Rosie Grace: iPhone X / 8: Wireless charging will run out of battery faster than cable charging

Wireless charging is a good feature, but testing has shown that it will run out of battery faster than using cable charging.

According to Apple, batteries are "designed to retain 80% of their original capacity in 500 full-charge cycles," and beyond that, batteries are considered worn out and are being scrapped. Some batteries can maintain more than 80% of their charge status after more than 500 charge cycles (I have more than 800 charge cycles for the iPhone 6 Plus, still higher than the 80% standard), but in my experience, once reached 500 Charging cycle, your battery needs to borrow time, especially in cold climates.

Therefore, ideally, you need to allocate these 500 charges over the life of the device. However, you also need to remember that as the battery ages, the battery life will not last long, so as the device gets older, the charging frequency will increase.

As early as January, my iPhone had reached 90 charge cycles after four months. Now in March and six weeks, I have played 135 charge cycles.

This is 135 charge cycles in six months. At this rate, I expect to reach 150 in six months. This means that I should have done 450 charging cycles in 18 months and will break 500 points in the other two months.

Note: I use the excellent macOS application CoconutBattery to access the iPhone's battery charge cycle times.

Therefore, my battery can reach 500 charge cycles in 20 months, and does not allow any battery wear, a rogue application to dry the battery, or iOS update decides to run out of battery faster than usual. In fact, if I do not change my habits, I hope to reach 500 points in less than 18 months.

Previously, I expected the iPhone to approach the 36-month/3-year standard (full charge every two days or so) before entering 500 charge cycles.

So what's going on here?

The problem is that when using the cable to charge the iPhone, the phone is powered by the wire (the battery has some load, but few), but when using wireless charging, the battery is the power of the iPhone, and the wireless charger is only used for the rechargeable battery. This means that my battery will not be interrupted by switching from the cable to the wireless charger, which, in turn, will allow me to complete the charging cycle faster.

I have to admit that I am a heavy iPhone user, and when I do not use it, I am accustomed to leaving my iPhone in a wireless charger. I used to connect it to the charging cable before.

So, now, I'm switching back to wired charging. I like to throw my iPhone on the charging tray - and I have a lot! - But I think my battery may be incinerated by the trash within two years, which is worrying.

If you are a heavy user, you may want to consider doing the same thing. Or plan to go offline to replace the battery.

Rosie Grace

Tuesday 13 March 2018

iPhone X / 8: Wireless charging will run out of battery faster than cable charging

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