After 2 years of charging my iPhone the ‘Apple way’, the results shocked me

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ZDNET Highlights

• The battery on my 15 Pro Max went dead after 18 months of use.
• I did everything recommended by Apple to keep it in great condition.
• I’m going back to 100% charging with the iPhone 17 Pro Max.

When I got my iPhone 15 Pro Max in September 2023, I decided I would do everything I could to make the battery last longer. Well, an accident destroyed that handset, so I restarted the experiment in March 2024.

CNET: iPhone battery performance: 3 years of data shows how iPhone 17 models fare

I wanted to see how much life I could get out of the battery.

battery life obsession

In my experience, no topic generates more articles, blog posts, and YouTube videos than how to get the best possible battery life from your iPhone, both in daily runtime and overall lifetime. This is also the topic I get the most questions and comments on.

People have been obsessed with their iPhone’s battery life since day one, and it’s gotten worse the more metrics and changes Apple adds to iOS to keep track of what the battery is doing. Apple once also added a feature that allowed users to limit the battery charge level to extend the lifespan of their battery.

Also: Changing these 6 settings on my iPad extended its battery life by several hours

But if every minute of runtime, every percentage point of battery life matters, does it make sense to sacrifice 20% – or, to put it another way, a fifth – of your battery capacity?

It seems like the lure of a longer-lasting iPhone makes the deal worthwhile. After all, Apple claims That iPhone 15 models and later models can “retain 80% of their original capacity over 1,000 full charge cycles under ideal conditions.” I was curious what “under ideal conditions” meant, but I was determined to give my battery the best chance possible.

Also: Running on iOS 18? Changing these settings significantly improved my iPhone’s battery life

So I set my battery charge limit to 80%, making a significant but manageable dent in my daily runtime (at least manageable initially), and went on with my life.

things were good in the beginning

Really great. After the first few days of battery-induced anxiety, I never thought or noticed low battery levels, and I would rarely end the day with less than 35% charge.

A little over a year and 355 recharge cycles – about a day – into the experiment, the battery’s maximum capacity had dropped to 91%.

By this point, I was already starting to feel irritated by the combination of only charging up to 80% and the battery being drained. The days when my iPhone would charge to 100% for calibration purposes – it does this sometimes despite the limit – were like a breath of fresh air.

Also: I changed these 8 Apple Watch settings to significantly extend battery life

Battery concerns are back.

I’m a heavy iPhone user, and it’s never further than an arm’s reach. And I know that heavy use not only accelerates battery degradation due to increased recharge cycles, but also accelerates it, reducing the overall lifespan of the battery cells.

I persisted

Fast forward to early September.

The iPhone was 17 months old, and the battery had 501 recharge cycles, which was about half of those 1,000 recharge cycles, with a maximum capacity of 89%. Battery life was terrible. I’d start the day at 80% charge, and by mid-afternoon, it was hovering closer to the 20% zone – if not dropping below. from this point on, power bank Had become an essential part of my everyday luggage.

Also: I tested the iPhone 17 Pro Max, and this feature alone justifies the upgrade from the 16

I temporarily increased the charge limit to 100%, and although that helped, battery life was still terrible.

And at this stage, I couldn’t even pay Apple to replace the battery, because except in exceptional circumstances, you have to wait until the maximum capacity drops below 80%.

Also: Best GaN Chargers of 2025: Expert Tested

So, at least for me, the effective lifespan of a top-of-the-line iPhone Pro Max is less than two years.

So I gave up and bought one iPhone 17 Pro MaxAnd once again I can run it for a day without a charge. It’s a difference of night and day.

a sample of one

Maybe my battery was particularly bad, or maybe it’s just me. But I’m not the only one who feels like sacrificing 20% ​​of your battery capacity in exchange for the promise of better battery life isn’t worth it. And I am not alone.

Also: iPhone battery drains after updating to iOS 26? Here’s why and how I fixed it

Julie Clover, writing for macrumorsHave been doing a similar experiment and came to this conclusion:

“Now my iPhone has two years of data limited to 80 percent charge, and I don’t think it’s worth it.”

I agree, which is why I’m going back to 100% charging and using Optimized Battery Charging instead, a feature that delays the charge from 80 to 100% so that it’s on time to start your day (this feature takes a while to activate as the handset needs time to learn your pattern). This seems like it would do more to reduce battery wear, at least on the earlier iPhones I have. So, maybe this, along with vapor chamber cooling, will keep my new battery going strong for a long time.

I can hope.

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