3UTools paranoia-inducing readings for "new" iPhone 12 Pro!

[mackatt]

Hi everyone!
I bought a "new" iPhone 12 Pro, seller said he got it as an Apple insurance replacement and never used it.
It came in sealed box, seal intact, seemingly untouched.
Serial number starts with M.
Activation ok, phone works fine overall.
Battery health shows 100% but discharges very quickly overnight - from 100% to 50-60%.
Ran 3UTools check - which shows 78% battery life and 3078 charge cycles for a silver iPhone 12 Pro?!
The iPhone I have is gold not silver, and battery health shows 100%.
IMEI, MEID and serial number correspond to the device I have.
Full paranoia mode activated!
What could be the explanation?
A glitch in 3UTools readings?
A scam?

 

[MacInWin]

iPhone 12 came out in 2020, so five years ago. The battery in iPhones will decay over time, even unused. I wouldn't expect 78%, but it could happen. What does Apple think the model is? (You can find it by going to appleid.apple.com and logging it to your Apple ID account and looking at the devices associated with your AppleID.) As for the 3078 cycles, I suspect that is a problem with the tools, mostly because to get to 3000+ cycles in 5 years would require almost two cycles per day every day. If you have a Mac, you can use coconutBattery to check the details of the iPhone battery by connecting it to the Mac. I can't explain why the serial number is for a silver device when it is gold. All of that said, depending on the seller or the insurance company that the seller got it from, the phone may be Frankenstein where the internals from one phone were put into the case of another, then packaged to look new. I suppose it could happen.

 

[mackatt]

Thanks for the answer!
It appears as an iPhone 12 Pro on my Apple ID.
The serial no. and IMEI match an iPhone 12 PRo.
The IMEI on the box and the iPhone match.
No idea if it might be a "Frankenstein phone" - with my luck, I suspect it might....

 

[MacInWin]

No idea if it might be a "Frankenstein phone" - with my luck, I suspect it might....

That is actually very unlikely. What did the box say was the color of the iPhone? If al the numbers match, and Apple is happy, then you can rachet back the paranoia. Frankly, the effort to make a Franken-phone is not likely to be worth it for a five year old device.

 

[Rod]

The free Coconut Battery is well worth trying. I've used it for years. The free version will run on your Mac connect iPhone via USB cable and check again with that. You should get the same model details and a more accurate battery usage and life reading.

 

[mackatt]

I tried the free Coconut Battery but the Mac does not connect to the iPhone.
Coconut says I should "trust" the Mac but the iPhone does not get any message for connection/trusting the computer.
Tried changing cable, USB port, even Mac ( I have a Pro and an Air) - nothing...
My wife's iPhone connects just fine.
No idea what this is.
The color of the iPhone matches the box, but not the readings of 3UTools - phone is gold, box says gold, 3UTools says silver/starlight.
No idea what else to do!

 

[MacInWin]

There is no message on the iPhone. Just the request to approve the connection on the Mac. Once connected, you should see the iPhone listed in Finder's sidebar. CoconutBattery will then show the information about the iPhone, as much as it can figure out from the data it can get.

EDIT: You do have to unlock the iPhone, however, to make the connection. So, the steps are:

1. Cable from Mac to iPHone,
2. Allow Mac to access iPHone.
3. Unlock iPhone to finish connection.

 

[Rod]

I just gave it a try, (first time) for my iPhone 16e. Because I have "Trusted" this iPhone on the MacBook Pro before I was not asked to repeat that but initially the iPhone/iPad button was not available. On tapping my iPhone screen I found there was a request to Unlock this device. After typing my PIN the iPhone/iPad button on Coconut Battery became available.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

Hi everyone!
I bought a "new" iPhone 12 Pro, seller said he got it as an Apple insurance replacement and never used it.
...
Battery health shows 100% but discharges very quickly overnight - from 100% to 50-60%.
Ran 3UTools check - which shows 78% battery life

I just want to point out that it isn't at all surprising that the battery in that phone needs to be replaced.

Lithium batteries very much prefer their charge to be held between 30% and 80% at all times. The more time that a lithium battery spends outside this range, the more dendrites form on the internal terminals of the battery, until eventually the battery is ruined. Lithium batteries also like to be used, rather than sitting in storage or on a charger. If they sit too long, you have the same problem.

Youir iPhone 12 is four to five years old. If it sat all that time with little to no charge, that's easily the reason that the phone's battery is ruined. Any reported battery life below 80% generally (and non-intuitively) means that a lithium battery is done.

I don't know what country you are in. Here in the U.S. Apple will want about $80 to replace that battery. However, I've found that many large indoor malls have kiosks that will replace your iPhone's battery,. The one in my local mall has done it for me for only $35. And he does it while I watch. It only takes him less than 10 minutes. (Obviously he's done it countless times.)