iPhone 13 mini Should We Move Away from Wireless Charging for the Sake of Battery Health?

[MICHAELSD]

I’m incredibly close to keeping iPhone 13 Mini, which has only one true drawback compared to the rest of the line: reduced battery life due to the smaller battery.

I’ve been reading that wireless charging, and fast charging in particular, degrades the battery more quickly.

This may not bother me on a larger iPhone 13 model as I do enjoy the convenience of wireless charging, but I need to maximize battery health for as long as possible with this smaller battery. For those wondering: it is worth the slight compromise.

Ironically I do have my iPhone 13 Mini currently sitting on a Samsung wireless fast charging stand. I’m thinking that perhaps I should buy a Lightning dock, which Apple doesn’t seem to sell anymore, or start to plug it in manually.

I may be slightly too concerned about the effect of wireless charging vs a Lightning cable. Anecdotally it does seem that wireless charging can lead to the battery reaching 80% health within 2-3 years as opposed to a slightly longer period with wired charging. Is my concern perhaps overblown, or should we be charging iPhone 13 Mini with a cable to preserve battery life?

 

[Shadowbech]

Quite honestly I’ve been charging my phone through inductive charging and not once had any battery health issues on mine. Throughout the time I have my phone I take good care of them and charge to 80%

 

[MICHAELSD]

Quite honestly I’ve been charging my phone through inductive charging and not once had any battery health issues on mine. Throughout the time I have my phone I take good care of them and charge to 80%

My iPhone 8+ also seemed to last for a reasonable amount of time despite only wireless charging, reaching roughly 80% battery health before I traded it in for an iPhone SE last spring.

In retrospect that’s less than three years. It’s going to be slightly painful seeing the battery health on the comparatively tiny iPhone 13 Mini battery tick downwards.

 

[idandavid]

No. It’s the heat that ruins the batteries in wireless charging. Just keep the heat under control. Use a slow wireless charger. Or use a fan when using fast wireless charging.

 

[Shirasaki]

I can see why you want the battery to last as long as possible since there is unlikely another mini iPhone down the line in future generations. I do only use wired charging cause it is faster and generally more reliable, but I don’t think wireless charging exclusively will particularly hurt battery in the long run, even though it will generate more heat, and heat does tend to shorten battery life. (I quite literally burned through 3% of battery health in a few weeks by using my iPhone as wired modem, forcing a battery replacement as a result)

 

[Tagbert]

I’m incredibly close to keeping iPhone 13 Mini, which has only one true drawback compared to the rest of the line: reduced battery life due to the smaller battery.

I’ve been reading that wireless charging, and fast charging in particular, degrades the battery more quickly.

This may not bother me on a larger iPhone 13 model as I do enjoy the convenience of wireless charging, but I need to maximize battery health for as long as possible with this smaller battery. For those wondering: it is worth the slight compromise.

Ironically I do have my iPhone 13 Mini currently sitting on a Samsung wireless fast charging stand. I’m thinking that perhaps I should buy a Lightning dock, which Apple doesn’t seem to sell anymore, or start to plug it in manually.

I may be slightly too concerned about the effect of wireless charging vs a Lightning cable. Anecdotally it does seem that wireless charging can lead to the battery reaching 80% health within 2-3 years as opposed to a slightly longer period with wired charging. Is my concern perhaps overblown, or should we be charging iPhone 13 Mini with a cable to preserve battery life?

Even Apple's "fast charging" is not as fast as other Android phones. I'm not convinced that there is any significant risk from it. Similarly, while high heat is not good for a battery, how hot do the batteries actually get when doing MagSafe charging? It doesn't seem like they get more than just "warm". Why do you think that this is hot enough to damage the battery?

All batteries degrade eventually. how long do you plan to keep your phone? Do you have anything to indicate that the battery will not last that long?

 

[John981]

Reading the comments I‘m probably alone in this sentiment (at least so far), but I just don‘t see why you would use wireless charging over wired charging. It‘s slower and generates more heat, so it‘s definitely worse for the battery - even if it‘s hard to tell by how much exactly.

That being said, it‘s officially supported by Apple, so if the convenience factor is important to you, do it and simply replace the battery once it‘s time to do so. The cost isn‘t that high and the battery will degrade either way, so even if you‘re only ever charging in the most optimal way, you‘ll still reduce its health since it‘s a consumable.

Even if the difference in degradation is 5% over the course of you using the phone, it‘s probably not worth stressing about.

 

[BigBlur]

Even Apple's "fast charging" is not as fast as other Android phones. I'm not convinced that there is any significant risk from it. Similarly, while high heat is not good for a battery, how hot do the batteries actually get when doing MagSafe charging? It doesn't seem like they get more than just "warm". Why do you think that this is hot enough to damage the battery?

All batteries degrade eventually. how long do you plan to keep your phone? Do you have anything to indicate that the battery will not last that long?

I agree. I think a lot of this is just myth and hearsay, and I’ve got an interesting one that counters those claims. I’ve read/heard wireless charging is actually better for a couple reasons: 1) it is slower than fast charging with a cable, so the battery itself doesn’t heat up as much, 2) the heat is coming from the puck and coils in the phone, away from the battery; whereas the heat is coming directly from the battery itself when fast charging by cable. Whether this claim is true or not, I don’t know…just like the other claims.

Regardless of which method you want to believe in, I don’t think it really matters how you charge your phone. I’ve been using the MagSafe charger for my iPhone 13 and it’s still at 100% capacity. Sure, it’s only been a few months so far, but wireless charging certainly doesn’t seem to be as harmful as some make it out to be. My phone doesn’t get that warm when charging using the MagSafe charger. I think it actually gets much warmer during the times I have plugged it in for a faster charge.

Also, it’s probably worth mentioning you can get your battery replaced for $70 when it does get bad. I’m sure Apple will be offering this for years to come, long after the phone has been discontinued. (Apple still offers to replace the battery for the iPhone 6S, which is nearly seven years old now.) IMO, don’t stress about how to charge your phone; use the method that works best for you.

 

[hirsthirst]

heat from wireless charging degraded my 12 Pro battery far quicker than I'd have liked, so I use wired charging (ideally with lower powered chargers) with my launch day 13 Pro Max wherever possible & it's still at 100% capacity, albeit we're only on the last day of January so far.

I've got a Philips Hue smart plug at my bedside & an iOS Shortcut to switch off charging at 80% to avoid it slow cooking all night, but that was more for an experiment (and I can use it for other things too).

Personally I don't like the idea of replacing a battery sooner than would otherwise be necessary, but understand different people will have higher or lower tolerance for that, as well as any necessary behavioural changes.

 

[OhMyMy]

heat from wireless charging degraded my 12 Pro battery far quicker than I'd have liked, so I use wired charging (ideally with lower powered chargers) with my launch day 13 Pro Max wherever possible & it's still at 100% capacity, albeit we're only on the last day of January so far.

I've got a Philips Hue smart plug at my bedside & an iOS Shortcut to switch off charging at 80% to avoid it slow cooking all night, but that was more for an experiment (and I can use it for other things too).

Personally I don't like the idea of replacing a battery sooner than would otherwise be necessary, but understand different people will have higher or lower tolerance for that, as well as any necessary behavioural changes.

There have been many posts about iPhone 12 series batteries degrading faster. So your case couldn’t all be attributed to the wireless charging alone.

 

[applestein]

There have been many posts about iPhone 12 series batteries degrading faster. So your case couldn’t all be attributed to the wireless charging alone.

My 12 pro is already down to 83% after a year and 2 months with it. It went down fast

 

[macdaddy43]

I used to think of these things, and improving the longevity of the batteries, but realistically, if you go through the trouble of focusing on maintaining the longevity of the battery, how much more are you going to get out of it? 6 months? No one really knows, but if you replace the battery after 3 years or 2.5, does it really matter?

I have the iPhone 12 Pro and while I try my best to keep good charging habits (maintaining a charge between 3-70%), I might be extending my battery life by maybe 6 months? Either way, I plan on keeping this phone for quite a while, so if I replace the battery 2.5 years from now or 3 years from now, in the grand scheme of things, it is still going to get replaced, so I am not going to be the battery police about it. I don't think this is a normal viewpoint (maybe it is who knows) but I am planning on keeping it. The battery will eventually get replaced, I am not worried about when it will get replaced, I will replace it when it needs it.

The battery replacement through Apple is $69. Over the course of 2-3 years, the cost is negligible compared to buying a new phone bc the battery is crappy. Just my unsolicited 2 cents.

FWIW I think wireless charging (in its current format) is a gimmick and provides no real advantage in my real world applications. Anytime I pick my phone up it is not charging, you are still tethered to a wire from the wireless charger, you are generating much more heat. It is just not a needle mover and in most cases, it is less practical than a simple wired charger.

 

[BigMcGuire]

My wife used a magsafe on her 12PM all last year and we noticed her battery capacity dropping like a brick right before the 13PM came out while my 12PM held its original capacity (I always used wired but rapid charging).

When we got our 13PM brand new, my wife put her brand new phone on her MagSafe charger and just a few minutes later came back to a phone that was too hot to touch. So, that was the end of MagSafe.

Obviously our experience is hardly scientific but just one data point.

 

[OhMyMy]

My wife used a magsafe on her 12PM all last year and we noticed her battery capacity dropping like a brick right before the 13PM came out while my 12PM held its original capacity (I always used wired but rapid charging).

When we got our 13PM brand new, my wife put her brand new phone on her MagSafe charger and just a few minutes later came back to a phone that was too hot to touch. So, that was the end of MagSafe.

Obviously our experience is hardly scientific but just one data point.

If you have a case on it while using MagSafe then chances are it might get warmer than it’d be otherwise. If you’re using MagSafe try it without the case especially if it’s less than 40% battery. Over 50% your device wouldn’t be charging at full 15W speed and at only around 10W it shouldn’t generate as much heat.

 

[tedley]

My iPhone 8+ also seemed to last for a reasonable amount of time despite only wireless charging, reaching roughly 80% battery health before I traded it in for an iPhone SE last spring.

In retrospect that’s less than three years. It’s going to be slightly painful seeing the battery health on the comparatively tiny iPhone 13 Mini battery tick downwards.

I have an 8+ as well and have used wireless charging for the last 2 1/2 - 3 years. Battery health is 80% with 1000 cycles. I also believe it's heat more than wireless charging that causes problems. I have a 5W charging brick attached to an Anker wireless charger and have had no problems.

As a side note, frequent use of a wired cable can also put wear and tear on the charging port causing the cable not to attach firmly over time. My 6s had this problem because of frequent charging due to it's crappy battery life. The lightening port is a lot more expensive to replace than a battery, so I'm sticking with low-voltage wireless charging. I'm sure this would less of an issue with phones with larger battery capacities since charging would occur less often.

 

[Tagbert]

My wife used a magsafe on her 12PM all last year and we noticed her battery capacity dropping like a brick right before the 13PM came out while my 12PM held its original capacity (I always used wired but rapid charging).

When we got our 13PM brand new, my wife put her brand new phone on her MagSafe charger and just a few minutes later came back to a phone that was too hot to touch. So, that was the end of MagSafe.

Obviously our experience is hardly scientific but just one data point.

That is a surprise. I've never noticed my 12 mini getting more than about body heat levels from MagSafe

 

[BigMcGuire]

That is a surprise. I've never noticed my 12 mini getting more than about body heat levels from MagSafe

Yeah it was to us as well, I think definitely an exception to the norm because it was a surprise to both of us - normally the phone gets warm but not burning hot. <shrug>. Maybe it wasn't put on all the way correctly, or misaligned a bit? Who knows. I think MagSafe isn't bad and we have users here who use it constantly and have great health too. So there's that lol.

 

[prazakj]

I think your question has many more ways to respond.

First: wireless charging generates heat, that could degrade battery faster.
Second: iPhone 12 series was very bad with it’s battery, that’s why we have 13 with improved ones.
Third: depends how much do you care about replacing battery in future, for example in 3-5 years. (Depends on how long you want to keep your device.)

I never liked wireless charging because I never found one which could be really nice, charge slow and can accomodate three devices. (One would like to have all the good things. ? ) I just switched back to cable for everything. I have dual USB-A (!) charger brick from Anker which can charge only with 12W for both devices, so it’s a little bit faster than older 5W but it can charge two devices at the same time (in my case iPhone and Apple Watch). So I do think that wireless charging is bad for longeivity of battery.

 

[Taz Mangus]

Has anyone used a 5 watt charger or12 watt charger for wireless charger?

If I were to use a 5 watt charger for wireless charging, would the phone stay cool while charging? What about using a 12 watt charger for wireless charging?

So far I have only used wired charging with a 12 watt Aukey dual USB charger. My launch day 13 Pro Max has never got even warm using the 12 watt wired charging. And the battery health is still around 102%.

 

[tedley]

Has anyone used a 5 watt charger or12 watt charger for wireless charger?

If I were to use a 5 watt charger for wireless charging, would the phone stay cool while charging? What about using a 12 watt charger for wireless charging?

So far I have only used wired charging with a 12 watt Aukey dual USB charger. My launch day 13 Pro Max has never got even warm using the 12 watt wired charging. And the battery health is still around 102%.

I think that's the key actually. I use a 5w charger with a wireless charger and my phone never gets hot.

 

[Taz Mangus]

I think that's the key actually. I use a 5w charger with a wireless charger and my phone never gets hot.

Are you using MagSafe or Qi the wireless charging?

How is your battery health since using wireless charging? Is there any difference in how long wireless charging takes vs. wired charging using a 5 watt charger.

I am also curious about using a 12 watt charger for wireless charging.

 

[tedley]

I'm using an Anker Qi charger. I've been using it for about 2 1/2 -3 years. I have currently 80% health on a 3 1/2 year old 8plus. It's my 'belief' that it's heat that is the culprit, not the charging method. If you can keep the heat down you should be safe, IMHO. Thankfully battery replacement isn't too expensive.

 

[OhMyMy]

I think that's the key actually. I use a 5w charger with a wireless charger and my phone never gets hot.

It's not the key. If you're using a 5w with a wireless then you're getting less than 5w in the end as there's typically some loss of power with wireless.

 

[tedley]

It's not the key. If you're using a 5w with a wireless then you're getting less than 5w in the end as there's typically some loss of power with wireless.

I'm saying that less heat is the key. I don't care if it takes a little longer to charge.

 

[OhMyMy]

I'm saying that less heat is the key. I don't care if it takes a little longer to charge.

Less heat, yes. But there is an optimal temp for charging as well and depending on the ambient temp may not always be possible to achieve that with less than 5w. Kinda like how EVs try to bring the battery to its optimal temp before they start charging.