iPhone 13 Pro MagSafe has destroyed my 13 Pro's battery

[onenorth]

FWIW I'm still using the 5W charger that came with my iPhone 7 to charge my iPhone 12.

For the first year I was charging to 100% every day and the battery life dropped to 90%. Since then I only charge to about 80% and the battery life has stayed at 90% for the past six months.

By contrast, my wife has an identical iPhone 12 and charges it wirelessly to 100%, but she rarely uses her phone (she has an iPad for most of what she needs to do). On her phone the battery life is 96%.

So it seems like it has more to do with the charge/discharge cycles than anything else. Which is what I think Apple says officially.

 

[Hunter5117]

So it seems like it has more to do with the charge/discharge cycles than anything else. Which is what I think Apple says officially.

Absolutely. I never (unless I get distracted) charge any of my battery devices to 100%. All my laptops have charge limiting software that cycles between 40% to 85%. With my iPhone 13PM, regardless of my using Magsafe, I usually charge every other day (thats all it needs usually down to about 25%) in the morning while I am doing email etc, and I pull it off at about 90%. I feel sure that is why I still have 100% health after almost a full year.

 

[david0128]

I have a suspicion that it might be down to the alignment of the charger being caused by the exact type and thickness of the case and the quality of the MagSafe charger. I had one of the thicker cases on my iPhone 12 Pro for a while and the battery health dropped to 84% in a year. I switched to an ultra thin case this year (with built in MagSafe alignment rings, apparently) and my battery health has stayed at 100%.

That doesn't excuse the shocking battery health on the watches though....

 

[onenorth]

Absolutely. I never (unless I get distracted) charge any of my battery devices to 100%. All my laptops have charge limiting software that cycles between 40% to 85%. With my iPhone 13PM, regardless of my using Magsafe, I usually charge every other day (thats all it needs usually down to about 25%) in the morning while I am doing email etc, and I pull it off at about 90%. I feel sure that is why I still have 100% health after almost a full year.

In theory optimized charging is supposed to handle this automatically, but there is no way to control it other than to turn it off.

 

[Hunter5117]

In theory optimized charging is supposed to handle this automatically, but there is no way to control it other than to turn it off.

I agree but I don't really trust it so I do it manually.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

I didn’t bother with MagSafe as Apple told me to continue using the old plug in method to save the environment. I haven’t even unpacked the USB-C to lightning cable that came with my iPhone 12. Got a 13 Pro now and continuing with the old charger. Hopefully it would screw my battery.

 

[clevins]

I guess the only big difference in my usage compared to 11 Pro and XS is that I now use wireless CarPlay on my iPhone 13. It's always connected whenever I'm in the car.

So... you're now having your phone connect via Carplay using a wireless connection... which takes battery...

Um.

 

[onenorth]

I agree but I don't really trust it so I do it manually.

I don't trust it either but I think that by manually unplugging the phone it confuses the optimized charging algorithm, which is why it doesn't seem to work well.

 

[Detonation]

Launch 13 Pro. Sits on a magsafe charger overnight every night. Don't even remember the last time I plugged it in. Still 100% capacity.

 

[KO7]

As I mentioned earlier in this thread, my 13 Pro Max is at 100% battery health after a year, but that’s with diligently removing the phone from my 3rd party (lower wattage) MagSafe chargers at 79%, and usually not letting it dip down below 40%.

Planning to not be so obsessive over battery health with my incoming 14 Pro and just enjoying it stress free. Especially since I’m going from a Pro Max’s battery duration down to a Pro and I’ll likely need more than the 80% charge for the day that I usually allot myself when I head out in the mornings.

Will continue to exclusively use 3rd party magsafe at home and in my car and see what happens to my battery health.

 

[mebehere]

I got MagSafe plus 120W charger for my AirPods Pro. One charge, took them off and the case was hot as hell. Back to 5W lightning immediately.

 

[mous94410]

Let me preface this by saying that I keep my phones for around 12-13 months on average. I sold my XS Max with 99% battery health, 11 Pro Max with 95% battery health, 12 base model with 93% health (6 months of its life was with MagSafe). My iPhone 13, which is in its 9th month is already at 90% battery health and I charge it almost exclusively with Apple's MagSafe Duo charger.

The battery life on the 13 Pro has noticeably degraded from when it was new, much more so than I have experienced with my previous iPhones. This phone went from basically being impossible to kill within a day with my usage to needing a charge well before the day's end.

My 13 pro from launch is at 92% battery. I charge it with a 12w wall adapter or so I don’t know if MagSafe is the real guilty

 

[Htsi]

I keep magsafe duo on top of my air purifier permanently. There’s active cooling when watch and phone charge and that keeps their batteries healthy, and more importantly it charges faster. Using AC+ and their wonderful design of rear system changes i get a new battery twice a year. However cooling makes charging at Max speed.

 

[lordhamster]

I keep magsafe duo on top of my air purifier permanently. There’s active cooling when watch and phone charge and that keeps their batteries healthy, and more importantly it charges faster. Using AC+ and their wonderful design of rear system changes i get a new battery twice a year. However cooling makes charging at Max speed.

How do you go about scheduling a non-warranty battery replacement? My 12 Pro Max is at 92%.

As for magsafe. I've used Magsafe almost exclusively since my 12 Pro max came out.

 

[Htsi]

Heat is the enemy, not magsafe.

How do you go about scheduling a non-warranty battery replacement? My 12 Pro Max is at 92%.

As for magsafe. I've used Magsafe almost exclusively since my 12 Pro max came out.

Break the back of your phone

 

[josielinnea]

IPhone 13 pro bought on release Day. Charge it with MagSafe at night and MagSafe in the car. It has probably been less than 10 times that I’ve plugged in a cable. Also, I’m a heavy user. 94% battery health.

 

[madeirabhoy]

My iphone X is down to 82% and I only use QI charging. Not sure if that is good or bad for a 5 year old phone, but I do like not using cables.

My XS battery experience has been crap and I’m only a very recent convert to wirelsss. Original battery within 2 years was 80% but seemed worse. Had only wired charging at the time. Authorised repair centre sold me a third party battery that’s worse even after a year. Only in the last
Month I’ve got wireless charging as the lightning port is dodgy and it’s so hard to get it to balance charging.

 

[Hunter5117]

I don't trust it either but I think that by manually unplugging the phone it confuses the optimized charging algorithm, which is why it doesn't seem to work well.

Optimized charging doesn't limit charging to 100%, it just tries to figure out when you need a full charge and only do that as needed. Presumably this would still lead to a 100% charge once a day. By manually stopping charging I make sure it never or at least rarely ever gets charged to 100%. So far seems to work.

 

[david0128]

Qi charging is probably not as safe as true MagSafe charging. I’ve realised that my worst degradation of battery health was when I was placing the phone on a charging pad. This year, with the magnetically aligned MagSafe chargers I’ve had a good year. Launch day 13pro still at 100%.

 

[stu.h]

Used MagSafe for the majority of the 2 year life on my 12PM.
Battery performance is still at 90%.
Going to be no different with my 14PM, I’ve just bought another MagSafe charger to go in my office instead of using a generic cheap Qi charger. No doubt someone will say that a generic Qi charger offers less power, thus less generated heat, thus its better care for the battery
I like the convenience of dropping it on a MagSafe charger and not worrying about fumbling with cables, and inevitably wearing out the lightning port - including wondering what the battery % is currently on and keeping it within the allegedly sweet spot of 30% - 80%.
Would also suit me if Apple got rid of the port completely (I know this wouldn’t suit everyone 🙂)

 

[pbonitati]

I have a release day iPhone 13 Pro with 100 health still. I use a Samsung wireless charger that has a fan inside of it. Maybe cable charged a dozen times on vacation ect.

 

[Major774]

If you use your phone like a normal person you will have to replace your battery within 2-2.5 years. This is entirely routine so there is no point in thinking about usage or charging behaviour. We use expensive phones so the price of a battery replacement is a nominal fee for basic ware and tear.

I have never seen a forum full of people so worried about something that doesn’t matter one iota. Lithium-ion batteries degrade and there is nothing you can do to stop that. If you intend you keep your phone for over 2 years, replace the battery.

It’s not rocket science.

I aim to kill my battery capacity every year (I upgrade every year). I let the next owner deal with it.

I wireless charge only, I wireless charge it at any random times, this summer I got my 13 mini to throttle hehe (screen dimmed).

 

[Andeddu]

I aim to kill my battery capacity every year (I upgrade every year). I let the next owner deal with it.

I wireless charge only, I wireless charge it at any random times, this summer I got my 13 mini to throttle hehe (screen dimmed).

I have used 5w wireless charging since 2018 when I got my iPhone 8. I didn’t see any additional battery degradation over my 6S which used only a standard 5w charger. The MagSafe pucks are 15w so do produce a lot of additional heat. My 12 Mini battery dropped to around 87% within one year of use. I am not sure if it’s wireless charging or the low quality battery all 12’s have which is to blame. I don’t care much anyway because I plan to get the battery replaced before the end of the year.

Getting your phone to throttle is quite impressive, lol.

 

[edhchoe]

Just curious, how do you know it is MagSafe that did it? It couldn’t be a bad battery or other issue?

Heat is poison to batteries.
I noticed wireless charging gets hot compared to wired charging.

 

[usagora]

I've had my 13PM since release and exclusively use MagSafe charging. Battery capacity still reporting at 100%. I don't think MagSafe is the issue.