iPhone 11 Battery life degradation so soon in phones?

[Sensamic]

I'm thinking of buying a new iPhone 11 or 11 Pro, but there's one thing that concerns me a lot these past few days.

I've currently for a Huawei P20 that I've been using for the past year and a half, and I've recently noticed that battery life isn't as good as at the beginning, when I was getting over 5 hours of screen on time. Now I'm at 3:30.

So, obviously, this means battery health has gone down, which is natural. Batteries degrade over time. But this soon is it normal to lose 2 hours of screen on time? In less than 2 years?

So, if I buy an iPhone, which costs 1.000€ in some cases, I wouldn't want this to happen again in such an expensive phone. My P20 cost 400€, and I really don't want to be forced to buy a new 400/800€ phone every 2 years because battery life isn't as good anymore.

With a phone so expensive as an iPhone that would really hurt. So what do you guys do to avoid this? I want to keep the phone for 4 years, hopefully.

How much does it cost to replace the battery for a new one? Does dust get under the screen if they replace the battery for a new one?

Do people that spend 1000€ in a phone don't worry about this? I can't buy a new 1000€ phone every 2 years. It's insane.

Thanks!

 

[JPack]

Batteries should be replaced every 12-18 months, depending on usage. That's only one cycle per day, and assumes you don't negatively impact battery healthy by charging to 100% or use wireless charging.

You don't need to throw away the phone. Apple offers battery replacement service for $69 or less. There are also plenty of third party battery brands.

 

[Marshall73]

Batteries should be replaced every 12-18 months, depending on usage. That's only one cycle per day, and assumes you don't negatively impact battery healthy by charging to 100% or use wireless charging.

You don't need to throw away the phone. Apple offers battery replacement service for $69 or less. There are also plenty of third party battery brands.

12-18 months? Wtf do you do with your phone? I have phones over 3years old which have been charged daily which are over 90% battery health. The only one which had a battery replacement was an iPhone 6S, but the batteries in then were under capacity for the device.

 

[JPack]

12-18 months? Wtf do you do with your phone? I have phones over 3years old which have been charged daily which are over 90% battery health. The only one which had a battery replacement was an iPhone 6S, but the batteries in then were under capacity for the device.

The maximum capacity figure in iOS only displays battery capacity, not battery health.

Capacity is only one component of battery health. There are other factors like internal resistance, which is the main reason for unexpected shutdowns. Just due to aging alone, a 3 year old battery won't perform well in cold weather and will have questionable internal resistance.

 

[joeblow7777]

Batteries should be replaced every 12-18 months, depending on usage. That's only one cycle per day, and assumes you don't negatively impact battery healthy by charging to 100% or use wireless charging.

You don't need to throw away the phone. Apple offers battery replacement service for $69 or less. There are also plenty of third party battery brands.

Replacing a battery every 12-18 months?! I've had phones and other devices for 3 times that long and not needed to replace the battery!

 

[JPack]

Replacing a battery every 12-18 months?! I've had phones and other devices for 3 times that long and not needed to replace the battery!

Depends on how much you value battery performance. If you ask XR and Xs owners, many are already below 90%.

Are there people with 3 year old iPhone 7 devices on the original battery? Of course. Does it offer good battery life? Probably not.

 

[bobsamm]

7 plus i sold last week was 2.5 years old and had 80% battery, 30 year old girl that was glued to it 24/7, buyer didn't care didn't even know about it even on their own phone in settings. Was buying for son.

 

[rui no onna]

Are there people with 3 year old iPhone 7 devices on the original battery? Of course. Does it offer good battery life? Probably not.

Lol, I have two. One on Verizon, the other on AT&T.

Verizon, I get 2-3 bars in the office and that iPhone 7 still has pretty good battery (93%).

AT&T, I get 1 bar in the office and Battery Health has been showing "Service" for the past year. I just plug it in while at the office if needed. Hoping to replace that soon with the SE2/9.

I'm more an iPad person than a phone person though. Practically the primary purpose of the iPhones is to basically forward calls and messages to the iPad. If I charge overnight, charge lasts for the workday even on AT&T iPhone 7 (pretty much just standby battery drain albeit it's still down to 20-30% by end of day).

 

[Sorig]

I sold my iPhone 11 last week that I bought in October and it still showed 100% battery capacity even after restoring and setting up as new (3 months of use). My previous XS Max took 5 months to drop to 99%.
My iPhone 8 Plus, I sold with 96% battery capacity left after 15 months of use.

I do take care of my batteries though. No wireless or fast charging, charge to 80-85%, not to 100% most days. And never drain the battery below 20% because I’m not an extremely heavy user. And I disable unnecessary crap in settings.

I just bought an iPhone 11 Pro. I hope to get good battery life as with my previous iPhones.

 

[jplusc]

I don’t think you should be worried. I always have 100% battery health still after the first year. It’s usually a few years in that it starts to make any difference. And I’m not trying hard to maintain it, I like to keep my phone charged so I almost always have it on a charger and rarely drop below 70-80% battery life.

 

[joeblow7777]

Depends on how much you value battery performance. If you ask XR and Xs owners, many are already below 90%.

Are there people with 3 year old iPhone 7 devices on the original battery? Of course. Does it offer good battery life? Probably not.

None of the devices that I’ve owned for 3+ years on their original batteries failed to get me through a full day of normal use.

 

[rui no onna]

None of the devices that I’ve owned for 3+ years on their original batteries failed to get me through a full day of normal use.

Again, depends on individual usage and conditions of use.

We've had 2x iPhone 5s and 1x iPhone 6 whose batteries have gotten so bad past the 2nd year mark that they would go from 50% to dead just making a phone call.

 

[Abazigal]

So what do you guys do to avoid this? I want to keep the phone for 4 years, hopefully.

One solution is to simply turn on low-power mode (and be prepared to leave it on 24/7) when you notice that your phone can no longer get you through a day.

I decided to hold on to my 8+ for another year because the 11 pro max didn't really entice me. I am not sure what the problem is, but it seems that with iOS 13, the battery life on my 8+ started draining faster than usual. This even after a fresh battery replacement at the apple store.

So what I am trying out now is to simply leave low-power mode on all day, and apart from the screen dimming more quickly than usual, the experience has been fine. I haven't really noticed any decrease in performance, and I am now able to end the day at 40+% battery life, similar to when I first got my 8+.

 

[Marshall73]

As I have always gone for Plus iPhone models I never need to charge more than once per day, and now I’m on the 11 Pro Max, it can go 2 days without charge. done This with all of my iphones and the batteries still give more than a day more than 4 years on. I know this because I hand my phones down to the kids then other family members so there’s a string of models going back to the 6 Plus still in use. The only one which needed a battery was the 6S my wife had, which had worked its way over to my sons girlfriend And is now sitting as a spare after she got an 8 Plus.

 

[one more]

12-18 months? Wtf do you do with your phone? I have phones over 3years old which have been charged daily which are over 90% battery health. The only one which had a battery replacement was an iPhone 6S, but the batteries in then were under capacity for the device.

My two-year old iPhone 7 was displaying 88% battery capacity at the same time asking me to swap it as soon as possible. CoconutBattery showed that the same battery’s capacity was at 55%, so I would take Apple’s battery health numbers with a grain of salt.

 

[johny328i]

For me, the average battery useful life is around one year. After this, batteries tend to last around 50% less than new. No matter the phone I buy.

Maybe the bigger ones with bigger and better lasting batteries need less frequent charging and last longer.

 

[one more]

I'm thinking of buying a new iPhone 11 or 11 Pro, but there's one thing that concerns me a lot these past few days.

Batteries degrade over time. But this soon is it normal to lose 2 hours of screen on time?

How much does it cost to replace the battery for a new one? Does dust get under the screen if they replace the battery for a new one?

There are several things to consider:
- iPhone 11/Pro battery lives are great, so you will probably only need to charge them slowly overnight;
- more powerful/faster battery chargers tend to exhaust the batteries faster than their less powerful counterparts, as the latter generate less heat;
- while using your phone, try to keep it out of the heat (car dashboards, for example);
- if you swap your aged/low performing battery at Apple or their authorised repair centres, the process is quite fast and not so expensive, depending on your iPhone model. Their work is also guaranteed and if anything goes wrong afterwards you can sort it out with them directly.

There is also this handy article by Apple about the battery health:

iPhone battery and performance - Apple Support

Understand iPhone performance and its relation to your battery.

support.apple.com

 

[mag33]

Batteries should be replaced every 12-18 months, depending on usage. That's only one cycle per day, and assumes you don't negatively impact battery healthy by charging to 100% or use wireless charging.

Wait, fully charging the iPhone up to 100% damages the battery?

 

[ctrlzone]

"fast charging" is bad for batteries, instead of regularly, use that option only if needed.

 

[CoronaOnTap]

"fast charging" is bad for batteries, instead of regularly, use that option only if needed.

Fast charging itself isn’t bad for batteries unless you have a thick case that doesn’t let the heat dissipate.
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Wait, fully charging the iPhone up to 100% damages the battery?

Keeping a Li-ion battery in a higher or lower charge state specifically 0-20 or 80-100% for longer has some noticeable affect on the battery health in the long term. Nothing to lose your sleep over if you’re planning on getting a new iPhone in 2 years.

 

[cynics]

Everything is working against you.

iOS updates introduce more features that require power. Upgraded features may require more power. 3rd party apps using new features require more power. Probably more background task, etc. Meanwhile your battery is degrading with usage and time anyway.

4 years is definitely doable depending on your usage. You might need to curb your expectations a bit but I've used an iPhone 4S for 4 years.

That said around me, Apple will replace the battery for $70 USD. Authorized dealers are typically $60-70. Unauthorized dealers are around $40-55. And you can usually get a kit and do it yourself (ifixit.com) for $25-35.

I used all those with good success however while 70 dollars isn't anything to sneeze at its likely something you could scrap up in a few years.

Due to my career I've been educated in battery techs, usages and techniques for discharging/charging and I absolutely refuse to hinder my use and the phones functionality to make the battery last longer. I control the phone not vice versa. I try to treat it right but I'm not going to set and alarm to take the phone off charge at 80% and stop using it at 20% (yes that is better for battery health). Imagine buying a Tesla Model S and driving around with the windows down (ac/heat off) at 5 mph under the limit because you don't want to "wear out the battery" or better yet, not charging it when its freezing out or very hot.

I completely understand wanting to take care of your stuff but that is a mental block that will prevent you from ever enjoying your purchases to their fullest extent.

TL;DR - OP you might get 4 years out of it but I wouldn't worry about the battery in the phone you dont own until you have a problem with it.

 

[rockitdog]

Use your phone, enjoy your phone. Don’t let things like battery bother you. It’s meant to be used.

 

[russell_314]

Use your phone, enjoy your phone. Don’t let things like battery bother you. It’s meant to be used.

It just seems silly to pay $699+ for a phone then limit how you use it or go through all kinds of crazy lengths to avoid spending $69 every few years for a new battery.

 

[ctrlzone]

Fast charging itself isn’t bad for batteries unless you have a thick case that doesn’t let the heat dissipate.

how did you came to this conclusion as it makes no sense at all to me.
how long do you keep a phone ? 2 years? sure then it won't matter.

my iPhone 4 is now 10 years old and i still see no reason to upgrade, the battery lasts for a day easily.

 

[CoronaOnTap]

how did you came to this conclusion as it makes no sense at all to me.
how long do you keep a phone ? 2 years? sure then it won't matter.

my iPhone 4 is now 10 years old and i still see no reason to upgrade, the battery lasts for a day easily.

What part of it doesn’t make sense?
Fast charging itself doesn’t deteriorate the battery. It’s the heat generated from fast charging which is often more than what is with the traditional 5V/1A charger that does this. And even if it did it’d be very minute that you won’t notice for 2-3 years possibly.
Check with any reputable info source and they’ll tell you the same.