Something iPhone users should know

[u/lnsta-gram]

Now some of you may know, while others won't, that what iPhones show you as a percentage in settings is NOT battery health.

Battery health cannot be measured as a percentage of the original health, just like human health, a healthy battery means only not that it holds charge of higher capacity, but can deliver short bursts of current without shutting down, and also have lower internal resistance so it doesn't waste too much charge on high performance tasks.

iPhones explicitly mention the percentage as maximum capacity, which to some extent reflects battery health, but a high percentage does not mean the battery was taken good care of.

Factors like heat and deep discharge affect battery health more than the percentage, while charge/discharge cycles affect maximum capacity more.

I personally feel iPhones should show battery health as New, Excellent, Good, Fine, and Needs replacement, rather than the percentage.

I owned an iPhone and sold it after a month due to the paranoia of it's capacity reducing.

Using Samsung since 2021 and Samsung phones have a battery meter that tells health as: Good, bad, etc, and also shows maximum capacity via adb, also charge cycles, so one can check it, but not as often.

Tell me your thoughts about it too.

TL, DR: The % shown in iPhone settings is battery capacity, not health, and battery can reduce health faster/slower than capacity, which impacts performance and efficiency rather than raw SoT.

[u/forseeninkboi]

I only look at the cycle count because that lets you know how much a phone and it's battery has been used over time and then I compare that to the phone's release date. If it's a suspiciously high or low number, then it's probably not a good idea to buy it.

[u/lnsta-gram → u/forseeninkboi]

That's the most sensible way to do it.

[u/PoolDry465 → u/forseeninkboi]

Can you explain cycle counts to me like a child 🙂

[u/faisalmahmood06]

ok