iPhone SE (2016) iPhone SE 2020 Premature Max Battery Health?

[ryanflucas]

I have a iPhone SE 2020 with AppleCare. I've noticed some battery drain lately as I use the phone much more. I figured I'd peek in at the battery section regarding the maximum remaining battery life. It's currently down to 94% remaining capacity with optimized charging enabled.

Is it just me or does it seem like that's a pretty quick battery health diminish for a phone purchased new in April?

 

[Zapdoc]

I have a iPhone SE 2020 with AppleCare. I've noticed some battery drain lately as I use the phone much more. I figured I'd peek in at the battery section regarding the maximum remaining battery life. It's currently down to 94% remaining capacity with optimized charging enabled.

Is it just me or does it seem like that's a pretty quick battery health diminish for a phone purchased new in April?

Does seem a lot My iPhone 11pro is at 99% and it’s 10 months old and used a lot every day - but I guess there’s a lot of variation in batteries

 

[milhaus]

That seems like a lot, but Apple - AFAIK - won't do anything about it until it's at 80%. Glad to be corrected here, as my iPhone 11 Pro Max just took a huge dip in the last two months, from 98% to 91%. Post here if you've had any luck with battery replacements with more than 80% and still at Peak Performance.

 

[freeagent]

It’s a tiny battery. My wife’s 2 month old se is down 2-3% already. She uses it a lot. My xs Max which I also use a lot is still at 100% and I’ve been using it since March.

 

[gim]

Losing 6% capacity in 4 months is not normal, unless you've put 300+ cycles on it already.
At that rate, you'll be at an unusable 82% after a year. Still 2% above the threshold after which apple will consider the battery defective.

 

[alpi123]

Do you wirelessly or fast charge?

 

[rui no onna]

I have a iPhone SE 2020 with AppleCare. I've noticed some battery drain lately as I use the phone much more. I figured I'd peek in at the battery section regarding the maximum remaining battery life. It's currently down to 94% remaining capacity with optimized charging enabled.

Is it just me or does it seem like that's a pretty quick battery health diminish for a phone purchased new in April?

This really depends on your usage. I'm not a big phone user so I only charge my battery around once every 2 days. Last I checked, battery health on my SE2 was still 100%.

 

[rui no onna]

Losing 6% capacity in 4 months is not normal, unless you've put 300+ cycles on it already.
At that rate, you'll be at an unusable 82% after a year. Still 2% above the threshold after which apple will consider the battery defective.

If you go by 500 cycles = 20% with linear correlation, then 6% is just 150 cycles.

iPhone Battery and Performance - Apple Support

Understand iPhone performance and its relation to your battery.

support.apple.com

A normal battery is designed to retain up to 80% of its original capacity at 500 complete charge cycles when operating under normal conditions.

 

[now i see it]

That spec stated above is the minimum requirement. If the battery ends up at 80% capacity after only a measly 500 cycles then it meets its specification.
BTW, being at 80% after only 500 cycles is abysmal performance. It shouldn't hit 80% even after 2000 cycles if you take care of it

 

[DieselFiend1989]

Almost two year old XS max that was my sole Idevice until last week. Total battery capacity(health) is at 94%. So I would say that battery is wonky. At least worth a call to apple support.

 

[rui no onna]

Almost two year old XS max that was my sole Idevice until last week. Total battery capacity(health) is at 94%. So I would say that battery is wonky. At least worth a call to apple support.

XS Max has a much bigger battery though. Hence, with the same usage on SE and XS Max, it's to be expected that there'd be less battery wear on the XS Max.

 

[Phone Junky]

It would depend on your usage and how often you have to charge it. My SE has 96 cycles on the battery and is at 99%.

 

[bodonnell202]

Seems really fast depletion to me. My 10 month old iPhone 11 is still showing 100% battery health. Are you putting a lot of cycles on it? Is it often exposed to high heat?

 

[DieselFiend1989]

XS Max has a much bigger battery though. Hence, with the same usage on SE and XS Max, it's to be expected that there'd be less battery wear on the XS Max.

But a phone that was new in April... shouldn’t have the same amount of battery wear as a 2(ish) year old phone... unless there is some extenuating circumstance ie, heavy use, background processes, poor charging habits, etc.

 

[thekev]

That spec stated above is the minimum requirement. If the battery ends up at 80% capacity after only a measly 500 cycles then it meets its specification.
BTW, being at 80% after only 500 cycles is abysmal performance. It shouldn't hit 80% even after 2000 cycles if you take care of it

That answer reads a bit too much like misinformation to me. Most people charge their phone at night. They should go through < 1 cycle per day. Would you expect their batteries to retain 80% at 5.5 years (a little less than 1 cycle / day). Also how do you justify attributing variance in battery life almost entirely to customer behavior?

What constitutes taking care of it?

The typical guidelines are:
-don't discharge your battery to zero,
-don't operate your phone in environments with extreme temperatures.


Apple and other phone manufacturers may avoid allowing their batteries to truly cycle to 0% to prevent long term damage. Beyond that, if you aren't using these things in extreme temperatures, how much impact do you really think you personally can have on their lifetime through easily controllable actions? You are unlikely to get a factor of 4x from this.

TLDR, don't mislead people

 

[rui no onna]

But a phone that was new in April... shouldn’t have the same amount of battery wear as a 2(ish) year old phone... unless there is some extenuating circumstance ie, heavy use, background processes, poor charging habits, etc.

As you mentioned, it depends on usage. Just pointing out 94% after 4-5 months is not out of the realm of possibility. It doesn't necessarily mean battery isn't functioning normally. Heavy usage and extreme temps could easily contribute to reduction in battery life. Higher battery capacity helps since it's probably not discharging as much percentage-wise with similar usage.

My iPhone 6 was already down to ~60-70% by the 2-yr mark when it was traded in.

Meanwhile, we've got a 6-yr old iPhone 6 Plus that's currently still at 90% despite 3 years of heavy use (definitely heavier use than the aforementioned iPhone 6).

 

[TysonOak23]

It would depend on your usage and how often you have to charge it. My SE has 96 cycles on the battery and is at 99%.

Hello sir I was wondering how are you were able to tell how many cycles you had on your battery. Because I have an SE2 not even a month old yet at 99% battery health and I know I haven’t put more than 15 complete charge cycles on it. I was curious if you could tell me how to find out how many charge cycles I’ve put on it so far if you don’t mind

 

[BugeyeSTI]

Hello sir I was wondering how are you were able to tell how many cycles you had on your battery. Because I have an SE2 not even a month old yet at 99% battery health and I know I haven’t put more than 15 complete charge cycles on it. I was curious if you could tell me how to find out how many charge cycles I’ve put on it so far if you don’t mind

If you have a Mac you can use an app called CoconutBattery. If you have a PC, not sure

 

[BigMcGuire]

If you have a Mac you can use an app called CoconutBattery. If you have a PC, not sure

I recommend imazing for PC. Definitely coconut battery for Mac.

 

[TysonOak23]

I recommend imazing for PC. Definitely coconut battery for Mac.

Thank you very much for the information sir. I am about to hop on my laptop and look for that imazing app. I’m so worried about my battery health with this phone because of my last phone the battery **** out on me pretty quick. First Iphone that **** out on me haha

 

[Reno Raines]

I have a iPhone SE 2020 with AppleCare. I've noticed some battery drain lately as I use the phone much more. I figured I'd peek in at the battery section regarding the maximum remaining battery life. It's currently down to 94% remaining capacity with optimized charging enabled.

Is it just me or does it seem like that's a pretty quick battery health diminish for a phone purchased new in April?

Mine did the same thing. Dropped quickly to 94%. I bought it in April 2020 and by October 2020 had dropped to that number. However fast forward a year later and it is at 93%. Not sure why the big initial drop but it seemed to level out.

 

[ryanflucas]

As a followup, I took it to Apple this last June when the capacity hit 89 percent. They refused to replace the battery under warranty, claiming I was using it wrong. Genius bar said I should be disabling background data usage and making my screen dimmer. They recommended I take it home and try those steps, then come back later if it was still an issue. I had all background data disabled on every application but two. I rejected that and paid $49 to force a replacement. They botched the battery replacement and ended up having to give me a replacement "new" iPhone. Currently battery capacity is 97 percent and seems to have been solved.

 

[BigMcGuire]

I’ve never disabled background application data on any iPhone I’ve ever owned (except for an app or two that had problems). To suggest that to maintain battery life is horrible and wrong. Good grief.

Yeah, my wife’s iPhone battery replacement years ago was botched as well and they had to give her a replacement. I believe that’s why they prefer not to replace batteries because failure rate is high.