Making this for only iPhone 15 makes me laugh so much. Even my e-scooter has this option Apple! It's not about hardware!
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.
iPhone 15 Models Feature New Setting to Strictly Prevent Charging Beyond 80%
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I would rather have a setting that throttled my CPU to 80% of the speed to give me longer battery life. I don’t need the full extent of the power of the A17 chip.
Someone else will be getting that phone (unless you throw it into the trash or keep it unused in a drawer), so it’s not pointless. It increases the useful lifetime of the battery. Even when batteries are recycled, not having to recycle them early will save resources.
For most people it doesn't make sense to use this feature. However, for some people it does. I have multiple friends who are in sales. They have the iPhone 14 Pro, like me. I have 94% of my battery available after using it for a year. Both of my friends in sales have less than 85% of their battery available after the same year of use. I am sure others in different situations see an even high battery degradation.
For me I would never turn it on since I don't wear the battery fast enough to worry about charging past 80%. However, for those two individuals, and I would assume many more in similar situations (using the full battery multiple times per day), they could utilize this feature to gain extra life on their phone if they don't plan on replacing it every year.
Maybe you live in a really cold place or a place that has comfortable 20-25 c° at most temperatures at the highest point of the year..
Manchester your profile says.. maybe, I dunno... also maybe you got lucky.. or a forced recalibration would've shown you the actual lower percentage. (you have to charge the phone to 100% and leave it on the charger some hours, discharge it to 0% and leave it like so a few hours, then charge to 100%)
I don't buy that. The optimized charging also needs to keep checking on the battery level, same if you use an automation that takes some action when the battery level rises above/drops below a certain charge level. Both work fine on models prior to the 15.
To each their own but I don't get why people accept their phone dictating their usage, instead of their usage dictating their phone. I want a phone that starts the day off (for me, 6:45am) at 100% and then does whatever I need it to do during the day, then has enough charge left to be plugged in/set on a charger at the end of my day (usually about midnight) so it can be repeated the next day.
Why would I leave 20% off every morning?
Why would I leave 20% off every morning?
Loads of companies shield the user from the real state of charge of the battery... what the user sees as 100% isn't really the battery 100% charged...
The longevity of the battery on apple devices is already better than most... I think their battery management, chemistry and the fact they design the hardware and software ensures that they are as efficient as can be.
Its annoying that this feature seems artificially limited to certain iPhones... but the real impact may not be as great as you think.
Usually the charge above 80% really really affects battery health when temps are super high too. Elevated temp and state of charge are the worst combo... besides ultra low deep dishcharge below safe limits (in which case the batteries internal circuitry disables the battery for good).
It would be laughable if they don’t roll out this to older models.
Some people don't use the full capacity on a daily basis, but occasionally need it e.g. when traveling. I'd prefer to still have 100% capacity after a few years. And if you have something like the 80% limit in the settings there is nothing to manage.
I usually sell my iPhone on eBay each year and how long do you use your phone each day? I sold my 14 pro with 100% battery health.
why would I want my battery only charged to 80% at the beginning of the day? I use about 50-60% per day and charge at night and while in the car and don't really give a second thought to "optimized charging" or any crap like that, and after 2 years, my 13 Pro Max is at 89% battery health. It has one more year before I upgrade. I certainly don't want to see my phone down to 30% because it only got to 80% at night!
You’re not a power user then. Without the smart battery pack, now superseded by Anker’s, more powerful alternative, my 13 Pro Max wouldn’t last me a whole day & that’s without leaving home at 80%.
Can’t be bothered with all that nonsense.I’ve always fully charged all my iPhones to 100% overnight via MagSafe since it was introduced and have never had any abnormal battery degrading issues.Have had my 14 Pro Max for a full year and the battery health is still on 100%.I only keep the same phone 1-2 years maximum anyway so certainly not going to worry about battery health.Even if I was keeping it longer I would still want it charged to 100%.
The display and mobile comms are significant draws on the battery, besides the SoC. The average iPhone user probably doesn’t use the SoC at full power all that much (iPhone getting hot). And for saving power, there’s already low-power mode.
A more fitting car analogy: every EV I know has a setting to limit the charge level. But what does e.g. Tesla know about batteries ...
I have a better idea Apple. How about you take some of that $25B+/year in R&D money and actually do something significant with it like coming up with better battery tech instead of expecting customers to utilize only 4/5ths of the battery potential of their brand new iPhone.
The battery is “stressed” at both min and max charge. So, Apple will allow you to cap charging at 80% hands free.
My launch day 14PM (That I put into service Dec 3, 2022) is still at 100% battery health. Only charged to 80-83% max, and no lower than 30%.
You be the judge
There is absolutely ZERO technical reason that all phones that support "Optimized Charging" can't support this.
Optimized charging literally has the phone hold at 80% until charging the final 20% just before it expects to be used.
It has nothing to do with USB-C.
Some batteries are manufactured as such that their capacity is actually above what Apple states... I think sometimes this additional capacity means that the iPhone doesn't report under 100% battery health until it starts dropping below a certain number... despite the battery aging as normal. So you think its health is static... its just its not being reported as dropping yet.
I remember seeing this on an electronics discussion with regards to iPads one time...
Or not worry about it. Worse case battery replacement is 99 bucks if you dont get applecare. Not going to cripple my 1200 dollar phone by not charging it to have full capacity. I have had my iPhone 12 since launch, battery still at 84%, always have just used optimize charging setting. Not bad for 3 year old battery.
I think the bigger issue here isn't about aging batteries... but why such a potentially useful feature is being arbitrarily applied to certain newer products. If Apple was clear about it, there would be a better understanding.
I think there is an element of lottery involved. My 13 Pro Max is at 83% battery health whilst my wife’s is still at 89%. Mine was a launch day phone and she got hers about a week later & we’re both heavy users. She also tends to use hers quite a lot whilst charging via lightning.