Ryan Haines / Android Authority
The year is 2015. You plug your Android phone in to charge, and a helpful little timer tells you how long it should take. You pop on an episode of Narcos. Life is good. Your friend with an iPhone? Yeah, they plug in their phone too, waiting to fill their tiny, well-optimized cell. The difference? They have no idea how long it’ll take.
Fast-forward to early 2025. You plug in your Pixel 9a and limit its charging to 80% of capacity to preserve battery health. Your friend with an iPhone? They once again plug in, too, again waiting to fill their slightly smaller but still well-optimized battery. Nothing has changed.
Only now, in mid-2025, has Apple decided to catch up. It’s finally made the smallest but most convenient battery changes, and it has me reliving the year I graduated high school. So, congrats, Apple, it’s about time — literally.
It’s a miracle: I finally know when my iPhone will be charged
Ryan Haines / Android Authority
I have my iPhone 16 set up for automatic updates and, because it doesn’t carry my primary SIM, that includes beta updates. So, I didn’t think much of it when it picked up yet another version of iOS 26. Sure, it made my app icons change colors again (something that seems to happen when it transitions from light mode to dark mode), but I didn’t notice too many other changes.
Then, as I plugged my iPhone in for its regular recharge because iOS 26 is less than gentle on battery life, I finally noticed an improvement: Apple has added a charging timer that tells me how long it’ll take until my battery is full. Well, it actually defaults to the time left until an 80% charge, but it’s much better than plugging my phone in and waiting to find out.
Lest we forget, though, Apple is comically behind the times. As I said, Android phones have had this capability since the days of Android 5, meaning that the iPhone 16 is currently competing with the Galaxy S6, Nexus 6P, LG G4, and HTC One M9 — and the latter two companies don’t even make phones anymore.
Would you trust your phone to manage your battery life? 11 votes Yes, that's fine 73 % No, leave me in charge 27 %
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