iPhone 8/Plus How will this battery perform at 80% battery health?

[AMSOS]

I noticed that my IP 8 battery health now reads 95%. A few days ago it was at 96%. Before that it has been 100% since April last year. Also, Coconut Battery gives me a figure of 330 charging cycles.

I only top-up charge the phone, and keep it away from heat. My use is moderate and video chatting (about 20 mins/day, average) is the heaviest use I put it to.

How soon should I expect the battery to degrade to 80%? I believe this is the point at which it typically needs replacement.

Now I need to top up from 50-80% twice a day. Once I get to 80% battery health, should I expect to be topping up three (or even four) times a day?

Thanks!

 

[BugeyeSTI]

When you get to 80% you should have it replaced.. Personally I'd get it replaced at 85% but Apple said it should get at least 500 cycles before reaching 80%..

 

[AMSOS]

I've cared for it and it's performed quite well this past year and four months. But it's suddenly come down to 95% and I am now unsure how fast it'll start to go down to the 80s (%) in the coming months.

As of now there's no appreciable difference in backup, but when do you think I'll start to see this? Six months from now? After at least one year? The latter will be fine since I will be readying to get a new phone at that point.

 

[now i see it]

Don't worry about it and stop fretting over the battery health estimate app. It only warrants a peek when the battery doesn't last anywhere near what it did when new.
The capacity of a brand new battery isn't really a realistic bar to measure up to. They don't keep that capacity for long.

My iPhone 6 Plus original battery is six years old with 1550 load cycles on it and I use the phone all day long every day. (and charge it partially during the day). Battery health (according to CoconutBattery) is still over 90%.

If you never charge the battery to 100% and keep it above 20%, the battery will outlast the phone.

 

[AMSOS]

Don't worry about it and stop fretting over the battery health estimate app. It only warrants a peek when the battery doesn't last anywhere near what it did when new.
The capacity of a brand new battery isn't really a realistic bar to measure up to. They don't keep that capacity for long.

My iPhone 6 Plus original battery is six years old with 1550 load cycles on it and I use the phone all day long every day. (and charge it partially during the day). Battery health (according to CoconutBattery) is still over 90%.

If you never charge the battery to 100% and keep it above 20%, the battery will outlast the phone.

Wow, that's quite impressive! I am hoping that I will be able to get similar performance out of this battery.
Can you say more about how you cared for the 6+ battery?
One disadvantage with the 6/7/8 batteries is of course their much smaller size. With a similar use pattern you'll be using up more of the smaller batteries cycles.

 

[satinsilverem2]

I used to fret about battery health on devices and found that all it did was cause anxiety for no good reason. Now I just use my devices as I please with nothing special than the obvious to take care of them. My iPhone X is nearing 1000 cycles and its at 96 percent health. My charging routine is usually plug it in when ever im near a charger. I usually get down to 20-30 percent most nights and it sits on a wireless charger at night. during the day when its plugged in its on a 18 watt fast charger. I haven't noticed any battery degradation from the two years I have been doing this. I would say charge it when you want or need to but dont do anything special. Even the batteries these days are very smart and can take a fair amount of abuse before being damaged.

 

[now i see it]

Can you say more about how you cared for the 6+ battery?

Easy- It's never been left on a charger overnight and it has only been charged to 100% probably two dozen times in six years. I never need the phone to run all day on a single charge, and I'm rarely more than a few hours away from a power source (wall outlet or battery pack) so the battery capacity really isn't that important to me.

 

[AMSOS]

I used to fret about battery health on devices and found that all it did was cause anxiety for no good reason. Now I just use my devices as I please with nothing special than the obvious to take care of them. My iPhone X is nearing 1000 cycles and its at 96 percent health. My charging routine is usually plug it in when ever im near a charger. I usually get down to 20-30 percent most nights and it sits on a wireless charger at night. during the day when its plugged in its on a 18 watt fast charger. I haven't noticed any battery degradation from the two years I have been doing this. I would say charge it when you want or need to but dont do anything special. Even the batteries these days are very smart and can take a fair amount of abuse before being damaged.

It's reassuring to see that your phone already has 1000 cycles. That's quite impressive. In the two years you've had it, have you also been relying on other phones? If this is your primary phone then 96% is amazing.
Do you remember when the health came down to 96%?
How long has it stayed at that mark?
I am not too anxious, but do want to know what to expect from the battery now that it shows 96% after one year and three months of use.
Thanks!
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Easy- It's never been left on a charger overnight and it has only been charged to 100% probably two dozen times in six years. I never need the phone to run all day on a single charge, and I'm rarely more than a few hours away from a power source (wall outlet or battery pack) so the battery capacity really isn't that important to me.

That's similar to how I use the battery. Looks like it's likely that I'll get 1000 cycles without seeing significant degradation in the health.
With my usage that'll translate to around 1100 cycles after 3 years. Should I expect a significant drop in the back up after say 2.5 years?
Thanks!

 

[now i see it]

My six year old original battery on my iPhone I use all day every day for six years, (in the method I described above) the battery health app still shows over 90%. But...

I've noticed now in the winter when the phone is really cold, near freezing, it has shut down (crashed) unexpectedly a few times- the very thing that the iOS throttling scandal was trying to prevent. No biggie, phone just resprings on its own and is running fine after it reboots. If I keep the phone near my body to warm it up before booting it up first time in the morning, it won't crash. Never had crashed when warm.

So my battery has aged a bit compared to a new battery because new batteries won't cause crashes when cold.

I think the takeaway from this is - the battery can outlast the phone if you pamper it, but if you don't... It's no big deal to get a replacement battery a few years down the line. $69 for three or more years of use is pretty cheap.

 

[artfossil]

The "performance" of your 8--whether it operates normally--is separate from the need to charge more frequently.

It's likely your performance will be fine but your need to charge more frequently will increase. Having a wireless charger handy makes that easier to deal with.

I begin to notice the need to charge more frequently once my battery health hit about 85%. At 78%, after 3.5 years of use, I had the battery replaced because (1) I didn't have any performance issues but I didn't want to risk developing performance issues during hurricane season, (2) I want to keep this phone as a backup when I get a new phone in the fall and (3) it could be November or December before we see the series 12 phones.

 

[AMSOS]

If I keep the phone near my body to warm it up before booting it up first time in the morning, it won't crash. Never had crashed when warm.

Do you mean you keep it switched off or on flight mode overnight?
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I begin to notice the need to charge more frequently once my battery health hit about 85%. At 78%, after 3.5 years of use,
I had the battery replaced because (1) I didn't have any performance issues but I didn't want to risk developing performance issues during hurricane season,

Thanks. The 85% ballpark figure helps.

On the new battery do you feel the phone is as good as before? Are you running the latest iOS?

 

[Never mind]

Just to add in on this thread, my iPhone XS is about two years old, and mines at 97%. Unknown cycles, but I wish to keep it for another two years, and I have no anxiety about that. I don’t baby it. Place it on a wireless charger every couple days.

 

[now i see it]

Do you mean you keep it switched off or on flight mode overnight?

I almost always turn it off completely before I go to sleep.

 

[artfossil]

Do you mean you keep it switched off or on flight mode overnight?
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Thanks. The 85% ballpark figure helps.

On the new battery do you feel the phone is as good as before? Are you running the latest iOS?

I’m running the latest iOS. My phone seems “normal.”

 

[_karrol]

I used to fret about battery health on devices and found that all it did was cause anxiety for no good reason. Now I just use my devices as I please with nothing special than the obvious to take care of them. My iPhone X is nearing 1000 cycles and its at 96 percent health. My charging routine is usually plug it in when ever im near a charger. I usually get down to 20-30 percent most nights and it sits on a wireless charger at night. during the day when its plugged in its on a 18 watt fast charger. I haven't noticed any battery degradation from the two years I have been doing this. I would say charge it when you want or need to but dont do anything special. Even the batteries these days are very smart and can take a fair amount of abuse before being damaged.

Oh well, maybe I should be more careful with the battery with my next iphone, my launch day X is at 81% battery health, but I literally never cared about charging it when it was around 20%, so I regularly go all the way down to 1% (I assume this must be a horror to some of the people here 😂). Well, here's to getting a new phone after three years this autumn.

Anyways, I was also never left with a dead phone, as I cared about having enough juice to get me through the needed time, so the battery health has never been an issue so far. However, if I want to be more careful now, what's the best strategy to charge it? Not letting it go under 20% and charge whenever possible?

 

[freeagent]

Don’t worry about the battery.. all you need to know is that it is a consumable product. It will need to be replaced every 2-3 years if you are lucky. That is something you can bank on. Performance at 80 should be mildly depressing. If your battery doesn’t last and it’s warm while discharging you should stop using it, and just get a new one installed. How much is a battery at your favorite chop shop? It’s literally the same price or just a few dollars more at the Apple store. Sometimes they replace stuff on the house just to bring your phone back up. Nothing to be afraid of. I see people on the intertoobs complain about Apple’s prices, but they take care of you most of the time. But you pay for it lol..

 

[joeblow7777]

I noticed that my IP 8 battery health now reads 95%. A few days ago it was at 96%. Before that it has been 100% since April last year. Also, Coconut Battery gives me a figure of 330 charging cycles.

I only top-up charge the phone, and keep it away from heat. My use is moderate and video chatting (about 20 mins/day, average) is the heaviest use I put it to.

How soon should I expect the battery to degrade to 80%? I believe this is the point at which it typically needs replacement.

Now I need to top up from 50-80% twice a day. Once I get to 80% battery health, should I expect to be topping up three (or even four) times a day?

Thanks!

I know this doesn’t answer what you’ve asked, but if you want my 2 cents, it sounds like you’re stressing way too much about your battery health.

if you charge from 50 to 80 twice a day that’s means that in a whole day’s use you only use about 60% of the full capacity.

Let me tell you, maintaining the battery in that “ideal” range is not as important as you might think, and will likely not add a significant length to your battery’s total lifespan. Certainly not enough to be worth the effort in my opinion. You can go ahead and charge your battery to 100 at the start of the day, or even the night before, and use it all day without topping up until you’re done for the day. Your battery will likely be perfectly healthy for years. But even if it does start to fail before you’re ready to get an entirely new phone, replacing the battery really isn’t that expensive or inconvenient.

So to summarize, unless your phone actually dies during the day when starting from 100, multiple top ups during the day are really not necessary. Going out of your way to maintain the charge in that narrow range probably isn’t helping as much as you think anyway. You can fully charge your phone, use it all day, and not worry.

I have never needed to replace the battery in an iPhone, and I’ve kept some for over 3 years.

 

[satinsilverem2]

It's reassuring to see that your phone already has 1000 cycles. That's quite impressive. In the two years you've had it, have you also been relying on other phones? If this is your primary phone then 96% is amazing.
Do you remember when the health came down to 96%?
How long has it stayed at that mark?
I am not too anxious, but do want to know what to expect from the battery now that it shows 96% after one year and three months of use.
Thanks!
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its been my primary phone for that long yes. I don't remember when It got down to 96 percent but It was somewhat recently. Like I said though, these devices are meant to be use for a certain amount of time then replaced. I dont worry about the battery unless im having trouble with it. stop worrying about longevity and just enjoy using it in the time you have it.

 

[Colin8]

My X is at 76% health and I really haven’t noticed anything. It’s at 1300 cycles and yeah, the battery doesn’t last as long anymore, but I’m always near a charger so that isn’t an issue for me. Performance has definitely not been hit and I’ve not had any unexpected shutdowns... yet.

 

[now i see it]

And another thing to remember— the Lightning port will not last forever. The more times you plug & unplug the cable into the port, the faster it will wear out.
Replacing (via a repair) a lightning port is prohibitively expensive (not worth it) so when the port goes, the phone becomes a pain to charge. One little movement of the cable while charging and the charging stops. You basically can't use the phone while it's charging. It has to remain perfectly still.

There are two spring tabs inside the port on each side to lock the plug into the socket. They can break (one of mine has) and when one of those spring tabs breaks, the plug isn't held secure in the socket and the connection will fail.

People say that the Lightning port never wears out-- but that's not true. Mine has a broken tab (from thousands of plug insertions) and charging it now while using it always causes problems.

So trying to preserve a battery by charging it between 40% and 80% will more than double the plug insertions which will accelerate the port wear which ultimately will be self defeating.

The battery might still be usable after four years, but the irreplaceable Lightning port will not

 

[_karrol]

And another thing to remember— the Lightning port will not last forever. The more times you plug & unplug the cable into the port, the faster it will wear out.
Replacing (via a repair) a lightning port is prohibitively expensive (not worth it) so when the port goes, the phone becomes a pain to charge. One little movement of the cable while charging and the charging stops. You basically can't use the phone while it's charging. It has to remain perfectly still.

There are two spring tabs inside the port on each side to lock the plug into the socket. They can break (one of mine has) and when one of those spring tabs breaks, the plug isn't held secure in the socket and the connection will fail.

People say that the Lightning port never wears out-- but that's not true. Mine has a broken tab (from thousands of plug insertions) and charging it now while using it always causes problems.

So trying to preserve a battery by charging it between 40% and 80% will more than double the plug insertions which will accelerate the port wear which ultimately will be self defeating.

The battery might still be usable after four years, but the irreplaceable Lightning port will not

Well, even if the port fails, then you can just invest in a wireless charger instead of having the port repaired. Of course it will be slower, but it will do the job. I see you have the 6, but OP has the 8 and in general majority of the iPhones still in use have wireless charging by now, I assume.

 

[AMSOS]

I almost always turn it off completely before I go to sleep.

Ah. So, that's big reason for the impressive battery health.
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Oh well, maybe I should be more careful with the battery with my next iphone, my launch day X is at 81% battery health, but I literally never cared about charging it when it was around 20%, so I regularly go all the way down to 1% (I assume this must be a horror to some of the people here 😂). Well, here's to getting a new phone after three years this autumn.

That's fine. There is still not adequate dissemination of battery care tips, and I find most of my friends don't know much about caring for batteries.
We can all learn from your experience. At what point did you notice that battery backup was obviously lesser? When the health was at 90%? 85%?
How often did you have to charge the phone in a day when you bought it new, and what is the figure now?

Anyways, I was also never left with a dead phone, as I cared about having enough juice to get me through the needed time, so the battery health has never been an issue so far. However, if I want to be more careful now, what's the best strategy to charge it? Not letting it go under 20% and charge whenever possible?

Practice top-up charging. 50-80% is ideal. Most people baulk at the very idea, but once you get used to it, you will likely prefer it. All it needs is quick 25 mins charges every now and then.
Never leave the phone in a car under a hot Sun, or near a hot flame.
Charge it on flight mode and avoid using it while charging. Try to have some air circulation around the phone.
Avoid charging up to 100%. If you do, then don't let the phone sit there overnight. Keep the "optimised battery charging" option enabled in the battery settings.
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My X is at 76% health and I really haven’t noticed anything. It’s at 1300 cycles and yeah, the battery doesn’t last as long anymore, but I’m always near a charger so that isn’t an issue for me. Performance has definitely not been hit and I’ve not had any unexpected shutdowns... yet.

That's impressive! How old is your phone?
Do you use it everyday? Is it off/flight mode overnight?
Can you give a more precise idea--how many times did you charge when it was new, and what is the figure now?
What charging pattern do you adopt?
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And another thing to remember— the Lightning port will not last forever. The more times you plug & unplug the cable into the port, the faster it will wear out.
Replacing (via a repair) a lightning port is prohibitively expensive (not worth it) so when the port goes, the phone becomes a pain to charge. One little movement of the cable while charging and the charging stops. You basically can't use the phone while it's charging. It has to remain perfectly still.

There are two spring tabs inside the port on each side to lock the plug into the socket. They can break (one of mine has) and when one of those spring tabs breaks, the plug isn't held secure in the socket and the connection will fail.

People say that the Lightning port never wears out-- but that's not true. Mine has a broken tab (from thousands of plug insertions) and charging it now while using it always causes problems.

So trying to preserve a battery by charging it between 40% and 80% will more than double the plug insertions which will accelerate the port wear which ultimately will be self defeating.

The battery might still be usable after four years, but the irreplaceable Lightning port will not

Interesting-this is new for me.
Obviously, replacing the charging port will be much more expensive than getting a new battery.
So, how old is your phone? And how many times a day did you charge it?
Do you by any chance have any statistics on how often this lightning port breaks?

 

[AMSOS]

Well, even if the port fails, then you can just invest in a wireless charger instead of having the port repaired. Of course it will be slower, but it will do the job. I see you have the 6, but OP has the 8 and in general majority of the iPhones still in use have wireless charging by now, I assume.

Yes, I thought of that, but the other poster has a point.
If you want top dollar for when you replace your phone, a broken charging port is surely bad news.

 

[SoYoung]

This thread describe the exact situation I have with my XS Max. The battery health was at 100% for a year and an half, but 1 month ago it goes down directly at 96% and now after I updated it to iOS 13,6 it lost another 1% and now its at 95% like you.

I'm not worrying about it too much though. I just put my phone on the wireless charger every time I go to bed and thats it. If it goes down to 80%, I'll just pay for a battery replacement. It'll still be a better deal than buying a new phone. I plan to keep my phone for at least another 2 years.

 

[one more]

Do not mind Apple’s own battery stats and just swap your battery when it becomes a nuisance. Your described charging practices sound good, so you should expect your battery to last you at least two full years.