Apple is rising the price of changing your iPhone 16 Professional battery

The price of dwelling by no means appears to cease rising. Even when costs do not go up, the evil behavior of shrinkflation ensures that we’re getting much less for our cash than we had been previously.

Nowhere are value rises extra apparent than within the smartphone market. The unique iPhone price $499 at launch. Even adjusted for inflation, that is lower than the bottom mannequin of iPhone 16 which is priced at $799. The most costly fashions are actually by the roof, with the most cost effective mannequin of the iPhone 16 Pro costing $999, and the iPhone 16 Professional Max beginning at an eye-watering $1,199.

It is not simply the costs of the telephones themselves that proceed to rise, nonetheless. As first spotted by MacRumors, the worth of changing the battery within the new iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Professional Max fashions has gone up. For the primary time, the price of changing the battery within the smartphone you have already paid a small fortune for has risen to 3 figures, with the worth now set at $119. Sadly, costs look set to proceed to maneuver in a single path solely.

Changing the iPhone 16 Professional battery out of guarantee is now $119

The value has elevated by 20% however customary fashions stay $99

Apple’s iPhone Repair and Service web page lets you get an estimate for the worth of a restore or service primarily based on the mannequin of iPhone that you simply personal. If you choose the Battery service kind on the web site and enter your iPhone mannequin because the iPhone 16 Professional or iCellphone 16 Professional Max, the estimated value now reveals as $119.

Compared, the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus each give an estimate of $99, as do all older fashions, together with the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Professional Max. The iPhone 16 Professional and Professional Max pack bigger batteries than the opposite fashions, which can be why the substitute price is larger for these fashions.

Substitute is free with AppleCare+ however there’s a catch

You may nonetheless have to pay in case your battery has 80% well being or higher

Even when your iPhone is lower than a yr outdated, you will most likely nonetheless must pay to switch the battery. Apple’s web site states that your iPhone guarantee does not cowl batteries that put on down from regular use. In case your battery is flawed, nonetheless, then you might be eligible for a free substitute inside the first yr.

If you happen to pay for AppleCare+, you then’re eligible for a free battery substitute in case your battery is degraded. There is a important catch, nonetheless; you may solely get a free battery substitute in case your iPhone battery holds lower than 80% of its most capability. You’ll be able to see the present proportion within the Battery Health part of your iPhone’s settings; my iPhone 15 Professional is at present at 92% after a yr of use.

Nevertheless, some customers on on-line boards aren’t too pleased about this seemingly arbitrary cut-off level, complaining that their battery well being is caught at simply over 80% regardless of giving considerably worse efficiency. Till that quantity drops beneath the magic 80%, their solely possibility is to pay for the battery substitute as an alternative.

Apple must promote telephones to become profitable, however it’s not good for the patron

Poor battery life can pressure us to improve even after we’d fairly not

Apple / Pocket-lint

This value rise is not the primary time that Apple has bumped the costs for battery substitute lately. With the discharge of the iPhone 14 fashions, the worth jumped to $99 from the earlier $69. That signifies that in two years, the worth of a battery substitute for an iPhone Professional or Professional Max mannequin has jumped by greater than 70%. If the identical development continues, we may very well be paying over $200 to switch the battery within the iPhone 18 Professional in 2026.

The difficulty is, it is not in Apple’s curiosity to make changing your battery a cheap possibility. Apple makes cash by promoting iPhones; though the share is slipping, greater than half of Apple’s income nonetheless comes from gross sales of its smartphones. Within the early days of the iPhone, new fashions got here with important upgrades that gave iPhone homeowners an enormous incentive to purchase a brand new machine. Today there merely aren’t the identical “wow issue” options to encourage individuals to improve their iPhones.

Because the variations between fashions get much less compelling, individuals are tending to carry on to their iPhones for longer. Nevertheless, degrading battery life has a big influence on usability, and might usually persuade individuals to improve a cellphone that they are in any other case completely pleased with. Making it low-cost and straightforward for individuals to switch their batteries is not one thing that may be good for Apple’s earnings.

The issue is simply prone to worsen

Telephones proceed to get greater and extra highly effective

With the genuinely new options in new fashions of smartphones having dried up significantly lately, there are two key areas the place smartphone producers are focusing their consideration to attempt to hold the improve cycle alive.

The primary space is AI. Apple Intelligence is not a part of the preliminary launch of iOS 18, however the AI options shall be rolling out over the next months. Apple Intelligence requires a big quantity of RAM, which signifies that the one gadgets that help it are the present iPhone 16 fashions, and the iPhone 15 Professional and iPhone 15 Professional Max. That is the primary time in a very long time that there was a big iPhone characteristic that is not accessible on older fashions and that might encourage individuals to improve who weren’t initially planning on doing so. Nevertheless, the push for AI options signifies that telephones are going to want to get an increasing number of highly effective.

The second space is the dimensions of gadgets. Apple hasn’t bitten the bullet but, however a number of different main smartphone firms have launched folding phones. These telephones not solely have bigger screens when unfolded, however some even have further screens which can be seen when the cellphone is folded shut. All of that further display space requires further energy.

With telephones getting greater and extra highly effective, bigger and longer-lasting batteries are required to energy these new options. Because of this the price of changing them is simply going to rise, and smartphone makers are banking on the truth that if you are going to must pay a whole bunch of {dollars} for a brand new battery, it’s possible you’ll as properly simply improve to a complete new cellphone.