It’s a cruel irony that the battery in your iPhone doesn’t like being fully charged. The longer your iPhone spends fully charged, the shorter the life of your battery. Charging your iPhone up to 100 per cent regularly can cause your battery to chemically age, which means it won’t be able to hold as much charge. Thanks, chemistry. Since iOS 13, your iPhone has had an optimised battery charging feature that’s intended to reduce the wear and tear on your battery, and now there’s a new tool in the battery protection arsenal if you’re using one of the latest models of iPhone. Here’s how to use optimised battery charging on iPhone 15.
What is optimised battery charging on iPhone?
Optimised battery charging is a clever feature that uses on-device machine learning to get to know your charging habits. It then adapts how your iPhone charges in order to prolong your battery life. For example, if you go to bed at 11PM each night, put your iPhone on its charging stand, and take it off again when you get up at 7AM, your iPhone will learn this routine. It will then stop charging at 80 per cent during the night and will start charging again just in time for you to wake up with your battery fully charged to 100 per cent. It can take up to two weeks for your iPhone to learn your habits before the optimised charging will kick in.
How is optimised battery charging on iPhone 15 different?
The iPhone 15 series is the first set of iPhones that add a new option to optimised charging. Along with the option to turn optimised charging on or off like you can on older iPhones, there’s also a third option: 80 per cent limit. As you might expect, this option stops your iPhone charging beyond 80 per cent, even if you’re charging your iPhone outside of your usual habits. Your iPhone won’t get fully charged, but the life of your battery should be extended. It’s up to you whether you feel the extended battery lifespan is worth the trade-off of having the inevitable reduction in battery life each day that only charging to 80 per cent will bring.
How to use optimised battery charging on iPhone 15
You can choose to use the standard optimised charging, the 80 per cent limit, or to turn off optimised charging completely within your iPhone’s Battery settings.
- Open the Settings app.
- Scroll down and tap Battery.
- Select Battery Health & Charging.
- Tap Charging Optimisation.
- Select from Optimised Battery Charging, 80 per cent Limit, or None.
My iPhone is still charging to 100 per cent
If you choose to use the new 80 per cent limit on your iPhone 15, you may find that your iPhone still charges up to 100 per cent sometimes. This is part of the feature; your iPhone needs to charge to 100 per cent now and again in order to re-calibrate. As your battery ages, the amount of charge that it can hold will slowly reduce, which in turn means that the 80 per cent value will also decrease over time. By charging your iPhone to the full capacity of the battery, your iPhone can get a more accurate picture of what 80 per cent looks like.
Which iPhones have the new 80 per cent limit for optimised charging?
Currently, the only iPhones that offer the 80 per cent limit option for battery charging are as follows:
