After less than a year, customers of the iPhone 14 Pro report significant declines in battery health and capacity.
Users of the iPhone 14 Pro are getting more and more worried about the condition of their phone’s battery. Less than a year after the iPhone 14 Pro’s initial release, a number of consumers have posted screenshots showing their declining battery life on Twitter, Reddit, and other social media platforms.
Beginning in March 2018, Apple added the “Battery Health” functionality to iPhones using iOS 11.3 and later. The “Batterygate” controversy inspired the inclusion of the feature. The “Battery Health” section was added to Settings to provide users with more insight regarding their iPhone’s battery at the time when Apple admitted that it had been covertly restricting iPhone performance as batteries grew older.
Lithium-ion batteries, which are used in iPhones, undergo chemical aging over the course of their useful lives. Apple says in a support document that a battery’s capacity to keep charge decreases with time. As a result, the intervals between recharges for a gadget are shortened.
The iPhone battery, according to Apple, is “designed to retain up to 80% of its original capacity at 500 complete charge cycles when operating under normal conditions.”
Performance on an iPhone can also be impacted by the battery’s health, and iOS has safeguards in place to balance the two. Apple clarifies:
The power needs of iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, iPhone 11 Pro Max, and later are dynamically monitored, and performance is managed so that it can address these needs in real time. The system is more advanced than previous iPhone battery and power management systems and allows your iPhone to reduce performance impacts from battery aging
While performance impacts are reduced as much as possible, battery aging might still eventually lead to noticeable, possibly temporary, effects. Depending on the battery state and the tasks that your iPhone is handling, examples might include longer app launch times, lower frame rates, reduced wireless-data throughput, backlight dimming, or lower speaker volume.
iOS controls the trade-off between battery life and performance. “Built-in dynamic software and hardware systems will help counter performance impacts that may be noticed as your iPhone battery chemically ages,” claims Apple.
Concerns about the iPhone 14 Pro’s maximum capacity battery
Users of the iPhone 14 Pro have been using Twitter and other social media sites more frequently over the past several months to publish screenshots of their battery’s “Maximum Capacity.”
You can find this number by opening the Settings app, selecting “Battery,” and then pressing “Battery Health and Charging.” According to Apple, this figure serves as a “measure of battery capacity relative to when it was new.” The upshot is that “lower capacity may result in fewer hours of usage between charges.”
Users may be noticing a change in the iPhone 14 Pro’s “Maximum Capacity” rating for a number of reasons. First, compared to earlier iPhone models, it’s possible that Apple changed the algorithm used to determine this figure.
It’s also possible that the iOS 17 beta has had an unusually significant impact on the condition of the iPhone battery. As usual, iOS beta versions are less polished than the publically available versions in terms of things like power and battery management.
Another theory is that unique elements of the iPhone 14 Pro, including the Always-On Display, are having an effect on the battery’s general health. In outdoor settings, the iPhone 14 Pro’s display can also achieve 2000 nits of peak brightness, which is nearly twice as bright as the iPhone 13 Pro.
Still, Apple hasn’t directly commented on these complaints from iPhone 14 Pro users, so this is all conjecture for now. In general, the company recommends battery replacements when “Maximum Capacity” falls below 80%. Less than one year after the iPhone 14 Pro’s release, some users are getting surprisingly close to that threshold.
iPhone battery replacements are covered as part of the one-year warranty included with every new iPhone purchase as well as for iPhone models covered by AppleCare+ plans (provided that the iPhone’s battery health is below 80%).
If your device is out of warranty or if you want a battery replacement before it falls below 80%, Tech Time can replace your battery.
Takeaways
The impact that “Maximum Capacity” degradation may have on iPhone battery life is more significant than the potential effects on performance. The battery life of your iPhone is inversely correlated with the “Maximum Capacity” figure.
The cycle count, or how frequently your iPhone has been charged, is another element that affects battery health. Finding this information is difficult thanks to Apple. My suggestion is coconutBattery, a third-party Mac application. To find the “cycle count” number, simply download the program, connect your iPhone to your Mac, and look for it. I have 232 cycles.
It also has two sides to it. You will need to charge your iPhone more frequently as the battery becomes older. The battery of your iPhone ages more quickly the more you charge it. The snowball effect here means that over time, the rate at which the battery in your iPhone ages will only increase.
If you charge less frequently and use lower-wattage charging methods, you may be able to slow down the deterioration in battery health. However, iPhone users shouldn’t have to worry about this.
Since the day the iPhone 14 Pro was introduced in September of last year, I’ve been unhappy with the battery life. The battery life of the iPhone 14 Pro, in my opinion, is noticeably worse than that of other current iPhone models. If the deterioration of these batteries is likewise accelerating, Apple needs to address that problem.
The health of an iPhone battery will always vary from person to person and depend on a variety of variables, such as how you charge, how frequently you charge, and more. An iPhone battery’s total capacity and condition might change straight away after they leave the assembly line.
With iPhones, battery aging is typical and expected. The maximum capacity of your iPhone is not always one of the conclusions to be drawn from these figures, but rather the rate at which this number is decreasing. Users of the iPhone 14 Pro have reported on Twitter that this figure is declining much more quickly than in previous years.