iPhone 11 Odd battery behaviour, capacity increased again after large drop.

[Stuey3D]

I have a launch day iPhone 11 which iOS is reporting as only having 96% battery capacity.

I was fuming at this as it had dropped to 96% after just 2 months whereas my iPhone XR was still on 100% after 9 months, my X before it was on 98% after a year, and my wife’s XR has only just dropped to 99% after 11 months.

I had called Apple and they ran diagnostics and said the battery was fine but I was welcome to go to the Apple store and try and get an exchange although tech support on the phone wouldn’t guarantee it. I was not willing drive an hour for a maybe chance at replacement so I decided to live with it and monitor it further.

Now here is where the story gets weird, I was using Coconut battery on MacOS to monitor the battery and indeed the battery had dropped down to I think around 2988mAH of a design capacity of 3110mAH so the 96% iOS was reporting seemed to be correct. A few weeks go by and I decide to plug into Coconut battery again to check if I’ve lost any more capacity or if it’s stabilised and what surprised me is that my battery is now reporting 3218mAH which is 108mAH over the 3110mAH design capacity.

Thinking that this was a duff reading I plug it in a few more times over the course of a week and the battery is hovering between 3214mAH and 3218mAH.

I have not changed my charging habits at all and iOS is still reporting 96% capacity as I don’t think that counter updates very often, my XR dropped to 99% for ages and then I DFU’d to come off a beta and it went back to 100% and stayed there I suspect if I did the same to my 11 it would go back up as well.

Has anyone else noticed this odd behaviour with their batteries? I notice on a few threads on here that people with iPhone 11 series devices have had iOS reported capacity drops earlier than expected like myself, so I wonder if it related to the new power and charge management hardware in the 11 series devices. Maybe the hardware is hiding some capacity away from iOS until it is needed or something?

Either that or the battery needed some cycles to work properly.

With regards to extra capacity being reported on Coconut Battery my XR had extra and the Wife’s XR had extra capacity over design too, so seeing the 11 being over design capacity isn’t a surprise what the surprise was is the capacity seemingly dropping them coming back.

I understand that the mAH reading can vary due to environmental circumstances etc but by 230mAH which is nearly the capacity of an Apple Watch battery is massive.

I suggest those with iPhone 11 series devices which are reporting lower capacity plug into Coconut battery if they can and see if they are experiencing the same. Mine is now on 68 cycles.

 

[joeblow7777]

Battery health readings are just estimates, especially on a battery with only 68 cycles. Honestly, the best thing you can do is not even look at it until/unless battery life becomes a problem, which probably won't be for years.

 

[CoronaOnTap]

Does anybody ever understand what the word “estimates” mean? It’s just a phone not a chemistry lab.

Battery health estimates are like stocks. Sometimes they go up sometimes they go down. No one can accurately say what’s gonna happen a month or two down the lane.
STOP LOSING YOUR SLEEP OVER IT.

 

[now i see it]

I use coconutBattery and depending on the temperature of the iPhone when I run it, it'll say anything from 64% battery health remaining when cold to 96.5% when warm. Right now it says 85% and probably later today when it gets warmer it'll be somewhere in the 90s.

It's worthless to use as a reference. One thing I hav noticed though is that when it says battery health is 64%, the charge doesn't last as long compared to when the phone is warmer and health reading is higher.

At least as far as coconutBattery is concerned, battery health is a dynamic rating.

 

[Stuey3D]

I use coconutBattery and depending on the temperature of the iPhone when I run it, it'll say anything from 64% battery health remaining when cold to 96.5% when warm. Right now it says 85% and probably later today when it gets warmer it'll be somewhere in the 90s.

It's worthless to use as a reference. One thing I hav noticed though is that when it says battery health is 64%, the charge doesn't last as long compared to when the phone is warmer and health reading is higher.

At least as far as coconutBattery is concerned, battery health is a dynamic rating.

That's a massive swing. Now for me I always found Coconut to be fairly accurate but temperatures could explain the difference although whenever I use Coconut the battery is always around the mid to high 20's Celsius so temperature shouldn't really be a thing for my results but maybe a degree or 2 can affect it more than I expect.

Its just annoying that iOS is reporting it as 96% health after such a short amount of time, I kinda miss the days when it didn't tell you. A few people on here are noticing their 11's are reporting lower health after such a short amount of time and they are worried they are defective, that was my worry too however it seems to be working fine just the health meter is wrong.

 

[CoronaOnTap]

Coconut the battery is always around the mid to high 20's Celsius so temperature shouldn't really be a thing for my results but maybe a degree or 2 can affect it more than I expect.

No it doesn’t!

 

[tonybarnaby]

Most likely it came from the factory a little bit lower than normal, and now it's finally leveled out. Not all batteries come with exactly 100% of their rated mAh. Some come with more, but some also come with less. My guess is that yours has leveled out now and will remain at the same capacity for months.

 

[Stuey3D]

Most likely it came from the factory a little bit lower than normal, and now it's finally leveled out. Not all batteries come with exactly 100% of their rated mAh. Some come with more, but some also come with less. My guess is that yours has leveled out now and will remain at the same capacity for months.

yeah it seems like it needed a few charge cycles to get it going, hopefully it will stay where it is now as it is currently over 100%

 

[tonybarnaby]

yeah it seems like it needed a few charge cycles to get it going, hopefully it will stay where it is now as it is currently over 100%

I've seen that countless times on here. Usually the number it levels out at is 96/97%

 

[Stuey3D]

I've seen that countless times on here. Usually the number it levels out at is 96/97%

Hopefully that is the case, was panicking how quick it dropped and was expecting the phone to start throttling just as the warranty ends or something.

I intend on keeping this phone as long as possible as the rumours that next years iPhones are all going to be OLED and I can't use OLED displays due to PWM migraines, so cant be having the battery fail prematurely.

 

[tonybarnaby]

Hopefully that is the case, was panicking how quick it dropped and was expecting the phone to start throttling just as the warranty ends or something.

I intend on keeping this phone as long as possible as the rumours that next years iPhones are all going to be OLED and I can't use OLED displays due to PWM migraines, so cant be having the battery fail prematurely.

Worst case scenario you get a new battery in 2 years. A new battery for an 8+ or older is $49. I believe a newer iPhone costs $79 or so. Whatever it is, it's not worth worrying or changing how much you use your phone in order to prolong the battery. More than likely by the time the battery is shot you will want a new phone anyways.