How is the battery 14.6->14.7?

[JohnE121]

I have an 11 Pro so I am using LTE. I have wifi calling enabled which allows my phone to work in airplane mode. The battery life was good until iOS 14.6, was great for 14.7 after a factory reset and has tanked one again for the "emergency" 14.7.1 update. I ventured over to the Howard Forums and noticed some grumblings about T-Mobile reducing power at certain sites. May be this is is a coincidence or a combination of multiple factors.

T-Mobile Is T-Mobile Coverage getting Worse or better than when John Legere was there? - Page 3

I think many people felt T-Mobile had a great upward trajectory of growth in coverage and speeds a year ago. I now have observed folks who seem to think T-Mobile growth has stopped? I tested T-Mobile recently with Tello and the speeds were good. Are Verizon and AT&T upping their game or is...

www.howardforums.com

 

[Samdh90]

I have an 11 Pro so I am using LTE. I have wifi calling enabled which allows my phone to work in airplane mode. The battery life was good until iOS 14.6, was great for 14.7 after a factory reset and has tanked one again for the "emergency" 14.7.1 update. I ventured over to the Howard Forums and noticed some grumblings about T-Mobile reducing power at certain sites. May be this is is a coincidence or a combination of multiple factors.

T-Mobile Is T-Mobile Coverage getting Worse or better than when John Legere was there? - Page 3

I think many people felt T-Mobile had a great upward trajectory of growth in coverage and speeds a year ago. I now have observed folks who seem to think T-Mobile growth has stopped? I tested T-Mobile recently with Tello and the speeds were good. Are Verizon and AT&T upping their game or is...

www.howardforums.com

I am not sure but it is definitely possible if the phone's modem needs to work harder as it will pull more power than normal. I would keep an eye on it, see how it is from various different places that you might be for a few hours. The results may vary. I remember a few years ago in the mountains, my phone did not have much service and died really fast, not fun times, haha.

 

[RichP74]

Battery on my 11 Pro has been good since 14.7. I'm getting to the point where I could use a new battery anyway and will get one before my AppleCare runs out, but at least I'm not having to top it off during the day anymore.

Phone is still dope, BTW. Zero desire to upgrade to the 12 when it came out, and IDK what they're going to the 13 to make me want to upgrade.

 

[TonyC28]

14.7.1 now and my battery has gotten worse it seems. Maybe I should try the 15 beta

 

[JohnE121]

I am not sure but it is definitely possible if the phone's modem needs to work harder as it will pull more power than normal. I would keep an eye on it, see how it is from various different places that you might be for a few hours. The results may vary. I remember a few years ago in the mountains, my phone did not have much service and died really fast, not fun times, haha.

Last night I moved my phone over 6" on my desk and placed it on top of my work laptop. I immediately noticed that the signal strength dropped from 4 bars to 3. I left it overnight and the batter drain was very stable. At 6 am, I moved it back over to the normal place for a few hours and the batter drain started again. I put it back on top of my work laptop and the battery drain stabilized. I made a call at 2 pm and the battery drained like crazy and the battery monitor noted phone with low signal. My battery problem is definitely signal related. I can't decide it it is a coincidence with with the new iOS versions and T-Mobile is messing with the towers. At least I understand the problem and know how to deal with it. Case closed lol.

 

[TonyC28]

Purely speculative based on my own experience, but it seems like Safari is taking a bigger bite out of my battery than it used to. Earlier I was trying a post on this website. I kept getting interrupted so I put my phone down a couple times. By the time I was done my phone was fairly warm and now I’m noticing my battery has dropped. I can’t say exactly how much but enough that I noticed it.

 

[reppans]

2yo/96% XR on 14.7.1 - after ditching Reddit (due to recent heating/standby-drain problems) for Apollo, battery life has been the best I’ve ever seen. I mostly use wifi (this is my home computer as well) and I take of my battery with a custom optimization.

 

[Populus]

2yo/96% XR on 14.7.1 - after ditching Reddit (due to recent heating/standby-drain problems) for Apollo, battery life has been the best I’ve ever seen. I mostly use wifi (this is my home computer as well) and I take of my battery with a custom optimization.

Your battery health is impressive after 2 years!! Do you always charge it for 0 to 100% or do you charge it between 20 and 80%?

 

[reppans]

Your battery health is impressive after 2 years!! Do you always charge it for 0 to 100% or do you charge it between 20 and 80%?

Thanks! You can see it in the graphs - a custom optimization (Shortcut app + smartplug) to stop charging ‘when batt rises above 70%’, then whatever batt % it ends up at the end of the day. My batt mgt goals are to maintain the lowest peak and average voltages, subject to: a single plug-in/day, meeting my ~8hr avg SOT, plus few hours of reserve runtime.

 

[Populus]

Thanks! You can see it in the graphs - a custom optimization (Shortcut app + smartplug) to stop charging ‘when batt rises above 70%’, then whatever batt % it ends up at the end of the day. My batt mgt goals are to maintain the lowest peak and average voltages, subject to: a single plug-in/day, meeting my ~8hr avg SOT, plus few hours of reserve runtime.

You know, I‘ve always been a believer of the complete 0 to 100% cycles to keep the battery well calibrated. However, I am starting to doubt that this is the best solution for nowadays batteries, after seeing my battery health at 83% after 2,5 years of daily usage. On my next iPhone I will probably aim for a strategy similar to yours.

 

[Samdh90]

You know, I‘ve always been a believer of the complete 0 to 100% cycles to keep the battery well calibrated. However, I am starting to doubt that this is the best solution for nowadays batteries, after seeing my battery health at 83% after 2,5 years of daily usage. On my next iPhone I will probably aim for a strategy similar to yours.

An old rule of thumb here, yes it can be argued but here they are;

When charging, try not to charge above 80%
When using, try not to let the battery drop below 20-30%

Reasons:
When a battery is charged above 80%, it puts extra stress on the cells, it is literally filling up and stretching
When a battery drops below 20%, it puts extra stress on the cells

Also, an iphone will usually appear "Dead" before you hit the 0% mark but as a rule of thumb, never let a battery completely deplete. The reason for this is because a battery is actually a living entity that needs power. Most of the time occasional neglected batteries that die completely won't be an issue but technically, even doing so once can kill the battery, or kill a cell.

 

[reppans]

When using, try not to let the battery drop below 20-30%

When a battery drops below 20%, it puts extra stress on the cells

I read the ‘don’t go below 20-30%’ all the time, but I have yet to see any credible study/evidence supporting it. Makes sense in a storage situation since over time self-discharge can take V below critical minimums, but this really isn’t a concern for daily use phones. My battery Bible doesn’t address it:

https://batteryuniversity.com/article/bu-808-how-to-prolong-lithium-based-batteries

Only things I’ve seen seem to indicate it’s might be actually good just due to the lower average voltages.

 

[Samdh90]

I read the ‘don’t go below 20-30%’ all the time, but I have yet to see any credible study/evidence supporting it. Makes sense in a storage situation since over time self-discharge can take V below critical minimums, but this really isn’t a concern for daily use phones. My battery Bible doesn’t address it:

https://batteryuniversity.com/article/bu-808-how-to-prolong-lithium-based-batteries

Only things I’ve seen seem to indicate it’s might be actually good just due to the lower average voltages.

I cannot advise if there is concrete evidence for it either but have read it many times. Maybe this is just a good rule so that one does not let it die completely, if one is aware that they need to plug in "soon," they probably won't let it hit 0%.

 

[minimo3]

I followed this guidance religiously for 2 years. Using the phone till about 50% drained then charging it back up overnight using optimized charging where it would hold it at 80% until an hour before I woke up. My family doesn’t care and let’s their phone run down and randomly charge them. And you know what? My phone (all bought at the same time) has the worst battery health - 86% vs about 93% for the other phones. So I’ve given up and just charge and drain it whenever it’s convenient for me

 

[Robotti]

14.7.1 here, and the battery is worse than ever. Not sure if it’s actually worse than 14.7, but it’s definitely not better. And using low power mode doesn’t help at all. It drains the battery just as fast as normal use. Seems that no matter what I do (or don’t do) it goes from 100 to zero in 10-12 hours. Also, the optimized charging doesn’t know what to do anymore, because I have to charge whenever I get the chance.

I have an iPhone XS Max, and the battery health has gone from 93 down to 85 during this episode.

 

[reppans]

I followed this guidance religiously for 2 years. Using the phone till about 50% drained then charging it back up overnight using optimized charging where it would hold it at 80% until an hour before I woke up.

Makes sense, 100-50% cycling is one of the worst ways to cycle a battery with high peak and average states of charge - this is depicted by red/pink lines in the bottom picture graph of post 87 (also Fig6 of the link).

 

[Populus]

I feel like this thread has turned completely into an off-topic, and partially it is my fault (sorry). But then,

Makes sense, 100-50% cycling is one of the worst ways to cycle a battery with high peak and average states of charge - this is depicted by red/pink lines in the bottom picture graph of post 87 (also Fig6 of the link).

Is it better to charge it from 0-50%? Maybe better from 10-80%? How does quick charge affect batteries health? Because from what I know, quick charge employs high voltages to charge the battery from 0 to 80% in half an hour... Is this equally damaging for the iPhone’s battery?

 

[reppans]

I feel like this thread has turned completely into an off-topic, and partially it is my fault (sorry). But then,

Let’s take it to the PMs since you’re the only one interested anyways.

 

[Populus]

Let’s take it to the PMs since you’re the only one interested anyways.

AFAIK, there are several of us who have taken part on this off-topic. At least 4 members. But if any of you wants to open a 4-way PM, it’s fine for me.

 

[BR4DOKYBrazil]

I followed this guidance religiously for 2 years. Using the phone till about 50% drained then charging it back up overnight using optimized charging where it would hold it at 80% until an hour before I woke up. My family doesn’t care and let’s their phone run down and randomly charge them. And you know what? My phone (all bought at the same time) has the worst battery health - 86% vs about 93% for the other phones. So I’ve given up and just charge and drain it whenever it’s convenient for me

I've always been careful with my batteries, not letting it end completely and always keeping the device away from extreme temperatures. The result ends up being the same as someone who doesn't have the same care, but with the same amount of use as me. In short, this really depends a lot on the cycles spent. A long time ago, they said that when the battery runs out, it still has a security charge precisely so as not to harm the battery. Then the device shuts down even before the battery runs out completely.

 

[Mrfatboy]

This thread has gone quiet. Does that mean everyone is relatively happy with 14.7.1 battery life?

I have been watching all the battery drainage thread horror stories and been hesitant to upgrade.

My iPhone 11 is on 14.2 and my wife’s iPhone 6 Plus is on 14.1. We both get fantastic battery life and we use our phone all day long without recharge.

Is this a “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”situation ?

 

[BR4DOKYBrazil]

This thread has gone quiet. Does that mean everyone is relatively happy with 14.7.1 battery life?

I have been watching all the battery drainage thread horror stories and been hesitant to upgrade.

My iPhone 11 is on 14.2 and my wife’s iPhone 6 Plus is on 14.1. We both get fantastic battery life and we use our phone all day long without recharge.

Is this a “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”situation ?

I'm not saying that the battery life on iOS 14.7.1 is better than the golden age of iOS 14.3 or earlier, but it's far better in battery life than the hideous iOS 14.6.

 

[Populus]

This thread has gone quiet. Does that mean everyone is relatively happy with 14.7.1 battery life?

I have been watching all the battery drainage thread horror stories and been hesitant to upgrade.

My iPhone 11 is on 14.2 and my wife’s iPhone 6 Plus is on 14.1. We both get fantastic battery life and we use our phone all day long without recharge.

Is this a “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”situation ?

Maybe you’re thinking between updating or staying on your current version, but once iOS 14.8 is released you’ll have a third option. Who knows, maybe it’s better (or worse).

 

[cbautis2]

14.7.1 IMO is the closest to the 14.3 or earlier in terms of battery performance on my 12 PM. Mostly on 5G/LTE since I stream YT podcast at work, check stocks frequently, browse Reddit and of course social media with messenger app video call. Getting more than 5 hours SOT with 3 hours background stream without even touching 50% battery usage. I never use my phone while charging so this usage is pretty accurate. Hopefully the next version won’t be anymore worse than 14.7.1

 

[jrdatrackstar1223]

I’ve had to switch to Apollo because the Reddit app was constantly using background for some reason (even though I had it disabled in background app refresh). This didn’t start happening until a recent update to the app so not sure what’s going on there.

Going to monitor battery life today to see if it is better after this and if standby time is better.