The folks over at MacRumors have shared their real-world experence of limiting the iPhone 16 Pro Max’s battery charging to 80% after a full year, with results offering a mixed picture of gains versus trade-offs.
Since September 2024, they kept the charge cap active without exception. As of today, the battery’s maximum capacity rests at 94%, having endured 299 full charge cycles.
This experiment mirrors a similar test performed on the previous generation, but with some refinements. Last year, they often let the battery dip below 20%, which might itself influence degradation. This time, they aimed to keep the battery between 20 and 80% more steadily, though lapses did occur.
In practice, the 80% limit proved inconvenient in daily use. While it was manageable at home, during travel or heavy camera or GPS use, they often found themselves short of usable battery. The system sporadically lets the device charge fully to 100% to recalibrate battery readings, which sometimes delivered a surprise bonus when it was least expected.
They used a mix of MagSafe and USB-C charging throughout the test, noticing that MagSafe charging, especially using battery packs, tended to warm the device more than wired charging. Heat is a known enemy of battery longevity, so that may have undercut some of the intended benefit.
Now comparing with a colleague’s iPhone 16 Pro Max that never enforced the 80% cap. His battery capacity measured at 96% after 308 cycles, just two percentage points more, with no limitations applied. That outcome raises questions about whether the 80% charge ceiling yields meaningful real-world benefit over a standard charging regime.
Apple’s iPhone 16 lineup introduced a built-in “Charge Limit” option that allows users to restrict the maximum charge to 80 percent. It also supports fast charging via USB-C up to around 30 W under most conditions and wired charging to 50 percent in about 30 minutes.
Wireless charging via MagSafe for iPhone 16 now supports 25 W under ideal conditions, up from 15 W in earlier models.
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I ran my iPhone 16 Pro Max for 10 months, always using the 80% limit, and it was at 100% battery health when I sold it to try the Fold 7 (have since bought a 17 Pro Max and have imposed the 80% restriction on it). Clearly a YMMV issue but charger, charging frequency likely all changes the calculus.