I have an iPhone 11 for 3 years and its battery has 800 cycles. The battery health is 82%. What primarily contributes to that: the age (3 years) or wear and tear (800 cycles)? Would the battery health be the same if the battery had only 200 cycles?
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
iPhone 11, iOS 17
Both battery age and number of charge and discharge are important when it comes to Li-ion batteries. Battery calendar degradation start on very first day and it gets worse if battery stays idle without any charge and discharge cycles. Charge and discharge also cause cycle degradation effects on batteries at the same time.
The best battery performance achieves by keeping battery state of charge( SOC) between 20% to 80%.
"Batteries of iPhone 14 models and earlier are designed to retain 80 percent of their original capacity at 500 complete charge cycles under ideal conditions.* Batteries of iPhone 15 models are designed to retain 80 percent of their original capacity at 1000 complete charge cycles under ideal conditions.*", Apple says.
Both battery age and number of charge and discharge are important when it comes to Li-ion batteries. Battery calendar degradation start on very first day and it gets worse if battery stays idle without any charge and discharge cycles. Charge and discharge also cause cycle degradation effects on batteries at the same time.
The best battery performance achieves by keeping battery state of charge( SOC) between 20% to 80%.
"Batteries of iPhone 14 models and earlier are designed to retain 80 percent of their original capacity at 500 complete charge cycles under ideal conditions.* Batteries of iPhone 15 models are designed to retain 80 percent of their original capacity at 1000 complete charge cycles under ideal conditions.*", Apple says.
Battery health is measured by charging cycles. An iPhone is expected to be at about 80% after 500 cycles. So, you're doing well. But, you'll very soon need a new battery.
alacrity288 wrote:
I have an iPhone 12
battery cycle count of 867
battery health at 86%
So are you saying it’s not accurate?
What that means is when the phone was new it had a battery that exceeded Apple’s minimum specifications. Here’s the long answer:
A battery is a chemical device, and chemistry is generally pretty variable and uncertain, as well as being analog, not digital. Apple specs the battery capacity to remain above 80% for 500 full charge cycles, but that is a minimum requirement; there is no published maximum expected capacity. So sometimes batteries will perform much better than that minimum specification, and sometimes the change in maximum capacity won't be linear. There is no way to predict in advance what the real-life performance of any specific battery will be.
All iPhones have a specification for the battery. As an example, for the iPhone 14 Pro that is 3200 milliampere-hours (MaH). So the battery monitor is calibrated for 100% at that value. But there are variations in manufacturing, so some batteries will have less capacity, and some will have more. Suppose your battery had, say, 3520 MaH capacity (10% over standard). That would still show as 100% (even though it was actually 110%), but as it aged the health would stay at 100% until it fell below 3200 MaH. This would appear to you as if the battery had fabulous life, until suddenly it didn’t.
Nikola1996 wrote:
...Would the battery health be the same if the battery had only 200 cycles?
Not in my experience. Last year I traded in an iPhone XS when it was 4 years old and if I remember correctly the battery health was in the low 90s. I don't know what the cycle count was but based on my usage it would have been fairly low.
Nikola1996 wrote:
I understand that, I was more asking about whether that was the 800 cycles that reduced the capacity of my battery or the 3 years that have passed as I’m using the phone.
That's like asking is the fact that my car is almost out of gas because the refill light came on? Or because it's been three days since I filled up? It's just not a useful question.
The number of charge cycles does not tell you "why". It just tells you that's how many charge cycles have been used. Lithium-ion batteries are affected by the passage of time if they are left in an uncharged state for a long time. But, if you're using the phone and charging it regularly, the mere passage of time is not why your battery capacity has decreased. It is because you have used up the battery.
Nikola1996 wrote:
Just to remind you, officially the lifespan of an Li-ion battery is 500 cycles or 3 years, whatever comes first.
That three year estimate is based on quickly the average user gets to 500 cycles. It doesn't mean that, the battery will automatically stop working at three years.
AppleBoy123 wrote:
I'm not a suspicious guy, but Apple says 80% or under indicates a degraded battery and I don't think this 12 max pro will ever hit that, same for the 13 pro.
My 11 Pro hit 80% at about two and a half years.
It's important to remember that the maximum capacity indicator on your phone is an estimate and that the rate of decrease is not always linear.
Ron19553 wrote:
My iPhone 11 Apple battery has had 661 cycles . What does that mean and what would be the battery percentage?
You can see the battery capacity maximum percentage if you go to Settings>Battery>Battery Health> Maximum Capacity. If it's less than 80%, you need a new battery.
Call Apple back. The folks on the phone who ran the diagnostic should be able to make sure that the folks in the store honor what they told you.
For what it's worth, I just made an appointment, took the phone in, told them I was experiencing unexplained shutdowns, and they replaced the battery when it said 81% for me.
Just to remind you, officially the lifespan of an Li-ion battery is 500 cycles or 3 years, whatever comes first.
Note that they can run some of the diagnostics remotely.
宝宝82 wrote:
I bought my iPhone XR in October 2019. Battery health is now at 81% & charge cycles are 1021
It's time to get your battery replaced.
I understand that, I was more asking about whether that was the 800 cycles that reduced the capacity of my battery or the 3 years that have passed as I’m using the phone. I know that both factors have influence, but I need to know what’s the main culprit, so I can know whether I used most out of the battery or it naturally degraded.
Not sure that I'd trust that battery health indicator. we have an iPhone 12 Pro Max bought in 3/2021 that went down to 81% in January 2023 and now it's still at 81%, and also have an iPhone 13 Pro bought in 1/2022 that claims the battery health is still 100% now, 21 months later.
Our charging habits indicate the battery is draining much faster on both iphones, even if the health indicator indicates the batteries are in the healthy range.
I'm not a suspicious guy, but Apple says 80% or under indicates a degraded battery and I don't think this 12 max pro will ever hit that, same for the 13 pro.
It’s a poor estimate if it’s telling me that an iPhone 13 Pro still has 100% capacity after 21 months, even though it turns itself off almost every early evening due to a low charge remaining. Same thing with the 12 Pro Max, that rates 81% for several months after dropping to that level fairly quickly.
I’d like to replace the battery on the 12, at least, while I can still use AppleCare to replace the battery, but Apple uses that battery health indicator to determine when one qualifies for replacement under AppleCare - you have to drop under (or reach) that magic 80%. Since that’s the case, I believe Apple should be more transparent about how it calculated my batteries health levels. I’d love to see that algorithm. I’m not sure how to check how many cycles they’ve through , either, it doesn’t appear in the Battery settings.
Battery cycle's impact on battery health
