Is wired or wireless charging better for the phone? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each? If I have an iPhone 16 and use a wired charger, is there any reason to buy a wireless charger? Thank you.
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
iPhone 16, iOS 18
An iPhone 16 battery will last at least 3 years; these are newer batteries with 1,000 cycle life (compared with iOS 14 and earlier phones, which were 500 cycles).
And even if it doesn’t you can get it replaced at any Apple store, usually while you wait.
There is very little you can do to damage an iPhone battery; about the only thing that will reduce the useful life is to routinely use the phone until it goes to zero and shuts down, and not recharge it immediately.
mitsguy2001 wrote:
The main reason I'm asking ("overthinking", as you say) is because my batteries seem to go bad before everybody else's battery goes bad. I need this new phone to work well for at least 3 years.
The expected life of a battery is about two years. Unless you are doing something terrible to the phone like leaving it in a hot car in the sun in the summer, there isn't a huge amount you can do to affect the lifespan. Use optimized charging.
Remember, just because the battery is no longer good, that doesn't mean you need to buy a new phone. Just getting the battery replaced. It's about $100, and the phone will be good for quite a while longer.
mitsguy2001 wrote:
I didn’t think the battery could be replaced.
Ah, no the battery can be replaced at an Apple store or other Authorized Apple Service Providers, such as Best Buy or Microcenter, usually while you wait→iPhone Battery Replacement - Official Apple Support
To give more background information:
It seems that every past phone I've had, the charging port becomes less reliable as time goes on. I'm already concerned that the protector that my current phone's case has may, ironically, be damaging the port. What do you think? I think most of the damage was likely because I usually plug it in to my car's USB port in order to listen to music.
Back when I bought the iPhone 8, I was sold a wireless charger, since I was told (perhaps inaccurately) that wired charging damages the battery. But, much of the time, the wireless charger didn't actually charge the battery, so I quickly gave up on it. Plus, I read (perhaps inaccurately) that wireless charging damages the battery. A few years later, when I got the iPhone SE (3rd generation), I was told that both USB-A chargers and wireless chargers damage the battery, so I was told a USB-C charger, which worked really well. I was told that plugging it into my car won't significantly damage the battery. When I got the iPhone 16, I was again told that wireless charging damages the battery.
So, if I'm overthinking it, it's because there is so much misinformation out there, and I have no way of knowing what is accurate or inaccurate. And sometimes it's just based on experiences. If somebody uses, for example, wireless charging, and their battery is a lemon, they may assume that the wireless charging was the cause, even if not.
I'm just as concerned about damaging the USB-C port as I am concerned about the battery, especially since it seems that I unknowingly damaged ports before, and I am also concerned about the case.
mitsguy2001 wrote:
So, if I'm overthinking it, it's because there is so much misinformation out there, and I have no way of knowing what is accurate or inaccurate. And sometimes it's just based on experiences. If somebody uses, for example, wireless charging, and their battery is a lemon, they may assume that the wireless charging was the cause, even if not.
I'm just as concerned about damaging the USB-C port as I am concerned about the battery, especially since it seems that I unknowingly damaged ports before, and I am also concerned about the case.
My solution, tape up the port or buy a rubber bung, and use Magsafe, wifi, and bluetooth for everything.
All my phones have degraded on a curve which seems to level out at 83%. It keeps Apple in Applecare+ revenue, by design probably.
My car is too old to have Carplay. If I connect through BlueTooth, I cannot select what music to play other than by manually selecting it on the phone, which is not an option when driving. If I connect with a cable, I can use voice commands to pick music.
Whatever. Just try to minimise cable connection unless you really have to.
I have offered advice from a personal experience, please take it gracefully without putting up barriers based on details you failed to give in the original question.
Good luck.
mitsguy2001 wrote:
Not an option for me, since I can't select what music to listen to if I connect to my car via BlueTooth. It has to be wired.
No, it doesn't. Why can't you use Siri?
My car doesn't have CarPlay. It doesn't even have Bluetooth. I use an Amazon Auto Echo to connect my iPhone to my car without plugging anything into the phone. There are lots of other devices that will accomplish the same thing. Then, I have a MagSafe charger attached to my vent clip. When I get into the car, I stick the phone on the MagSafe charger and use Siri for anything I need to do on the phone. Note that my setup requires an AUX jack.
mitsguy2001 wrote:
Can't use Siri while driving. If I try to, it says that the phone needs to be unlocked, and that they don't recommend unlocking it while driving. Yes, it actually says that.
Then you need to fix the Siri settings. Make sure it's set to work while the phone is locked. My phone is not connected to my car by wires and I have no problem using Siri to select music or to use Maps or send messages. My phone can be unconnected to anything, just sitting on the seat of the car next to me and I can do those things.
Regardless of settings, how do I use Siri when the phone is locked? I don't think it's possible. Plus, even when the phone is unlocked, it always misunderstands what I'm trying to say. I'll ask it to play a song, and it instead calls somebody who I don't want to call.
Also, how do you get Siri to play music from the iTunes library? Even when the phone is unlocked, and even when it doesn't mishear my command, it seems random where it tries to look for music.
mitsguy2001 wrote:
Regardless of settings, how do I use Siri when the phone is locked? I don't think it's possible.
I just told you it's possible. I do it every time I'm in the car.
Also, how do you get Siri to play music from the iTunes library? Even when the phone is unlocked, and even when it doesn't mishear my command, it seems random where it tries to look for music.
"Siri, play music by Dengue Fever." Music by Dengue Fever starts playing. For me, it just works.
IdrisSeabright wrote:
mitsguy2001 wrote:
Regardless of settings, how do I use Siri when the phone is locked? I don't think it's possible.
I just told you it's possible. I do it every time I'm in the car.
I'm not denying that it's possible. I'm just asking you how you do it, since I obviously don't know how to.
Also, how do you get Siri to play music from the iTunes library? Even when the phone is unlocked, and even when it doesn't mishear my command, it seems random where it tries to look for music.
"Siri, play music by Dengue Fever." Music by Dengue Fever starts playing. For me, it just works.
For me, it's random. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it attempts to get me to sign up for Apple Music. Sometimes it creates a Pandora station. Sometimes it tries to upgrade my Pandora account. Sometimes it does nothing at all. Totally random. I'm talking about when not in car and able to unlock phone.
mitsguy2001 wrote:
I'm not denying that it's possible. I'm just asking you how you do it, since I obviously don't know how to.
You said, " I don't think it's possible."
As I noted earlier you go to Settings and enable it. Settings>Apple Intelligence & Siri>Allow Siri When Locked and turn it on. That's all I ever needed to do.
For me, it's random. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it attempts to get me to sign up for Apple Music. Sometimes it creates a Pandora station. Sometimes it tries to upgrade my Pandora account. Sometimes it does nothing at all. Totally random. I'm talking about when not in car and able to unlock phone.
I don't know what to tell you. I do have Spotify on my phone but, unless I specifiy Spotify ("Siri, play The Rolling Stones on Spotify"), it defaults to Music.
IdrisSeabright wrote:
mitsguy2001 wrote:
I'm not denying that it's possible. I'm just asking you how you do it, since I obviously don't know how to.
You said, " I don't think it's possible."
Until I saw your post, I didn't think it was possible. After seeing that you do it, and without CarPlay, I trust that it is possible. I just don't know how to do it.
As I noted earlier you go to Settings and enable it. Settings>Apple Intelligence & Siri>Allow Siri When Locked and turn it on. That's all I ever needed to do.
But then I don't know how to actually use it without unlocking the phone, regardless of settings.
For me, it's random. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it attempts to get me to sign up for Apple Music. Sometimes it creates a Pandora station. Sometimes it tries to upgrade my Pandora account. Sometimes it does nothing at all. Totally random. I'm talking about when not in car and able to unlock phone.
I don't know what to tell you. I do have Spotify on my phone but, unless I specifiy Spotify ("Siri, play The Rolling Stones on Spotify"), it defaults to Music.
I don't have Spotify, since it doesn't work with my car at all. My understanding, at least back when I bought my car, is that Spotify was for teenage girls who were too young to drive at the time.
Assuming you have enabled Allow Siri While Locked, Siri will respond when the phone is locked to any request that does not require accessing private data on your phone. Which means you can say “Siri, what’s today’s weather”, or "Siri, read my text messages” but the phone will have to be unlocked for; “Siri, Call my brother”, because Siri cannot access your contacts while the iPhone is locked. You can keep the phone unlocked by just running an app that uses the screen full time, like a navigation app (which serves the double purpose of also showing where you are).
How do I choose between wired and wireless charging for my iPhone?
