iPhone battery meter accuracy?

[Faize]

Is the iPhone's battery meter intended to be accurate? Or is it like a car's gas meter? My iPhone went from around 17% at noon to 1% at around 3 PM, and then stayed at 1% until 7 PM when it finally turned itself off...

 

[Tyler23]

Is the iPhone's battery meter intended to be accurate? Or is it like a car's gas meter? My iPhone went from around 17% at noon to 1% at around 3 PM, and then stayed at 1% until 7 PM when it finally turned itself off...

It's an estimate, not 100% accurate. It's meant to be close enough to be informative. In your case, I'd run the battery all the way out, then charge all the way up to help calibrate.

 

[C DM]

It's based on voltage for the most part and that can fluctuate. But it's designed to be fairly good and not really jump around under most/normal circumstances.

 

[carjakester]

according to my battery life app the status bar is 5% off right now

 

[C DM]

according to my battery life app the status bar is 5% off right now

I've seen some battery apps round battery to the nearest 5% or so when reporting. It's still a question which one is the right one too.

 

[cynics]

Battery gauges are a mixture of art and science. There is prediction involved so it will never be 100% accurate. Usually you'll find 100% and 1% last the longest with everything in between being a crap shoot.

Letting it drain completely will increase the gauges accuracy but only if you use it normally until it shuts off. For example running Netflix at max brightness until the battery dies can actually make it more inaccurate.