Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

desertman

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 14, 2008
694
37
Arizona, USA
I have an iPhone SE that is not even 10 months old. When I check its battery condition in the Battery Health section in the iPhone's settings it says that the battery has 97% of its original capacity. However, when I check the battery condition with coconutBattery while it is connected to my Mac or with several battery apps on the iPhone itself it always says that the battery has only 80% of its original capacity.

What might this mean? I could tolerate if one app tells me a different thing about the battery than Apple's own function but when three or four do it (and all with the same result) I am getting suspicious about Apple's result.

Are there other people here who use battery apps and Apple's Battery Health and have similar descrepancies?
 

tonybarnaby

macrumors 68020
Dec 3, 2017
2,385
1,741
Maybe talk to Apple diagnostics on your phone and see what they pull up. None of the apps are worth anything on ios11. They don’t have the proper permissions. Also it would be pretty insane for a phone to lose 20% in less than a year. My guess is you’re close to 97% like the phone says.
 

now i see it

macrumors G4
Jan 2, 2002
10,585
22,085
CoconutBattery can jump all over the place. +- 9% easily. It is more accurate if you keep the app open & charge the phone to 100% plus another 20 minutes (to get to real 100%, not Ios's fake 100%). Just this morning, CB said my iPhone was at 90% capacity (which was unusual) then later in the day (now) it says 99.2% for a 2 year old phone with 722 load cycles.
 

Darmok N Jalad

macrumors 603
Sep 26, 2017
5,224
44,585
Tanagra (not really)
I think there's only so much telemetry reporting that can be gleaned from a phone battery. My 2+ year old 6S claimed to be at 89% capacity using CB (this was before Apple added it to iOS), but I was seeing horrible battery life and getting the big slow down. After replacing the battery, the phone is behaving as expected in both measures again. It made me seriously doubt that 89% result from CB.
 

Mrbobb

macrumors 603
Aug 27, 2012
5,009
209
The built-in meter is what u should rely on 'cuz that's what Apple uses to decide whether to down-throttle the cpu due to low batt capacity.
 

wproct

macrumors 6502
Dec 4, 2014
460
170
Iowa
I'm a little dubious about the accuracy of the built in meter. My 6s which is over a year old is showing 100% on the built in meter. That doesn't seem right to me. I don't have a Mac to compare with coconut Battery.
 

Mlrollin91

macrumors G5
Nov 20, 2008
14,119
10,106
Maybe talk to Apple diagnostics on your phone and see what they pull up. None of the apps are worth anything on ios11. They don’t have the proper permissions. Also it would be pretty insane for a phone to lose 20% in less than a year. My guess is you’re close to 97% like the phone says.
Batteries are designed to retain 80% after 500 cycles. In a year you can easily use 500 cycles if you are a heavy user. The 80% is far more accurate than the 97%. On average, batteries that consume one cycle a day, will last just 18 months before reaching their rating point.

It also very well could be a defective battery. But the Apple Health is in beta, and I don't find it accurate at all. There are far too many discrepancies, a couple in this thread alone.
 

bobbype0

macrumors member
Mar 11, 2018
60
0
My SE is a little over 2 years old and capacity is at 86%.

You check this at settings right and battery healthy? Mine shows 86% and i have it around 2 years. So this is normal? Did all of you update IOS? If so, could that have caused the battery to wear? I updated it to ios 11 and then 12 recently. But i think the battery got worst when it was at ios 10 or 11. Thoughts here?
 

bobbype0

macrumors member
Mar 11, 2018
60
0
Has anyone here been able to get one the same day? I went to the site and it seems i cannot. But could you just go to apple store and wait there and maybe wait?


Also my battery is 86%. Had iphone SE for 2 years already. Should i get it changed for $29? I notice battery definitely is lot worst than before.


But it should be no brainer since im planning to use the SE for a while?
 

FeliApple

macrumors 68040
Apr 8, 2015
3,364
1,868
Has anyone here been able to get one the same day? I went to the site and it seems i cannot. But could you just go to apple store and wait there and maybe wait?


Also my battery is 86%. Had iphone SE for 2 years already. Should i get it changed for $29? I notice battery definitely is lot worst than before.


But it should be no brainer since im planning to use the SE for a while?
Maybe exchange it and don't update it any further.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.