iphone 16 battery life

I brought my iPhone 16 two days ago; the battery life is still on 100%.


Last night I charged my phone to 80% as that is the recommended capacity.


And I've been on my phone for approximately this much time, (shown in the image below). And my battery has gone from 80% to 30% after almost 3 hours which doesn't seem right as google said it should get last up to 12 hours? Seems shockingly quick for a brand-new phone. Does anyone know what I could do to help this out, as I don't want to ruin the phones battery life by charging it so often but I'm unsure on why it's gone down so quickly?



iPhone 16

Posted on Mar 30, 2025 5:44 PM

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Posted on Mar 30, 2025 6:03 PM

Personally, I think the 80% charge limit is a gimmick, which won't make your battery last any longer. Most of us, who have been on this forum for years, use Optimized Battery Charging, with our phone plugged in to charge when we go to bed, leaving them on charge all night, EVERY night. We wake to a fully charged phone, which lasts throughout the day. Next, your phone is new (only a couple days old) and new phones take a few days to index the millions of bytes of data on them. Battery life with a brand new phone usually is diminished for a while until all the data is indexed. Plus, while it's working in the background, you are likely testing things out, such as playing games, listening to music, taking photos, etc., all of which are battery intensive all by themselves.


Keep in mind that Battery Health is more a function of charge cycles. If you charge to 80%, you'll likely charge it more often, and a charge cycle is how often you charge from 0% to 100% or fractions of charge cycles which amount to 100% with multiple charges. For example, charging from 50% to 100% is 1/2 a charge cycle. Charging it again from 50% to 100% a second time equals 1 charge cycle. So the charge limit really won't do anything (in my humble opinion) for you.


I have charged my iPhone 16 Pro Max to 100% every night since I got my phone on Launch Day, last September and my Battery Health is still at 100%.

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Mar 30, 2025 6:03 PM in response to nayx4144

Personally, I think the 80% charge limit is a gimmick, which won't make your battery last any longer. Most of us, who have been on this forum for years, use Optimized Battery Charging, with our phone plugged in to charge when we go to bed, leaving them on charge all night, EVERY night. We wake to a fully charged phone, which lasts throughout the day. Next, your phone is new (only a couple days old) and new phones take a few days to index the millions of bytes of data on them. Battery life with a brand new phone usually is diminished for a while until all the data is indexed. Plus, while it's working in the background, you are likely testing things out, such as playing games, listening to music, taking photos, etc., all of which are battery intensive all by themselves.


Keep in mind that Battery Health is more a function of charge cycles. If you charge to 80%, you'll likely charge it more often, and a charge cycle is how often you charge from 0% to 100% or fractions of charge cycles which amount to 100% with multiple charges. For example, charging from 50% to 100% is 1/2 a charge cycle. Charging it again from 50% to 100% a second time equals 1 charge cycle. So the charge limit really won't do anything (in my humble opinion) for you.


I have charged my iPhone 16 Pro Max to 100% every night since I got my phone on Launch Day, last September and my Battery Health is still at 100%.

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Mar 30, 2025 6:18 PM in response to nayx4144

Even if you have set a Charge Limit of 80%, the battery is still going to charge to 100% "occasionally". Here is what Apple says about that in their support document. I added the red border for emphasis.



No one really knows how often "occasionally" might be. When I tried Charge Limits some time ago, I found that it was often 2-3 times a month. We've seen users report even more and some report less. It's a puzzle.


If you are only charging the battery to 80%, you are going to have to charge the battery more often. When I tried Charge Limits the phone would often not make it all the way through the day and evening, and I wound up charging the phone even more often.


Somehow, iPhone users and batteries got by just fine for 15+ years without Charge Limits, but I do agree that Charge Limits surely helped to sell more iPhone 15s and 16s.


If Charge Limits work well for you, that's great. If you are interested in what I believe is a better performing option, Optimized Battery Charging might be worth a look.



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iphone 16 battery life

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