After 2 Years Of Charging My Iphone The 'apple Way,' The Results Shocked Me

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET

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ZDNET's cardinal takeaways

• The artillery successful my 15 Pro Max was atrocious aft 18 months of use.
• I did everything Apple suggested to support it successful tip-top condition.
• I'm going backmost to 100% charging pinch nan iPhone 17 Pro Max.

When I sewage my iPhone 15 Pro Max successful September 2023, I decided that I'd do everything I could to make nan artillery last. Well, an mishap destroyed that handset, truthful I restarted nan research successful March 2024. 

CNET: iPhone Battery Showdown: 3 Years of Data Show How nan iPhone 17 Models Measure Up

I wanted to spot conscionable really overmuch lifespan I could get retired of nan battery.

Battery life obsession

In my experience, nary taxable generates much articles, blog posts, and YouTube videos than really to get nan champion imaginable artillery life from your iPhone, some regular runtime and wide lifespan. It's besides nan taxable connected which I get nan astir questions and comments.

People person been obsessed pinch their iPhone's artillery life since time one, and nan much metrics and tweaks Apple adds to iOS to delve into what nan artillery is doing, nan worse it has become. Once Apple moreover added a characteristic that allowed users to headdress artillery complaint levels to prolong nan lifespan of their battery.

Also: Changing these 6 settings connected my iPad greatly extended its artillery life by hours

But if each infinitesimal of runtime, each percent constituent of artillery life matters, does it make consciousness to sacrifice 20% -- or, to put that different way, one-fifth -- of your battery's capacity?

It seems nan enticement of nan iPhone lasting longer makes nan tradeoff worthy it. After all, Apple claims that iPhone 15 models and later tin "retain 80% of their original capacity astatine 1,000 complete complaint cycles nether perfect conditions." I was funny arsenic to what "under perfect conditions" meant, but I was wished to springiness my artillery nan champion chance possible.

Also: Running connected iOS 18? Changing these settings greatly improved my iPhone's artillery life

So I group my artillery complaint limit to 80%, putting a important but manageable dent successful my regular runtime (manageable initially, astatine least), and sewage connected pinch my life.

Initially, things were bully

Great, successful fact. After nan first fewer days of battery-induced anxiety, I nary longer thought astir aliases noticed nan reduced artillery level, and I would seldom extremity nan time pinch little than 35% charge.

A little complete a twelvemonth and 355 recharge cycles -- astir 1 a time -- into nan experiment, nan battery's maximum capacity had dropped to 91%.

By this point, I was already starting to consciousness nan pinch from nan operation of only charging to 80% and nan artillery wear. Those days erstwhile my iPhone would complaint each nan measurement to 100% for calibration purposes -- it does this occasionally contempt nan limit -- were for illustration a activity of caller air.

Also: I changed these 8 Apple Watch settings to importantly widen artillery life

Battery worry returned.

I americium a dense iPhone user, and it's ne'er much than an arm's scope away. And I cognize that dense usage not only accelerates artillery degradation because of nan accrued recharge cycles, but besides intensifies it, reducing nan wide lifespan of nan artillery cells.

I persisted

Fast guardant to the opening of September.

The iPhone was 17 months old, and nan artillery had 501 recharge cycles nether its belt, almost precisely halfway done those 1,000 recharge cycles, pinch maximum capacity astatine 89%. Battery life was horrendous. I'd commencement nan time astatine 80% charge, and by mid to precocious afternoon, it was hovering adjacent to -- if not dipped beneath -- nan 20% zone. By this point, power banks had go an basal portion of my mundane carry.

Also: I tested nan iPhone 17 Pro Max, and this characteristic unsocial justifies an upgrade from nan 16

I moreover temporarily raised nan complaint limit to 100%, and while that helped, artillery life was still horrible.

And astatine this level, I couldn't moreover salary Apple to switch nan battery, because extracurricular of exceptional circumstances, you person to hold for nan maximum capacity to driblet beneath 80%.

Also: The champion GaN chargers of 2025: Expert tested

So, for maine astatine least, nan effective lifespan of a top-of-the-line iPhone Pro Max is little than 2 years.

So I gave up and bought an iPhone 17 Pro Max, and erstwhile again I tin make it done a time without needing a charge. It's a night-and-day difference.

The iPhone 17 Pro Max is bully for a agelong day... for now.

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET

A sample of 1

Maybe my artillery was peculiarly puny, aliases possibly it's me. But I'm not nan only 1 to consciousness that sacrificing 20% of my artillery capacity successful speech for nan committedness of amended artillery life isn't worthy it. And I'm not nan only one.

Also: iPhone artillery worse aft updating to iOS 26? Here's why, and really I fixed it

Juli Clover, penning for MacRumors, has been carrying retired a akin research and came to this conclusion:

"I now person 2 years of information pinch my iPhone constricted to an 80 percent charge, and I don't deliberation it's been worthy it."

I agree, which is why I'm going backmost to 100% charging and alternatively utilizing optimized artillery charging, a characteristic that delays nan complaint from 80 to 100% truthful it happens successful clip for you to commencement nan time (this characteristic takes a while to activate because it needs clip for nan handset to study your patterns). This seemed to do much to trim artillery wear, astatine slightest connected earlier iPhones I had. So, possibly this, on pinch nan vapor enclosure cooling, will support my caller artillery going beardown for longer.

I tin hope.

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