Apple introduces smart battery optimization in iOS 13 to combat battery aging

AppleInsiderAppleInsider
Posted:
in iOS edited June 2019
Buried among the sea of features, upgrades, modifications and changes coming to iOS 13 is a new battery optimization tool designed to intelligently hold charge levels below a designated threshold, thereby preventing premature battery aging.

Battery


According to Apple's iOS 13 feature preview webpage, the upcoming operating system incorporates a novel battery optimization feature that helps prevent aging by reducing the time a device is spent fully charged.

Lithium-ion batteries like those used in iPhone are somewhat sensitive to electrical currents when charging, a situation that is exacerbated when the cell nears full charge. Existing iOS battery management allows devices to fast charge up to 80% capacity -- depending on temperature, duty cycles and other factors -- before reverting to a trickle charge, a method designed to extend a battery's lifespan.

Instead of relying on a predefined threshold, iOS 13 will include a tool that learns a user's daily charging routine and waits to top off an iPhone's battery until that extra power is needed. This process will slow the rate of battery aging by reducing the amount of time an iPhone remains fully charged, Apple says.

The feature appears to be an option that can be enabled or disabled as needed.

Apple came under fire in 2017 after it was discovered that an iOS update artificially throttled the performance of iPhones with depleted batteries in a bid to alleviate problems related to random shutdowns. Media and the public cried foul over the unadvertised "feature," prompting Apple to apologize for what it characterized as a "miscommunication."

The tech giant later instituted a battery replacement program to deal with the fallout. In January, CEO Tim Cook revealed some 11 million people took advantage of the cheap battery offer.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 14
    entropysentropys Posts: 4,166member
    I am not sure what this means. Does it mean if your iPhone battery is at say, 81% maximum capacity, the slow down to trickle charging happens earlier than 80%, say 61%?

    the intelligent charging based on long term use case sounds like a great feature though. I assume it means that if I charge the iPhone every night, it does not fully recharge until early in the morning. 
    edited June 2019 watto_cobra
  • Reply 2 of 14
    hammeroftruthhammeroftruth Posts: 1,309member
    The tech giant later instituted a battery replacement program to deal with the fallout. In January, CEO Tim Cook revealed some 11 million people took advantage of the cheap battery offer.

    Dumbest thing Apple did last year. 

    They should have rolled back the feature that throttled the processor on an iPhone that had a worn out battery and instead had a popup message that explained your battery has been depleted and will need to be replaced or the device may power off unexpectedly and could possibly damage it if it happens repeatedly. 
    chemengin1watto_cobra
  • Reply 3 of 14
    charlesgrescharlesgres Posts: 71member
    I think it means that e.g if you typically charge your iPhone at night, that it will hold off charging to full capacity until the morning, so that it doesn't have to be long in a state where battery is full but not being used much..
    toysandmeStrangeDayswatto_cobra
  • Reply 4 of 14
    citpekscitpeks Posts: 246member
    Generally speaking, lithium batteries benefit from being kept, as well as stored, with a partial state of charge. Keeping them fully charged, or close to fully drained impacts their durability. If one desires to preserve the maximum life of the batteries in their devices, avoid the habit of leaving them connected to the charger at 100%, or dead for prolonged periods if they're not going to be in regular use. Practical considerations take priority for most users, who aren't going to sacrifice useful capacity by not topping off, or squeezing every bit out, but there is a trade off. It's not so much the spurious effects of current approaching full charge as the story implies; a good quality charging circuit will accurately taper and cut off the charging current as the battery reaches 100% at the end of the CC/CV cycle. Good to see Apple acknowledge that in its charging strategies.
    toysandmeStrangeDaysn2itivguywatto_cobra
  • Reply 5 of 14
    apple ][apple ][ Posts: 9,233member
    citpeks said:
    Generally speaking, lithium batteries benefit from being kept, as well as stored, with a partial state of charge. Keeping them fully charged, or close to fully drained impacts their durability. If one desires to preserve the maximum life of the batteries in their devices, avoid the habit of leaving them connected to the charger at 100%, or dead for prolonged periods if they're not going to be in regular use. Practical considerations take priority for most users, who aren't going to sacrifice useful capacity by not topping off, or squeezing every bit out, but there is a trade off. It's not so much the spurious effects of current approaching full charge as the story implies; a good quality charging circuit will accurately taper and cut off the charging current as the battery reaches 100% at the end of the CC/CV cycle. Good to see Apple acknowledge that in its charging strategies.
    If storing longterm, it's best to keep at around 50% charged.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 6 of 14
    beowulfschmidtbeowulfschmidt Posts: 2,130member
    hammeroftruth said:
    The tech giant later instituted a battery replacement program to deal with the fallout. In January, CEO Tim Cook revealed some 11 million people took advantage of the cheap battery offer.

    Dumbest thing Apple did last year. 

    They should have rolled back the feature that throttled the processor on an iPhone that had a worn out battery and instead had a popup message that explained your battery has been depleted and will need to be replaced or the device may power off unexpectedly and could possibly damage it if it happens repeatedly. 
    Yes, because having the phone stop working is infinitely preferable to simply slowing it down a bit.

    Yes, Apple goofed by not making the benefits of the feature more clear, but they did disclose it, however vague some people might have thought that disclosure to be.
    StrangeDaysn2itivguyAppleExposedchasmwatto_cobrajony0
  • Reply 7 of 14
    GeorgeBMacGeorgeBMac Posts: 11,421member
    beowulfschmidt said:
    hammeroftruth said:
    The tech giant later instituted a battery replacement program to deal with the fallout. In January, CEO Tim Cook revealed some 11 million people took advantage of the cheap battery offer.

    Dumbest thing Apple did last year. 

    They should have rolled back the feature that throttled the processor on an iPhone that had a worn out battery and instead had a popup message that explained your battery has been depleted and will need to be replaced or the device may power off unexpectedly and could possibly damage it if it happens repeatedly. 
    Yes, because having the phone stop working is infinitely preferable to simply slowing it down a bit.

    Yes, Apple goofed by not making the benefits of the feature more clear, but they did disclose it, however vague some people might have thought that disclosure to be.
    Well, no.  Not if you have a phone with a 35% charge that suddenly goes dead with no warning and no way to restart it when you need to use it -- say for instance to call for help if your car breaks down.

    It was a safety issue, not a convenience feature.
  • Reply 8 of 14
    StrangeDaysStrangeDays Posts: 12,877member
    GeorgeBMac said:
    beowulfschmidt said:
    hammeroftruth said:
    The tech giant later instituted a battery replacement program to deal with the fallout. In January, CEO Tim Cook revealed some 11 million people took advantage of the cheap battery offer.

    Dumbest thing Apple did last year. 

    They should have rolled back the feature that throttled the processor on an iPhone that had a worn out battery and instead had a popup message that explained your battery has been depleted and will need to be replaced or the device may power off unexpectedly and could possibly damage it if it happens repeatedly. 
    Yes, because having the phone stop working is infinitely preferable to simply slowing it down a bit.

    Yes, Apple goofed by not making the benefits of the feature more clear, but they did disclose it, however vague some people might have thought that disclosure to be.
    Well, no.  Not if you have a phone with a 35% charge that suddenly goes dead with no warning and no way to restart it when you need to use it -- say for instance to call for help if your car breaks down.

    It was a safety issue, not a convenience feature.
    That’s what Beo is saying - he was being sarcastic and saying Hammer’s claim that Apple should not have introduced the throttle program is a silly one, for obvious reasons.
    n2itivguychasmbeowulfschmidtwatto_cobrajony0
  • Reply 9 of 14
    AppleExposedAppleExposed Posts: 1,805unconfirmed, member
    iKnockoff Knights are gonna have a HARD time carrying the "planned obsolesence" meme after WWDC 2019.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 10 of 14
    AppleExposedAppleExposed Posts: 1,805unconfirmed, member
    hammeroftruth said:
    The tech giant later instituted a battery replacement program to deal with the fallout. In January, CEO Tim Cook revealed some 11 million people took advantage of the cheap battery offer.

    Dumbest thing Apple did last year. 

    They should have rolled back the feature that throttled the processor on an iPhone that had a worn out battery and instead had a popup message that explained your battery has been depleted and will need to be replaced or the device may power off unexpectedly and could possibly damage it if it happens repeatedly. 
    Being #1 in customer satisfaction isn't easy.
    GeorgeBMac
  • Reply 11 of 14
    beowulfschmidtbeowulfschmidt Posts: 2,130member
    StrangeDays said:
    GeorgeBMac said:
    beowulfschmidt said:
    Yes, because having the phone stop working is infinitely preferable to simply slowing it down a bit.

    Yes, Apple goofed by not making the benefits of the feature more clear, but they did disclose it, however vague some people might have thought that disclosure to be.
    Well, no.  Not if you have a phone with a 35% charge that suddenly goes dead with no warning and no way to restart it when you need to use it -- say for instance to call for help if your car breaks down.

    It was a safety issue, not a convenience feature.
    That’s what Beo is saying - he was being sarcastic and saying Hammer’s claim that Apple should not have introduced the throttle program is a silly one, for obvious reasons.
    Yes, my bad, forgot the "/s" at the end of that first sentence.  Mea culpa.
    GeorgeBMacwatto_cobra
  • Reply 12 of 14
    atomic101atomic101 Posts: 131member
    GeorgeBMac said:
    beowulfschmidt said:
    hammeroftruth said:
    The tech giant later instituted a battery replacement program to deal with the fallout. In January, CEO Tim Cook revealed some 11 million people took advantage of the cheap battery offer.

    Dumbest thing Apple did last year. 

    They should have rolled back the feature that throttled the processor on an iPhone that had a worn out battery and instead had a popup message that explained your battery has been depleted and will need to be replaced or the device may power off unexpectedly and could possibly damage it if it happens repeatedly. 
    Yes, because having the phone stop working is infinitely preferable to simply slowing it down a bit.

    Yes, Apple goofed by not making the benefits of the feature more clear, but they did disclose it, however vague some people might have thought that disclosure to be.
    Well, no.  Not if you have a phone with a 35% charge that suddenly goes dead with no warning and no way to restart it when you need to use it -- say for instance to call for help if your car breaks down.

    It was a safety issue, not a convenience feature.
    Or they could have been upfront about it and just added a simple pop-up notification stating that, "Your device unexpectedly shut down and has had its performance temporarily reduced to prevent it from recurring  Please have an authorized Apple technician verify the health of your battery."..... you know, like what my car does if it senses a degraded battery.  But of course, Apple knew of no way to make the iPhone create a notification of such nature.... better to just slow the phone down and not say anything directly to the end user.  You know, make them think the phone is just getting old and tired and needs to be replaced.  With so many naïve people out there, many would just assume that's the case and opt for the phone upgrade.  Win-win for everyone!!!  Oh, that's right, a corporation would never try to skirt the line of honesty like that.  Especially not Apple.
  • Reply 13 of 14
    mattytornadomattytornado Posts: 1unconfirmed, member
    Not really sure how this will work with the Apple smart battery case. I’m curios if they will make the case keep your phone at 80 or both at 80 or just pass the power through the case once it is charged. If someone has the iPhone smart battery case can you investigate it?
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 14 of 14
    GeorgeBMacGeorgeBMac Posts: 11,421member
    beowulfschmidt said:
    StrangeDays said:
    GeorgeBMac said:
    beowulfschmidt said:
    Yes, because having the phone stop working is infinitely preferable to simply slowing it down a bit.

    Yes, Apple goofed by not making the benefits of the feature more clear, but they did disclose it, however vague some people might have thought that disclosure to be.
    Well, no.  Not if you have a phone with a 35% charge that suddenly goes dead with no warning and no way to restart it when you need to use it -- say for instance to call for help if your car breaks down.

    It was a safety issue, not a convenience feature.
    That’s what Beo is saying - he was being sarcastic and saying Hammer’s claim that Apple should not have introduced the throttle program is a silly one, for obvious reasons.
    Yes, my bad, forgot the "/s" at the end of that first sentence.  Mea culpa.
    LOL...  I thought you were dead serious.    Oh well....
    beowulfschmidt
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