iPhone 16 Pro Max 80% Charge Limit: One Year Later, Was It Worth It?

[derek4484]

I have an iPhone 15 Pro Max, purchased new at release.
Manf Date August 2023.
Date of first use September 2023.
Battery Health - Normal
Maximum Capacity - 88%
Cycle Count - 459.

I never turned on any kind of battery charge limit. I use it all day, put it on charge every night. Everytime I get in my car I plug it in - I drive a lot for work. I never put an ounce of thought into battery life or modify any kind of behavior with the Battery health in mind. And its still very good. Better than the OP's who clearly changed his behaviors and settings to maximize his battery health.

 

[MrMojo1]

Still have my 13 PM, bought used in Dec, 2022 with 93% battery life.
3uTools says battery was created in 10/2021.
Recently updated to iOS 18.7 and battery is at 87% with ~732 cycles. Pretty good for a ~4 yr old iPhone.
Started to stop charging ~80%~90% & still get ~1 day's worth of battery life, if not ~1.5 days. Don't game, just use the telephone, go online and listen to audiobooks/music mostly.
Will upgrade the battery and have it last ~2~3 yrs until Apple stops supporting it or some future iPhone version is worth upgrading.

 

[aliomenti]

I charge to 80% but only because i put the phone on the wireless charger in my car and I don’t want it to sit at 100% for the whole drive.

100% MagSafe and Qi charging. No fast USB.

After 1 year and 192 cycles my battery is still at 100% capacity.

 

[Haiku_Oezu]

I used it on my previous iPhone and I wasn’t impressed (it quickly degraded from 100 to 95% shortly after a year passed), this one I decided to let charge to 100% and it’s still at 100% battery health after almost a year

 

[FeliApple]

15 Pro Max, almost exclusively MagSafe and 80% tops.

I have never understood this. Wireless charging is the most heat-inducing, inefficient, battery-health-affecting charging method.

Why would you go through the trouble of losing 20% capacity on day one by limiting charge just to preserve battery health… whilst choosing the most heat-inducing, battery-health-killing method of charging?

I’d say that at least if you’re going to limit the battery and if you’re going to lose a massive amount of capacity on day one to do so, the fastest charging speed ought to be 5w. Otherwise it’s just pointless.

And for the record, I think it is pointless anyway. I’ll never limit my battery charge.

 

[HazeAndHahmahneez]

I have never understood this. Wireless charging is the most heat-inducing, inefficient, battery-health-affecting charging method.

Why would you go through the trouble of losing 20% capacity on day one by limiting charge just to preserve battery health… whilst choosing the most heat-inducing, battery-health-killing method of charging?

I’d say that at least if you’re going to limit the battery and if you’re going to lose a massive amount of capacity on day one to do so, the fastest charging speed ought to be 5w. Otherwise it’s just pointless.

And for the record, I think it is pointless anyway. I’ll never limit my battery charge.

I’m not saying you’re wrong, but has Apple ever officially come out and said yeah MagSafe does produce the most heat and/or is the worst for battery life?…

 

[HazeAndHahmahneez]

10 years ago I used a Samsung Galaxy Note phone.

It had a plastic removable back.

The plastic back was functional, it didn't scratch or crack and because I kept the phone in a case, I never saw the back of the phone so it didn't matter what it was made from anyway.

I could buy a new battery for $20, slide the plastic back off of the phone and replace the old battery in seconds!

Which meant we didn't live in a world of 80% paranoia and the reviewer could have spent their time doing something more productive that agonising over their battery health.

How lucky are we that now we can take time to travel to an Apple store and pay $100 for someone else to change the battery for us!

Isn't progress wonderful!

This dude really said the words “10 yrs ago”, “samsung” and “plastic” in the same post with a straight face.

Yoo, I’m cryin rn lmao

 

[jwdsail]

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?

iPhone 16 Pro (not max) here.

One year in, Maximum Capacity still at 100%, after 165 cycles.

I charge to 100%, put it in low power mode, get two days use.

Couldn’t get 1.5 days charging to 80%, tried that twice, gave up.

YMMV

 

[radellaf]

But if you go 3 or 4 years in between upgrade cycles than I could see it being very useful.

That's my hope. I'll go with a 90% limit. Given that my phone is on a charger half the day, it'll probably sit between 80 and 90% most of the time. Hope that'll leave me better off for the last 2 or 3 years of my usual 4 or 5 year upgrades.

If you only keep a phone for two years, then, unless you use it way, way more than usual, it'll be fine no matter how you charge it.

 

[OUsooner08]

No charging restrictions, i exclusively use MagSafe. 290 cycles, 100% battery capacity.

 

[Johan-S]

I expected it to make absolutely no difference and I guess that was correct.

I have been charging my 16 Pro almost exclusively on magsafe (95% or more of the time), never set a charge limit, leaving it on the magsafe puck while full for many hours every day, battery has drained to zero at least 10 times in this year (usually while serving as personal hotspot for my laptop, so quite fast/heavy drain) and my result is:

95% capacity, 321 cycles.

(Manufactured August 2024, first use October)

Reinforcing what I always say to people who ask about this or obsess about how to treat their device batteries:

There's no behavior a normal consumer can apply to positively or negatively affect total battery lifetime in modern products. The battery management tech is just too good at this point - it doesn't let you do any truly harmful things to it. Batteries of all types are consumables that will eventually wear down and the only way to avoid it is to not use them. Stop worrying about it because there's no reason to.

 

[Anlos]

16 Pro Max with 80% charge limit on 100% battery health at 222 battery cycles

 

[NewiPhoneuser15]

iPhone 15 Promax first use July 2024
Battery Health 88 % cycle count 448 . Limit 90 % all the time. Very disappointing for 1 year of usage

 

[dzankizakon]

15 Pro with 80% limit on full time. After 193 cycles still at 100% capacity.

Your battery health would almost certainly be over 80% if you used your battery normally. So nominally your battery is at 100% capacity but you use it as if it's only 80% healthy. I find that a bit counterproductive. My 16 Pro is at 96% capacity after a year (236 cycles, Manufacture Date August 2024, First Use October 2024) and I never even think about battery or battery health.

 

[ThomasPicard]

I have never understood this. Wireless charging is the most heat-inducing, inefficient, battery-health-affecting charging method.

Times have changed - that was true years ago - with "bad equipment"..

With Mag Safe there is not so much more heat, than with regular charging.

I did charge my 16PM only with MagSafe - and after 240 cycles battery health was still 100% when I sold it last week.

 

[loveall]

15 Pro Max, 80% change limit most of the time. Sometimes I will increase it to 100% if I know it’s going to be a long day.
View attachment 2558145

These stats are horrible do you work outside or live in the blazing heat?

 

[loveall]

I have a 15 Pro since it was released, so two years now. I've always had the limit set to 95%. Never used MagSafe and only rarely does it drop below 20% battery. I'm at 87% health with 446 cycles.

Oooo I’m at 85% at 815 cycles

 

[loveall]

15 Pro Max

 

[Zest28]

iPhone 15 Pro Max, 2 years of 80% limit + wireless charging, it is now at 92% battery life.

I believe it was mostly due to running high-end games on this phone that killed it. But if you don't run high-end games on the iPhone, why else buy such a high-end phone, might as well buy a $200 Android phone if you just watch YouTube and do Whatsapp.

Still, the battery life is excellent despite "only 92% health" after 2 years.

 

[Zest28]

Your battery health would almost certainly be over 80% if you used your battery normally. So nominally your battery is at 100% capacity but you use it as if it's only 80% healthy. I find that a bit counterproductive. My 16 Pro is at 96% capacity after a year (236 cycles, Manufacture Date August 2024, First Use October 2024) and I never even think about battery or battery health.

This doesn't matter much. My iPhone 15 Pro Max also still said 100% after 1 year. At some point, the battery life will drop of a cliff.

Now it reads 92% after 2 years (while 100% after 1 year). The older the battery, the faster it will drop.

 

[pubby]

16 Pro Max. I charge nightly via MagSafe and cap it at 90%. 99% of original capacity after nearly a year of heavy usage seems pretty great to me.

 

[helloapple1]

16 Pro Max. I charge nightly via MagSafe and cap it at 90%. 99% of original capacity after nearly a year of heavy usage seems pretty great to me.

That is pretty good. I'm going to cap mine at 90% going forward as well. At the end of the day I'm realizing I'm stressing way too much over a battery that can be easily replaced.

 

[Peepo]

iPhone 15 pro Max two years 83% and 528 cycles. I full charge to 100% using MagSafe mostly which probably is not as good for it. Don’t see the point in my case however since I am still over 80% capacity for the past two years vs crippling it if I limited the charge to 80%. I have AppleCare + so I’ll get a free battery at/below 80% anyways.