Author: bella

Some chargers are of very poor quality… Others are downright incompatible with your device. In this case, your battery can be damaged more quickly and see its lifespan decrease. In the worst case, the device may even catch fire.

How to avoid this error?

It is therefore best to use a charger of the same brand as your smartphone. We are thus almost sure that the two are compatible. And this allows efficient and fast charging. If you want to take a charger from another brand, no problem. But you just have to make sure that it is of good quality and compatible, by consulting the technical sheets and opinions for example. You can also inquire with smartphone vendors.

We talk about the cold because it’s the season… But the heat in summer isn’t much better! Having tested it last summer, I can tell you that it is not ideal for these delicate little devices. Especially during a heat wave… When you charge your device, it tends to heat up. So if you do it in direct sunlight, it overheats. And it’s not ideal for device components.

How to avoid this error?

Never charge your phone leaving it in direct sunlight. In general, do not expose it to direct sunlight or heat. This is why it is not recommended to leave it in the car or in your pocket, especially in summer, during heat waves. And it’s not a good idea to put it under the pillow either.

Charge your phone when it’s too cold

With the cold weather right now, that’s the kind of mistake we can all make. With low or even negative temperatures, your smartphone can be very cold. We just have to spend a little time outside, or forget it in the car. And hop, it turns into an ice cube. These little gems of technology are not made to withstand extreme temperatures. When it is very cold, the battery may discharge faster. But that’s not all. The operation of the screen may be damaged. The cold can even turn your phone off. But the worst is if you recharge it while it’s still cold. For example, you come home, your laptop is frozen. And you put it in charge right away. Well, know that it is very bad for the battery.

How to avoid this error?

When it’s very cold, it’s better to keep your phone safe, in a pocket, in a bag or in a thermal pouch. If that’s not possible, and your phone is really cold, just wait 5-10 mins. Let it warm to room temperature slowly. No need to put it in front of a heat source (stove, radiator, hair dryer…). This may damage it! You just have to be a little patient and wait.

Batteries wear out faster above 80% capacity. It is therefore recommended to avoid charging them overnight: “They would spend too much time at 100% and this would damage them prematurely”, explains Olivier Simon. Especially since some brands are not very cautious:

“While testing the charging of mobiles from different brands, we found that several models send regular surges when the battery is at 100%, to keep it fully charged. It’s bad enough for her. »

As a precaution, it is better to apply the same rule whatever the brand: “Charge your battery in the morning, when you shower, for example”, advises Olivier Simon.

If you want to give more attention and energy to this problem, take a look at the battery settings of your mobile: some models, from Samsung, Apple, Sony and Google, offer a smart setting. At night, to avoid staying at 100% for too long, they monitor the user-programmed alarm, and block the charge at 80% for several hours, then push it to 100% only at the last moment. In most cases, it is up to you to enable this feature.

If you’re willing to put a lot of effort into protecting your battery, you can go one step further: make sure the gauge never goes above 80%. A painful solution, because it reduces the autonomy of the smartphone on a daily basis and forces you to monitor the recharge like fuel on the fire. On Android, you can be assisted by an application that issues an alert when the charge passes the fateful threshold of 80%. On iOS, you can use the Shortcuts app for this.

Some users allow themselves to take the charge up to the 85% threshold, because manufacturers all take a safety margin: “the 100% you see on the screen is never the full capacity of their battery. Some brands, more cautious, set this 100% further from the maximum battery capacity than others, ”explains Olivier Simon.

There is no need to discharge a lithium-ion battery to 0% from time to time, contrary to the practice that prevailed with certain older generation batteries. It is even now not recommended: this type of battery degrades more quickly when it drops below 20% charge, a “danger zone” to be avoided as much as possible. The chemistry of a current smartphone battery perfectly supports frequent charges, it can be recharged often. However, it is not recommended to recharge it as soon as the opportunity arises, because its comfort zone is between 30% and 80% charge. It is also better to wait until the gauge of your smartphone drops to 25 or 30% before plugging it in.

Avoid high temperatures

Modern smartphones are equipped with lithium-ion batteries, designed to be used between approximately 10°C and 30°C. When they are exposed to higher temperatures for a long time, they degrade more quickly. It is better to avoid placing a smartphone in direct sunlight, especially when it is charging. The worst overheating scenario combines sun, recharging, and demanding use: “when using your smartphone as a GPS over a long distance for example”, warns Olivier Simon. Or when you play with your smartphone while recharging it.

Since our skin temperature is high, especially in summer, it is best to avoid carrying a smartphone in tight pants or in the inside pocket of a coat. Conversely, in the heart of winter, when temperatures fall below 0°C, it is advisable to wear your smartphone close to your body to slow down battery wear.

As we have seen, iOS and Android optimize the use and recharging of the battery as well as possible. The fact remains that it is possible to increase its lifespan by respecting a few basic rules.

Preferably recharge the battery when it indicates between 20 and 80%. Do not wait for it to drop below and recharging beyond 80% damages your battery.
Unplug your smartphone when the gauge indicates 100%, or even before.
Avoid using your smartphone when it is charging. Playing games, using a GPS app, making calls or leaving the terminal in the sun increases its temperature while recharging does the same, which damages it.
If you don’t need Bluetooth, wifi or geolocation, turn them off, because the device constantly and automatically checks for updates and launches constant requests that are very energy-consuming to do so.
For the same reasons, prefer a wifi connection to 4G/5G if possible.
Use the original charger provided/sold with your smartphone or recommended by the manufacturer (designed to optimize speed and optimal charging power for the model).
Consider using Android’s dark mode if you have a smartphone with an Oled screen.
Use auto-brightness to adapt the screen backlight to the mood.
Finally, to save your battery, the first instinct is quite logically to activate the energy saving mode on your smartphone. The smartphone will then limit access to data from apps that are not in the foreground and will pause the GPS when the device screen is off.

In this race for autonomy, who is the best? “On consumption in use, Apple and its iPhones are ahead with six devices in our Top 10”, points out Olivier Simon. Apple masters both the hardware design and the operating system, so it’s easier for this computer giant to optimize battery usage. “With a smaller battery, Apple does as well as an Android terminal with a higher battery capacity,” adds the DxOMark expert.

As often, the marketing figures displayed by brands do not make much sense. Thus, indicating the capacity of a battery is limited information that only gives a vague overview of the autonomy that can be expected from a smartphone. “It’s as if you indicated the volume of a car’s tank without taking into account the characteristics of consumption”, laughs Olivier Simon. Our autonomy tests therefore still have a bright future ahead of them.

However, the iOS and Android operating systems manage search and battery usage better and better. A few years ago, Sony took into account the morning alarm to adapt the recharge to 100% a few minutes before. A strategy widely adopted by other manufacturers. Google has greatly improved its operating system, especially since version 9 Pie.

In the past, the various manufacturers offered techniques to kill apps in the background in order to limit consumption, but this era is now over. We now know that relaunching a service ultimately requires a lot of energy. With embedded machine learning, which goes by the sweet name of Auto Awesome Battery, Android is now able to analyze the use made of applications to optimize their use. “No need to kill WhatsApp in the background if it is used every 5 min”, details our interlocutor. Another example, Android is able to know, by interrogating the gyroscopes of the mobile, if there has been a physical movement or not and to “prohibit in the latter case a request for geolocation costly in energy made by a running application” .

On how to recharge your batteries, the results are more in line with our expectations. Thus, you are 60% to recharge your mobile as soon as the battery is less than 20%, which is a good reflex to limit wear. Indeed, as Olivier Simon explains, batteries degrade more quickly when the voltage is very high (charge level above 90%) or very low (below 20%). It is therefore preferable to multiply short charging cycles rather than letting your smartphone discharge completely.

Conversely, leaving your mobile plugged into a power outlet when it is at 100% battery will gradually degrade your battery. In question, “small overvoltages applied by the charger to the battery, which is already at its maximum voltage to maintain the level”, specifies Olivier Simon. These overvoltages affect the quality of the battery, whether you charge your smartphone in wired mode or by induction. Also note that it is better to charge a cold battery and, on the contrary, to use your smartphone at the right temperature.