WIRELESS charging may be more convenient, but iPhone owners have been warned that it may be “harder” on their battery health.
Charging your device through a wireless dock generates more heat than a traditional cable, which is bad for battery longevity.
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The energy that doesn’t get beamed into your device gets converted into heat.
Continued exposure to heat will degrade your device’s battery over time – which means your iPhone won’t be able to hold its charge as effectively.
This can be made worse if you use a thick case on your iPhone, which can prevent the device from cooling down quickly enough.
“It generates more heat for less Watts. So not only is it less efficient… but it is harder on battery health,” one iPhone owner, @overunderr, wrote on Reddit.
The battery degradation isn’t massive, but it is something.
The iPhone owner added that “if you can afford $80-$100 (depending on model) every 2-3 years for a battery replacement, it’s generally not worth the time and effort of worrying about it”.
But if you can’t “or are still worried, go into settings and turn on the ‘only charge to 80 per cent’ setting only found on the 15 series phones,” they continued.
According to Apple, your iPhone “may get slightly warmer while it charges”.
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The company has created a feature that limits charging above 80 per cent if it gets too warm, in an effort to preserve your battery health.
Apple’s MagSafe wireless chargers, as well as Samsung and Google’s, have built-in cooling fans to reduce overheating.
But most wireless chargers still don’t include such technology.
How does wireless charging work?
Wireless charging might seem like magic, but it’s not.
The process uses magnetic induction to charge your iPhone.
When electrical currents pass through the coils inside the wireless charging pad, an electromagnetic field is created.
A separate magnetic plate within the iPhone then picks up the electrical currents to charge the handset.
Bad habits
It’s not just overheating that’s a worry, either.
Wireless charging, which is available on iPhone 8s and beyond, can encourage bad habits like stop-and-start charging, which can also damage the battery.
You end up charging your phone much more often during the day than with a traditional cable, and it degrades the battery to an extreme degree
Reddit user @nikitadmv
“Yes, wireless charging generates more heat, but for me that’s not the real problem,” another iPhone owner, @nikitadmv, warned on Reddit.
“In fact, the battery degrades much faster, because every time I leave my room, I take my phone out of the charging station and mechanically put it back on the charger as soon as I get back in.
“It’s a really bad habit, because you end up charging your phone much more often during the day than with a traditional cable, and it degrades the battery to an extreme degree.”
Apple’s official MagSafe guidelines
Here’s the official advice as quoted directly from Apple’s support memo…
- Your MagSafe Charger is designed for faster and most efficient charging with iPhone 15 models, iPhone 14 models, iPhone 13 models, iPhone 12 models, and Apple MagSafe accessories.
- When charging a non-MagSafe Qi-compatible device with a MagSafe Charger, power is reduced and charge times may be slower than on a typical Qi charger.
- Don’t place credit cards, security badges, passports, or key fobs between your iPhone and MagSafe Charger, because this might damage magnetic strips or RFID chips in those items.
- If you have a case that holds any of these sensitive items, remove them before charging or make sure that they aren’t between the back of your device and the charger.
- If your iPhone is connected to both a MagSafe Charger and power via a Lightning port, your iPhone will charge via the Lightning connector.
- As with other wireless chargers, your iPhone or MagSafe Charger might get slightly warmer while your iPhone charges. To extend the lifespan of your battery, if the battery gets too warm, software might limit charging above 80 percent.
- If you keep your iPhone in a leather case while charging with your MagSafe Charger, the case might show circular imprints from compression of the leather. This is normal, but if you’re concerned about this, we suggest using a non-leather case.