What does your phone's battery health actually tell you? We explain when 85% is still fine, when it isn't, and what we always check before selling.
Door The Phone Shopper
Gepubliceerd: 2026-09-13
You check your phone's settings and see a number: 85% battery health. Is that good? Bad? Should you act right away? Most people honestly don't know - and that's completely understandable. Manufacturers barely communicate clearly about this, and online you'll find dozens of conflicting opinions. Time to clear things up once and for all.
Short summary: A phone battery health of 85% is perfectly usable for most people, but whether it's really enough depends on how old your device is, how much you use it, and what your expectations are. At The Phone Shopper, we replace every battery below 85% before a refurbished device leaves our door.
Your phone uses a lithium-ion battery. A battery like this wears down slowly with every charge cycle - one cycle is roughly a full charge from 0% to 100%. Over time, the battery can hold less energy than when it was new. That percentage shows how much of the original capacity is still left.
An iPhone with 85% battery health can therefore still hold 85% of the original energy. On an iPhone 14, that means in practice: instead of 3,279 mAh, you're left with about 2,787 mAh. That sounds like a lot less, but in daily use you won't always notice the difference.
On Samsung Galaxy devices the system works slightly differently - Samsung shows battery status through the diagnostics app or the settings, but the underlying wear is comparable. .
The short answer: more often than you'd think. We see this every week in our workshop in Nijverdal - people bringing in their device asking "do I need a new battery?", while in practice there's little wrong. Watch for these situations where 85% is fine:
Do all these points sound familiar? Then there's probably little to worry about, and you can carry on without concern.
Then there's the other side of the story. Because 85% sounds like just a number, but context is everything. Our experience shows that the same score plays out very differently depending on the model and the user.
Be more alert if:
Last week a customer from Almelo brought in his iPhone 11 with exactly this story: 85% battery health, but the device already shut down at 25%. On inspection, the battery turned out to be internally damaged - the percentage simply no longer matched reality. .
Apple itself states that an iPhone battery is designed to retain at least 80% of its original capacity after 500 complete charge cycles. Below that 80% mark, iOS shows a message that battery health has been "significantly degraded". That doesn't automatically mean your device is unusable - but it is an official signal to consider taking action.
At The Phone Shopper, we deliberately choose 85% as our floor, not 80%. That extra 5% margin ensures a refurbished device keeps running comfortably for a good while after purchase. If battery health falls below that 85%, we replace the battery before selling. Always. No exceptions.
| Phone battery health | Light user | Average user | Heavy user |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100% - 90% | Excellent | Excellent | Excellent |
| 89% - 85% | Fine | Fine | Acceptable |
| 84% - 80% | Acceptable | Mediocre | Insufficient |
| Below 80% | Watch it | Replacement recommended | Replacement necessary |
This breakdown is a practical rule of thumb based on what we see daily in our workshop - not an official standard, but a reliable guideline.
Good news: you don't have to do this for us. You can check it yourself in under a minute. Here's how:
Want to know right away whether your device is still worth repairing, or whether a refurbished one makes more sense? Our technicians are happy to take a look. Sometimes is enough; sometimes a different device is more cost-effective in the long run.
This is a question we get several times a day, and rightly so. Because refurbished sounds appealing - an iPhone 13 for well below the price of new - but nobody wants a device with a worn-out battery.
At The Phone Shopper, this is our approach: every device we sell goes through an extensive technical check. Part of that is measuring phone battery health. Is it below 85%? Then we replace the battery before selling. So you always get a device that's at least at 85% - and we back that with a 2-year warranty.
Curious about what we have on offer? Check out our refurbished iPhone models or go straight to the refurbished overview for all brands and models. All devices are available in the conditions New, As good as new, Lightly used, and Used - so you decide how much you want to spend.
Got an old device you want to trade in? Through our trade-in page, you'll get an offer within 24 hours.
Anything above 85% is fine for most users. Between 80% and 85%, it depends on how intensively you use your phone. Below 80%, Apple itself already recommends having the battery checked. For heavy users, we recommend considering a battery replacement as early as 85%.
This varies by user and device, but on average a lithium-ion battery declines around 1% to 2% per month with normal use. After a year, you'll typically be at around 85% to 90%. Fast charging and letting the device get warm speed up the wear.
Not really reverse it, but you can slow the decline. Preferably charge between 20% and 80%, avoid high temperatures, and don't constantly use the fastest charger. iOS also has an "optimized charging" option that slows the final stretch to 100% to limit wear.
The price varies by model. A battery replacement for an iPhone starts at around €39 and in many cases is ready while you wait. Want the exact price for your device? Call us at 0548-549536 or check our .
Yes, in most cases definitely. 85% is our minimum threshold, which means the devices we sell can typically run comfortably for a year or more. On top of that, we give a 2-year warranty, so if something does go wrong, we're here for you.
If your device is older than four or five years and also has other issues - slow, outdated software, worn screen - then a battery replacement is cheap symptom relief. In that case, a refurbished device is often the smarter investment. Our technicians are happy to help you figure out which choice makes the most sense, without any sales pitch.
Refurbished iPhones met 2 jaar garantie. Elk toestel doorloopt ons 50-punts inspectieproces en wordt geleverd met 2 jaar garantie.
Every refurbished phone is sold in one of four conditions:
The Phone Shopper
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