At what battery health value does an Apple phone need to have before the battery needs to be replaced?

After IOS11.3, Apple added a battery health prompt. The battery health is calculated based on the actual capacity/rated capacity of the lithium battery.

For example, suppose your phone is an iPhone 12, the rated battery capacity is 2775mAh, and the value displayed in the battery health is 90%, which means that the actual capacity of the battery of this phone is only 2775mAh*0.9=2497.5mAh, which is 277.5 mAh less than the new phone. With a smaller battery capacity, the battery life of the phone will naturally become worse.

So at what point does the iPhone's battery health need to be replaced? In the description of the "Battery" item on the iPhone official website, this is actually clearly stated, as shown in the figure below:

"Your battery is designed to retain up to 80 percent of its original capacity after 500 charge cycles. Service is included for a defective battery during the one-year limited warranty. If your battery is out of warranty, Apple offers battery service for a fee; prices and terms may vary."

This sentence may be a bit confusing to read, but to put it simply, the design standard adopted by Apple's lithium batteries at the beginning is to have at least 80% of the battery capacity remaining after completing 500 charge and discharge cycles. If the battery health value is lower than 80%, Apple will prompt you in the system - "The battery health has significantly deteriorated. To fully restore battery performance and capacity, please go to an Apple authorized service provider for a replacement." In other words, the threshold set by Apple for battery health is 80%.

According to Apple's warranty policy, if the battery health value in the system is less than 80% during the warranty period, you can go to the official after-sales service or authorized store for free battery replacement service. Because according to the daily use habits of most consumers, it takes at least one and a half years (once a day) to complete 500 charge and discharge processes, so if the value is less than 80% during the warranty period, it definitely means that the battery of the mobile phone itself has problems.

In addition, it is also necessary to remind you that once your iPhone's battery has aged and has experienced the first automatic shutdown phenomenon, Apple will force you to turn on performance management mode, which is simply called frequency reduction mode. In this mode, the performance of the mobile phone processor will be greatly limited.

A foreign digital blogger has done a test before and found that after turning on the performance management function, the performance degradation may reach about 30%. If your model is older and suddenly there is a problem of system lag, you may want to check in the battery settings whether the performance management mode is turned on.

(P.S., before the iOS 11.3 update, Apple forced this feature to be enabled and did not provide an entry to turn it off in the system. This is the origin of the frequency reduction gate. After being fined, Apple made adjustments.)

Which method should I choose to replace the battery?

If your phone is under warranty or you have purchased AppeCare+, then you can go directly to Apple's official after-sales authorized point to replace the battery. The quality is guaranteed, and you can also enjoy the three-guarantee service within one year after the replacement. In other words, within the next year, if the failure is still caused by the battery, you can still get the official free warranty.

However, if your iPhone is out of warranty, it is not recommended to go to the official after-sales service for repair, because it is really too expensive. The out-of-warranty price of a normal version of the iPhone is 519 RMB.

If you go to a third-party after-sales repair shop, the price may be around 150-200 yuan, which is nearly double the price. However, there is a detail that needs special attention. After the official warranty, you will be filled with waterproof glue. In principle, the waterproof performance of the phone will not be damaged, but third-party repair shops are not sure. However, as long as the shell of the phone is disassembled, its airtightness will definitely be affected to a certain extent, and the warranty will not be valid after the phone is flooded, so everyone should avoid direct contact with water.