The bigger the battery the longer it lasts. Like you said, some of my iPad batteries have come WAY over provisioned from the factory - not just a wee bit but way over. With light usage and no abuse, I could see how the battery could stay in the 90s despite the cycles.
iPhones are rated what, 500 cycles for 80%?
iPads are rated, if I remember right, 1000 cycles for 80%. Same for MacBooks.
I believe that's mostly due to size.
Yeah, definitely, size is the #1 factor to support the fact that people have far higher tolerance when it comes to iPad batteries. You see people happy with battery life with 7-8-year-old iPads that have been updated. Couple to that what you said in your final paragraph about power requirements being lighter back then, and you obtain amazing results even after extremely heavy usage.
Also, to support your statement, batteries are a chemistry that isn't exact so the % reader is an estimate and I would assume there is some code in there to stabilize it as the device gets older? I've seen an iPhone 4s with over a thousand cycles and 80%+. See my post here: -->
#19
Wear definitely slows down big time as the device ages. But also, I've noticed older devices seem to stabilize off for a lot longer (maybe because of less harsh battery draw vs devices today?). <shrug>
I’ve never seen any logic to degradation except one:
Heavier users degrade their battery faster in terms of time, but slower in terms of cycles, which would provide support for the oft-repeated statement of “time also degrades batteries by itself”.
I’m not a heavy user. I don’t have a high cycle count, even though I use devices for a very long time. The relationship between cycles and health is extremely unpredictable.
My 9.7-inch iPad Pro had 85% with 450 cycles on iOS 9, battery life was perfect. Today, it has 700 cycles with the same health, three years later. It was forced to iOS 12, and battery life plummeted by 20-23% right after updating, and it never dropped again.
My iPhone Xʀ has around 250 cycles on 93% health, and battery life is perfect on iOS 12.
You say “well, but 250 cycles is great on 93%”, and I’d say it isn’t. Heavier users have far better ratios: I’ve seen an iPhone 8 with 1700 cycles on 80% health, an iPhone 11 with 87% health and 573 cycles, etc.
However, maybe what you said becomes true: maybe it stabilizes and it stops.
To add a data point: my iPhone Xʀ has been at 93% for over a year, both in iOS settings and Coconut.
I don’t care about health though, I’ve found that if you keep the device on its original iOS version battery life never drops.
I would love to see heavy users keep the iOS version intact.
You see people with, say, the iPhone 11 and 75-80% health and the device is only 3.5 years old, but they typically have at least 800-900 cycles. They complain about battery life, but I’d argue it’s due to iOS 16. I’d love to see those users buy one iPhone and leave it on its original iOS version for three to four years, I’m confident that battery life would be fine. Why? Because of what you said: reduced power requirements of the older iOS versions. Unfortunately, nobody does that.
It’s the reason why older, 32-bit devices - especially iPads - report good battery life even 10 years in, with no battery replacements.
