I’ve owned a number of iPhones and I always seem to have bad luck with them in terms of battery. I’m not sure if it’s me or the phones. I’ll explain.
I know it’s controversial but I tend to peek at battery health in the settings. I know, I know: it varies, it’s not life or death, it’s not some life altering number or something that will prevent my phone from working. But still, I check it.
I have a 17 pro I purchased new in September one day after the launch date. Traded in my 14 pro which I really didn’t like. When I purchased my 14 pro brand new from T-Mobile my battery health went from 100 to 86 in 6 months. Yet it was considered “normal”. I don’t abuse my phones, game on them with the exception of the occasional light games like baseball or football which are non graphic intensive and don’t drain the battery.
I kept my 14 pro for a little over two years before I upgraded to my 17 pro. I was looking forward to some big upgrades including the vapor cooling and larger battery. Currently I’m at 83 charge cycles and I’m already at 98% health. I dropped the two percent in just the past week alone. No extreme heat or cold, light gaming, normal use. I mainly use instagram, texts, mail and calling. I hardly FaceTime. I don’t use it as heavily as my friends use theirs. I don’t plug in my phone while using it, I don’t use any third party cables and I don’t let my phone go to zero. I set my charge levels to stop at 80%. Yet here I am at 98% after just a few months and less than 100 cycles. The friends I mentioned above who have the Air and Pros who have well over 100 cycles and they’re at 100%. I don’t get it.
Again, I know my phone is fully functional and this number is considered arbitrary. But I think dropping two percent in less than a week is pretty weird. For reference I own an Apple Watch SE 2 that is now one year old. Purchased new in January 2025. That thing has been charged from 100 to 0 dozens of times, it’s been reset, no battery optimization, sometimes I forget to charge it or wear it and it’s laying dead on my dresser, and I’m ironically at 98% health on that. I don’t understand how a smaller battery that has seen way more charge cycles is at 98% but my 17 pro which has less than 100 cycles is at the same health in just 4 months.
What am I missing? Or is this just random?
I know it’s controversial but I tend to peek at battery health in the settings. I know, I know: it varies, it’s not life or death, it’s not some life altering number or something that will prevent my phone from working. But still, I check it.
I have a 17 pro I purchased new in September one day after the launch date. Traded in my 14 pro which I really didn’t like. When I purchased my 14 pro brand new from T-Mobile my battery health went from 100 to 86 in 6 months. Yet it was considered “normal”. I don’t abuse my phones, game on them with the exception of the occasional light games like baseball or football which are non graphic intensive and don’t drain the battery.
I kept my 14 pro for a little over two years before I upgraded to my 17 pro. I was looking forward to some big upgrades including the vapor cooling and larger battery. Currently I’m at 83 charge cycles and I’m already at 98% health. I dropped the two percent in just the past week alone. No extreme heat or cold, light gaming, normal use. I mainly use instagram, texts, mail and calling. I hardly FaceTime. I don’t use it as heavily as my friends use theirs. I don’t plug in my phone while using it, I don’t use any third party cables and I don’t let my phone go to zero. I set my charge levels to stop at 80%. Yet here I am at 98% after just a few months and less than 100 cycles. The friends I mentioned above who have the Air and Pros who have well over 100 cycles and they’re at 100%. I don’t get it.
Again, I know my phone is fully functional and this number is considered arbitrary. But I think dropping two percent in less than a week is pretty weird. For reference I own an Apple Watch SE 2 that is now one year old. Purchased new in January 2025. That thing has been charged from 100 to 0 dozens of times, it’s been reset, no battery optimization, sometimes I forget to charge it or wear it and it’s laying dead on my dresser, and I’m ironically at 98% health on that. I don’t understand how a smaller battery that has seen way more charge cycles is at 98% but my 17 pro which has less than 100 cycles is at the same health in just 4 months.
What am I missing? Or is this just random?
