Current Events > Yikes, your $1,000 iPhone X's battery could wear out in about 18 months

(+) Yeah! (+)

http://www.zdnet.com/article/your-iphone-x-iphone-8-battery-could-wear-out-in-about-18-months/

Now, in my opinion, two of the best features of the iPhone X and iPhone 8 are fast charging and wireless charging. They've essentially eliminated the low-grade anxiety that I'd feel when my battery was getting below 50 percent during the day. Pop the iPhone on a wireless pad or hook it up to a fast charger and it's always ready for action.

But the ability to easily recharge the iPhone masks a nagging feeling I've had about Apple's latest crop of iPhones -- that the battery life is far from good. And I'm saying that as an iPhone 8 Plus user, which is listed as having the best battery life (at least with regard to internet use, which is what I use it for the most) of the newest iPhones.

So the other day, on a whim, I decided to check out how many recharge cycles my iPhone had been through in the less than four months I've had it and I was horrified to discover that I was already at 82, and that this had increased to 91 by the point I'd owned it four months (I got my iPhone 8 Plus on launch day).

If I've gone through 91 recharge cycles in four months, that means that I could easily hit the 455 recharge cycles after about 20 months of ownership, and since that's not allowing for any battery wear, I'm realistically expecting that the battery inside my iPhone to hit the 500 cycles mark in about 18 months.

18 months.

Previously I would have expected an iPhone to make it closer to the 36-month/three-year mark before hitting the 500 recharge cycle (working out as a full recharge every couple of days or so).

That's scary, doubly so when I consider that this iPhone hasn't been heavily used in the four months that I've had it (I've been switching between older devices a lot as part of the testing I do).

And it's not just me. I've heard from other iPhone X and iPhone 8 owners who tell me that their battery recharge cycles are in a similar ballpark.

So what's going on here?

It seems that Apple adding the speed and convenience of wireless and fast charging is masking the fact that newer iPhones are placing quite a heavy demand on battery life, and that the device -- even the larger Plus devices -- are needing to be topped up more regularly than older devices, and that this will wear out the battery even faster than we've seen previously.

If you upgrade every year, this isn't going to be a problem for you, but if you're the kind of person who likes to get a few years out of their iPhone before getting a new one, this is something that you need to think about. You either need to take measures to minimize battery usage during the day, or plan for a battery replacement down the line.

And this is from the company trying to outlaw right to repair.
---

That's a lot of assumptions...I have an iphone X and I charge my phone less often than any other phone I've had. About once every 1-1.5 days.

Seems like it'll last just as long as any other phone.
---

I mean thats kinda why Apple slowed down their phones the older they got. So that wouldnt happen. But then people threw a bitch fit.
---

I don't care because I'm not poor.
---

TheVipaGTS posted...

I mean thats kinda why Apple slowed down their phones the older they got. So that wouldnt happen. But then people threw a bitch fit.

If you are going to market your phones on having great batteries then you should actually have great batteries and not fake it with cheap software hacks. It's like the volkwagen shit all over again.
---

ChromaticAngel posted...

TheVipaGTS posted...

I mean thats kinda why Apple slowed down their phones the older they got. So that wouldnt happen. But then people threw a bitch fit.

If you are going to market your phones on having great batteries then you should actually have great batteries and not fake it with cheap software hacks. It's like the volkwagen shit all over again.

I don't see any phone makers advertise "great batteries" anymore. Now it's all just about fast charging.
---

Who the fuck has anxiety about their phone being below 50% and didn't bring a regular wired charger with them everywhere before?
---

Went from a iphone 5s to the 8, use it about the same (heavy usage for work), still use the regular charger, and would say the 8 lasts slightly longer than the 5s did even when it was new.

Also at 88 charges for it (bought on launch)

I seem to remembering reading that it counts it as a charge cycle whenever it goes below and then above the 90% threshold so even though it may say you have a large number of cycles, the actual physical wear is much less than it would be if those were full 0-100% charge cycles

Pitlord_Special posted...

Went from a iphone 5s to the 8, use it about the same (heavy usage for work), still use the regular charger, and would say the 8 lasts slightly longer than the 5s did even when it was new.

Also at 88 charges for it (bought on launch)

I seem to remembering reading that it counts it as a charge cycle whenever it goes below and then above the 90% threshold so even though it may say you have a large number of cycles, the actual physical wear is much less than it would be if those were full 0-100% charge cycles

I've got the opposite experience. Running my phone to 0 always causes issues with battery life afterwards.
---

Someone just needs to make an operating system that apes the iOS as much as possible. I know a number of Apple users that have been sticking with iPhone solely because they like the layout of everything and don't want to readjust to a new system.
---

what i have found really helps get rid of that "battery life anxiety" feeling when your phone gets below X% at a certain point in the day is to turn off the battery percentage entirely. then you just dont care about your battery life and go about your day, and most likely your phone will last
---

K181 posted...

Someone just needs to make an operating system that apes the iOS as much as possible. I know a number of Apple users that have been sticking with iPhone solely because they like the layout of everything and don't want to readjust to a new system.

I mean with certain launchers you can do exactly that.
---

iPhone X is the Windows ME of smartphones
---