Man follows Apple's iPhone charging advice for two years and his battery life ended up worse than expected

A tech journalist decided to follow Apple’s iPhone charging advice to the letter for two years, and his battery life ended up worse than he ever expected.

The iPhone owner thought he was doing everything right to protect his battery.

He followed Apple’s charging advice closely, limited his phone to 80 percent, and avoided anything that could cause extra wear.

After nearly two years, the results were not at all what he expected.

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He followed Apple’s iPhone charging advice to the letter

The gadget experiment began with an iPhone 15 Pro Max in late 2023, with the goal of stretching battery lifespan as much as possible.

The tech journalist enabled Apple’s built-in charging tools, including the 80 percent charge limit and Optimized Battery Charging, hoping that sacrificing a chunk of daily capacity would pay off long term.

At first, it seemed like a smart move.

After the initial adjustment, the reduced charge ceiling felt manageable, and the phone usually finished the day with plenty of power left.

A little over a year in, after around 355 recharge cycles, the battery’s maximum capacity had dropped to 91 percent.

That number was not alarming, but the owner began noticing how much the 80 percent cap reduced his real-world runtime.

On the rare occasions that the phone charged to 100 percent for calibration, the difference felt massive.

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His verdict on the experiment

By the 17-month mark, the iPhone had logged more than 500 recharge cycles using a proper Apple charger, and battery health had slipped to 89 percent.

That combination of normal battery degradation and starting every day at 80 percent created a daily problem.

The phone was struggling to make it through a full day, and by mid to late afternoon, it was already hovering near the low battery zone, and power banks became a regular part of his routine.

Even temporarily switching back to 100 percent charging did not fully solve the issue, and the battery health was still too high to qualify for an easy replacement under Apple’s usual standards.

In the end, the journalist gave up on the experiment and upgraded to a newer iPhone, saying the difference in battery life was immediate.

His takeaway was blunt: limiting your iPhone to 80 percent and following Apple’s iPhone charging advice may sound like the perfect battery-saving recipe, but after two years, it left him with worse daily battery life than he expected.