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slyronit

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 7, 2020
382
327
I have an iPhone 14 Pro. It is down to 94% battery health in 7 months. Before this, I had an iPhone 12 Pro, which went down to 80% battery life in 1 year 10 months.

Both of these don't match the battery degradation that my wife's and friends' phones see. The only difference in usage I see is that my wife's phone is charged exclusively through wired charging and wireless magsafe chargers. My charging is mostly on a bunch of very old Fatboy Nokia chargers. Can that be causing more harm to my phone battery?

I have definitely noticed more heat using the Fatboy chargers (Even at lower wattage) compared to the Magsafe chargers.
 
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The-Real-Deal82

macrumors P6
Jan 17, 2013
17,321
25,479
Wales, United Kingdom
I stopped wireless charging after my iPhone 12 plummeted to 84% in less than 2 years. I swear wireless charging destroys the battery life and now plug in the old fashioned way every night. My iPhone 13 Pro Max is now 9 months old and still 100%.
 
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addamas

macrumors 65816
Apr 20, 2016
1,314
1,342
The heat is the biggest problem with wireless charging. The less the better

Additionally on iPhone 12 and newer, MagSafe is sending and negotiating speed, based on current charge level and phone temperature which is missing in other normal chargers - which might also lead to way faster battery degradation as phone is close to full charge but kept charged and stressing battery on top of charge situation.

Overheat is on par with keeping device charged 24/7 > Deep discharge (as few percent are reserved for that)
 

slyronit

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 7, 2020
382
327
I stopped wireless charging after my iPhone 12 plummeted to 84% in less than 2 years. I swear wireless charging destroys the battery life and now plug in the old fashioned way every night. My iPhone 13 Pro Max is now 9 months old and still 100%.
Also, looks like MagSafe is at least easier on the phone compared to older standards.
 
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slyronit

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 7, 2020
382
327
The heat is the biggest problem with wireless charging. The less the better

Additionally on iPhone 12 and newer, MagSafe is sending and negotiating speed, based on current charge level and phone temperature which is missing in other normal chargers - which might also lead to way faster battery degradation as phone is close to full charge but kept charged and stressing battery on top of charge situation.

Overheat is on par with keeping device charged 24/7 > Deep discharge (as few percent are reserved for that)
Makes sense. I think time to invest in a few more MagSafe chargers and finally retire the venerable Fatboys
 

slyronit

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 7, 2020
382
327
Also, something else I noticed was that with my old Qi chargers, my phone feels warm till I remove it from the charger in the morning, even though it finished charging hours ago. However, with MagSafe, the phone only feels warm (that too, less than Qi) when it’s actively charging. When in idle, the phone feels as cool as not charging.
 

addamas

macrumors 65816
Apr 20, 2016
1,314
1,342
Also, something else I noticed was that with my old Qi chargers, my phone feels warm till I remove it from the charger in the morning, even though it finished charging hours ago. However, with MagSafe, the phone only feels warm (that too, less than Qi) when it’s actively charging. When in idle, the phone feels as cool as not charging.
Same goes for 3rd party Apple Watch chargers :)
 

Andeddu

macrumors 68000
Dec 21, 2016
1,798
2,343
My 6 month old iPhone 13 is exclusively charged wirelessly via MagSafe and my battery health is still at 100%. I believe MagSafe is much more efficient than standard wireless chargers. I remember my iPhone 8’s battery degrading quickly using a wireless Belkin charger.
 

Apple_Tiger

macrumors 6502a
Jan 23, 2023
659
897
I’ve been using wireless charger since Apple had them on the iPhone X. All my iPhones were still at 100% battery health even after 1 year of using them. My iPhone 14 pro max that I got on launch day is still at 100% battery health even using a wireless charger the entire time.
 
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The-Real-Deal82

macrumors P6
Jan 17, 2013
17,321
25,479
Wales, United Kingdom
Also, looks like MagSafe is at least easier on the phone compared to older standards.

I never bothered with the official MagSafe charger as I thought it was overpriced here in the UK. I’ve just been plugging my iPhone in as I charge overnight anyway and the 13 Pro Max seems to have good battery durability. I don’t ever seem to be in a situation where I need to fast charge my phone thankfully. The old wireless charger was fine with the 8 Plus I used to have, yet the 12’s battery was appalling. Weird. I binned the charger after that experience.
 

lyceumHQ

macrumors 68000
Aug 4, 2010
1,572
762
I switched to MagSafe when I got the 14 plus. Official MagSafe charger with apples stupidly overpriced 20w brick. This meant I could get rid of the lightening cable since the only device I have that uses it is my phone.

My 14 plus was on 92% after 8 months.

Had the battery changed last week (separate issue but they kindly changed the battery too).

Think I’ll stick to wired charging from now on. Never had a phone have such low battery health after 8 months.

My year old 13 had 98% after a year.
 
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FeliApple

macrumors 68040
Apr 8, 2015
3,684
2,089
To those who upgrade every year, may I ask why does it matter? Severe battery life degradation occurs by poor battery health and/or iOS updates (so, updating is both a necessary and sufficient condition for battery life degradation). People who upgrade every year will never have to experience that, so I’d say just charge by convenience. Do you like fast charging? Go ahead? Wireless? Go ahead too!
 

lyceumHQ

macrumors 68000
Aug 4, 2010
1,572
762
To those who upgrade every year, may I ask why does it matter? Severe battery life degradation occurs by poor battery health and/or iOS updates (so, updating is both a necessary and sufficient condition for battery life degradation). People who upgrade every year will never have to experience that, so I’d say just charge by convenience. Do you like fast charging? Go ahead? Wireless? Go ahead too!
It hurts resale value if the buyer knows they're going to have to shell out for a new battery soon.
 

Ta0jin

macrumors 65816
Nov 9, 2011
1,293
651
Maryland
I use MagSafe exclusively on my 14 pro and I noticed a much faster drop in my percentage 95% (launch day) compared to my 12 pro 97% (after a year and a half) which I also exclusively used the same MagSafe puck. It started to bug me but then I stopped looking at the percentage and I tried to see if I noticed the battery dying faster than normal in regular use. My conclusion is I can’t really tell much of a difference to be honest.

Since I’m just going to swap my 14 pro for a 15 pro in September it doesn’t bug me much but if I was going to keep it another year I might be annoyed.
 

The-Real-Deal82

macrumors P6
Jan 17, 2013
17,321
25,479
Wales, United Kingdom
To those who upgrade every year, may I ask why does it matter? Severe battery life degradation occurs by poor battery health and/or iOS updates (so, updating is both a necessary and sufficient condition for battery life degradation). People who upgrade every year will never have to experience that, so I’d say just charge by convenience. Do you like fast charging? Go ahead? Wireless? Go ahead too!

To those people it won’t matter but for the vast majority who don’t upgrade every year, it’s worth considering a more battery healthy method of charging. There does seem to be a pattern with wireless charging and battery health plummeting. Maybe it’s just a coincidence but the fact the iPhone gets hot from wireless charging can’t be good for the longevity of the phone IMO.
 
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Falhófnir

macrumors 603
Aug 19, 2017
6,146
7,001
Does it really make a significant difference after so little time? It’s just so pointless in my honest opinion.
This is the attitude I've always had to batteries, they're going to cop out eventually either way, so I won't go out of my way to try and maximise the lifespan. If and when the time comes just get the battery replaced, or replace the device.
 

3Rock

macrumors 6502a
Aug 25, 2021
733
799
MagSafe for almost 3 years now and I charge it daily and my percentage is at 87%. I don’t give a hoot about all these methods trying to squeak out battery life. All I do is put it on the charger daily, use the phone normally.
 

FeliApple

macrumors 68040
Apr 8, 2015
3,684
2,089
To those people it won’t matter but for the vast majority who don’t upgrade every year, it’s worth considering a more battery healthy method of charging. There does seem to be a pattern with wireless charging and battery health plummeting. Maybe it’s just a coincidence but the fact the iPhone gets hot from wireless charging can’t be good for the longevity of the phone IMO.
I agree, I charge wired and as slowly as possible (so 5W, regardless of fast-charge support - or lack thereof) but:

-I keep devices, I don’t sell them

-I don’t need to charge in the middle of the day because battery life has always been good enough for me, regardless of the device I use (maybe barring the iPhone 5s).

-My iPhone is an iPhone Xʀ running iOS 12, replacing the battery is something I haven’t done, ever, nor am I planning to. I don’t need it, as running iOS 12 is enough for long-term battery life preservation. And I’m a light user, so typically I don’t have battery health problems, simply due to a lack of use. I’m just not a heavy enough user for it to matter, even years down the road. To be clear: my 4-year-old iPhone Xʀ is at 93% health with perfect battery life on iOS 12.

I just find it a little odd that people who don’t upgrade every year put so much effort into charging patterns, wired or wireless, so much effort into micro-managing every aspect of the charging aspect of the device... and then go ahead and install iOS 17 on an iPhone Xʀ and obliterate battery life regardless of battery health. “Look at my 6-year-old iPhone Xʀ with 98% health! It has 4 hours of screen-on time though because iOS 17 obliterated it”.

But a very important point to conclude: that’s as far as my battery care goes. I charge slowly, I avoid heat, I don’t update iOS. The rest I just find pointless, but it’s a personal opinion and circumstance. There is a massive difference between slow and fast charging in terms of time, and the convenience of wireless charging is definitely there. Who am I to say that people are wrong for doing that? I’m nobody. I don’t disagree with convenience above everything, even if my usage patterns frankly go strictly against that.
 
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Populus

macrumors 603
Aug 24, 2012
5,987
8,450
Spain, Europe
I'm not sure if what I'm gonna share is gonna be useful, enlightening, or a completely useless off-topic, but this is my experience with an iPhone 8 that had its battery replaced just 3 months ago. It is now at 97% of battery health, and the use I've given to it has been pretty mild. I always charge it with the old 5W original charger that came in the box, during the 3 hours (approx) it takes to charge. Once charged, I unplug it.

I wanted to share this because at this point I don't think we should fault wireless charging or the operating system (with the notorious exceptions that sometimes happen), but maybe the quality of the batteries is not as good as it used to be, maybe because they use recycled components/lithium, or because they changed some providers. It's just an idea, my 2 cents. Sorry for interrupting the discussion about wireless charging.
 
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BigMcGuire

Cancelled
Jan 10, 2012
9,832
14,032
Even with MagSafe, my wife and I have noticed that we've woken up to a burning hot phone despite it being 100% (although it was rare) but it was enough to make my wife stop using wireless charging. That said, she uses her phone far more than I do, so much so she has to charge every day. Despite this, her battery health is fairly similar to mine.

Wireless charging, especially not MagSafe (meaning it does not align the coils perfectly) definitely generates a lot of excessive heat in the body of the phone. And add that it takes even longer for wireless to charge, that's a lot more heat the battery has to deal with every single time one charges.

Batteries don't like heat. While batteries today handle heat a LOT better than they used to, it's still the #1 way to kill them.

If someone upgrades every year, or every other year - it's not going to make a big difference whether one charges wirelessly or not. Look at the Apple Watches... I had an AW3 that I used for years, and my family used for more years up till a few months ago - it got "wirelessly" charged every single day of its life and it was fine. Yes, not exactly an exact equivalent of a phone, but we have posters here who claim to wirelessly charge for years with no detriment to battery health. In most of the iPhone battery health threads people notice their health going down - wired or not, even those who 5w charge their Pro Max. I think people just notice it because the battery health threads only recently exist and Apple now shows it vs neither before.

Battery health loss usually tapers off and levels out. It's not like a glass of water being constantly drained. It should level off. That's why you can old devices with 8x% and sometimes thousands of charges. It's the way batteries have always been. We just never had visibility until the health % reader was visible to end users without special software/hardware.

For the longest time I had a 5w wireless charger that I loved. Yes, it took forever but it resulted in the phone not getting very hot. 10w non-magsafe chargers get WAY too hot for me. And MagSafe got too hot for my liking the few times it got REALLY hot.

IMO people use their phones today MORE THAN EVER for heavy lifting items that we never did for our older phones. 4k video, video calling, 4k video recording, heavy resource websites, etc. We're spending more time on our phones than we've ever spent before. Battery tech has not really advanced all that much so we're noticing health dropping faster today than usual. Feature heavy OSs with on device AI (instead server side) also has an effect. My best guess/thoughts/opinion.

I've always had great battery health/life on my phone but I'm a super light user - I use my MacBooks for reading, video, talking, etc - I could charge my iPhone 14 Pro Max every 3 days if I wanted.
 

FeliApple

macrumors 68040
Apr 8, 2015
3,684
2,089
Even with MagSafe, my wife and I have noticed that we've woken up to a burning hot phone despite it being 100% (although it was rare) but it was enough to make my wife stop using wireless charging. That said, she uses her phone far more than I do, so much so she has to charge every day. Despite this, her battery health is fairly similar to mine.

Wireless charging, especially not MagSafe (meaning it does not align the coils perfectly) definitely generates a lot of excessive heat in the body of the phone. And add that it takes even longer for wireless to charge, that's a lot more heat the battery has to deal with every single time one charges.

Batteries don't like heat. While batteries today handle heat a LOT better than they used to, it's still the #1 way to kill them.
I think that if you keep devices for a while, this is a very important point, and one that requires some consideration. I think that the main question is “why not?” Is there any inconvenience to charging slowly and wired? Do you need that 15w non-aligning wireless charger? Do you have a combination of a phone and a usage pattern which allows some time to charge? (i.e., can you charge slowly without inconvenience?) if so... why not do that? If you can avoid a quick degradation for no tangible drawbacks, I’d do it.

I’m a light user on an iPhone Xʀ with efficient settings on the most efficient iOS version ever, iOS 12. I get 16 hours of screen-on time with light Wi-Fi use and 12 hours of moderate LTE use with outdoor brightness. Do I really need to charge it in one hour with a 20w USB-C charger? Or, alternatively, do I really need a 15w wireless charger? In my experience, the answer is no. Yeah, sure, my iPhone Xʀ with the little 5w charger takes like 4 hours to charge... but it’s fine! I don’t mind, and as somebody who doesn’t replace batteries AND keeps their devices, it’s just all benefits and no drawbacks.

Now, a massively heavy user on an iPhone 8 on iOS 16, perhaps needs to charge two more times because their screen-on time is very low due to their usage patterns. Can they wait? No. Therefore, they will charge as quickly as possible, maybe even with a fast wireless charger because it is convenient. It that ideal? No. Is there an alternative? Also no. Is it wrong? Absolutely not. They can’t wait 4 hours. I have a conservative charging pattern and pay attention to this (somewhat). Would I wait? No, of course I wouldn’t.


If someone upgrades every year, or every other year - it's not going to make a big difference whether one charges wirelessly or not. Look at the Apple Watches... I had an AW3 that I used for years, and my family used for more years up till a few months ago - it got "wirelessly" charged every single day of its life and it was fine. Yes, not exactly an exact equivalent of a phone, but we have posters here who claim to wirelessly charge for years with no detriment to battery health. In most of the iPhone battery health threads people notice their health going down - wired or not, even those who 5w charge their Pro Max. I think people just notice it because the battery health threads only recently exist and Apple now shows it vs neither before.

Battery health loss usually tapers off and levels out. It's not like a glass of water being constantly drained. It should level off. That's why you can old devices with 8x% and sometimes thousands of charges. It's the way batteries have always been. We just never had visibility until the health % reader was visible to end users without special software/hardware.
There has been a massive explosion of battery health “panic” which was a rather unfortunate consequence of the throttling issue. People just never cared, and now battery health is incorrectly blamed on every battery life issue.

Battery health is irrelevant unless the device is severely updated, and the user is a heavy user. A light user will just have enough battery life.
For the longest time I had a 5w wireless charger that I loved. Yes, it took forever but it resulted in the phone not getting very hot. 10w non-magsafe chargers get WAY too hot for me. And MagSafe got too hot for my liking the few times it got REALLY hot.

IMO people use their phones today MORE THAN EVER for heavy lifting items that we never did for our older phones. 4k video, video calling, 4k video recording, heavy resource websites, etc. We're spending more time on our phones than we've ever spent before. Battery tech has not really advanced all that much so we're noticing health dropping faster today than usual. Feature heavy OSs with on device AI (instead server side) also has an effect. My best guess/thoughts/opinion.
I reckon this is the most important aspect: battery health is only relevant if - and only if - three conditions are met:

-The device is sufficiently updated

-The user is a heavy enough user

-Battery health is low enough

Like you said, the number and proportion of people who meet all three conditions has skyrocketed. Couple to that the mass “panic” after the throttling issue, and the current battery health focus is both understandable and predictable.



I've always had great battery health/life on my phone but I'm a super light user - I use my MacBooks for reading, video, talking, etc - I could charge my iPhone 14 Pro Max every 3 days if I wanted.
Me too! The times I’ve let my iPhone Xʀ drop it’s taken at least 3 days, oftentimes more.
 
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I7guy

macrumors Nehalem
Nov 30, 2013
35,163
25,295
Gotta be in it to win it
It hurts resale value if the buyer knows they're going to have to shell out for a new battery soon.
I give my phones back to apple to do with as they wish. Battery health or life is irrelevant to me.
Even with MagSafe, my wife and I have noticed that we've woken up to a burning hot phone despite it being 100% (although it was rare) but it was enough to make my wife stop using wireless charging. That said, she uses her phone far more than I do, so much so she has to charge every day. Despite this, her battery health is fairly similar to mine.

Wireless charging, especially not MagSafe (meaning it does not align the coils perfectly) definitely generates a lot of excessive heat in the body of the phone. And add that it takes even longer for wireless to charge, that's a lot more heat the battery has to deal with every single time one charges.

Batteries don't like heat. While batteries today handle heat a LOT better than they used to, it's still the #1 way to kill them.

If someone upgrades every year, or every other year - it's not going to make a big difference whether one charges wirelessly or not. Look at the Apple Watches... I had an AW3 that I used for years, and my family used for more years up till a few months ago - it got "wirelessly" charged every single day of its life and it was fine. Yes, not exactly an exact equivalent of a phone, but we have posters here who claim to wirelessly charge for years with no detriment to battery health. In most of the iPhone battery health threads people notice their health going down - wired or not, even those who 5w charge their Pro Max. I think people just notice it because the battery health threads only recently exist and Apple now shows it vs neither before.

Battery health loss usually tapers off and levels out. It's not like a glass of water being constantly drained. It should level off. That's why you can old devices with 8x% and sometimes thousands of charges. It's the way batteries have always been. We just never had visibility until the health % reader was visible to end users without special software/hardware.

For the longest time I had a 5w wireless charger that I loved. Yes, it took forever but it resulted in the phone not getting very hot. 10w non-magsafe chargers get WAY too hot for me. And MagSafe got too hot for my liking the few times it got REALLY hot.

IMO people use their phones today MORE THAN EVER for heavy lifting items that we never did for our older phones. 4k video, video calling, 4k video recording, heavy resource websites, etc. We're spending more time on our phones than we've ever spent before. Battery tech has not really advanced all that much so we're noticing health dropping faster today than usual. Feature heavy OSs with on device AI (instead server side) also has an effect. My best guess/thoughts/opinion.

I've always had great battery health/life on my phone but I'm a super light user - I use my MacBooks for reading, video, talking, etc - I could charge my iPhone 14 Pro Max every 3 days if I wanted.
Battery life is what matters to me. My wife and I beat the heck out of our phones. We charge them as fast as we can…our 5w chargers have been relegated to other devices that aren’t phones.

The only metric that matters to us is how long between charges. Sometimes it’s a day, sometimes less, sometimes more.

When in our usage the battery life is less than when we can get to a charger we carry around an anker battery pack.

Whether or not older chargers degrade the batteries on an iPhone 14, life is too short to worry about an inexpensive battery replacement.

Most people I know the end game is maximizing utility of the phone, not maximizing the battery life at expense of utility of the phone.

Good intellectual discussion, but I use the phone as if i stole it…not like an historical artifact that is museum quality significance.
 
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