Noticeable battery degradation close to 3-year mark on iPhone

You have approximately 89% of your original performance left. So, yes, it should feel different. Your battery is chemically aging and won’t perform the same (or feel the same) as when it was new.

While the battery will last a long time, in a year, maybe two, the performance will have dropped significantly enough that it will feel and perform much differently than now and when it was new. Most people notice the change when it gets around 80% battery health. Then it’s time to replace the battery.

Your iPhone contains sensitive electronics and Apple does everything it can to protect the electronics. That’s why Apple builds significant safeguards into the battery charging system and monitors the discharge and provides additional settings to reduce battery consumption (low power mode).

No two batteries age the same. Comparing one battery’s performance to another’s is nearly impossible because they have different batteries and are in different devices that operate and perform different. Hardware and software changes make increased demands on the battery. Apps are constantly being updated and improved and demand more of the hardware and consequently the battery. Greater demands will lead to changes you need to make in how you charge your battery.

If you want to try an improved feel, try charging your battery to 100% every night. You can also turn on optimized charging too. Try it for two weeks and let us know how your iPhone feels and performs and we can tweak things from there.

On average it appears from your screenshots you posted the you are using less than 50% battery of your battery over 18 hours. Of course the Charge Limit is going to start your day with an already partially depleted battery, my recommendation is to use Optimized Charging and charge your phone all night, every night. Even with the 89% Battery Health it would appear that you would have all day battery life, which is ideal.

And for your Battery Health of 89% after 3 years, that also sounds exceptional to me. I see nothing to be concerned about.

Small-format iPhones like your 13 Mini, your 7, and my SE 2020 have physically smaller batteries. Their rated life expectancy is 500 cycles compared to 1000 cycles for larger iPhones. (ref: MacTracker database in the App Store)

My SE was new was early Nov 2021 and now has over 500 cycles and is hovering around 81% health at nearly four years old.. Usual runtime between charges is about two days but is less if I am on the phone a lot. I have a data point from 10-31-2024 showing my SE battery's health at 3 years was at 85%

Your video-conferencing (Teams) will use a lot of power.

I see nothing alarming in your data.

If you updated recently the update will use extra battery after installation for a few days while it catalogues items and does housecleaning . The is normal.

For a 3 year old battery and your use, 89 % is pretty good. The iPhone performance will be compromised once your battery percentage falls below 80%.

Suffice to say, whatever you may have read, there is no conspiracy on Apples part to "degrade" batteries. Its hogwash.

As stated on the thread, you should charge every night. I myself have always charged it to 100% and have never had a battery degrade, other than normal degradation with normal use and wear and tear.

Hope this helps.

What iOS are you using? Did you just upgrade your iOS or multiple apps? It’s unusual for so much background activity without an update or upgrade.

Just based on personal experience, three years is a long time for a battery. I’ve replaced mine, on average, just after two years.

What iOS are you using please? Follow this path,

iPhone > Settings > General > About > iOS Version > ???

os1936 wrote:

Won't having it plugged all night cause more "damage" to a Lithium battery?

No.