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iPhone 16 Pro Max 80% Charge Limit: One Year Later, Was It Worth It?
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The last iPhone I had, the iPhone 12 PM, had 99% battery health after one year, and I never do this 80% charge garbage. No, it's not worth it...unless you own your phone for at least 3.5 years. I did the math once, and it was approximately 3.5 years that you would need to do the 80% charging for it to be worth it. Besides, at the 3 year mark you should be buying a new battery anyway. So when it is all said and done, this 80% charge stuff is worthless.
Side note: I never charge my phones wirelessly anymore because of the heat (since a couple of years ago). The heat from wireless charging will degrade your battery faster than anything else.
Side note: I never charge my phones wirelessly anymore because of the heat (since a couple of years ago). The heat from wireless charging will degrade your battery faster than anything else.
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I've never limited anything on my 16 Pro Max.
Maximum Capacity 100%
Cycle Count 230
First use November 2024
Maximum Capacity 100%
Cycle Count 230
First use November 2024
Two-year-old iPhone 15 Pro Max. 676 cycles and 93% battery health. I charged to 100% but always use a USBC cable to charge with a 140w Apple Charger.
16 Pro Max, exclusively MagSafe charging all night while I sleep, always charging to 100% every day.
Not bad!
Not bad!
13 PM bought used in Dec 2022 had 92% life.
Now it recently shows 87% life, after recent update to iOS 18.7. It was stuck at 88% for a long time.
3utools shows battery was created 10/2021 with 723 cycles now.
Now trying to stop charging ~80%~90%. Pretty good for almost a 4 yo iPhone which lasts just about an entire day.
Now it recently shows 87% life, after recent update to iOS 18.7. It was stuck at 88% for a long time.
3utools shows battery was created 10/2021 with 723 cycles now.
Now trying to stop charging ~80%~90%. Pretty good for almost a 4 yo iPhone which lasts just about an entire day.
I used 85% charge limit all year on my 16 pro max, 366 cycles, 95% battery life. Wildly interesting. I use overnight magesafe too.
It's stupid as hell.
"I don't want my capacity to be lower than 100% in a few years, so I'm going to lower it 20% on my own from day one."
I kept my 16 Pro Max at or near 100% at all times, and guess what, I traded it in with 100% capacity still.
Doing this is like kicking yourself in the ass to avoid getting your ass kicked.
"I don't want my capacity to be lower than 100% in a few years, so I'm going to lower it 20% on my own from day one."
I kept my 16 Pro Max at or near 100% at all times, and guess what, I traded it in with 100% capacity still.
Doing this is like kicking yourself in the ass to avoid getting your ass kicked.
Since September 2024, my 16 Pro Max, no charge limit and regularly charged overnight via magsafe charger, and off-and-on during day in my car or at my desk, shows 100% battery health and 202 charge count.
I don't waste my time baby-sitting my charging.
I don't waste my time baby-sitting my charging.
262 Cycles, 100% capacity still, one year later. I don't do anything special. Occasional boost via usb-c in the house or car, and at night MagSafe. That's it.
With the iPhone 15 series, I did an experiment and kept my iPhone's Charge Limit set at 80 percent for an entire year. It provided an interesting look at the impact of charge limits on battery longevity, so I decided to repeat it for the iPhone 16 line.
Since September 2024, my iPhone 16 Pro Max has been limited to an 80 percent charge, with no cheating. As of today, my battery's maximum capacity is at 94 percent with 299 charge cycles.
With last year's test, I spent a lot of time with my battery below 20 percent. I saw some comments suggesting that draining it so low could also affect battery capacity over time, so this year, I tried hard to keep my battery between 20 and 80 percent. I wasn't always successful, but my iPhone 16 Pro Max was in that middle charge area most of the time.
You can compare your own battery health with mine, but my guess is that my 94 percent battery capacity is about average, regardless of whether charging limits are on or off. In fact, my iPhone 15 Pro Max was also at 94 percent capacity at the 12 month mark when I did this same test last year.
I did a mix of charging via MagSafe and charging with USB-C, and my iPhone 16 Pro Max can get hot when charging over MagSafe, especially with MagSafe battery packs. Since I was trying to keep above a 20 percent charge, I did more wireless charging when I was out. I can't help but wonder if heat was an issue this year.
It continued to be inconvenient limiting my iPhone battery to an 80 percent charge. It was fine when home, but if I was out and wanted to use the camera or needed GPS, it often wasn't enough battery. When you set an 80 percent charge limit, the iPhone will charge to full every so often to calibrate, and I appreciated surprise days with 20 percent extra battery.
If I had to guess, I probably had a 50/50 split between MagSafe charging and fast charging with USB-C. Most charging was indoors at around 72 degrees, but there were times when I was outdoors with a battery pack in warmer conditions.
I use my older iPhones for software tests, so my iPhone 15 Pro Max is still around. At the two year mark, its capacity is 88 percent, down from 94 percent in September 2024. It has 352 cycles, and I've kept it at the 80 percent limit.
During this year's testing, my iPhone 16 Pro Max battery was still at around 98 percent just a couple of months ago, so I thought the limit was having more of an impact, but I saw a decent drop as we got closer to September. It was even at 95 percent about a week ago, but now I'm down to 94 percent.
I now have two years of data with my iPhone limited to an 80 percent charge, and I don't think it's been worth it. My coworker who also has a 16 Pro Max did not have an 80 percent charge limit set, and his battery capacity is 96 percent with 308 charge cycles.
Maybe setting an 80 percent limit improves battery health over a longer period of time, but over a one-year period, the results have been disappointing. Setting charging to a 90 or 95 percent might make more sense.
I have upgraded to the iPhone 17 Pro Max and did already limit it to an 80 percent charge for another 12-month test. I'm interested to see how the larger battery changes things, and whether the switch to aluminum will make a difference.
What's your iPhone battery capacity and cycle count? Let me know in the comments below, and weigh in on whether you think the 80 percent charge limit is a good idea.
Article Link: iPhone 16 Pro Max 80% Charge Limit: One Year Later, Was It Worth It?
So you’ve limited yourself to conserve the battery but then used the most damaging charging method overnight when the method of charging doesn’t impact you in anyway? You’re asleep and not using your phone, so may as well use a slow cabled charger. That there is an example of a pointless exercise.
My 16 Pro from launch day is at 98% capacity, and I did not set a charging limit, nor did I overthink when to charge my phone. I used nearly all USB-C and no MagSafe bc of convenience, speed, and my case.
I;ve ready other "studies" similar to this on,e and there does not seem to be any significant evidencethat the charging limits positively impact battery health. Seems like a feature for the power geeks.
I;ve ready other "studies" similar to this on,e and there does not seem to be any significant evidencethat the charging limits positively impact battery health. Seems like a feature for the power geeks.
I kept 16 Pro Max limited to 80% for the full year. Like many others here, it initially looked like it was making a difference as I was showing little or no battery wear for almost six months, but in the second half of the year the wear kicked in and I was down to 93%.
I also ended up trading in the phone, so in the end it truly didn’t matter.
With previous iPhones that didn’t have optimized charging or max battery limit features, I still typically saw something in the area of 90-94% capacity after a year.
Definitely an unscientific test with too many variables and too small of a sample size, but I’m going with 95% for my 17 Pro Max and might even swap to 100%. Not worth the trouble going lower for a barely perceptible difference in wear after a year.
I also ended up trading in the phone, so in the end it truly didn’t matter.
With previous iPhones that didn’t have optimized charging or max battery limit features, I still typically saw something in the area of 90-94% capacity after a year.
Definitely an unscientific test with too many variables and too small of a sample size, but I’m going with 95% for my 17 Pro Max and might even swap to 100%. Not worth the trouble going lower for a barely perceptible difference in wear after a year.
Just replaced my 15PM with a 17PM. The 15 ended its 2 year run at 83% capacity with about 480 cycles. Never used a charge limit. Mostly MagSafe charging over night with top offs when needed. Possible that limiting the charge to 80% has a positiver impact in the long run, but I have never kept a phone more than 2 or 3 years. Hence, I don’t bother. If I end up keeping a phone longer I would replace the battery rather than being restricted.
I set my 16 PM to an 85% limit and after 1 year, for the first time ever, remaining battery life is 100%.
My 13 Pro Max is at 92%. The reason I attribute this to is limiting the charge to 80% and not letting it get below 20%. Because this older device doesn’t have a way to automatically limit the charge, I have to do it manually and unfortunately I miss sometimes. I think this is pretty good for such an old phone. Too bad Apple lags so long providing these features.
I don't think any of these posts with just number of cycles, battery health/dates are very useful. Wouldn't things like how hot does your phone run (e.g. Do you play demanding games, sustained max usage apps vs. web browsing and watching videos?), the temperature of where your phone is, including part of the world you live in, background apps over time, charging wattage, etc. I'm sure wireless vs. wired charging makes a difference, but who knows how much?
My two year old 15 Pro is still remarkably at 98% although I’m using my other devices a fair bit so total charge cycle count is not very high in comparison to some of you guys.
I think ability to set change limit is handy when road tripping so you don’t have your phone plugged at 100% for days on end but apart from that I don’t think this is worthy of the sacrifice. There is no point in having your battery outlast your phones useful service life.
I think ability to set change limit is handy when road tripping so you don’t have your phone plugged at 100% for days on end but apart from that I don’t think this is worthy of the sacrifice. There is no point in having your battery outlast your phones useful service life.
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I think it really comes into play for people who have their phone constantly on a charger like me in the car all day, then this limits make a difference longterm, as you can see with laptops that are always on the charger because they are mostly used as desktops. Otherwise it's not that big of a deal. As I said, it's good to have options build into iOS.
