Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Here's Why the iPhone Battery Status Icon in iOS 16 Is So Controversial
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Thanks! I didn’t know.Ah, but they don't look like AA batteries - more like an 18650 (or 21700) Li-ion battery, which, per Wikipedia, "is used in many laptop computer batteries, cordless power tools, certain electric cars, electric kick scooters, most e-bikes, portable powerbanks, electronic cigarettes, and LED flashlights." (Oh, and the 21700 is used in the Tesla Model 3 amongst many other places.) Thoroughly modern
I mean, there's a fair amount of nudge-nudge-wink-wink in there, but that's my story and I'm sticking with it.
On the flip side, though, if you don't portray a battery as a rectangle (a flat 2D projection of a cylinder) with a bump for the "+" terminal at one end, what other way could you portray "a battery" that your audience (consumers who have many devices that contain batteries but who have only ever purchased AAA/AA/C/D batteries) will immediately understand?
Most phones still show represent your choices for answering a phone and picking up a phone (on the screen of a smart phone) with a line drawing of a desk phone that would be recognizable to someone from the 1950's, and that doesn't match with the phones that most modern people come across in their daily lives. Hell, there are likely kids now that have never seen a "normal" desk phone. It's always a problem representing an idea of a device with a very simple line drawing that everyone will recognize from daily life, when the modern versions are getting simpler in form while they're getting much more complex in function, capability, and components.
I think the elegant solution to this is to only display the percentage of battery left once the battery is below 20% and you have room in the icon (the 80% negative space) to display the % without obscuring any graphical cues.
Once you dip below 20% you'll still have the red icon cue so that you take notice, which is important, but you'll also see just how much battery you have which will give you the info you need to know whether you need to charge right away or not, depending on your immediate and near-future circumstances.
Half the time I check the battery life on my phone it's either rotated in a way that would make the XX% hard to read, or it's too far away for me to read little digits on the screen but close enough to see roughly how full the battery icon is, etc.
I think the vast majority of users, when their battery is over 20%, are only looking at the icon to get a rough idea of where their charge is at. There's no real use-case I can think of where you would want to know if you have 85% or 79% left, they're functionally equivalent. However, once you're below 20% the difference between 19% and 11% might mean the difference between whether you know if your phone will die on your subway ride home or not, etc.
Of course none of this is "that big of a deal" but I find it odd that Apple would make this change...
Once you dip below 20% you'll still have the red icon cue so that you take notice, which is important, but you'll also see just how much battery you have which will give you the info you need to know whether you need to charge right away or not, depending on your immediate and near-future circumstances.
Half the time I check the battery life on my phone it's either rotated in a way that would make the XX% hard to read, or it's too far away for me to read little digits on the screen but close enough to see roughly how full the battery icon is, etc.
I think the vast majority of users, when their battery is over 20%, are only looking at the icon to get a rough idea of where their charge is at. There's no real use-case I can think of where you would want to know if you have 85% or 79% left, they're functionally equivalent. However, once you're below 20% the difference between 19% and 11% might mean the difference between whether you know if your phone will die on your subway ride home or not, etc.
Of course none of this is "that big of a deal" but I find it odd that Apple would make this change...
I completely approve of that idea. This will really help eliminate the "battery percentage anxiety" that many here mentioned.
apple’s approach is by far the most readable.
Taste and opnions in other areas can be acceptable, thought
Taste and opnions in other areas can be acceptable, thought
Um yeah? Beta testers are giving their feedback, that’s exactly what a beta is for
I’m sure they are giving feedback. I know how betas work, been doing it a long time.
But, everyone was complaining about all the devices that didn’t have the new battery percentage like it absolutely couldn’t come in a future update.
It may not come. And they may have every right to complain. But at least see if it’s implemented by the end of testing before calling the Apple rotten.
They should have just removed the icon completely when enabling the percentage.
What do you need an icon for if the percentage conveys the exact same information, just in much more detail and much easier to parse?
What do you need an icon for if the percentage conveys the exact same information, just in much more detail and much easier to parse?
No, they each convey the information in a way more suited for a particular use. If you want a quick idea of the battery level, the gauge form will very quickly show that "it's a little less than half". Without having to parse numbers. Other times you want to know the level more precisely for one reason or another, and in that case, the numbers make it much easier to see if it's at 75% or 80%. You may only care about the numeric format, but others want the quickly parseable analog format, or both.
One possibility below!
But even that seems to fit with a cylinder better than some other possible cell/battery shapes.
