My year-old iPhone 15 Pro (not Max) which I simply used every day and charged to 100 percent overnight: max capacity: 89 percent, 344 charge cycles.
I’m so glad Clover ran this test for a year and reported her results, because it backs up my assumption: there’s no practical point to limiting your iPhone’s charging capacity. All you’re doing is preventing yourself from ever enjoying a 100-percent-capacity battery. Let the device manage its own battery. Apple has put a lot of engineering into making that really smart.
It doesn't seem to occur to him that not everyone upgrades their phone every year. Perhaps the planet he lives on is one without a climate emergency or a crisis of biodiversity loss due to habitat destruction. Perhaps his planet has unlimited resources? But the rest of us live right here on Earth.
His commentary on Juli Clover's experiment about limiting her iPhone 15 to the 80 percent charging is a clear example of the privilege assumed by the 10% of the Global North. It's gross and irresponsible. But from my observation it's what has become normal for the tech commentariat that live in their out-of-touch bubble. I was happy to see a good number of the responses to his post on Mastodon pointing this out to him.
I'm still using a barely 3 year old iPhone 13. Stepping back for a bit of perspective, this is a $1,000 hand held computer and camera that works nearly as well as the models announced by Apple a couple weeks ago. At three years the battery is still at 86%. I keep it in a case and take care in the charging. I'd like to get another two years out of the current battery. At 5 years it will likely get another year or two of iOS updates. I'll consider a battery replacement at that point. The processor and camera will still be very usable.
Tech pundits like to point out that it's their job to talk about the latest and greatest tech. But they could do that with better framing that takes into account a context beyond themselves. Whether it's users that are not as wealthy or, more importantly, a planet that is already experiencing a myriad of ecological crises as a direct result of the over consumption of the 10% of humans that live in the wealthier nations of the Global North.
Appreciate and take care of your devices. Take pleasure in their longevity. If they get the job done, keep using them. This is the way.