Whether you’re an iPhone user, battery life is always a hot topic, and, with the iPhone 15, many people are debating the charge limiting feature, which caps the battery at 80%. Some users think this feature might be prolonging the battery (ie why collect measurements), but others question the real world benefit. So, is the charge limiting useful at all? Let’s break it down.
What is Charge Limiting?
Apple introduced charge limiting or setting your iPhone to charge up to 80% instead of to 100% as an aid to preserving the battery health in your iPhone. In other words, charging a battery to full capacity often can wear it out over time — and shorten its life.
What Are Users Saying?
Stories of iPhone 15 users sparked conversations about this feature. These are all from informal forums, but they do give some interesting insight into the way people are deploying charge limiting and seeing if it’s working.
Two Key Trends:
Preserving Battery Capacity:
The number of users that enabled charge limiting and continued to have 100% battery health after months of use was pretty big. This implies as well that charge limiting can be beneficial for people not using their battery daily.
Less Device Usage:
What’s intriguing is that limiting charge usage actually leads to users using their phones less. That makes sense, after all, the less you use something the slower the battery degrades. In other words, casual iPhone users who won’t abuse either their phone or battery probably benefit the most from turning on the feature, since they’re in danger of rarely pushing their battery to its limits.
Is it worth it to charge limit heavy users?
Charge limiting probably isn’t going to be as helpful if you rely heavily on your iPhone to get work done, play games or app squaddic. The feature may slow down battery wear for lighter users, but heavy users will still experience battery wear over time just from all the charging cycles they go through. Even when battery charge limiting is enabled, battery replacement for these users may still be necessary.
To Enable Charge Limiting Or Not?
Here’s a simple way to decide:
If your iPhone’s battery doesn’t die every day then charge limiting can help save battery life and make the battery last longer. If you find that you end the day with lots of charge left, it’s a good move.
For heavy users who use the iPhones for multiple tasks through the day, the difference could be almost nothing. No matter whether you cap the charge at 80%, the battery will be degraded over time by intense use. It might not be the only reason, but in the end you might also end up still needing a battery replacement.
Conclusion
Ultimately how you use your iPhone has a lot to with the usefulness of the charge limiting feature. Your phone might last a little longer and even save you money in the long run if you’re not someone who uses it frequently during the day. But, if you’re a power user, this may not be a significant feature in itself.
As always, battery health depends on how often you’ve used it. Regardless of the settings you turn on, the more wear and tear you put on your device, the more you push it.