Mastering iPhone Battery Life: Key Updates in iOS 18 and New Charging Methods

Jason Hiner/ZDNET

Apple has been putting a lot of effort into helping iPhone users prevent premature battery wear – an issue that’s plagued the iPhone for years.

One of the main ways that Apple has addressed this is with overcharging prevention. Lithium-ion batteries can suffer from overcharging, which can lead to the production of metallic lithium inside the cell, posing a fire hazard. Limiting the charge to 80% significantly reduces the risk of battery damage through overcharging.

Also: Every iPhone 16 model compared: Should you buy the standard, Plus, Pro, or Max?

With iOS 13, Apple introduced Optimized Battery Charging, a technology that extends the lifespan of the iPhone’s battery by reducing the time it is spent fully charged. The tech uses on-device machine learning to learn your daily charging routine, holding the charge at 80% and only completing the charge to 100% shortly before you typically unplug your phone.

With iOS 17, Apple introduced an 80% charge limit option that halts at 80% and only resumes when the charge level hits 75%. Every so often, the battery is charged to 100% to ensure that information about the battery’s health and capacity is accurate.

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Now – with iOS 18 – Apple’s operating system allows the user to take a more hands-on approach to minimizing battery wear by introducing a new set of charging options – 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, and 100% – to choose from. You can find the new charge limit recommendation in the Settings app under Battery > Charging.

iOS 18 charge limits.

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET

So, what’s going on here? Wouldn’t limiting charging to 80% be the best option for long-term battery health?

Probably, but not by a huge amount, and this is a compromise based on my phone usage. While I’ve been more than happy with limiting my charge to 80%, a lot of people see a 20% cut in battery capacity as unacceptable. Additionally, newer batteries can handle being pushed more than batteries that have been through many months or even years of charge/discharge cycles.

Setting the charge limit to 100% triggers this message.

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET

The older the battery, the more sensitive it will be to overcharging, and the more wear it will suffer from being pushed too hard.

The good thing about this feature is that you can adjust these settings to suit your changing needs. If you have a long day without access to a recharge, you can temporarily disable the limit to get a full charge and either set that as a new permanent limit or have it roll back the next day.

Also: The best iPhone power banks: Expert tested and reviewed

With the release of iOS 18 , the charge limit feature is only found on the iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 handsets ; the option is not available on older iPhones.

Early beta versions of iOS 18 had a feature that would display a warning for slow chargers, but I could never get this to reliably work and it seems to have been removed from the release version.

See also

iPhone envy? Here are 3 iOS 17 features already available on Android

5 useful iOS 17 features Apple quietly released at WWDC 2023

Your iPhone’s Wallet app is getting two big iOS 17 updates. Here they are

iPhone overheating? Here are 8 potential causes and their solutions

• iPhone envy? Here are 3 iOS 17 features already available on Android
• 5 useful iOS 17 features Apple quietly released at WWDC 2023
• Your iPhone’s Wallet app is getting two big iOS 17 updates. Here they are
• iPhone overheating? Here are 8 potential causes and their solutions

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