Apple's iPhone 15 could be borrowing this Samsung battery feature

Battery concern is still a thing in this day and age, where we're sure that we're not alone in worrying about our phones' battery capacity dropping over the course of its lifetime. Thankfully, Apple's newly announced iPhone 15 could be doing something to alleviate those concerns, and it might be a feature borrowed from Samsung.

In a report from 9to5Mac, they spotted in the iOS 17 RC some code that suggests that iOS 17 could allow users to limit the amount of charging on their iPhones. This is different from iOS' Optimized Battery Charging feature, which basically stops the phone's charging at 80% and only completes charging to 100% based on the user's charging habits.

If this feature sounds familiar, it is because Samsung actually has a similar feature on its Galaxy phones called "Protect battery", where when enabled, it stops the phone charging once it hits the 85% mark.

For those unfamiliar, lithium ion batteries have a set number of cycles before it starts to lose its charge. Each cycle is when a phone charges from 0-100%, so for example if your phone charges from 80-100%, it would be considered 1/5 of a cycle. By stopping your phone at 85%, it basically helps you conserve your charges in the long run, albeit at the expense of lower battery life during the day.

So far, to our knowledge, Samsung is the only company that has implemented this feature in their Android phones. A recent rumor has suggested that Oppo could be planning something along those veins, except in the form of a free battery replacement program for devices whose battery capacity drops below 80% in a set timeframe.

As to why this feature could be exclusive to the iPhone 15, 9to5Mac speculates that maybe it could be a USB-C thing, where older iPhones are still using the Lightning connector.