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Other Would be nice if Apple gave us control over charging!

eyoungren said:
I will reiterate. I replaced the battery on my iPhone 6s+ after SIX years and only when it hit 79%.

Even then I didn't have to.

I wasn't obsessed about my battery life and look how long it lasted.

Those you mention are only going to hurt their brains, not their battery.
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I’m not obsessed with battery health but my 2 year old iPhone SE2 pretty much requires plugging in 2-3x a day despite reporting 80+% battery health. Iirc, my older iPhone 7 took around 3-4 years before it reached that point.

This was with just 10 minutes of average onscreen time per day (granted, 1-3 bars on cellular for ~10 hrs/day on weekdays, no wifi available).

Thus far, the SE3 is doing much better. I only charge it every other day and even then it just needs a quick 30 minute or so top up. How long it’ll stay that way? Who knows.
 
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yukari said:
Use a smart plug and a short cut.
That’s what I use to stop at 80% charge
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This is a pretty good solution, but it would be nice to have an option like AlDente on the Mac, where it can stay plugged in, stop charging when you reach the charge limit, and run on mains power until you unplug it. So you can use your phone plugged in without draining the battery.
 
Splitrail said:
Car "mechanics" are the worst of all.
You're lucky to find one that can do a proper fluid change without undertightening, overtightening, using the wrong fluids, and/or leaving a dripping mess behind that you find on your garage floor the next morning.
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Exactly my point, if the OP is uncertain about some "unknown geek" changing a battery, imagine underwear stain they must have getting work done on something much more valuable like their car from some "unknown mechanic".

Yet here we are with wild post about needing control over charging, seems like another stir the pot post, nothing more.
 
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Getting down to the nuts and bolts of this, what is the advantage of charging to only 80% as opposed to 100%? I wouldn’t think that it is to extend battery life, because I charged my old 8 Plus to 100% nightly and had 82% efficiency when I replaced it @ four years old.
 
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Mark Stone said:
Getting down to the nuts and bolts of this, what is the advantage of charging to only 80% as opposed to 100%? I wouldn’t think that it is to extend battery life, because I charged my old 8 Plus to 100% nightly and had 82% efficiency when I replaced it @ four years old.
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Lithium ion batteries' capacity tends to deteriorate if they're kept at close to 100% or 0% for long periods. If you're storing a battery it's best to discharge it to 50% beforehand and try to keep it there.

It's more of an issue with devices that spend a lot of time plugged in (like, say, a laptop that you use in a docked setup), as they will stay at 100% for a longer period. With phones it's less of an issue because they're mostly used off the charger, so they don't spend a lot of time at 100%. The optimised charging feature is a reasonable solution because phones tend to stay plugged in longest overnight.

I don't really know how much extra life you end up getting out of your battery if you handle it carefully like this.
 
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tlab said:
The optimised charging feature is a reasonable solution because phones tend to stay plugged in longest overnight.
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That's if optimized charging actually worked reliably.

It doesn't for me so what I've done is set a schedule on the Smart Plug to start charging an hour before I wake up.
 
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orionquest said:
Exactly my point, if the OP is uncertain about some "unknown geek" changing a battery, imagine underwear stain they must have getting work done on something much more valuable like their car from some "unknown mechanic".

Yet here we are with wild post about needing control over charging, seems like another stir the pot post, nothing more.
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‘LOL! It sure stirred your little pot!
 
Apple_Robert said:
Shortcuts and a smart plug works for me. I think too many on here overly obsess as it is about their battery. If Apple showed and allowed more control, the obsession would only get worse.
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What’s your method with shortcuts and smart plugs?
 
I agree - this needs to be a user configurable setting. There’s no reason why it isn’t, given that “optimized battery charging” is patchy and unpredictable at best.
 
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Battery charge has decreased with every phone that I had for longer periods. Back in the day this was just normal wear and tear.

Since Apple shows the battery capacity everyone is obsessing over the batteries.
To be honest when Apple gave us this feature I had my 8 for 2,5 years. Battery was 82% and I was obsessing as well.

Now I just let it be and when it is giving me troubles and I decide to keep my phone I will go for a new battery at Apple.

Instead of obsessing over the battery in my iPhone, iPad, MacBook and Apple Watch.
 
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I don't think I "obsess" over it but I have developed the habit of charging my 13PM early in the morning while I am doing my emails etc. I use a MagSafe charger and manually stop charging at about 90-95%. That usually lasts me for 2 days unless I am out an unusual amount. My issue day battery is still at 100% which I enjoy a lot because I may keep this phone for another year. Having the ability to set charge at my preferred level would certainly be a very nice feature that I think we would all use.
 
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Put an advanced setting for those who want to customise the charging preference of their devices, and leave the current simple interface for others (myself included).
 
This scenario is how I believe phone manufacturers could change the business for the better in battery health:

Release a phone with an advertised battery of 4700mAh but actually have a 5000mAh battery in there. Then design the charging system to only get up to 4700mAh but yet display the phone at 100% charge. This will be good for the health of the battery and the end user wouldn't know the difference.
 
yukari said:
Use a smart plug and a short cut.
That’s what I use to stop at 80% charge
Click to expand...

planteater said:
What’s your method with shortcuts and smart plugs?
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IMG_878C47314C32-1.jpeg
This is the shortcut I use. It turns off the iPhone Charger when battery charge reaches 80%
 
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GubbyMan said:
Guy with battery obsession here. 🙋‍♂️

My iPhone X is almost 5 years old with 1900 charge cycles and 82% capacity left.

I would love to have a setting where I can limit the charging to 80% or 90%. Up until now I just charge during the day and most of the time I pick up the phone and stop charging if it’s between 75-90%. I also rarely let it go below ~15%. I charge to 100% when I know I’ll need the battery.

Was it worth doing this? No. I could have just replaced the battery once and enjoyed not thinking about charging it, but where’s the fun in that? 🥴


Battery health is just an estimation, especially Apples implementation in iOS which never gives you a value above what it has shown before as to not confuse people. I wouldn’t read too much into it, it has happened to me that the battery drops from ~95% to ~85% faster on both my iPhone and my MacBook. I’ve used all kind of chargers including third-party fast chargers and QI chargers, haven’t noticed a difference.
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How cool. The most I've ever gotten a device to is 200-300 cycles before I gave it to family, traded it in, or got rid of it somehow (2 years usually). lol. Wow 1900 cycles.

And agreed, hopefully someday we can get something like AlDente on the iPhone. It's made a noticeable difference on my Macs (which spend most of their lives plugged in).

My 13 Pro Max lasts so long on battery and I only use like 25-30% of battery a day that I wouldn't mind reducing capacity to make it last a bit longer overall - but again, I'm someone who rarely keeps a device more than a year or two so...
 
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Personally I don't see the point of the 80% charge limit except for certain occasions like when you know you're going to be around an outlet during the day.

The way I see it is just charge to 100% so you have more battery throughout the day and worry less about running out. Yes it's worse for the battery but after 2 or 3 years just get a brand new battery from Apple. It's only $69 for the 13 Pro Max. Or if you upgrade every year then don't bother.
 
It never ceases to amaze me that people on the forums think that they know better than Apple battery engineers who make careers out of batteries, including battery life.

@eyoungren is giving sage advice as usual, plug it in and let the Apple engineers take care of it. When the battery dies, replace it with a genuine Apple battery - it’s not that expensive.

That said, I have a Watch that‘s almost 2 years old and shows no sign of losing battery life - I turned off AOD and enabled ‘raise to wake’, and that’s all I’ve done. Kind of amazing since the battery is the size of a postage stamp.
 
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Ever since i got apple care, i get my devices swapped 1-2 times a year. Fresh battery each time and I don’t care about charging. Ideally a 80% hard limit would be nice as an option. An AC+ claim is cheaper than a battery replacement.
My old Lenovo laptop from 2014 had that option, I’m sure there’s an app for the Mac side of things too.
Batteries will last much longer with an 80% limit, that’s science.
 
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