iPhone 15 Models Feature New Setting to Strictly Prevent Charging Beyond 80%

[TallManNY]

My launch day iphone 14 pro max is still at 100% using wireless charging. I set up auto shortcut to stop charging at 85% and start charting at 35% (turn on/off wifi power adapter). Though this shortcut did not always work.

Fascinating. That is a tremendous amount of battery protection success for a kludgy shortcut that you made yourself. Kind of makes one wonder if Apple left some each savings on the table by not programming in a solution into the OS before this point.

 

[Michael Scrip]

I would really like to see Apple go fast charge like some of my Android devices do.

Agreed.

The next question is... should we fast charge to 80% or should we go all the way up to 100% ?

I've always heard that fast charging hurts the battery... but this thread makes it sound like charging to 100% is more damaging.

🤔

 

[dk001]

Agreed.

The next question is... should we fast charge to 80% or should we go all the way up to 100% ?

I've always heard that fast charging hurts the battery... but this thread makes it sound like charging to 100% is more damaging.

🤔

Good question.
In the meantime if it was available I would charge to whatever I had time for.

 

[j.benaderet]

This is definitely going to make a lot of iPhone owners upset.

 

[Termy]

You can have your iPhone battery replaced for free under AppleCare, or for a pretty minimal charge if you don't have AppleCare. It's considered a consumable part. Some people truly do need 100% of their battery life on a given day, and replacing the battery every couple years is just part of the deal.

You may need it, but I don‘t. So the setting is a good thing because otherwise I‘d habe to replace my battery too, like you said

 

[thebeans]

Good to know. My launch day iPhone 14 Pro is now down to 89% after a mixture of wireless charging in the car and overnight charging (optimized) at night (with MagSafe mostly).

I'm probably going to try to forgo wireless charging altogether when my iPhone 15 Pro Max gets here and see how that affects battery health over the next year.

My year old 14 Pro battery health is 98%. I charge every evening before bed. I try to stop charging before 100% but don’t always succeed. I essentially never fast charge and I don’t own a wireless charger.

 

[afinch1992]

Would it really be that difficult to implement a slider like EVs? Happy to have this feature finally as my 13 pro is 87% after around 2 years, but this seems like such an easy thing to implement.

 

[ignatius345]

You may need it, but I don‘t. So the setting is a good thing because otherwise I‘d habe to replace my battery too, like you said

I might not either, day to day, but if I'm travelling or something I'm absolutely charging to 100%.

I'm currently using a 13 Mini, and believe me, I need every single percentage of battery life I can get. Actually one of the big reasons I'm switching to a 15 Pro when it ships next month.

 

[Woody1073]

If Apple has seen fit to include a way to stop a battery being charged past 80% should we therefore assume the batteries in the 15’s are the exact same batteries as the 14’s albeit with slightly different mah so therefore the battery health will deplete in the 15’s at around the same rate as they have in the 14’s unless of course we use the 80% cut off feature?

 

[coolbreeze]

Do people really still babysit their phone battery? Just use your phone. Replacement batteries aren't expensive. It's money well spent if you have a 2-yr old phone with, say, 83% health, 603 cycles. Under $100 and you are in business for another 2 yrs.

Seems like a nothingburger to me.

 

[August West]

Would it really be that difficult to implement a slider like EVs? Happy to have this feature finally as my 13 pro is 87% after around 2 years, but this seems like such an easy thing to implement.

I'm glad they didn't. There is already enough outrage for Apple giving users the choice to limit it to a fixed 80%. A slider with giving users even more control would probably result in a full scale meltdown by the control freaks here.

 

[afinch1992]

I'm glad they didn't. There is already enough outrage for Apple giving users the choice to limit it to a fixed 80%. A slider with giving users even more control would probably result in a full scale meltdown by the control freaks here.

I would be 100% down for this for the entertainment value alone. This is the .001% of iphone users

 

[rui no onna]

Do people really still babysit their phone battery? Just use your phone. Replacement batteries aren't expensive. It's money well spent if you have a 2-yr old phone with, say, 83% health, 603 cycles. Under $100 and you are in business for another 2 yrs.

Seems like a nothingburger to me.

This option makes it so you can reduce battery wear without needing to babysit.

As I’ve mentioned before, I kinda abuse my battery (stuck at 100%, connected to charger for 16 hours a day). With the new option, I can keep my current charging habits while not wearing down the battery as much. I just hope this feature makes its way to older phones.

 

[68000/030]

Or maybe use MFi approved chargers and cables, limiting the damage to the battery by over amperage

It's the battery/charge controller circuit on the phone that decides how much power to sip from the charger and put on to the battery, not the other way around.

 

[daniesy]

This is a software feature that should be available on all models, just like the pinch gimmick on the watch. Apple being Apple. I’m getting tired of this.

 

[mdspiro]

I don't understand the "science" or logic behind this setting. With batteries limited to 80% charge, all the iPhone 15 models are simply not going to last as long as the prior models before needing to re-charge, right? That's supposed to make it have a longer life??? So more years of living with the frustration of running out of juice before the end of every day? That does not sound like a good trade-off.

 

[rui no onna]

I don't understand the "science" or logic behind this setting. With batteries limited to 80% charge, all the iPhone 15 models are simply not going to last as long as the prior models before needing to re-charge, right? That's supposed to make it have a longer life??? So more years of living with the frustration of running out of juice before the end of every day? That does not sound like a good trade-off.

This setting is for folks like me who constantly have their phone connected to a charger (CarPlay, office dock, home dock etc). There’s no frustration or worry of running out of juice before the end of the day because the phone is always charging anyway.

 

[bollman]

What about the method used to charge… Mix and match fast charging with wireless charging? Will that have any negative effects on battery health?

Fast charging and wireless charging both heat up the battery more, which degrades the battery somewhat.
Fast charging 20-80% does a lot less "damage" than fast charge from 0-100%

 

[Frankfurt]

No need babying your battery. It’s a consumable. Most of us get a new phone every 2 years anyways. I have a 12 Pro since launch day and it is at 87% battery health. On long days I will charge during the day via a small battery bank. Once it hits 80% you either replace the battery or get a new phone. I am upgrading to a 15 PM now after 3 years.

 

[theotherphil]

So you are basically throwing away 20% of your charge life for some extra charge cycles a few years down the road? I don't get it.

It's not a setting everybody will need to use....it just provides options for those that do.

Here's a scenario...I have a Pro Max and my shift patterns are 4x12hr on, 5 days off. On my 4 days on, my phone is smashed (I have a second SIM for work) - ~150 calls per day, frequent data access and often on charge in a hot car connected to wired CarPlay. The phone is running much hotter than usual. On those days, it would be great if when I selected "work" focus, battery was limited to 80% charge capacity.

Hot phones and charging to 100% kills batteries. Here in Australia, it's HOT 95% of the time. Just yesterday it was 35C and we're only 2 weeks into spring with 70 bushfires burning across the state.

 

[Tagbert]

I’d be interested to know how intelligent this is… I have a hybrid working pattern which differs every week - it’s not the same days each week. If I’m working at home (3 days a week usually) I run my Mac and iPhone off batteries, and put the Mac on charge at lunchtime and overnight. The iPhone I generally only charge over night. On the 2 days in the office (I work in 4 different locations) I generally charge both all of the working day.

You may want to enable “Optimized charging” that is the existing system to automatically limit charge levels based on your usage patterns as seen by Apple’s AI. That assumes that the AI gets it right and gives you what you want. This new feature is a simple limit setting that isn’t trying to be so smart. You can turn any of these on and off as your charging needs change.

 

[Tagbert]

What I want is a mode where the phone is not charging while plugged in. Would be extremely useful for CarPlay not killing my battery. IIRC some new Samsung phones support this.

This feature is basically that. Once your battery charge gets to 80% it stops charging. 80% is below the level where it starts to “stress” the battery. CarPlay on long trips (or with GPS) is a prime use case for this feature.

 

[Tagbert]

Agree 100% but think of marketing departments. 😄

Tesla would never sell another car once people found they should only use 60% of their battery's capacity on a regular basis.

Why? You are not limited to using 60% of your battery. It’s just a strategy to maximize the lifetime capacity of the battery. On most days EV drivers will only use 10-20% of their battery charge. That’s OK. The rest of the capacity if for those days when you need to drive further than normal. In those cases, if you need to use 100% of the battery charge, go ahead. It will have very little (but not zero) impact. Batteries are a wear item but in the case of an EV battery it can take hundreds of thousands of miles before the capacity starts to be impacted.

 

[Tagbert]

It's weird that it's only for the iPhone 15 series, since it looks to me that it's just a pure artificial lock. But I'm not surprised - Apple introduced Photonic Engine, 4K Cinematic mode, Action mode last year only for the iPhone 14 series, when the normal 14 has the same hardware as the 13 Pro. But also, if you think about it, the normal 14 should also support ProRAW or ProRes since it has the same A15 as the 13 Pro...

Considering that they are not really marketing this (it’s more of a footnote) There does not seem to be a marketing reason for this. There may be a new hardware change needed to manage charging when the device is off that is only on iPhone 15s. Alternately, if it is a software feature, the first OS version that ships sometimes has features specifically for the new devices that are later enabled for others. Let’s wait and see.

 

[UltimaKilo]

I just wish you could set it to 50% for car rides. Either way, welcome feature. I already am always trying to keep the phone from charging above 80%. Like others have said, I may try and forego wireless charging in the future also.