Featured Image Credit: Jakub Porzycki/Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Phone batteries don't last forever, but Apple just delivered a major boost to anyone with an iPhone 15.
It seems to have confirmed the estimates it gave when it launched the iPhone 15 and 15 Pro were actually conservative, with further testing showing that the phones' batteries will last longer than first anticipated.
At launch, Apple said that each phone would retain up to 80% of full battery capacity after 500 full charging cycles.
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Now, though, it's revised that estimate up to 1,000 charging cycles, doubling the effective battery lifespan of the phone lineup.
The change was spotted by tech website 9to5Mac - which covers Apple news - in among the many details of the latest software update for the iPhone, and is a really welcome little tweak.
For one thing, this is the difference between a phone that will have most of its battery capacity after over three years, instead of a little over a year and a half, which makes it way easier to imagine using the same phone for that whole time.
For now, this change only applies to the iPhone 15 lineup, but Apple is apparently looking into further tests on older iPhone models too, to see if any of those also need revised information.
Of course, these are just estimates, so your own phone isn't guaranteed to conform exactly to the numbers Apple puts out. However, it should be broadly accurate.
If you're using an iPhone and you're curious to learn how much of the phone's original full battery capacity remains useable, it's an easy process.
Just head to your Settings app, then scroll down to tap on Battery. Once there, tap on Battery Health & Charging.
In this next menu, you'll see a readout for Maximum Capacity with a percentage next to it, letting you know how much of your battery is useable. We're using an iPhone 15 Pro with almost exactly five months on the clock, and our readout was still a steady 100%.
To help maintain these numbers, Apple has all sorts of smart charging features, like stopping your iPhone from charging once it's full, or offering a mode that caps the phone at 80% charge in order to preserve battery for even longer.
These come together to mean that you don't have to, for example, worry about leaving your iPhone charging overnight - that's all taken care of. Thankfully, Apple's software is smart enough to anticipate your every charging decision already.
