Can you damage a phone’s battery by charging it too often, or for too long? We round up the best battery care tips to keep your smartphone battery healthy for as long as possible.
Why is it that your phone’s battery seems to get worse over time? At first it might have power to spare as you snuggle into bed at the end of the day, but as time goes on you find your battery is just half-full by lunchtime.
Phone batteries, like all batteries, do degrade over time, which means they are increasingly incapable of holding the same amount of power. While they should have a lifespan of between three and five years, or between 500 and 1,000 charging cycles, a three-year-old phone battery is never going to keep going as long as a brand-new battery.
When should I charge my phone?
The golden rule is to keep your battery topped up somewhere between 30% and 90% most of the time. Top it up when it drops below 50%, but unplug it before it hits 100%. For this reason, you might want to reconsider leaving it plugged in overnight.
Pushing in the last charge from 80-100% causes a lithium-ion battery to age faster.
Maybe it’s better to recharge in the morning instead, at the breakfast table or on your office desk. That way, it is easier to keep an eye on the battery percentage during charging.
Should I charge my phone battery to 100%?
No, or at least not every time you charge it. Some people recommend that you do a full zero to 100% battery recharge (a “charge cycle”) once a month—as this re-calibrates the battery, which is a bit like restarting your computer.
But others disregard this as a myth for current lithium-ion batteries in phones.
To keep your long-term battery life in good health, frequent, small charges are better than full recharging.
The deeper you discharge a lithium battery, the more stress is inflicted on the battery. So, topping up frequently extends battery life.
Should I charge my phone overnight?
As a rule, it’s best to avoid, despite the convenience of waking up with a full battery in the morning. Each full charge counts as a ‘cycle’, and your phone is only built to last for a set number.
If you charge overnight, you are guaranteed to miss when the phone exceeds the magic 80% mark that is best for extended long-term life.
While most modern smartphones have built-in sensors to shut off charging when they hit 100%, if still turned on they will lose a small amount of battery while idle.
What you may get is a “trickle charge” as the charger attempts to keep the phone at 100% as your phone naturally loses on its own charge during the night. This means that your phone is constantly bouncing between a full charge and a little bit below that full charge – 99% to 100% and back again during a longer-than-required charge. It can also heat the phone up, which is also bad for the battery.
Will fast-charging damage my phone?
The majority of modern smartphones support some form of fast-charging. However, this often requires you to purchase an additional accessory. The industry standard is Qualcomm’s Quick Charge, which delivers 18W of power.
However, many phone makers have their own fast charge standard, many of which can deliver even faster speeds by adjusting power management code to request a higher voltage charge is sent. Samsung is now even selling a 45W charger!
While fast-charging itself will not harm your phone’s battery, which is built to support it, the heat generated will potentially affect its lifespan. So it’s on you to balance the advantages of faster charging with the convenience of quickly topping up your phone before you dash out the door.
In the same way that phone batteries don’t like extreme heat, they also don’t like the cold. So it goes without saying that you should avoid leaving your phone in a hot car, on the beach, next to the oven, out in the snow. Typically, batteries perform at their optimum somewhere between 20 and 30°C, but short periods outside of this should be fine.
Can I use any phone charger?
Where possible use the charger that came with your phone, as it is sure to have the correct rating. Or make sure that a third-party charger is approved by your phone’s manufacturer.
That said, your phone should draw only the power that it needs from a USB charger.
A smart charger will turn off when the phone battery reaches a certain percentage of charge, rather than constantly starting charging again when the charged battery falls down to 99% (“trickle charging”).