I’ve followed this topic for years: When and how often to charge your smartphone’s battery. What to do and not — in order to prolong the usable life of that battery (and so not worry about replacing the battery before you’re ready to get a new smartphone, eh).
For many of us, charging the battery on our smartphones is a daily ritual. Sometimes more than once a day, as we do more and more on our smartphones that we used to do on desktop/notebook computers. One basic question is whether to use your smartphone until the battery charge level is so low that your device shuts off automatically (or at least until you get a warning).
While there remains some debate about charging practices (versus battery chemistry per se), I found this recent Lifehacker.com article a good summary: “Stop Letting Your Smartphone’s Battery Die Before You Charge It” (August 17, 2018).
You can charge your smartphone whenever you want. Your device’s lithium-ion battery doesn’t care if it’s at 10% or 80% capacity; it will charge just fine without destroying your device’s longevity.
It’s true that a lithium-ion battery will diminish over time, … the capacity of a lithium-ion battery “diminishes slightly with each complete charge cycle.”So, if you’ve overusing your smartphone because you think you’re better-maintaining its battery by doing so, you’re actually doing yourself a disservice. Stop adding unnecessary charge cycles by draining the battery. Just charge it.
In particular, the article references a YouTube video from the American Chemical Society with tips on making your smartphone battery last longer.
As for all the other battery myths out there, everyone seems to have a different take on what you should do with your device—when to charge it, when not to charge it, what battery level to charge to, et cetera. … the general recommendation is that you keep your smartphone’s battery around 50 percent if you aren’t using it for a long time (as in, months) …
How Can You Make Your Smartphone Battery Last Longer?
- Avoid heat
- Avoid fully discharging the battery — to the point that your device shuts off
- Store at 50% charge
There appears to be one area of some contention:
But what about the dreaded “trickle-charging” issue you’ve probably heard of? That’s the one where you’re not supposed to keep your smartphone plugged in at night because it will constantly “charge” whenever it drops to 99 percent. That’s not exactly a myth, according to multiple sources, but there’s still a lot of contention over what you should actually do …
Personally, whenever I can (and it’s convenient), if I notice that my smartphone is 100% charged, I disconnect the charger.
Be more conscious about when your smartphone is plugged in, and you’ll likely reap what little benefits you can—assuming your efforts aren’t overshadowed by the fact that your smartphone’s battery will simply get worse with age, period.
Note that because many other devices use lithium-ion batteries, these tips may apply to them as well. And remember to follow your device manufacturer’s guidelines and use their provided chargers in most cases, since quality matters regarding the interplay of device and charger.
Improving lithium-ion batteries is an active area of research. This CNET article profiles a company which has designed a safer battery — a lithium-ion battery less likely to explode when breached: “The lithium-ion battery that didn’t explode” (September 17, 2018).