my iphone 12 battery health dropped from 99 to 98 in 5 days and when i checked the logs in setting to find the cycle count it was the same 198 as it was when i had checked last time. is this normal or do i need to replace my battery ?
iPhone 12, iOS 15
What's the issue? 98% after 198 cycles is pretty good.
The issue with the battery health is that updates don't seem to be in real time and there's no real accounting for when an update "drops". There have been cases where the battery health reading from iOS stays the same number for months, then it updates overnight where it's maybe 5% less. But it's highly unlikely that actual battery capacity dropped 5% overnight. While the cycle count may be at the same number, partial cycles eventually add up to 1, so it could have updated during a partial cycle that didn't "turn the odometer". No method of reading the cycles shows the partial cycles that are being logged internally. In addition, Apple's official diagnostic may have a different value than the battery health reading from iOS.
If you really want to change a battery at 98%, who is anyone to judge, but generally it's still in reasonably good shape. The industry standard for when a battery is considered "depleted" is 80% of the original capacity. Even then it may still work reasonably well, or it may start showing undesirable operation such as unplanned shutdowns. Replacement is typically recommended at that point, although you should be able to pay for a battery replacement service before that time.
What's the issue? 98% after 198 cycles is pretty good.
The issue with the battery health is that updates don't seem to be in real time and there's no real accounting for when an update "drops". There have been cases where the battery health reading from iOS stays the same number for months, then it updates overnight where it's maybe 5% less. But it's highly unlikely that actual battery capacity dropped 5% overnight. While the cycle count may be at the same number, partial cycles eventually add up to 1, so it could have updated during a partial cycle that didn't "turn the odometer". No method of reading the cycles shows the partial cycles that are being logged internally. In addition, Apple's official diagnostic may have a different value than the battery health reading from iOS.
If you really want to change a battery at 98%, who is anyone to judge, but generally it's still in reasonably good shape. The industry standard for when a battery is considered "depleted" is 80% of the original capacity. Even then it may still work reasonably well, or it may start showing undesirable operation such as unplanned shutdowns. Replacement is typically recommended at that point, although you should be able to pay for a battery replacement service before that time.
It is normal. And Apple will only replace your battery when the Health reaches 80%.
battery health and cycle count
