Some iPhone 14s are seeing battery capacity drop off faster than usual

Over the weekend, there’s been growing frustration among iPhone 14 owners, many of whom are reporting higher-than-expected battery degradation after nearly a year.

As detailed by The Verge, some tech journalists have taken to the platform formally known as Twitter to share frustration over the battery on their iPhones. AppleTrack’s Sam Kohl tweeted last month that his iPhone 14 Pro’s battery was down to 90 percent of maximum capacity. The Wall Street Journal’s Joanna Stern tweeted that her iPhone 14 Pro was down to 88 percent battery. Others, like Max Weinbach, have joined in.

The Verge checked with some of its staff and found that two 14 Pros were down to 93 and 91 percent, while another was still at 97 percent.

I’ve had my iPhone 14 Pro for LESS than a year…this is actually unacceptable 😡 pic.twitter.com/rKkvW6Z60v

— Sam Kohl (@iupdate) August 1, 2023

Here at MobileSyrup, we checked two iPhone 14 Pros and an iPhone 14 Plus. One of the iPhone 14 Pros has been going since launch and is down to 95 percent, while the other has been going since November 2022 and is at 98 percent, though that one admittedly gets lighter use than the other iPhones. The launch-month iPhone 14 Plus is at 93 percent battery capacity.

While for us, battery life seems okay, the general consensus appears to be that the iPhone 14 series is losing maximum battery capacity faster than previous models. The Settings app on iPhone measures maximum battery capacity relative to when the phone was new, and as the capacity decreases, iPhone owners may see reduced battery life.

An Apple support document says its iPhone batteries should retain up to 80 percent of their original capacity at 500 complete charge cycles. Stern noted in her tweet that the Apple Store said her iPhone, which was at 88 percent capacity, had already hit 450 charge cycles. It’s unclear how many charge cycles other iPhone 14 owners are at.

This is my 14 Pro Max on my launch day iPhone

My iPhone 13 Pro Max from launch day to Sept. 2022, about a year, was at 93%

It’s definitely going faster this year pic.twitter.com/RkbflJIp2I

— Max Weinbach (@MaxWinebach) August 11, 2023

So far, it’s hard to say whether this is a case of tech journalists using their phones too much or potentially a larger problem with iPhone 14 series batteries. As The Verge points out, Apple recently raised the price of iPhone battery replacements. Moreover, the cost to replace an iPhone battery increases after the one-year warranty period if you don’t have AppleCare — anyone with a launch iPhone 14 device is rapidly approaching that point.

Meanwhile, rumours point to Apple significantly increasing the battery on the upcoming iPhone 15 line. The increase is reportedly in the neighbourhood of 10 to 18 percent over current iPhones.

Source: Sam Kohl, Joanna Stern, Max Weinbach Via: The Verge