iPhone 7/Plus Best battery use habit(s) for extending the lifespan of the battery

[jmm55]

It's known that some batteries will last longer if they are charged under specific conditions. I'd be hard pressed to name any off the top of my head, but I know some battery types should be depleted entirely before recharging (because they apparently can develop a memory of sorts) and yet others should never be allowed to fall below a certain level before charging.

Now with an iphone, there are two principle approaches to recharging, and they are (a) Try to keep it topped up all the time, and (b) Let it deplete almost entirely before recharging. My question is, has Apple indicated which will ultimately better preserve the battery long term? And if Apple hasn't, does anyone have an educated guess, or indication of the best approach from some other source? I usually have both options available, and would like to side with the way that will best preserve the battery long term.

 

[mattguy10]

https://www.apple.com/batteries/why-lithium-ion/

 

[Freakonomics101]

I don’t let my battery level fall below 20% as well as making sure phone does not get hot like keeping it out of the sun.

 

[Newtons Apple]

Put on charger before going to bed. Repeat daily. Do not worry about the percentage.

 

[jmm55]

O.k. thanks for the replies.

 

[Friarchuck]

Yeah I used to be compulsive about this. One of the most important things I did was turn off the battery percentage. Apple devices manage the battery themselves so we don't have to. The only things you should do are avoid running the battery to 0 and keeping the phone out of extreme temps. Charge as much or as little as you need/want.

 

[now i see it]

There's a trade off between phone usability and untimate battery life span (charge cycles). If all you cared about is eeking 2000 charge cycles out of a phone, you'd keep the charge level between 65% and 75%. But you would only be using 10% of the battery capacity before charging it again.
80% max charge level is at a li-ion battery's sweet spot for max charge voltage, but once again, you lose 20% of its capacity (by not going to 100%).
40% on the bottom end seems to be the best reasonable low point to hit before charging up again- but if you keep the phone between 40% and 80%, you only have access to 40% (actually 50%) of its capacity.

iPhone batteries are pretty cheap. Just plug it in and forget about it. By the time it wears out, you'll likely need or want anew phone anyway

 

[jmm55]

Knowing the replacement batteries are not unreasonably priced, I'll heed the advice not worry. Was still curious from a technical viewpoint, and another question just came to mind where the answer doesn't appear in the Apple battery information page.

Disconnecting the charger as soon as the battery is charged is recommended on some electronic devices, as they can suffer negative effects from overcharging, but yet other devices have smart chargers that disconnect charging current when fully charged, and I'd assume iPhone engineers would be smart enough to do this, but is it explicitly stated somewhere that the phone can stay plugged in the charger for extended periods without any harm?

 

[JPack]

Disconnecting the charger as soon as the battery is charged is recommended on some electronic devices, as they can suffer negative effects from overcharging, but yet other devices have smart chargers that disconnect charging current when fully charged, and I'd assume iPhone engineers would be smart enough to do this, but is it explicitly stated somewhere that the phone can stay plugged in the charger for extended periods without any harm?

It's not about overcharging. Li-ion battery health is negatively affected from extreme states of charge.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208710

 

[addey]

Join the upgrade program and change phone each year. Never worry about the battery again.

 

[Azzin]

My 8+ lasts all day and I charge it overnight on a 5w QI charger.

 

[now i see it]

Disconnecting the charger

The iPhone charging circuit already does that for you automatically. Before Apple took away user accessible battery information in iOS 10 and later, you could actually see what the charger was doing. On iOS 9 using the iOS CoconutBattery app, you can see the battery slowly reach 100% and the current going into the battery, then you can see the current stop and charging is stopped. The battery then is resting and slowly discharging like normal to about 96% or so, then the charger kicks on again and brings it back to 100%.

The sneaky thing is... While the iPhone is plugged in at 100% and slowly discharging (as is normal) the green battery charge indicator will still stay lit AND the charge percentage will show 100% even though the phone isn't charging and isn't at 100% anymore (after a while).

The battery charge level is kinda a lie. It's not really what Apple wants you to think it is. The actual charge level is a little lower and 100% is only 100% maybe 15 minutes after it hits 100%—then it's less than that as it slowly discharges.

 

[satinsilverem2]

I used to be really aware of battery life and how to extend the life of it. over the years though I became less and less concerned. by the time the battery isn't holding a sufficient charge im usually looking to replace the device anyways. plus being overly concerned about the battery all the time brings down the user experience imo. just use the phone and enjoy it. charge it when you want.

 

[tonybarnaby]

Very thankful I escaped my battery ocd. All the relevant advice has already been posted in this thread. It’s almost never worth it to try to baby your phone battery. Unless you are an Uber driver who keeps their phone charging in the sun all day, you’ll easily get a year from your battery. To think of all the time I and many others wasted worrying about a $79 battery and what was best for it...