This new iPhone 15 battery health feature may entice you to upgrade ASAP
Apple's new iPhone 15, which runs on iOS 17, has a built-in battery health feature that limits battery charging to 80 percent, a feature that will optimize your battery's condition over its lifetime.
The option to stop your iPhone from charging above 80 percent is new — and it will definitely shorten the amount of time you can use your phone between charges, Tom's Guide reports. But it will also keep your iPhone's battery health higher for longer. It's your choice whether you'd like to use the new feature — it's kind of like deciding if you are more interested in longevity or current power.
According to The Verge, there are now three options under "Charging Optimization" in the Battery Health and Charging menu: Optimized Battery Charging, 80% limit, and None. This differs from the last-gen iPhone and previous iOS version, which only allowed users to choose Optimized Battery Charging. This iOS 13-born feature, which is also available on the new iPhone, uses machine-learning to understand your daily charging habits. And based on the data it gathers, it charges at 80% during your typical charging periods, but climbs to 100% just before you usually unplug.
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This feature isn't available for everyone using iOS 17 — you must have the iPhone 15 in order to use it. If you just can't live without the new iPhone battery feature, you can already preorder the 6.1-inch iPhone 15, 6.7-inch iPhone 15 Plus, 6.1-inch iPhone 15 Pro, and 6.7-inch iPhone 15 Pro Max. They start at the same prices as the phones that came before them: The iPhone 15, the iPhone 15 Plus, and the iPhone 15 Pro start at $799, $899, and $999, respectively.
Christianna Silva is a senior culture reporter covering social platforms and the creator economy, with a focus on the intersection of social media, politics, and the economic systems that govern us. Since joining Mashable in 2021, they have reported extensively on meme creators, content moderation, and the nature of online creation under capitalism.
Before joining Mashable, they worked as an editor at NPR and MTV News, a reporter at Teen Vogue and VICE News, and as a stablehand at a mini-horse farm. You can follow her on Bluesky @christiannaj.bsky.social and Instagram @christianna_j.
