Last year’s Apple flagship introduced a new feature to limit charging to 80%, supposedly boosting the iPhone’s battery life. It’s also a feature of the iPhone 16, but after 12 months, we still didn’t know how well it worked. Fortunately, someone has dug a little deeper, and it seems we all should have limited our batteries at the first opportunity.
We’ve got the German site Macwelt to thank for the iPhone battery life testing results, with the investigation revealing a difference between iPhone 15 batteries limited to 80% and those that weren’t after a year of use. Unsurprisingly, batteries charged to 100% are generally worse off after 12 months than those that have never breached 80%. The simple takeaway is that if you own a new Apple smartphone or you’re debating picking up one of the devices from our guide to the best gaming iPhones, you should limit your battery to 80% as soon as possible.
However, while there’s a noticeable difference between iPhone 15 batteries limited to 80% and those that charge to 100% every time, it’s not as big as you might think. Macwelt’s graph indicates that the maximum capacity for 80% limited batteries floats between 95% and 99%, while 100% chargers are down just a little at 93% to 98%. Still, I’ve lasted over an hour on just 1% juice on my iPhone before, so I’ll take every percentage point I can get.
It’ll be interesting to see if Macwelt recreates the same test this time next year with the new iPhone 16. We’ve already reported on how a robot arm has proven the latest iPhone’s battery life dominance over the big-name Androids and last year’s Apple flagship, but we’re still in the dark about the new model’s battery capacity so soon after its big launch.
It’s also worth pointing out that Apple has recently raised the price of battery repairs for the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max models, so it’s more important than ever to make sure you’re keeping a healthy battery. If instead of stellar battery life, you’re looking for a new phone with game-changing performance, be sure to check out our guide to the best gaming phones while you’re here, with options to meet all needs and budgets.
