- Jun 9, 2014
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Why You Shouldn’t Leave Your Phone Plugged in Overnight
Computer geeks, what say ye?
"There are many myths on how to treat your smartphone, tablet, or laptop for battery longevity. The most common ones are to regularly drain your phone to 0%, and to always charge it to 100%. You might also have heard that your battery has a memory, and that you should never partially charge the cell.
This is all completely wrong, based on older battery technology which is no longer found in most smart devices. Here’s the truth about maintaining smartphone batteries.
...
Smartphones and tablets use a variation of the Li-Ion battery, Lithium-Ion Polymer (Li-Poly). This version of Lithium-Ion batteries is safer, smaller, and charges faster. Otherwise, the same lifespan rules apply to Li-Poly as with any Li-Ion battery.
One of the factors that increase the speed of Li-Ion battery degradation the most is charging it past 80% and letting it drop below 20%. The closer to 100% you go, the faster the chemical reaction that can create flaws will happen. If you have a Tesla, they curb the charging by default, don’t worry!
As the 300-500 number of charge cycles is based on cycles, and your battery degrades fastest below 20% and above 80%, you can extend its lifespan by avoiding extremes. Partial charges and discharges that combine to 100% are counted as a single full cycle. So if you instead partially charge and discharge your phone between 20% and 80%, research says you could get 1,000 full cycles (almost 3 years of daily charges) or more before hitting a noticeable drop in capacity.
...
Don’t Play Games While Your Phone Is Charging
Temperatures below 32 Fahrenheit (0 Celsius) and above 158 Fahrenheit (70 Celsius) will degrade your Li-Ion battery faster. Don’t leave your device in your car on a hot day and don’t put it in your freezer (or in the snow).
Leaving your smartphone plugged in while using it for anything intensive, like watching YouTube, or playing a game is a big no-no. This high-voltage and high-temperature state is the worst situation for your battery to be in.
...
Don’t Charge Your Phone Overnight
In general, you should try to avoid charging your phone overnight, and instead unplug your phone when you go to bed, and charge it after you wake up. During the time it takes you to shower and eat breakfast you should reach a comfortable charge percentage.
Definitely also avoid leaving your phone under your pillow while charging it. Besides the real risk of a fire, the lack of airflow can cause a high-temperature state, which will increase the battery degradation.
...
Reduce the Battery Drain on Your Device
Beyond watching the temperature and charge percentage of your device, you can further extend the battery life by reducing how often you need to charge it. Fewer charges mean fewer cycles, which means a longer life for your battery and your device.
Reducing the screen timeout duration and turning down the brightness settings will have the biggest impact. There is a reason why tests use Screen-on-Time (SoT) when testing for battery life on smartphones. Apple has introduced some useful features that use SoT to help curb your phone addiction in iOS 12.
...
Tips for Extending the Lifespan of Your Battery
In the short to medium term, you may not notice much difference. However, you’ll be happy when your phone still survives a day on a single charge after a year. Following these tips, your battery should not hit 80% charge capacity until after 2+ years of use.
Computer geeks, what say ye?
"There are many myths on how to treat your smartphone, tablet, or laptop for battery longevity. The most common ones are to regularly drain your phone to 0%, and to always charge it to 100%. You might also have heard that your battery has a memory, and that you should never partially charge the cell.
This is all completely wrong, based on older battery technology which is no longer found in most smart devices. Here’s the truth about maintaining smartphone batteries.
...
Smartphones and tablets use a variation of the Li-Ion battery, Lithium-Ion Polymer (Li-Poly). This version of Lithium-Ion batteries is safer, smaller, and charges faster. Otherwise, the same lifespan rules apply to Li-Poly as with any Li-Ion battery.
One of the factors that increase the speed of Li-Ion battery degradation the most is charging it past 80% and letting it drop below 20%. The closer to 100% you go, the faster the chemical reaction that can create flaws will happen. If you have a Tesla, they curb the charging by default, don’t worry!
As the 300-500 number of charge cycles is based on cycles, and your battery degrades fastest below 20% and above 80%, you can extend its lifespan by avoiding extremes. Partial charges and discharges that combine to 100% are counted as a single full cycle. So if you instead partially charge and discharge your phone between 20% and 80%, research says you could get 1,000 full cycles (almost 3 years of daily charges) or more before hitting a noticeable drop in capacity.
...
Don’t Play Games While Your Phone Is Charging
Temperatures below 32 Fahrenheit (0 Celsius) and above 158 Fahrenheit (70 Celsius) will degrade your Li-Ion battery faster. Don’t leave your device in your car on a hot day and don’t put it in your freezer (or in the snow).
Leaving your smartphone plugged in while using it for anything intensive, like watching YouTube, or playing a game is a big no-no. This high-voltage and high-temperature state is the worst situation for your battery to be in.
...
Don’t Charge Your Phone Overnight
In general, you should try to avoid charging your phone overnight, and instead unplug your phone when you go to bed, and charge it after you wake up. During the time it takes you to shower and eat breakfast you should reach a comfortable charge percentage.
Definitely also avoid leaving your phone under your pillow while charging it. Besides the real risk of a fire, the lack of airflow can cause a high-temperature state, which will increase the battery degradation.
...
Reduce the Battery Drain on Your Device
Beyond watching the temperature and charge percentage of your device, you can further extend the battery life by reducing how often you need to charge it. Fewer charges mean fewer cycles, which means a longer life for your battery and your device.
Reducing the screen timeout duration and turning down the brightness settings will have the biggest impact. There is a reason why tests use Screen-on-Time (SoT) when testing for battery life on smartphones. Apple has introduced some useful features that use SoT to help curb your phone addiction in iOS 12.
...
Tips for Extending the Lifespan of Your Battery
In the short to medium term, you may not notice much difference. However, you’ll be happy when your phone still survives a day on a single charge after a year. Following these tips, your battery should not hit 80% charge capacity until after 2+ years of use.
- Use partial charges to keep your battery between 20% and 80%. You can use software to notify you when your battery reaches 80% so you can unplug it.
- Reduce the amount of time your battery is kept at 100% charge by not charging your phone at night. This is when the battery will degrade the fastest.
- Avoid using fast-charge for longer periods.
- Keep your device at room temperature, and avoid extreme temperatures.
- Where possible, set the maximum charge of your battery to 80%.
- Reduce the battery drain of your device by turning off unnecessary services. Use battery saver to get even longer use from every charge.
- If you are storing batteries unused for longer periods, discharge them to 70% and store them somewhere cool. Storing batteries at full charge will cause them to deteriorate faster.