iPhone 15 gets Android 14-like battery health info before Android gets it

Apple launched the iPhone 15 series last week, and early reviewers are just getting their hands on the device. Apple makes a lot of changes to iPhones and iOS every year but doesn’t get around to announcing every little change. Early users can explore the phone and discover all the new features added to it. It seems Apple caught a hint of Android’s plans to provide comprehensive battery health information and decided to up the game with the iPhone 15 series by going further.

Early reviewers have found that you can now check the production date, date of first use, and charging cycle count of your iPhone 15 battery within iOS 17. To check these details, navigate to Settings > General > About this device.

The screenshot is in Chinese, but the highlighted entries are for the production month, the month of first use, and the charging cycle count of the battery. This section does not appear on older iPhones running iOS 17, so it is an iPhone 15-specific feature.

iPhones have had battery health information available for a while, but it has remained limited to a percentage value. This percentage reflects the state of battery degradation from the original capacity but does not provide specific numbers on the total cycle count.

Apple says a normal iPhone battery is designed to retain up to 80% of its original capacity at 500 complete charge cycles under normal conditions. So, you will have to calculate your way back to receive your iPhone’s total cycle count.

Android does not have any way to determine battery health right away, but the feature is in the works. Android 14 added some APIs that provide battery health-related information like manufacturing date, date of first use, charging policy, state of health, cycle count, and charging status. Android 15 is expected to open this up to third-party apps.

You’d still need your phone to report this battery data to Android to let apps read this data and display the information back to you. So, there’s no guarantee that the feature will work on all Android phones, even on Android 15. The iPhone 15 is, therefore, a few years ahead of Android in this way.

Alongside this battery health feature, the iPhone 15 series has a new setting to limit the battery charge to 80% of your total capacity, slowing down battery degradation. This will be useful for users who like to remain plugged in all the time, like people with desk jobs or cab drivers.