Don't forget, "100%" isn't really 100% any more after a year or two of charging to 100% all the time. You've probably lost 20% or so of your battery's capacity and it will be charging slower due to increased internal resistance.
> "Where does this 80% come from? Would it be even better if I stopped charging at 60%?"
Yes, but only marginally better since there's diminishing returns. 80% is generally considered to be the sweet spot that best balances practicality with battery health.
Can you please direct me to where this is possible in MacOS? I can't see any option to configure a charging cap except some "smart" option which has been on this whole time but always charges to 100%.
I was referring to the built-in "Optimised battery charging" feature. When this is active and has decided it will cap charging at 80% [2], you get a "charge to full now" option in the battery menu.
[1] https://apphousekitchen.com
[2] I do agree that this feature sucks and rarely actually works, unless you have a very predictable charging schedule.
I suspect quite a few people do that so it probably is net-good overall, but agree it doesn’t work well if you’re moving around a lot.
But my response was to the parent comment (emphasis mine):
> Noone should ever charge to more than 80%. That is short sighted and environmentally moronic. After less than two years a device will have more capacity at 80% than the same battery will have at 100% if it was charged to 100%.
My point is that I find there are legitimate uses cases for sometimes charging to 100%. And, indeed, those cases are much better served if most of the time I only charge less. In my case, this could be much less (50% of my iphone's battery is more than enough 360 days a year – and I know beforehand when it's going to be one of those 5 remaining days)
Otherwise the opposite is true. Refraining to charge fully makes all the difference and saves you from a tough spot.
Which in turn is why (was a bigger problem before) the sentiment that it doesn't matter how good/bad battery life I have as long as it lasts me a day. Well, if you do a complete cycle every day a year old phone will not last a day anymore...
To take the phone example, mine usually ends the day around 85%. I just don't use it too often. But I sometimes absolutely do and would trade months of battery life for not being left without battery in the middle of nowhere. And the 20% can make all the difference.
A few years ago, I rented a car in a foreign country on a foreign continent. It didn't come with a USB port, and I didn't have a cigar adaptor. When I arrived at my destination, at night, my phone's battery was 10%. I sure as hell am happy that it was charged to a "full" 100% instead of dying on me one hour earlier.
Sure, I could have grabbed an external battery or something. Not sure how much environmentally smarter that is, since it would basically rot away in a drawer somewhere, since I would basically never use it.
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[0] Where does this 80% come from? Would it be even better if I stopped charging at 60%? I rarely use more than 20% of my phone's battery, so that would be largely enough, but I sometimes absolutely do and would hate to have to lug around external batteries "just in case".