Does iPhone battery health really matter?

[Paulalove98]

I just upgraded to an iPhone not too long ago, and people say you should maintain the health of the battery, I got mine open box condition with 86% battery health, meanwhile the used one I previously bought has 98% health but that battery dies faster. Does it really matter as long as I take care of the phone?

[horatiohornblower]

There's a number of variables that go into it. Really, when battery health matters is when it is no longer good enough for you.

As for life between models. The newer iPhone generally has a more efficient CPU than the older iPhone. It can get the same amount of work done using less energy.

When doing something like browsing the web. The newer CPU spends less time at max load. It may never hit its max load browsing. So, doing something like looking at a web page. You might be hitting 70% load on an old models CPU and only 30% on the newer CPU. The newer phone will last longer.

Viewing videos may get even better efficiency. If the new iPhone can use hardware decoding and the old one has to use software decoding on a newer CODEC. Meaning the new one might be at 5% load and the old one at 80%. For the same video.

Way back when. My iPhone 5s with a new battery could only last a couple hours with tethering enabled. The phone was running quite hot to do tethering from WiFi to LTE. Web browsing, videos, &c all hammered that phone by the time I got rid of it. My iPhone XS would hardly get effected when tethering and doesn't get warm doing it. Meaning the CPU barely has to work at it. Web browsing and videos still don't effect it much. Even with my battery down to 81%.

I think the OLED panels are also more energy efficient than the old LCD panels.

[SnowedIn]

It only matters, really to you. And the measure of that is: do you have enough charge to live the life with your phone that you want to live between charges? If the answer is yes, you're good. :) If the answer is no, then you're phone shopping.

There are tech people to whom those numbers matter (and that's perfectly fine) but at the end of the day (literally) for most of us, the phone is a tool and the only question that matters is whether the tool does the jobs we need and want it to do when we need it.

[motownplayer2000]

It does. Usage and health make a huge difference. Think of it this way. If you don’t take care of your heart, you don’t exercise, sleep, eat heart healthy foods, get it checked on every so often. How will your quality of life be? Will you be able to do the things you want, live a long life.. same lesson with the iPhone battery. You don’t monitor it, take steps to ensure that it stays good and healthy. You will not have a battery for very long. You will need to replace it… (aka heart transplant in humans) or the phone will die.. no code for that for humans.

[Astarlessnightsky]

The battery is number one reason to get a new phone, its the only part that gets worse over time and at some point the battery dies too fast, at least too fast for me and with an android.

I don't know if there is a difference with iphones, however i doubt it, its the same lithium battery.

[Paulalove98]

The battery doesn’t die fast on this phone, it was the other one I had

[Astarlessnightsky]

New one or old one dies faster?

But battery life is also depending on the usage, how many apps run in the background how much you use it, and so on... i usually use a new phone more, espacially in the first days as it needs lots of setting up.

[Still-alive]

Eh not really. I've had my iPhone 6 plus for years now. Haven’t noticed a difference in the battery life between when it was new and now.

[AmeerX]

Iphone and batteries are overrated in my opinion.

[Dav1dTh0ma389]

Battery and health always matter. It's what keeps us going and going and going and going