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Jayson A

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Sep 16, 2014
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Why does my iPhone 7 Plus stay on 100% for so long?

Seems like I can get 45-50 minutes of use before it switches to 99%, but the rest of the battery depletes faster.

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Why does my iPhone 7 Plus stay on 100% for so long?

Seems like I can get 45-50 minutes of use before it switches to 99%, but the rest of the battery depletes faster.

View attachment 676065

Short answer: iOS does a bad job of estimating.

Long answer:

Let's say you have a x/y graph of a straight line. If someone gives you a Y value, it is easy to find the X value.

Now look at the line of a graph of voltage/time graph of any battery, it doesn't have a straight line near the 0℅ and 100℅ points of the graph.

With the example graph I gave, if the phone reads the battery as between 3.9 and 3.7V, it might think zero time has past and estimates it has 100℅ still.

This is same reason on the other side of the graph, if the phone reads between 3.5V or lower, it is harder to estimate the lime left.

Example graph of a battery.
5112a224ce395fb479000003-png.676067
 

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Is this your first iPhone? I've had a 4, 5, 6, and now a 7 and they have all done this on every iOS version I've ever seen.

My theory is that apple wants you to think you have more battery than you really do towards the beginning of a full charge and eventually things speed up and catch up to accurate as the battery drains.

What is new in iOS 10 though is that the battery indicator doesn't start visually depleting till it hits 95% now. Used to be 98% pre iOS 10 and you'd see a sliver gone. Just another illusion to make you think you have more battery than you do.
 
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I read an article a long time and somebody explained it was done on purpose to make you think you have good battery life.
 
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Could it also be exacerbated by a tendency for new batteries to exceed their rated capacity? E.g. if at full charge the battery is 103% its rated capacity, the battery status will read 100% until you lose 4 percentage points.
 
iOS reports anything between 95-100% as 100%. Once iOS drops to 94% the battery indicator starts drop in a linear fashion.

Actual vs. Reporting
95-100% = 100%
47.5 = 50%
24.25% = 25%

For the record, macOS does this as well. Its been this way for years and years now.
 
I just got the 7 and noticed the 100% battery "issue" as well. After a full charge, I unplug the phone and use it to play YouTube video. It can play videos for almost 20 minutes before dropping to 99%. That's really weird.

It's kind of the reverse problem with my car since it was new. When the yellow low-fuel warning light comes on, it still has at least 50 miles of range remaining.(or almost 70 miles if cruising at freeway speed)
 
All my phones have done that. But, not that long at 100%

That said, wouldn't worry about it.
 
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The percentage is an estimate and inaccurate.

Just turn it off and don't worry about it.
They are certainly estimated and thus won't be perfect generally but they are usually not inaccurate in the sense of not being useful. The battery meter that's there with or without the percentage is still based on the same estimates.
 
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I always have battery percentage turned off, because I have better things to worry about than one little estimate. After all, iOS prompts me to turn on Low Power Mode when the battery gets low. Computers are smarter than humans a bunch of the time.
 
It's done with purpose. It has to to with the human psychology. No one likes to see 99% a minute after they unplugged their phone. It stays on 100% for a while even though the battery isn't 100% fully charged anymore. After a while it'll go down to 99% and counts down faster than it stayed on 100%. It's all to ease the human mind.
 
Apple programmed this "feature" on purpose. Before iOS10, when CoconutBattery still worked, you could monitor this closely. My 6S usually dropped from 100 to 99% when it was at 93% actual charge.
 
It's done with purpose. It has to to with the human psychology. No one likes to see 99% a minute after they unplugged their phone. It stays on 100% for a while even though the battery isn't 100% fully charged anymore. After a while it'll go down to 99% and counts down faster than it stayed on 100%. It's all to ease the human mind.
No one likes to see it go faster and lower when it's below 100% either. If it was done for those types of purposes it sure doesn't help ease the human mind once it's dropping faster, and really makes it worse in that sense.
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Apple programmed this "feature" on purpose. Before iOS10, when CoconutBattery still worked, you could monitor this closely. My 6S usually dropped from 100 to 99% when it was at 93% actual charge.
Ah, so Apple did that with other phones and devices that run Android and other operating systems too? Well, that totally explains it.
 
No one likes to see it go faster and lower when it's below 100% either. If it was done for those types of purposes it sure doesn't help ease the human mind once it's dropping faster, and really makes it worse in that sense.
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Ah, so Apple did that with other phones and devices that run Android and other operating systems too? Well, that totally explains it.
Apple probably didn't invent it :)
 
Apple probably didn't invent it :)
Ah, an even more widespread/complex conspiracy theory when a more limited/simpler one doesn't quite hold up. At least that really gives it all more credit as a conspiracy theory. ;)
 
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