Replacing your phone battery instead of buying a new one

Last Friday, I went to the Apple Store here in Strasbourg and replaced the battery on my soon to be 3-year-old iPhone 11.

I resent the idea of having to worry about the amount of battery I have left at the end of a day, or thinking about using airplane mode if I forgot to charge my phone during the night, or manually manage the screen brightness to save a few precious percents. I like the comfort of not thinking about the battery at all, the “security” of having a reliable full day of use in case I forget my charger on a weekend trip, etc.

I also like not being one of those who always try to charge their phone wherever they go (we all know someone like this, maybe you are this person: if so, I’d encourage you to replace your battery too). Replacing the battery also pushes me to commit at least one more year to my iPhone 11. I won’t replace my phone this year with one of the new iPhone 14, as my current phone from 2019 still works fine and I know that thanks to this brand new battery the fourth year of use will not be a pain.

My experience at the store was truly great: I showed up without an appointment, they booked me one right away and I could get my phone back after an hour or so. Dead easy. It cost me 75 euros which is not nothing I guess, but considering the value of a new battery instead of considering only the cost, I think it is very much worth it: as I said, it extends the lifetime of my phone by at least 12 months, and it brings me back the peace of mind that I’ve lost for the last couple of months as the battery was at 75% of its peak capacity.

I would say 75 euros is even quite cheap considering the comfort it will bring for at least a full year. Included in this comfort, knowing that my former battery will be properly recycled, and the fact that I can safely ignore the nonsensical debates around the new battery percentage indicator in iOS 16 beta. First, it is still a beta, so I don’t really see the point of the controversy and the many “I made a better design than Apple” tweets, and second, why care so much about the battery percentage? As Michael Tsai wrote:

I like the iOS 15 indicator that only shows the percentage in Control Center. I don’t want to see the number all the time, just like I don’t set Mail or NetNewsWire to show the unread count in the Dock. It’s distracting.

Fully agreed — or should I say 100% agreed?