As an iPhone user, I have been frustrated with the frequent battery draining and lack of performance over time. After doing some research and testing, I am here to share how I improved my iPhone battery life, as well as other solutions I discovered. In this blog post, I’ll be exploring the ways to improve iPhone battery life and ways to maintain the health of the battery.
As your iPhone ages, your battery health decreases. You can’t stop the battery health of your iPhone from degrading.
You also can’t increase the capacity of your battery health. Still, you can take measures to extend its lifespan.
Read on to understand your iPhone battery better and how you can have more time before its health deteriorates.
| Factors & Causes | Description | Tips for Improvement |
|---|---|---|
| iPhone Battery Charge Cycle | iPhones have about 500 charge cycles before battery health decreases to 80%. | Use your iPhone wisely to minimize charge cycles. |
| Causes of Battery Degradation | Temperature changes, charging habits, and deep discharging cause chemical reaction changes in batteries. | Maintain a moderate temperature and avoid deep discharging. |
| When to Replace iPhone Battery | Replace the battery when it can’t hold enough charge power to last a day. | Monitor your usage pattern and replace the battery when necessary. |
| Regularly Update Apple Software | New iOS updates often include energy-saving features. | Always keep your iPhone updated with the latest iOS version. |
| Avoid Extreme Temperatures | Extremely low or high temperatures can damage battery and device components. | Keep your iPhone within 16 to 22 degrees Celsius. |
| Optimize Device Settings | Adjust brightness, enable low-power mode, and reduce background activity. | Use auto-brightness, dark mode, and limit non-essential background processes. |
| Disable Unused Apps and Features | Turn off features and apps you don’t use often. | Disable Bluetooth, GPS, non-critical app notifications, and background app refresh. |
| Battery Optimization | Use optimized battery charging, avoid overnight charging, and use official Apple chargers. | Enable optimized battery charging, charge up to 50% during storage, and avoid draining. |
Table of Contents
iPhone Battery Charge Cycle
What you first need to understand is that all batteries have charge cycles. iPhones have about 500 charge cycles before their health decreases to 80%.
Charge cycles don’t correspond to the number of times you charge your iPhone but the amount of discharge your iPhone makes.
Let’s illustrate:
Your iPhone is at 100% full charge. Say you used 60% today and charged it overnight, giving you a 100% full charge. You cannot count this as one charge cycle because you have only discharged 60%.
On the second day, you used only 20% of battery life, and then 20% on the third day. One charge cycle would only count after expending 20% on the third day after you discharged the full 100%.
In short, charge cycles count the calculated usage.
What Causes iPhone Battery to Degrade?
Take note that even at 80% capacity, Apple still considers your device to be in optimal condition.
Apple built its iPhone batteries with a fail-safe feature. iPhones have excess capacity, allowing them to run without using their full operating power.
Batteries degrade and chemically age over a period. Temperature changes, charging habits, and deep discharging are among the reasons causing chemical reaction changes in the battery.
When To Replace Your iPhone Battery?
Battery life differs from battery life span. The first refers to how long your iPhone will run before it needs charging. The second refers to how long your battery would last before replacing it.
You don’t need to rush and buy a new battery when its health drops by 20%. An 80% health level can still get you through the day. There are no one-size-fits-all criteria when you talk about the optimal battery condition. Your battery health mainly depends on your usage pattern.
So, should you replace your iPhone battery?
Replace your battery when your iPhone can’t hold enough charge power to last a day, making your device unusable and unfit for your needs.
Can You Improve iPhone Battery Health?
Can you improve iPhone battery health? If you mean by improve is increasing your battery health back to 100%, then no. However, if you want to extend your iPhone battery health, below are a few ways you can do it.
Regularly Update Your Apple Software
Check Apple for updates. A major iOS upgrade includes new energy-saver features that help extend your iPhone battery life. Make sure your iPhone is always using the latest iOS update.
Avoid Extreme Temperatures
Avoid too low or too high temperatures that can damage your device components and battery. Maintain a temperature of an average of 16 to 22 degrees Celsius.
Optimize Device Settings
You can do this in various ways.
- Adjust the brightness levels of your device by activating auto-brightness. You can also use dark mode.
- Avoid using moving backgrounds on your home screen
- Reduce background activity
- Enable low-power mode
These steps help reduce discharging battery power, thus reducing the charge cycle.
Disable Unused Applications and Features
Disable features and applications that you do not often use:
- Bluetooth
- GPS/Location (especially when at home)
- Notifications of non-critical applications
- Background app refresh
- Vibrate/Sound/Alarms
- Enable sleep when your device is idle.
- Auto updates of applications
- Built-in Apple applications like motion animation effects, AirDrop, My Photo Steam, Fitness Tracking, Raise to Wake
Battery Optimization
The iOS 13 introduced optimized battery charging. This feature increases the lifespan of your iPhone following an algorithm that ensures less charging time.
You can tap on the “Charge Now” button to fully charge immediately by enabling this feature.
Other ways to optimize your battery:
- Keep it charged 50% when placed in storage
- Avoid charging overnight to keep from overheating
- Do not drain your battery
- Use official Apple chargers
Conclusion
Read more: Can you add extensions to Chrome on iPhone?
Batteries are consumables, and you can’t keep them forever. You can’t improve the battery’s health, but you can take steps to extend its lifespan.
The less you use the phone, the longer its health capacity will stay without dropping. However, other tips help as well, like the ones mentioned above.
Read more: Facetime won’t ring
