Battery 101: Charging habits to maximize your smartphone battery life!

If you’ve had a phone for over a year, you’ve probably noticed the battery doesn’t seem to last as long as it used to be. Thus, we come up with some Charging habits to maximise your battery life. Keep reading for more details!

Charging habits

1. Partial charging

One particularly persistent battery myth is that you need to occasionally fully discharge and recharge to erase “battery memory.” Partial charging is just fine for Li-ion batteries and can actually have some positive benefits for cell longevity. Therefore, charging up your phone in that 30-80% range keeps the voltage lower and prolongs the battery lifespan.

Using up just 20% of your battery between charges isn’t going to be practical for most people. But topping up when you’ve used about half will see a notable improvement in your battery life in the long term, especially if you avoid charging up to full each time too. The bottom line is that small regular top-up are much better for Li-ion batteries than long full charge cycles.

partial charging

2. Avoid idle charging

Charging overnight or in a bed during the day is a very common habit, but it’s not recommended for several reasons. First, continuous trickle charging of a full battery can cause plating of the metallic lithium, which reduces stability in the long term and can lead to system-wide malfunctions and reboots. Secondly, it leaves the battery at the higher stress voltage when at 100%, as we just mentioned above. Third, it creates excess heat caused by wasted power diffusion. Ideally, a device should stop charging when it reaches 100% battery capacity. Only turning the charging circuit back on to top up the battery every now and again — or at the very least reducing the charging current to very small amounts.

idle charging

3. Notice the temperature while charging

Just like high voltages, high temperatures stress the battery and make it lose capacity far more quickly than when it’s at lower temperatures. So don’t leave your phone under pillows to charge at night or charge it in your car on a hot day. Fast charging technologies are a controversial issue here, as the higher current and voltages can definitely lead to a hotter device while charging. Fast charging was never really envisioned for full cycle charging though. Instead, it’s a fast way to top up your phone quickly to get it back in your hands. Leaving your phone to quickly charge up for 15 to 20 minutes won’t lead to major overheating problems, but I certainly don’t recommend charging them overnight.

temperature

Charging habits to maximise battery life

There are things you can do to prolong the life of your battery and handset. To sum up, you should end a charge at 80% since it is better for the battery than topping all the way up to 100%. Next, avoid overnight charging and keep your phone out of hot places. In the end, we hope you guys enjoy this list of Charging habits to maximise battery life. Stay tuned for more tips and tricks from us!