iPhone 14 Pro 18w vs 5w 1 year later

[OneBar]

I suspect degradation is less a product of fast charging alone but fast WIRELESS charging, which generates more heat. My 11PM is at 80% and it'll be 4 years old on Black Friday. It's on an Anker 10w/5w wireless stand from ~0830 to ~515 and then it goes on the 30w Anker Atom when I go to bed.

 

[h.gilbert]

I think the 14 pros when the battery is fully depleted can pull up to 27W (on the max) but it isn’t for a very long time and then in the bulk of the charging time it goes down to about 17W or 18W until close it 80% so I think my test using the 18W for a fast charger is still pretty accurate. Someone else chimed and said they were using a 140W charger for a year and they are at 99% with their 14pro. So I dunno. I think it’s all good.

Yeah that's what I mean, the 14 Pro has a peak charging speed of 27W. Not sure if you know but it doesn't matter if you charge it using a 30W or 140W charger, the device will only charge at 27W peak. Lots of android phones can however actually charge at much higher rates. 60W is not quite common for mid-tier androids and quite a few do above that. At those higher wattages is when I'd expect some battery degradation, but between your 18W and 5W, certainly not.

 

[Khavik]

Guys, power doesn't kill batteries - heat does. You can charge a phone even with 100W as long as producer implemented proper cooling, for example fast charging was killing 6th generation of Samsung Galaxies, because they were not properly cooled for such a power, but nowaday they usually adjust it properly.

 

[MarkNewton2023]

My wife and I both got 14 pros last year and I thought it would be fun to do a little test to see if there would be any differences in battery degradation between her using her 18w charger and me using my 5w charger. We both charge our phones overnight everynight. Here are the results!

Almost identical battery health! I’m actually surprised! Apple reports 97% health on hers and mine literally just ticked down to 98% yesterday. She’s had her phone for about a week or 2 longer than mine but I was surprised to see we had nearly the same cycles and battery health.

This proves to me fast charging doesn’t really have an effect on battery health. At least not in my case on our 14 pros! I’ll continue to use my 5W charger overnight but I also won’t be afraid to fast charge if needed some day!

I never think fast charging degrading battery life. Thank you for sharing this to us .

 

[highdefjunkie]

I am a charge-a-holic. I freak out if my phone is under 90%! I get crap all the time from my really good buddy who states "your ruining your battery by constantly charging it all the time. So, before we turned our phones in for the new iPhone 15 Pro+ max (from the 13 Pro Max which we both bought at launch date) we did a battery health comparison. He only charges his phone when it gets under 10%. Well to his surprise, my battery health was better then his by 12%. Now, I'm sure there are a lot of deciding factors, but it was nice to put him in his place.

 

[toobravetosave]

People spend well over the cost of a battery replacement in time worrying about their batteries

 

[imagineadam]

Guys, power doesn't kill batteries - heat does. You can charge a phone even with 100W as long as producer implemented proper cooling, for example fast charging was killing 6th generation of Samsung Galaxies, because they were not properly cooled for such a power, but nowaday they usually adjust it properly.

I’m aware. Her phone generates much more heat on the 18W charger vs my 5W. I guess that 18W amount of heat means almost nothing though after a year of charging vs 5W is all I am trying to show.

 

[hieubui]

Here’s my SOT yesterday. Ran a half marathon the day before and was a little sore and lazy watching football all day so I was on the couch on Wi-Fi with brightness between 40-70% just doing basic stuff. 6.5 hours SOT with 40% remaining is pretty darn good I think.

Curious, what is Information & Reading?
I've never seen that before.

 

[hieubui]

I am a charge-a-holic. I freak out if my phone is under 90%! I get crap all the time from my really good buddy who states "your ruining your battery by constantly charging it all the time. So, before we turned our phones in for the new iPhone 15 Pro+ max (from the 13 Pro Max which we both bought at launch date) we did a battery health comparison. He only charges his phone when it gets under 10%. Well to his surprise, my battery health was better then his by 12%. Now, I'm sure there are a lot of deciding factors, but it was nice to put him in his place.

Letting it get under 10% is not good as well. Ideally, 50 - 80% is best for preserving battery life but who care

 

[apparatchik]

Interesting and encouraging but inconclusive. It’s only been a year. It’s doubtful battery health can be estimated by anything within 1-2% of 100.

If after a few years the difference is less than 5% we can all agree it's not something one has to worry about...

 

[NdTonks]

For 99% of users fast charge it, slow charge it, limit it to 80%…do anything you want and it’s not going to make a lick of difference. There is so much software under the hood governing the battery management now, yall are wasting time trying to “save” your batteries

 

[saintmac]

I suspect degradation is less a product of fast charging alone but fast WIRELESS charging, which generates more heat. My 11PM is at 80% and it'll be 4 years old on Black Friday. It's on an Anker 10w/5w wireless stand from ~0830 to ~515 and then it goes on the 30w Anker Atom when I go to bed.

Just one anecdotal data point but my launch day 14 Pro was charged mostly overnight using magsafe (so "fast" wireless charging) and its battery health is still at 100%.
So I think the TL;DR of this thread is: charge it however is more convenient for you, and don't waste more time babysitting your iPhone than your iPhone is supposed to save you as a productivity device

 

[mlody]

My wife and I both got 14 pros last year and I thought it would be fun to do a little test to see if there would be any differences in battery degradation between her using her 18w charger and me using my 5w charger. We both charge our phones overnight everynight. Here are the results!

Almost identical battery health! I’m actually surprised! Apple reports 97% health on hers and mine literally just ticked down to 98% yesterday. She’s had her phone for about a week or 2 longer than mine but I was surprised to see we had nearly the same cycles and battery health.

This proves to me fast charging doesn’t really have an effect on battery health. At least not in my case on our 14 pros! I’ll continue to use my 5W charger overnight but I also won’t be afraid to fast charge if needed some day!

Nice work

Do you happen to have the Coconut data for both phones showing the battery capacity at 0 or 1 cycles? Not all batteries are equal, so that would be very helpful to see as the starting point. Thanks

 

[OneBar]

Just one anecdotal data point but my launch day 14 Pro was charged mostly overnight using magsafe (so "fast" wireless charging) and its battery health is still at 100%.
So I think the TL;DR of this thread is: charge it however is more convenient for you, and don't waste more time babysitting your iPhone than your iPhone is supposed to save you as a productivity device

That last part is true. What brick do you have on your magsafe?

 

[saintmac]

That last part is true. What brick do you have on your magsafe?

it's a usb-c wall outlet. It's supposed to output 15W though I haven't tested it.
And I use the magsafe duo charger although I rarely use the apple watch side anymore.

However you are making a good point that with 15W "brick", I'm not charging at the full 15W magsafe but probably around 10-12W.
One day If I'm bored I would need to make a charging duration test between the Duo connected to my wall outlet vs connected to a 96/140W Apple brick

 

[OneBar]

it's a usb-c wall outlet. It's supposed to output 15W though I haven't tested it.
And I use the magsafe duo charger although I rarely use the apple watch side anymore.

However you are making a good point that with 15W "brick", I'm not charging at the full 15W magsafe but probably around 10-12W.
One day If I'm bored I would need to make a charging duration test between the Duo connected to my wall outlet vs connected to a 96/140W Apple brick

Well 15w would be the maximum you could be charging at, I don't know if the 14 will magsafe charge at 15w or not. But I bet your phone would be cooler if you charged plugged in on the same brick and probably charge faster.

 

[michaelscarn]

The amount of maniacal hand-wringing over battery degradation on this site 😂

Plug into the 100w charger. Live a little. 🤣

 

[dz5b609]

variance.

 

[Bustermd]

I seriously don't understand the obsession with battery life percentage, but to each their own I guess.

Two things I might add:

1. Batteries, like everything else mass produced, most likely have manufacturing tolerances on a bell-curve for acceptable performance. So the "lottery" of which battery ends up in your phone probably has more impact than the charger you use ever will.

2. What is the actual real-world significance of some percentage assigned either by Apple or 3rd party software, other than giving you a number to get worked up about?

 

[cateye]

What is the actual real-world significance of some percentage assigned either by Apple or 3rd party software, other than giving you a number to get worked up about?

Answered your own question. It's the technology version of vitamin supplements and just as annoying.

 

[ANDJOE]

My wife and I both got 14 pros last year and I thought it would be fun to do a little test to see if there would be any differences in battery degradation between her using her 18w charger and me using my 5w charger. We both charge our phones overnight everynight. Here are the results!

Almost identical battery health! I’m actually surprised! Apple reports 97% health on hers and mine literally just ticked down to 98% yesterday. She’s had her phone for about a week or 2 longer than mine but I was surprised to see we had nearly the same cycles and battery health.

This proves to me fast charging doesn’t really have an effect on battery health. At least not in my case on our 14 pros! I’ll continue to use my 5W charger overnight but I also won’t be afraid to fast charge if needed some day!

Thanks so much for doing this test! Super interesting! If you end up doing 2 years be sure to post the results here !

 

[Five_Oh]

Just one anecdotal data point but my launch day 14 Pro was charged mostly overnight using magsafe (so "fast" wireless charging) and its battery health is still at 100%.
So I think the TL;DR of this thread is: charge it however is more convenient for you, and don't waste more time babysitting your iPhone than your iPhone is supposed to save you as a productivity device

I guess I got unlucky this time around. Launch day 14 Pro. 99% of charging has been overnight on Magsafe charger and wired carplay while driving. I'm at 90% one year later.

I've not been impressed with battery performance from this machine. Granted, I've not optimized for battery life (I want my tech to do tech things), but still that seems...not good.

 

[esaelias187]

I feel the problem isn't the degrade but me charging my iPhone with 5w vs 20 watt I get more hours when I charge it using 5 watt , 20 watts faster charging faster battery goes

 

[metsjetsfan]

Batt hobbyist here - IMHO, folks should just use the credible/corroborating scientific batt research that’s readily available out there - they test in labs isolating variables, perform extreme stress testing, and over long periods of time/cycles. This test is interesting, but let’s face it, batt health % is a weak estimate, 1yr is a short timeframe/#cycles, and frankly this test is much more likely influenced by the individual’s usage habits.

While charge wattage is one of the stress factors, it’s lower down the totem pole. From everything I’ve seen, time spent at high SoC is worse than heat, and are the #1 and #2 battery stress factors. These are not difficult to automate/manage, but it does take an initial investment to understand what to do and how to automate, for a truly custom optimization. Apple’s optimization & 80% limiter are better than nothing, but are dumbed-down, and miss the low hanging fruit.

As far as fast charging is concerned, Battery University says this:


1C charge rate for a 3200mah battery is 16W, so 18W is hardly in the danger zone, and if you’re not concerned with charging to 100%… then it’s not worth worrying about the charge heat either. Probably not a significant difference, but I always charge when time doesn’t matter (eg, once/day overnight) so why not just use a 5W?… it’s another one of the many battery stress factors.

The real question is - does batt mgt make any significant difference to batt service life? YMMV but it seems to work well for me, and is less time/effort/money than doing an Apple batt swap. I tend keep my phones longer than Apple will support iOS, not for budget purposes, but rather because 1) I tend to highly customize my toys and find upgrading a time-consuming PITA, and 2) as a batt geek, my phone is by far the heaviest used/cycled batt to use as a ‘test case’. Will soon hop on the e-transport bandwagon (skateboards, bicycles, motorcycles, cars) and want to know the best way to maximize their batts.

What does it say about efficiency I always wonder does using a slow charger over a much longer period of time even it out? ie is it better to keep the battery mildly warm over 4 hours w the 5W or just a a little hotter for less time like 2 hours W the 18 W.

Also what if you charged with a fan pointing at it the entire time or some type of cooling system like those magsafe battery packs have now.

 

[DeftwillP]

There should really be more focus on usage and cycles than on what kind of charger was used. I'm also running a launch day 14PM and charge mine nightly on magsafe charger (both apple and a certified MFi charger). I'm at 89% according to coconut and 90% according to settings. What stands out for me vs OP's screenshots is that I'm at 367 charge cycles. I charge every single night because I usually need to do so. I "set it and forget it" on the charger overnight.

Perhaps if there were an al dente style program I would use it. I suppose I could also set something up in shortcuts to minimize charging after 80% but I honestly don't care that much. The battery is a consumable item. It stinks that it will slowly degrade and will last incrementally shorter periods but I'm not going to be neurotic about chasing (saving) percents of a battery when I'll end up replacing the phone after 3 or so years of use.