One of the most common questions we hear is: “Why doesn’t my battery last as long as it used to?” The answer is straightforward, phone batteries degrade a little with every charge cycle. But with a few small habits, you can slow that process down and get more life from your phone.

Here’s what you need to know.

Checking your battery health

Go to Settings → Battery → Battery Health & Charging.

You’ll see a percentage called Maximum Capacity. This shows how much of its original capacity your battery still has:

100–90%, excellent, relatively new battery
89–80%, normal wear, you’ll notice it doesn’t last as long
Below 80%, Apple considers this significantly degraded; if battery life is affecting you day to day, this is when a replacement is worth considering

Apple also shows a note about Peak Performance Capability, whether your battery can still handle the phone running at full speed.

Low Power Mode, your best friend when you’re out

When your battery drops to 20%, your iPhone asks if you want to enable Low Power Mode. Say yes.

Low Power Mode reduces background activity, dims the screen faster, and pauses things like automatic photo syncing. The result is typically 1–3 extra hours of use from the remaining battery. You won’t notice much difference for normal use, calls, messages, and browsing all work fine.

You can also turn it on at any time by swiping down from the top-right corner of your screen to open Control Centre, and tapping the yellow battery icon. Many people turn it on habitually whenever they leave the house.

Charging habits that protect the battery

The two worst things for a phone battery are:

Regularly letting it run completely flat to 0%, this stresses lithium batteries
Leaving it plugged in at 100% for hours (e.g. charging overnight every night)

Apple’s built-in solution: go to Settings → Battery → Battery Health & Charging and make sure Optimised Battery Charging is turned on. This feature learns your routine, if you charge every night, it pauses charging at 80% and only tops up to 100% just before you usually wake up. This significantly reduces long-term wear.

In practice: don’t stress too much about daily charging. These habits matter over months and years, not days.

What drains your battery fastest

A few things use significantly more battery than others:

Screen brightness, the single biggest drain. Reduce it in the Control Centre (swipe down, use the brightness slider)
Location services running constantly, go to Settings → Privacy & Security → Location Services and set apps to “While Using” rather than “Always”
Push email, your phone checking email every few minutes. If battery matters more than instant notifications, change to Settings → Mail → Accounts → Fetch New Data → Manually or every 30 minutes
Background app refresh, turn this off for apps that don’t need it: Settings → General → Background App Refresh

When to get the battery replaced

If your battery health is below 80%, and battery life is genuinely affecting your day, you’re regularly hunting for a charger by mid-afternoon, a replacement is worth it.

Apple Stores and authorised repairers charge £85–£99 depending on the model. Third-party repairers charge less (£30–£60 typically) but use non-Apple parts. If you have AppleCare+, the replacement may be covered, worth checking.

A new battery often makes an older iPhone feel like new again. It’s almost always cheaper than buying a new phone.

Worried about your battery, or want help with your iPhone settings? Get in touch with Hebden Tech Tutors, we’re happy to take a look.