I Ignored Apple's Battery Advice for 140 Days: Here's What Happened to My iPhone
A tech journalist rejected Apple's 'keep it plugged in' recommendation and charged his iPhone only overnight for 140 days. The experiment challenged common beliefs about battery health while revealing surprising results about actual battery longevity performance.
An Experiment Against Apple's Battery Recommendation: The 140-Day Outcome
In the technology world, smartphone battery life and health rank among consumers' top concerns. Manufacturer recommendations and user habits often don't align. In this context, a journalist's 140-day personal experiment challenging Apple's official battery advice has generated significant interest. The journalist completely ignored Apple's recommended principle for newer iPhone models—'keep your device plugged in whenever possible'—and instead adopted a traditional charging routine: charging his iPhone only overnight while sleeping.
Experiment Methodology and Expectations
The experiment was designed to span over four full months. The journalist maintained normal to heavy daily usage patterns. In the evening, when the device's battery level typically dropped below 20%, it was connected to a stable charger overnight, reaching 100% by morning. This method represented the traditional charging cycle familiar to many users. At the experiment's outset, it was anticipated that rejecting Apple's optimization recommendation would lead to a rapid decline in Battery Health percentage and a noticeable reduction in daily usage time.
Surprising Results: Battery Health Hardly Changed
The data obtained after 140 days overturned many myths. The journalist's iPhone 'Battery Health' percentage showed no significant decline during the experiment. Maximum capacity remained very close to its starting value. In daily use, apart from a minimal reduction in single-charge endurance time—expected from natural battery aging—no serious difference was observed. These results suggest that modern lithium-ion batteries, thanks to advanced management systems, may not be as delicate as presumed and are quite resilient to routine daily usage patterns.
What Does Apple's 'Optimized Battery Charging' Recommendation Mean?
Apple's Optimized Battery Charging feature is designed to learn a user's daily charging routine to reduce battery aging. It aims to complete charging past 80% only when needed, based on usage predictions. This experiment, however, indicates that even without strictly following this optimization, modern iPhone batteries can maintain health remarkably well under disciplined traditional charging habits, challenging the necessity of constant vigilance over charging patterns for average users.
