We spend a month’s rent on a device that can refresh its screen 120 times per second, then immediately throttle it to 60Hz.
We act like the lithium-ion battery is a family heirloom, even though it’s a consumable part meant to be replaced.
We’re so obsessed with battery health percentages that we’re willing to waste the phone today just to keep the battery a bit better three years down the line.
It’s time to stop, and I’ll tell you why.
I tried the future of batteries at CES 2026, and I’m ready to ditch my power banks
Solid-state batteries are here, and they’re amazing
Your flagship phone feels like a mid-ranger, and it’s your fault
What if I swapped your $1,200 flagship’s internals with those of a $400 mid-range phone? Would you notice?
If you’ve turned off 120Hz, lowered brightness, and throttled the CPU, chances are you wouldn’t.
Flagship phones can hit 3,300 nits of peak brightness. This extra brightness makes HDR videos pop and lets you read texts even in direct July sunlight.
I know people who buy a 3,000-nit screen but slide the brightness down manually. This makes the HDR technology you paid for pointless.
Same for refresh rate. If you turn off adaptive refresh rate to save a theoretical 15% battery, you’re settling for a downgraded experience.
Is saving half an hour of battery worth making every tap and swipe feel delayed? I don’t think so.
If I wanted to use a 60Hz screen, I’d find an iPhone 8 in a drawer somewhere.
Battery health obsession is costing you money and enjoyment
The battery is a consumable, like brake pads on your car or ink in your printer.
Let’s break down the daily cost of ownership. Buying a $1,200 phone and keeping it for three years means it costs roughly $1.10 per day.
Over 1,095 days, you pay for a premium experience. Degrading that experience by 40% — by turning off features, dimming the screen, and throttling the CPU — means lighting $0.44 on fire.
An official first-party battery replacement costs about 10% of the phone’s price. If you’re willing to go to third-party repair shops or get the part yourself and do it, it gets cheaper.
Is sacrificing your experience for nearly 1,000 days worth skipping a $90 or $119 cost in year three?
Many will drop $100 on a leather case and screen protector without a second thought, but endure a dim, laggy screen for years to avoid paying that much for a new battery.
Others believe that maintaining battery health at 100% will increase their phone’s resale value. It won’t.
By year three, the phone has lost value thanks to newer chips, better cameras, and software updates.
I wouldn’t pay $200 more just to get a phone with 95% battery health instead of 75%. And honestly, you probably wouldn’t either.
So you’re giving up a thousand days of enjoyment for a $50 payoff. That’s bad math.
Is limiting the charge to 80% worth it?
We have to blame Apple for this. I remember when it introduced the Maximum Capacity percentage in the settings menu.
It made battery chemistry into a numbers game and made every tech enthusiast obsessed with keeping that number at 100%.
This led to the 80% limit. Modern phones now let you cap charging at 80%.
The logic is that lithium-ion batteries last longer if not kept fully charged. While the science is valid, the application is ironic.
By limiting my phone to 80%, am I not accepting the same 20% degradation I want to avoid?
The MacRumors team ran an experiment where they limited an iPhone 15 Pro Max to 80% for 12 months.
After 299 cycles, their battery health was at 94%. Their colleagues who charged 100% and used the phone normally were at 87% to 90%.
I’m no math genius, but I know giving up 20 to get 4 is a losing trade.
Battery degradation is inevitable, and no battery hack can outsmart chemistry
Lithium-ion batteries degrade through cycle aging and calendar aging.
Cycle aging happens when you use your phone. You charge it, discharge it, and the chemical reactions inside degrade the electrodes. This is what everyone worries about.
But calendar aging occurs regardless of use. Even if the phone stays off, the battery’s electrodes lose capacity over time.
It’s a biological certainty, and you cannot outsmart chemistry.
While strict charging habits extend a battery’s life by a few months, most batteries reach the 80% health wall around the three- to four-year mark.
Stop worrying and start using your phone like it’s meant to be used
I want us to change how we think about our phones. Let’s normalize visiting the service center.
Treat a battery replacement like an oil change for your car. You don’t drive your car at 20 mph to make the oil last longer.
You drive it however you want, then change the oil when the light comes on.
Now, go into your settings. Turn on 120Hz. Use the Always-On Display. Set brightness to Auto and let it shine.
Use high-performance mode and enjoy the screen and power you paid for.
