Comment by icebergonfire | Hacker News Reader

Comment by icebergonfire | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

Anecdotally speaking, the 80% limit seems to be key to better battery aging long term.Anecdotally speaking, the 80% limit seems to be key to better battery aging long-term.

My launch-day iPhone 15 Pro Max is at 95% battery health. That phone has had the 80% limit enabled since day one, and I very rarely have had to increase it for specific busy days.

My previous iPhone 12 Pro Max very quickly descended to 88% battery health after a year.

My charging habits remain the same: fast and furious Magsafe/Qi/Qi2 charging every time there is a charger nearby (remote worker, so that’s almost all the time).

I do have unpleasant thoughts about the 80% battery charge limit not being available on anything older than the 15, since it turns out it can be sideloaded via Nugget and MobileGestalt manipulation.

Not enough to push me away from the walled garden (these phones are aging better than my previous flagships from other ecosystems), but a reminder of the rough edges in it.

It seems strange, though, that one would habitually charge to their "effective" capacity of 80% for the purpose of preserving the battery for the next owner

I do it for the purpose of preserving the battery for myself down the line. I'll go for a full charge if I expect to need it, but 80% is usually more than enough so why put unnecessary wear on the battery?

isn't that intentionally creating a lot of mental anguish every day (trying to make 80% last the full day) in exchange for just one day of simplicity at some theoretical point in the future?

Feels a bit like worrying about tomorrow stealing joy from today

Homo sapiens is a genus full of anxiety, as our ancestors who didn't "worry about tomorrow" either died from hunger, or got killed by those who did. Anxiety is an evolutionary feature.

> Anxiety is an evolutionary feature

I used to think this way. Spent decades justifying it as a motivator. It's a trap.

It made sense if you were risking your life whenever you went to get food. If you're trying to recreate those feelings by undercharging the battery of your smartphone, you're just bored

It doesn’t matter. You’re not trying to recreate anything. Your brain is just wired that way already. You’ve got it from your parents, who got it from their parents, all the way to our predecessors in Africa.

> isn't that intentionally creating a lot of mental anguish every day (trying to make 80% last the full day)

Not at all, I only use around 40% per day.

> in exchange for just one day of simplicity

More like avoiding months of that mental anguish in the future because my phone can still easily handle the 40% I use instead of having degraded down to where that is the limit.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com