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Comment by _diyar | Hacker News Reader

Rule does not apply to gadgets that already retain 80% charge capacity at 1k charge cycles.

What is the share of the smartphone market that this applies to?

You can bet it will be measured in such a way that the major companies’ devices will qualify. And that it will have little bearing on the retained charge amount you’ll have in real life use. I’m at 82% and 714 cycles. But it’s a joke to suggest that all cycles are equal. Some people never go outside the 20-80 band, others charge to 100% and keep it there all day, then burn it down to 10%. Both of those generate “cycles” but are very far apart.

Do we know if and how cycles are defined in the regulation?

My iphone 15 pro max. manufactured in Aug 2023. 536 cycles. is at 84%. I doubt it will make it to 1k at above 80%.

Huh interesting datapoint. I just checked on mine, also August 2023 15PM, and 86% @ 707 cycles here. I’m pretty careless with charging it whenever is convenient/letting it drain to 0% while traveling/etc as well.

My 15 pro max is at 649 cycles and 91%

We have similar phones. I’m now at 82% at 714 cycles. In real life, our devices wouldn’t qualify but I’m sure Apple will be allowed to write the testing methodology in a way that’ll be nice and gentle.

iPhone Air. 225 cycles, started use in October 2025, 99%

It’s more about the calendric aging than number of cycles these days. My own stayed at 99% until ~400 cycles, and then in a few days it dropped to 94%.

My iPhone 14 Pro is at 88% but I have no charging cycle count.

0%.

Wait, that’s not true: In true regulatory capture fashion, I’ll bet the exemption requires some sort of testing/certification that makes it significantly more expensive for smaller firms to bring devices to market.

> I’ll bet the exemption requires some sort of testing/certification that makes it significantly more expensive for smaller firms to bring devices to market.

Maybe that would be the case in the US but since that is the EU it will likely be some kind of self-certification where the manufacturer swears that they're not lying, and if enough people complain then maybe one of the national regulators will look into it and ask the manufacturer to do better.

Might be a good idea to verify before sharing misinformation

Recently my 2021 macBook gave me an alert that its battery was not charging past 80%. I took it to the Apple Store and because it had only been through 971 charge cycles, the battery was replaced for free.

I'm still waiting for 2023 MBP to hit that point. It's at 82% right now, with 67 cycles. It's been stuck at 82% for a few months now, though, stubbornly staying in the "normal" range.

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