Your iPhone is designed to last for a long time. With a solid frame and optimum protection, your iPhone can even take some nasty hits and come out unscathed. The thing you need to worry about the most is the battery capacity. Smartphone batteries are not meant to last forever. The heat generated after every charge cycle slowly adds up and degrades the battery over time. Luckily, there are some steps you can take to extend its life. In this article, we bring you the top 10 methods to improve and retain iPhone battery health.
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Don’t use your iPhone in extreme temperatures
Ambient temperature plays a significant part in determining your iPhone’s battery health. If your iPhone is constantly subjected to extreme temperatures, its battery health will take a hit. The 16-22°C window is deemed as the ‘ideal comfort zone’. This means your phone’s battery will be unaffected by the temperature as long as it operates within this temperature window. Exposing your phone to temperatures above 35°C can affect its usage and battery capacity. The battery life will drop by a considerable margin as well. Putting your phone on charge at this temperature can permanently damage the battery too. The other end of the extreme does not affect the battery permanently but it can alter the performance of your phone. Your phone can take a longer time to charge in cold temperatures but the battery health will not take a significant hit.
Remove the phone case while charging
Charging your phone’s battery generates heat. This heat needs to be dissipated quickly to ensure the battery lasts longer. Your iPhone has an effective cooling system for the battery, but it also relies on the phone casing to dissipate heat to its surroundings. Your phone’s case can prevent this from happening. Instead of conducting the heat to the nearby surfaces, it can trap the heat around the rear panel of the iPhone, increasing the temperature. This is why it is advised you remove the case while charging your iPhone.
Do not unnecessarily charge your phone
Your phone doesn’t need to be 100% charged at all times. If you frantically reach for the charger as soon as your device’s battery drops to half, it can have a negative effect on battery health. Batteries degrade over time. What degrades batteries is the heat generated during a charge cycle. Apple says that your iPhone’s battery capacity drops to 80% after 500 charge cycles. Ideally, you should plug in your phone to charge when it hits 30% and charge it to 80%.
Do not charge your phone overnight
Excessive current running into your phone’s battery can permanently damage the cells. If you leave your phone to charge overnight, it is bound to take a toll on battery health. iPhone has a great feature called ‘Optimised Battery Charging’ for people who charge their phone overnight. You can find it by going to Settings>Battery>Battery Health & Charging. Once Optimised Battery Charging is turned on, your iPhone will observe your charging patterns. If you charge your phone overnight and plug it out as soon as your wake up, your iPhone will charge the battery to 99% at regular speed, then slowly trickle charge the remaining 1% until you wake up. This prevents excessive current from flowing into the battery.
Update iOS to the latest version
Every new iteration of your phone’s OS comes with better and smarter ways to manage the battery. Apart from giving a boost to your iPhone’s speed and performance, new iOS versions may also offer new features that help you manage battery health in the long term. To update your iPhone, go to Settings>General>Software Update.
Use an official Apple charger
This goes without saying but third-party power adapters and cables aren’t going to deliver a better consistency than the official Apple charger. Apple’s original accessories are better optimised for your iPhone. Whereas a third-party charger may damage your device in the long run. There are a lot of low-grade third-party chargers in the market that don’t cost as much but will severely damage the battery’s health.
Turn off unnecessary background functions
It is a good idea to turn off any background functions that you aren’t actively using. This includes location, WiFi, Bluetooth, and such. These background functions slowly drain the battery, increasing the frequency of charging cycles. Since the idea is to keep the charging cycles to a minimum, it is essential your make sure your iPhone isn’t getting drained faster due to these background functions.
Use Low Power Mode
Once your iPhone hits a 20% charge level, the system reminds you to either plug in the charger or turn on the Low Power Mode. To maximize your iPhone’s battery health, it is essential that you don’t let the battery drain out before plugging it in to charge. As we mentioned earlier, you should keep the charge level between 30-80%. Just like you don’t want to hit 100% battery level every time, draining out your phone can also be counterproductive. Once they are completely depleted, the battery cells can take a long time to charge, resulting in more heat. Enabling Low Power Mode ensures that your phone lasts longer on low charge, giving you slightly more time to plug it in to charge.
Don’t use your iPhone while charging it
You may know this already, but using your phone while charging also diminishes the battery life, and in the longer run, the battery capacity. You can still do small tasks like checking and responding to messages, but more power-intensive activities like gaming and navigation should be strictly avoided. While performing these tasks, you are actively draining the battery while it is being charged, resulting in greater heat production.
Storing your iPhone for a long time? Charge it to 50%
If you plan on stashing away your iPhone for a long time, charging it to 100% before storing it can negatively affect battery health. What’s worse is if you drain the battery and then store your iPhone for a long time without charging it. This can make the battery enter the ‘deep discharge state’ and can seriously inhibit its capacity to hold charge. While storing your iPhone, it is also important you ensure that the surrounding area is dry and not too hot.
Read Also: Apple announces new features for cognitive, speech, and vision accessibility
Conclusion
These are the top 10 methods to improve and retain the battery health of your iPhone. If your iPhone has witnessed a sharp decline in battery capacity within the first year, you should get it checked. If you have an AppleCare+ package, you can get your iPhone’s battery replaced if it hits less than 80% capacity within the first two years of purchase.
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