Fast Charging Your iPhones Might Be Bad Idea After All

Apple rolled out fast charging support with the launch of the iPhone 8 and the iPhone X. However, users with these devices had to buy a separate fast charger to utilize this feature as these devices ship with a 5W charging adapter.

This changed after the launch of the iPhone 11 Pro and the iPhone 11 Pro Max. These are the first set of iPhones that comes bundled with an 18W fast charger in the retail package. They can charge phones from zero to 100 percent in less than two hours.

After all the fuss about fast charging, it looks like the fast charger might not be a good thing for your iPhone. Several users across the world have started sharing their battery capacity of the newly launched iPhone 11 Pro and the iPhone 11 Pro Max. Within a few weeks, the maximum battery capacity has depreciated to 99 percent. However, it is not the case with the iPhone 11, which comes with a 5W charger.

I have been using the iPhone 11 since the India launch day and till date, the maximum battery capacity is still at 100 percent.

What Is Maximum Battery Capacity?

The Maximum Battery Capacity is the measure of the power that a battery can hold over the designed battery capacity. Over time, the chemicals in the battery lose their strength which reduces the overall battery capacity.

Apple introduced this feature on the iOS 12 after the infamous "battery gate" incidence, where users reported that their older iPhones get slower all of a sudden. This was caused because of the fact that Apple started to underclock the CPU on older iPhones with weaker batteries.

This would not have been a much of an issue if Apple has done it with the consent of the owners. Starting with iOS 12 the company started showing more insights into the battery health and battery usage status.

When a phone is being charged by a fast charger, the chemicals undergo a rapid change that leads to faster degradation. A slow charger takes time to charge with slower chemical changes, resulting in lower chemical degradation.

What Should You Do?

Batteries on every electronic device get weaker over time. However, some of the reports suggest that a fast charger might just fasten the process. Though it is not a big issue, we recommend using a 5W charging adapter to slower the battery capacity degrades. This also applies for Android smartphones as well.