Battery health at 80%: is it time to replace your iPhone battery?

You opened Settings → Battery → Battery Health and saw 82%, 79% or "Service recommended"? Here's what it means and when to replace the battery.

What "Maximum Capacity" shows

How much energy the battery can store now compared with when it was new. 100% is factory-new; 80% is a fifth less. A battery is a consumable part: its capacity drops with every charge cycle.

According to Apple, iPhone batteries are designed to retain about 80% of capacity after 500 full charge cycles, and iPhone 15 and later about 1,000 cycles. With normal use that's 2–3 years.

Replace at 80%?

80% is a guideline, not a verdict. Look at how the phone actually behaves.

Replace it if:

the phone doesn't last until evening with normal use;
it shuts down at 10–30% or in the cold;
it has noticeably slowed down, since iOS can throttle performance on a worn battery to avoid unexpected shutdowns;
Settings says "Service recommended";
the case or screen started to lift, which can mean swelling (then it's urgent, see Swollen battery).

You can wait if capacity is around 80–85% and the phone easily lasts a day without shutting down.

How to extend battery life

Turn on Optimised Charging (on newer iPhones you can limit charging to 80%).
Don't leave the phone in the sun or in a car. Heat kills batteries fastest, which matters a lot in a Batumi summer.
Don't regularly run it down to zero.
Use decent chargers and cables.

Which battery to fit

There are original batteries and aftermarket ones. A good aftermarket battery works fine, but may run slightly warmer and sometimes shows an unknown-part message in Settings; on some models the health percentage isn't shown. We always tell you in advance which battery we're fitting and what to expect, and we write it on the receipt.

How long it takes

A battery replacement on popular models is usually done the same day if the battery is in stock, and we check that before your visit. More: iPhone battery replacement.

Message us your model and battery percentage on Telegram. We'll tell you whether it's time and give you the price.