The iPhone 15 and 15 Pro have several features not found on previous iPhones, and now we can add new battery information and monitoring features to the list. As noted in this post from @Tech_ReveA new section in iOS 17’s “About” screen shows how many charge cycles your battery has gone through, as well as its manufacturing date and when it was first used (through MacRumors).
Those with older phones still have third-party options like CoconutBattery for Mac for more battery information, but it would be nice to have it already there. However, iOS shortcuts are also an option to access this information. Edge Editor Dan Seifert says the one he’s been using for years no longer works after updating his phone to iOS 17.
The additional battery details come in addition to a new option in the Battery Status & Charging menu that should prevent the phone from charging beyond “approximately” 80 percent. Until now, in The edgeIt’s testing, it doesn’t actually do that.
One reason for the changes could be to address complaints that the iPhone 14’s battery health was declining rapidly. Some have reported battery health percentages as low as the upper 80s, which is… not what you’d expect after just a year, to say the least. (My two-year-old iPhone 13 Pro, which I’ve had since shortly after its release in 2021, is at 91 percent, for context.)
We’ve reached out to Apple for more information and will update this post if we discover anything.
