Why does my MacBook seem to outlast my iPhones?

It’s also partly a matter of expectations. A laptop can still be perfectly useful for browsing, writing, and older games even when it can’t run the newest software. Phones are expected to be fast, portable, and reliable all day, so a degraded battery or slower performance becomes noticeable much sooner.

A laptop can keep being useful even after one component, such as the battery, starts failing. Your MacBook has effectively become a small desktop that works while plugged in. A phone with the same battery problem loses much more of its usefulness because portability is one of its main advantages. Laptops also have more room for cooling, larger components, and generally offer more software options as they age, including lightweight or open-source programs that can run after newer software becomes demanding. Phones are more tightly packed, exposed to more drops and temperature changes, and have fewer ways to keep using them once performance or battery life declines.

Phones usually get handled and dropped much more often than laptops, and they’re exposed to bigger temperature swings when you move between indoors and outdoors. A MacBook also tends not to be drained completely every day, while a phone may go through a full or near-full cycle constantly. That difference adds up over several years.

The batteries aren’t rated exactly the same either. Many iPhones are designed to retain around 80% of their original capacity after roughly 500 full charge cycles under ideal conditions, while that generation of MacBook Air is typically rated for about 1,000 cycles. Heavy gaming and frequent charging can accelerate wear, especially because demanding games create heat. At 76%, the battery is probably the main problem with the iPhone 14 rather than the entire phone being worn out. Replacing the battery could make it feel much more usable.