Is optimised battery charging good? 

In short, yes. This new iPhone feature can improve your mobile’s battery health and ensure it lasts longer.

Keep on reading to find out more about how it works and what it does. 

What Is Optimized Battery Charging?

Simply put, this is Apple’s way of prolonging your battery’s life. 

Apple uses lithium-ion batteries in their phone production that lose their efficiency as they chemically age resulting in slower performance and more frequent charging. This will ultimately lead to a battery replacement, which can run you up to $110, depending on the type of iPhone you have. 

In general, an iPhone battery lasts up to 500 charges before it starts deteriorating and needs to be replaced. 

Do iPhones hold batteries longer than Samsung phones? Read all about the differences in this insightful article. 

What Causes the Battery to Degrade? 

Although there are several factors in play that affect your battery’s chemical age, including how often you use your phone and temperature history, your phone’s battery health is primarily dependent on its charging patterns.

Most people keep their iPhone on the charger while they sleep, thus ensuring that they will have a fully charged phone ready to use throughout the next day. 

However, keeping your device on the phone charger even after it is full causes the battery to wear until it cannot hold a charge any longer. This is where Apple’s Optimised Battery Charging comes in handy.

How Does Optimised Battery Charging Work?

With iPhone’s new iOS 13 feature, you can get more out of your device’s battery just by reducing the time the phone stays at or hovers around a 100% charge while connected to the charger. 

Optimised Battery Charging automatically analyzes your charging habits and keeps the battery at 80%, delaying a full charge. Your iPhone actually uses on-device machine learning to find out all about your daily charging routine, activating OBC only when the device predicts that it will likely need to have a full charge.

So, if you tend to charge your phone while you sleep, Optimised Battery Charging will be activated at night, stopping the process when the battery is charged at 80%. Then it will wait to get to 100% right before you are set to wake up and unplug the phone from the charger. 

You will receive a notification on your Lock screen telling you that Optimised Battery Charging is active.

To immediately charge all the way up to 100%, all you have to do is hold down the notification and tap Charge Now.

How to Make Optimized Battery Charging Work?

All iPhone models after the iPhone 13 should have this feature on by default. 

To check if it is on, or you are not sure it is working, check your mobile’s settings. These are the settings that you need to have on:

  • Settings > Privacy > Location Services > Location Services.
  • Settings > Privacy > Location Services > System Services > System Customisation.
  • Settings > Privacy > Location Services > System Services > Significant Locations > Significant Locations.

Is It Okay to Turn Off Optimised Battery Charging (OBC)?

Turning off OBC means that your iPhone will charge to 100% without pausing at 80%. 

Although Optimised Battery Charging is an easy and efficient way to keep your phone battery healthy and Apple recommends leaving it on, it may not work for everyone. People who have erratic schedules may find it unnecessary and annoying since it doesn’t do much for their gadget’s battery life. 

This is because OBC relies on machine learning to optimise charging. So, if you move around a lot (the feature uses location tracking to get activated in the places where you spend most of your time) or have an irregular sleeping schedule, OBC won’t work as well for you. 

What’s more, some iPhone users have reported dissatisfaction with the feature, saying that iPhone batteries drain prematurely instead of retaining their charge, although there are not too many of these reports around. 

Did you know that your phone’s battery heating up or getting drained for no reason can be a sign that your device is infected with malware? For more details on how to tell if your phone is tapped, take a look at this guide. 

If for whatever reason, you want to disable the feature, follow these instructions:

  • Go to Settings
  • Select Battery
  • Select Battery Health
  • Tap the OBC toggle switch

You can specify if you want to disable it temporarily or permanently.

What About Other Apple Products?

The iPhone may be Apple’s best-selling product, but the company takes care of its other products as well and enables OBC on Macs (macOS Big Sur or later) and AirPods Pro or AirPods (3rd generation). 

Is Optimised Battery Charging Worth It?

Optimised Battery Charging is certainly a great feature to have as it makes it easier for users to keep their battery healthy for longer. So whether you have an iPhone, Mac or AirPods, make sure OBC is on and avoid replacing your battery before its time is up. 

1. Does frequent charging damage the phone battery?

Yes, charging your phone for too long or too frequently can damage your battery. That’s why it is recommended that you charge your mobile from 0 to 80% and then unplug the device.  

2. Is optimized charging slower?

Yes, the feature slows down the charging process when it reaches 80%, but it also keeps the battery healthy for longer as leaving your phone on the charger while it is full can damage your battery. 

3. How do I prolong the battery life?

Leaving OBC on is one way to prolong your battery’s life. Avoiding extreme temperatures and turning off apps that you are not using at the moment (especially those that have high battery use) or reducing the brightness of the screen are some of the other things you can do to ensure your battery lasts longer. 

Contrary to popular belief, clearing the cache on your iPhone does not make your battery last longer. 

Yes. If you’ve ever asked yourself ‘is optimising battery charging good’, the answer is definitely yes! Apple itself recommends having OBC on as this can prolong your battery’s life.