iPhone 15 and up, 80 percent charge limit, oppinions wanted

By Moopie Curran, 25 September, 2024

Forum
iOS and iPadOS

Hi,
I've heard about the 80 percent charge limit that iPhones 15 and forward have as a setting in the battery settings. What does everyone think of it? Should I use it or not use it? Right now, my max capacity is at 100 percent, I've had the iPhone since May 11, and I've done 70 charge cycles. I haven't used it yet, but after upgrading to iOS 18, I got a recommendation from someone that I should. I use optimized charging, but I normally don't charge the iPhone overnight unless there's a power outage risk or something. I normally get it below 50 percent, and charge it to 100 and unplug it. For someone like me, would you recommend the 80 percent limit? I feel like 70 charge cycles in 5 months isn't a lot. Considering some people have had 275 or 300 charge cycles in one year. I'm just looking for oppinions.
Thanks

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Comments

By Dennis Long on Tuesday, October 1, 2024 - 00:57

No as that article pointed for 4 percent more it isn't worth it. I suspect this this is why I haven't changed my habits.

By Geovanni Bahena on Tuesday, October 1, 2024 - 00:57

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

I used my iPhone 15 promax from October of last year till the day of the 16 launch. Battery health was still at 100% with a little over 140 cycles. From the day at work till I returned home, my battery would be at 50% or higher. Now keep in mind, that as someone who is blind, did not do much video editing or take pictures. Always charged over night with no issues. Personally, I don't want apple to manage how I charge my device. But again, it is a personal choice. On my iPhone 16 pro max, I do not have those features turned on either.

By Peter Holdstock on Tuesday, October 1, 2024 - 00:57

If the aim of only charging your battery to 80% is to help it maintain full capacity for longer, and therefore allow you to charge your phone less during the day, it doesn't make any sense. It's accepted that modern batteries in iPhones shouldn't go below 80% of capacity within 1000 charge cycles. That means that the battery capacity should remain over 80% for nearly three years. Buy only charging your phone to 80% at a time, you are creating the very issue you are trying to prevent. If you only charge it to 80%, you will then have to charge it sooner in the day. Hopefully I'm making sense

By Moopie Curran on Tuesday, October 1, 2024 - 00:57

Thanks for the info. That's what I thought. It seems kind of silly only charging to 80 percent. But I only asked because someone recommended I use that limit. In the two days I've been using it, I've found that the days I'm out and about and using it more to listen to music, I'm charging it with an external charger more, so it kind of defeats the purpose, lol.

By Levi Gobin on Tuesday, October 1, 2024 - 00:57

When it is suggested that your iPhone should have 80% max capacity with 500 cycles, it is referring to your battery health, found in settings, not your current battery percentage that charging your device increases.
They could probably do some better wording choices on that, but that’s just my opinion.. What they mean by maximum capacity is How long your phone holds a charge compared to when it was brand new.
For a basic example, say your phone lasts 100 hours when it is brand new. If you have 80% of your max capacity, you will only get 80 hours of battery life even if your phone was charged to 100%. Apple says that Your phones maximum capacity should only be around 80% after 500 cycles.
The reason the 80% charge limit exists, is to help decrease battery degrading. It has nothing to do with the maximum capacity shown in settings.
If you want to learn more, check out this article: https://support.apple.com/en-us/108055
HTH