iPhone SE (2022) Warning that my battery life has degraded and needs service

[grandM]

My iPhone SE is acting up. It oftenly asks me to re-enter my pin code of my SIM card. Siri also very slow. I opened the settings app and it shows a warning that the battery is seriously degraded and needs service.

Odd thing about it is still shows a maximum capacity of 82%.

Do I risk failure if I don’t replace the battery and is it still worth it to replace it or should I bit the bucket and buy a new one?

 

[JPack]

Nothing odd about it as battery health and maximum capacity are two different things.

Not sure what you mean by "failure" but a battery with poor health has high internal resistance, meaning activities that draw a lot of power like taking a photo may cause unexpected shut down.

 

[ignatius345]

Do I risk failure if I don’t replace the battery and is it still worth it to replace it or should I bit the bucket and buy a new one?

Sounds like the phone is already starting to fail because the battery is dying. As far as the replace it or repair it question -- if the SE is still meeting your needs, it's going to be a lot cheaper to have a new battery put in than to buy a new iPhone.

 

[Jackbequickly]

I suggest you make sure you have a dependable backup for everything on your phone. Either cloud or on you computer.

 

[Ruggy]

The maximum capacity gives you an idea of how degraded your battery is by telling you the maximum it will charge to but it doesn't tell you how quickly it will discharge.
Li-on tends to be a chemistry that works extremely well up to the end of it's life and then it will die suddenly. If it only keeps a charge for a few hours or is behaving oddly then it's a bad sign
In any case, if it's telling you it's degraded then it is.
As you've been told, it's time to back everything up including things like messages and passwords and then either get a new battery, or buy a new phone if you feel like it.
If it does everything you need and you don't fancy any of the AI stuff, then it'll most probably last you until 2028 and a new battery is about $80 so that's 3 years more use for $80 which is a good deal.

 

[grandM]

I got a nice deal on the iPhone 18e with Amazon Prime. I reckoned the device is from 2022 AD plus the IP protection would vanish after installing a new battery. Also wasn’t clear to me if the 80 bucks covered the work too and I still had to go there which isn’t near.

 

[Andeddu]

I got a nice deal on the iPhone 18e with Amazon Prime. I reckoned the device is from 2022 AD plus the IP protection would vanish after installing a new battery. Also wasn’t clear to me if the 80 bucks covered the work too and I still had to go there which isn’t near.

Good choice, the 16e is a brilliant phone. I was considering it myself during the Amazon Prime sale however decided to wait for the 17 Pro or 17 Air.

 

[grandM]

Good choice, the 16e is a brilliant phone. I was considering it myself during the Amazon Prime sale however decided to wait for the 17 Pro or 17 Air.

As I got the battery warning it seemed like a good moment.

 

[FeliApple]

Nothing odd about it as battery health and maximum capacity are two different things.

Not sure what you mean by "failure" but a battery with poor health has high internal resistance, meaning activities that draw a lot of power like taking a photo may cause unexpected shut down.

You know, as somebody who doesn’t update, I was so shocked the first time I used a combination of an updated device with poor(ish) health.

I used my iPhone 6s on iOS 10 for about a year with 60% health and it had like-new battery life. Heavy, LTE usage with camera and outdoor brightness dropped fast, but linearly (and I don’t even think that was due to health, as the 6s’ battery life for heavy usage has never been good, not even when new and on iOS 9).

And when, for compatibility reasons, I switched to my 82% health iPhone 6s on iOS 13… I was shocked. I opened the camera app with outdoor brightness and the battery would go, within 45 seconds… 82%, 78%, 72%, 67%. Boom. 15% gone in under a minute.

Even now, when I use it for music sometimes, it’s insane. Downloaded music. On Airplane Mode with Wi-Fi and on standby with Apple Music. 4-5 hours of playback with pure downloaded music and no screen-on time and the thing has 40%. 40%!!! (From 100%).

Apple quotes 50 hours of audio playback? I think it would die after 7-8 hours, and this is with perfect conditions. The difference is insane.

My 6-year-old and now 6 generations old iPhone Xʀ on iOS 12 would get twice as much runtime with the screen-on than the 6s on iOS 13 gets on standby mode, Airplane Mode, playing downloaded music. The lightest possible task. Insane.

 

[Andeddu]

My 13 just had a battery service and the battery is lasting longer than I thought it would on iOS 18.

On my first full day of use, I managed 8h 37m of Screen on Time and 44m of Screen off Time which brought my battery down to 19%.

I was carrying out zero battery life preservation with True Tone on, 5G, WiFi and Bluetooth on all day while steaming videos on both WiFi and the cellular network along with heavy web browsing.

Glad that upgrading iOS no longer nukes your battery life given that these modern chipsets are so powerful and efficient.

 

[FeliApple]

My 13 just had a battery service and the battery is lasting longer than I thought it would on iOS 18.

On my first full day of use, I managed 8h 37m of Screen on Time and 44m of Screen off Time which brought my battery down to 19%.

I was carrying out zero battery life preservation with True Tone on, 5G, WiFi and Bluetooth on all day while steaming videos on both WiFi and the cellular network along with heavy web browsing.

Glad that upgrading iOS no longer nukes your battery life given that these modern chipsets are so powerful and efficient.

I don’t know how much a 13 would give you on iOS 15 with that usage, but I would assume it wouldn’t be much better.

I recently updated (for a family member, forced due to compatibility) an iPhone 11 from iOS 14.6 to iOS 18.5. Battery life was exactly the same. With 77% health. If it was just as good for the 11, I assume it was for a 13.

But fear not… iOS 26 is coming. It will probably destroy the 11 and significantly affect the 13. Because Apple can’t stop updating soon enough. We’ll see.

 

[Andeddu]

I don’t know how much a 13 would give you on iOS 15 with that usage, but I would assume it wouldn’t be much better.

I recently updated (for a family member, forced due to compatibility) an iPhone 11 from iOS 14.6 to iOS 18.5. Battery life was exactly the same. With 77% health. If it was just as good for the 11, I assume it was for a 13.

But fear not… iOS 26 is coming. It will probably destroy the 11 and significantly affect the 13. Because Apple can’t stop updating soon enough. We’ll see.

I recall iOS 16 (which is what I started with back in 2023) was much the same in terms of SoT.

To be honest, there are no notable differences in resource usage between iOS 15 to iOS 18. They appear to be incremental upgrades with no additional animations. iOS 26 appears to be a larger overhaul which will require significantly more overhead so you’re probably right about that. I am planning on upgrading to an iPhone 17 Pro though and using my 13 as a secondary phone (which will allow me to retire my 8). The 13 line will have had a great run from 2021-2025 without Apple nuking the battery life. It will obviously still be highly usable to the vast majority of the population who, unlike power-users, do not require 8+ hours of SoT.

 

[FeliApple]

I recall iOS 16 (which is what I started with back in 2023) was much the same in terms of SoT.

To be honest, there are no notable differences in resource usage between iOS 15 to iOS 18. They appear to be incremental upgrades with no additional animations. iOS 26 appears to be a larger overhaul which will require significantly more overhead so you’re probably right about that. I am planning on upgrading to an iPhone 17 Pro though and using my 13 as a secondary phone (which will allow me to retire my 8). The 13 line will have had a great run from 2021-2025 without Apple nuking the battery life. It will obviously still be highly usable to the vast majority of the population who, unlike power-users, do not require 8+ hours of SoT.

On the 11 on iOS 18, I found significant lag on the Apple Music app when browsing quickly to re-download albums, but it was a pretty cursory test, nothing too significant apart from one battery test. For my regular usage, it was otherwise okay, with no keyboard lag. I guess that’s a great result when comparing that to previous models. iOS 13 to iOS 18 with a good experience is far better than what we were getting. I doubt, due to iOS 26’s changes, that this will hold.

In any case, I think that the OP was right to upgrade instead of choosing an alternative pathway: the SE, with its small battery, is too vulnerable nowadays. I doubt the experience will remain good even with a new battery, even if it is now on iOS 18. The OP could have just stayed there, but we both know that practically nobody does that.