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iPhone 6(S)/Plus time to replace battery?

D

Doug Lass

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 12, 2015
102
13
iPhone6s, maybe a thousand battery charge cycles. Yep, it's old. I get only about an hour of work time with it. BUT, Battery Health gives me 96% of "maximum capacity" which, I understand does NOT mean a replacement should be needed.

On the one hand, it looks like I need a new battery. On the other hand, it doesn't. What gives?

Oh, and I get many hours of time on it with a Mophie battery pack.
 
I can't say that a battery replacement would even be worth it at this point. You've certainly got a good amount of use out of it if it's still up and running. If you're trying to stay within a smaller budget, the price difference between a battery replacement and upgrading to the newer iPhone SE might be something to consider. Same form factor with a dramatic upgrade on the internals which will certainly be noticed even if you're a casual user.
 
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Funny how you ask a question and you get answers to another question. Forums are like that. This is NOT a question of what I should do. I don't need help with that question. It's a question of what's going on.
 
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Doug Lass said:
Funny how you ask a question and you get answers to another question. Forums are like that. This is NOT a question of what I should do. I don't need help with that question. It's a question of what's going on.
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From what you described, it sounds like your battery is shot. With that conclusion, I posted what was a logical step forward.

Do you have any other snarky replies to offer?
 
Your logical step forward was not a logical answer to my question. Now you've decided to answer it. I'm still trying to understand that if my battery is shot, why doesn't Battery Health seem to know it?

Focus, and chill.
 
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Battery health is not an accurate reading. It’s a best guess approach to where your battery is. Sometimes that guess is spot on. Other times it’s way off. You already stated it has been cycled 1000 times. Apple has stated in the past that their batteries are rated at 500/80%. So, you should replace the battery if you desire tip top performance.
 
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Thank you. I guess I have to assume that Battery Health tells me if there are reasons why my battery is bad, but won't tell me all the reasons that it might be bad. That's important to know.
 
My iPhone 6s was at 86% health and it drove me crazy how fast it went through a charge. I made an appointment at Best Buy to replace the battery but was told that their policy is 75% or less. I ended up selling it and buying an iPhone 11 which is a huge upgrade.
 
Duh? Best Buy can tell you NOT to replace your battery? What I've learned is that Battery Health is not a perfect indicator of battery health. It looks at some indicators, and can identify a bad battery, but evidently doesn't look at all of them. It seems you can have a pile-of-junk battery, and Battery Health will be quite happy with it. Funny we don't hear more about that.
 
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Ignore the battery health app. It's worthless and unreliable.
The time to get a new battery is when it's at least 2 years old and clearly doesn't last as long as it used to AND charges a lot faster than it used to.
When a battery ages due to use and age, its capacity dimininishes. It essentially becomes a smaller and smaller battery. The smaller the battery, (and worn out) the faster it charges with a 5 watt charger
 
"Ignore the battery health app. It's worthless and unreliable."

Precisely what I'm learning. No question that an old battery is going to lose performance. The question is why Battery Health is telling me it's fine.
 
Well, it's interesting. I replaced the battery, and everything seems to be fixed. Of some interest is that the charging time is greatly increased. This says to me that the old battery had declined to the point that there just wasn't that much to charge. So much for "Battery Health." I have to assume that some fragment of the old battery was considered healthy.
 
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Doug Lass said:
Well, it's interesting. I replaced the battery, and everything seems to be fixed. Of some interest is that the charging time is greatly increased. This says to me that the old battery had declined to the point that there just wasn't that much to charge. So much for "Battery Health." I have to assume that some fragment of the old battery was considered healthy.
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Is it an OEM battery?
 
Basically, what @JPack and @GeeMillz22 stated.

There are unknowns to the process, such as how exactly and often current full/peak mAh are measured, and the "Design" capacity is just that, what the battery manufacturer's target charge capacity is for the specific model (i.e. estimate/average). So, indeed the health calculation results are not guaranteed accurate. In other words, the logic you initially asked to verify is correct, gauging battery "health" based on cycle count and age is the best simple assessment, even though it's also an estimation.
 
Doug Lass said:
iPhone6s, maybe a thousand battery charge cycles. Yep, it's old. I get only about an hour of work time with it. BUT, Battery Health gives me 96% of "maximum capacity" which, I understand does NOT mean a replacement should be needed.

On the one hand, it looks like I need a new battery. On the other hand, it doesn't. What gives?

Oh, and I get many hours of time on it with a Mophie battery pack.
Click to expand...
Replace the battery it’s time
 
There never really was much question about the need to replace the battery. The "what gives" question was WHY does "Battery Health" say it's healthy, if it's not. The conclusion seems to be that charge cycles and age are a much better assessment of battery health than Battery Health. By the same token, I have to assume that the amount of memory used is better assessed by how much I like movies than Storage.
 
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