Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is finally heeding to all the iPhone battery complaints with a new feature in the just-launched iPhone 15 series.
What Happened: Apple will add an option in the iPhone 15 to limit the maximum battery charge to help conserve battery capacity over the phone's life, according to code snippets found by 9to5mac.
The new option will include a hard stop for battery charging - beyond this point, the phone will simply not charge even if it is plugged in or placed on a wireless charger.
This will help extend the battery's life and prevent degradation since lithium-ion batteries age faster when charged to full capacity.
One of the workarounds to this limitation has been the 'Optimized Battery Charging' feature that Apple introduced a few years ago.
This feature learns your usage patterns and charges at a normal pace till 80% and then uses trickle charging technology to finish the full 100% charge when you are likely to use the phone again.
Why It Matters: While useful, the optimized charging feature seems to have been inadequate. Numerous people have reported that their iPhone 14 battery capacity has fallen below the 90% level in less than a year of usage.
Moreover, Apple policies suggest that the company won't service most of the iPhone 14 battery complaints under warranty.
In such a scenario, the hard stop at a certain battery charge level will ensure that the phone simply stops charging beyond that point, so the degradation should be slower.
A similar option exists on several Android smartphones, including Samsung Galaxy phones.