below 50%. When I was in the UK for a while I didn't charge it as often as it wasn't as important to have that security, but it felt a bit weird dropping the habit of a lifetime.
 
cc999 said:
I have an XS purchased 10/2018. Was 100% until I got the Apple battery case in early March. Used the case for 3 days then checked the battery health it dropped to 94%! I quickly took off the battery case and returned it to Apple.

My phone has been on 94% ever since. There is no doubt in my mind the battery case affected the battery health.
Just a word of warning...........

CC
Click to expand...

I don't know? Maybe it was just a coincidence that it didn't update? However from 100% to 94% in such few months is definitely weird you should bring it to an Apple Store.
 
Had my launch day X battery replaced at Christmas time while the £29 battery replacement offer was still going, quite a heavy user and it has just dropped to 99% after nearly 6 months.
 
I'm using a 3 year old 6s in this exact moment.

1d42b7a11e1da9592cb808a6ddd5cc38.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back