Battery Life of IPhone On Cellular Data and Personal Hot Spot Mode?

So I know this a bit off topic but it still relates to windows as well since I'm using a laptop with this and want to get some opinions. I have an iphone 13 mini that is over 2 years ago. The screen needs to be replaced as I have a green vertical line on my phone. It then has a white vertical line. The battery seems to be around 86% or so.



I use my iphone a lot when I don't have internet and use my laptop so I turn on cellular data on and turn on the personal hotspot and then connect to the hotspot on my laptop. Assuming my phone battery is 100% and I have personal hotspot on and I am using my laptop, it seems on average to use about 14% of battery per hour. This seems to be the case when I have it on low power mode but if it's not on that mode, it's 15% or a little more? Thus it doesn't make that much of a difference? The other thing I noticed was whether I'm using a lot of data while on hotspot mode... say what I'm doing... I also play a youtube video during that hour... obviously that would use a ton of more data than if not... it still uses about 14% of battery per hour? Is that normal? I would have though it would use a bit more but from the test I done, that doesn't seem to be the case? So you can get close to 7 hours of battery almost on the iphone 13 mini while on personal hotspot?
Now what if you are on your cellular data on your phone the whole time instead of connecting a laptop to hotspot? I got to assume it's a little bit longer than 7 hours or it's about the same?



What I do on my laptop when I need internet but I don't have internet and use the cellular data hotspot from my iphone 13 mini, I typically don't use more than 40mb of data per hour which is very little. But say if I have a youtube video running as well, well that could mean another 200-300mb of data so that would mean 340mb of data for that hour. So it seems with a full 100% iphone 13 mini battery, I would get close to 7 hours of battery on my iphone with personal hot spot turned on... would you say that is accurate?



The other issue I have is this. Whenever my iphone battery goes down to 50% or say 20% while I'm on personal hotspot on and using my laptop, I would then charge my iphone. The thing is many times, it would only charge up to 80% and I sometimes get the message it can only charge to that because the iphone is hot. So while using my laptop and using the personal hotspot cellular, the max battery my iphone would go up to is 80%. Is there a way to fix that? Only way would be turn of the cellular data right? However, I can't do that while in the middle of using my laptop. So what I would do is say I charge my iphone to 80% battery while using my laptop, I would then unplug the charger from iphone since 80% would give me roughly 5.5 hours of battery and say if I only need to use laptop with hotspot data for another 5 hours, that would be enough.



Now is this about right with the math I'm using on the battery life of an iphone 13 mini when having cellular data on and personal hotspot on while connecting to the hotspot while using the laptop? So say I need to use my laptop for 8 hours straight with cellular data hotspot. Assume I have no internet access so I have to use the hotspot. What I typically would do is charge my iphone to at least 60% before using the hotspot. Then use the hotspot untii the iphone battery goes to maybe 20% before charging it. So this would mean I been using the hotspot for a bit less than 3 hours. Then I would charge my iphone while using the laptop. Or it could be using the iphone at 100% and using it for 3 hours straight and then charging it then the remaining few hours, I wouldn't even need to charge my iphone while on data because it would have enough battery. At the end, I want it to be where the last 1-2 hours while I'm on the laptop while on personal hotspot data, to not have my iphone charged in the process.


Now do apple phones always have a longer battery than android when tethering hotspot like in my example? Anyone here had internet go out for a long time and had to use their phone as their personal hotspot?

I can not answer about Android as I've never owned one.

I too have an iphone mini I bought in 2023. I also use its hotspot when my internet is down which is frequently. The first time I used my iphone to hotspot, I really didn't know what I was doing. It was new and I used it on its battery power, but I did not do any involved testing on how the hotspot affected the battery life, I would say your calculations seem about right though. If I remember correctly, I got roughly 5-6 hours off a full charge. (However I didn't watch any videos or download any large files while hotspotting.)

Now, when I have to hotspot, I keep my iphone plugged into my PC's powershare Usb port rather than using it's AC charger. It has never gotten overly warm by charging it this way. The usb seems to maintain the phone's charge so I can use it indefinitely. The last time I used it like this, the hotspot was active almost 2 days. However, if you use a laptop that has powershare, I can see where this usb method would drain your laptop battery unless the laptop was plugged into AC power.

I can't remember the last time I charged my phone using its charger. I always use usb from either my PC or my surge protector.

Let me add, rather than using laptop power, one of those cheap powerbanks about the size of your palm will also keep an iphone charged for a long time. The key is to not let your charge get less than 20% before plugging it in.

the max battery my iphone would go up to is 80%. Is there a way to fix that?

This may be a safety feature to prevent iphone from overheating. Not sure, but I do know Apple recommends only charging the newer iphones to 80% to prolong overall battery life.

May want to go to the Apple Forum for further info.